The Official September 2014 Study Group Forum

[ilikebaseball]

PT 65 is the most frustrating PT there is. fuck that man.

[Louis1127]

Just knocked out the first 70 pages in the Trainer. Just went over basic concepts. About to take a PT and call it a night.

damn bro. I can't do anything LSAT related after PTing. Props.

[ilikebaseball]

Just knocked out the first 70 pages in the Trainer. Just went over basic concepts. About to take a PT and call it a night.

damn bro. I can't do anything LSAT related after PTing. Props.

if you look at the post i made after this one, clearly i cant either lol

[MtnGinger]

PT 65 is the most frustrating PT there is. fuck that man.

Don't beat yourself up too bad I had a hard time with this one too. I took it about 2 weeks before the June test and I was averaging 173 but I somehow got a 165 on that one. It was a real confidence blow. Some PTs just don't click and this was one of them.

[ilikebaseball]

PT 65 is the most frustrating PT there is. fuck that man.

Don't beat yourself up too bad I had a hard time with this one too. I took it about 2 weeks before the June test and I was averaging 173 but I somehow got a 165 on that one. It was a real confidence blow. Some PTs just don't click and this was one of them.

made my night. sometimes that's all someone has to hear lol. its not just me who had trouble with that test from hell

[mornincounselor]

Post removed.

[LeeAllen]

Over the last week and a half, I took about 6 PTs with scores ranging from 171-176. LR is my problem. I'm going -1 usually on LG, -1/-2 on RC, and then the rest I drop on LR. It's pretty frustrating to drop 2/3 questions between LG+RC and to then drop 5/6 on LR.

Should I scale back on PTs for now and just focus on drilling for a while? (specifically drilling LR) I have the LRB and Camrbidge's LR 1-40 set. I specifically struggle with Nec. Assumption and Strengthen.

[Gray]

.

[schmelling]

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[Colonel_funkadunk]

I took PT 46 today and got a 167.

RC: -3
LR1: -5
LR2: -4
LG: -1

I'm pretty frustrated about the LR sections. I make dumb mistakes
and seem to have trouble with NA SA and strengthen problems. Any helpful tips?

[CptnAwesome]

When you guys go through RC passages, how much do you notate? I'm finding that reading through with minimal notation, then quickly marking main points and support helps me to retain the full idea of the passage better.

[schmelling]

.

[ilikebaseball]

When you guys go through RC passages, how much do you notate? I'm finding that reading through with minimal notation, then quickly marking main points and support helps me to retain the full idea of the passage better.

*Voyager's Guide*

[LeeAllen]

Anyone have experience with downloading cambridge lsat PTs? I want to retake a diag we were given in class, but its marked with all my answers and work.They seem to be the only website with instant access to PTs. Can they be printed or are they restricted due to licensing?

I downloaded one the other day. PowerScore also has PTs for instant download.

[CFC1524]

I took PT 46 today and got a 167.

RC: -3
LR1: -5
LR2: -4
LG: -1

I'm pretty frustrated about the LR sections. I make dumb mistakes
and seem to have trouble with NA SA and strengthen problems. Any helpful tips?

Do you get them correct on blind review? Sometimes people get LR questions wrong because they're short on time and are moving too quickly. If this is case, are you meeting the 15-in-15 mark? Focusing on that while drilling/PT'ing improved my timing tremendously.

If you're getting them wrong on blind review as well, it's probably a fundamentals issue. Try and spot the assumption before moving to the answer choices. That's the best (and most efficient) way of doing things. This requires a close reading of the stimulus, with special emphasis given to the gap between the premise and the conclusion.

Necessary assumptions have a certain feel to them, and they start to really stand out with practice. Try to remember that NA don't really strengthen the argument, they just prevent the argument from collapsing. If you don't assume a particular NA, then you're argument is dead in the water (this is why the negation test works in the first place). It might be helpful to write out some super simple arguments and make lists of corresponding necessary and sufficient assumptions. So, for example, if the conclusion is TLS is the best forum on the internet, what kind of NA need to be made in order for the argument to work? (i.e. the internet exists, TLS is a forum, etc.)

SA strengthen the argument (i.e. they completely close the gap between the premise and the conclusion and create a logically valid argument). I struggled with them early on, but, again, with practice, I started to view them as gimmie-questions. As you read through the stimulus, keep in the back of your mind that you're looking for a gap - a hole that needs filling - between two premises, or between a premise and a conclusion. Personally, I think it's really important to pick out the SA before moving onto the answer choices. The hard part isn't finding the assumption (these are usually pretty obvious in SA questions), but being able to parse through the ridiculous verbage in the answer choices. The right answer could be "A--> B" but you can bet that LSAC has "B---> A" and "A---> C" as answer choices as well ( You can also be sure that A, B, and C all stand for complicated, long-winded sentences . This doesn't help either). If you know what you're looking for, you can head right for the correct answer and avoid most of the traps.

Example:
My favoriate ice cream is Bittersweet Symphony.
Therefore,
My favoriate ice cream is made by Perry's.

SA = Bittersweet Symphony is made by Perry's.

Obviously this is simpler than anything you'll see on the LSAT, but writing these out (and doing a lot of practice problems) helped me get a feel for what I was looking for. Eventually it just became second nature.

[Colonel_funkadunk]

I took PT 46 today and got a 167.

RC: -3
LR1: -5
LR2: -4
LG: -1

I'm pretty frustrated about the LR sections. I make dumb mistakes
and seem to have trouble with NA SA and strengthen problems. Any helpful tips?

Do you get them correct on blind review? Sometimes people get LR questions wrong because they're short on time and are moving too quickly. If this is case, are you meeting the 15-in-15 mark? Focusing on that while drilling/PT'ing improved my timing tremendously.

If you're getting them wrong on blind review as well, it's probably a fundamentals issue. Try and spot the assumption before moving to the answer choices. That's the best (and most efficient) way of doing things. This requires a close reading of the stimulus, with special emphasis given to the gap between the premise and the conclusion.

Necessary assumptions have a certain feel to them, and they start to really stand out with practice. Try to remember that NA don't really strengthen the argument, they just prevent the argument from collapsing. If you don't assume a particular NA, then you're argument is dead in the water (this is why the negation test works in the first place). It might be helpful to write out some super simple arguments and make lists of corresponding necessary and sufficient assumptions. So, for example, if my conclusion is TLS is the best forum on the internet, what kind of NA do I need to make? (i.e. the internet exists, TLS is a forum, etc.)

SA strengthen the argument (i.e. they completely close the gap between the premise and the conclusion and create a logically valid argument). I struggled with them early on, but, again, with practice, I started to view them as gimmie-questions. As you read through the stimulus, keep in the back of your mind that you're looking for a gap - a hole that needs filling - between two premises, or between a premise and a conclusion. Personally, I think it's really important to pick out the SA before moving onto the answer choices. The hard part isn't finding the assumption (these are usually pretty obvious in SA questions), but being able to parse through the ridiculous verbage in the answer choices. The right answer could be "A--> B" but you can bet that LSAC has "B---> A" and "A---> C" as answer choices as well ( You can also be sure that A, B, and C all stand for complicated, long-winded sentences . This doesn't help either). If you know what you're looking for, you can head right for the correct answer and avoid most of the traps.

Example:
My favoriate ice cream is Bittersweet Symphony.
Therefore,
My favoriate ice cream is made by Perry's.

SA = Bittersweet Symphony is made by Perry's.

Obviously this is simpler than anything you'll see on the LSAT, but writing these out (and doing a lot of practice problems) helped me get a feel for what I was looking for. Eventually it just became second nature.

Thanks a lot for the tips. Those seem to make a lot of sense. Maybe when I'm drilling I'll go through and write out the assumption. also I didn't blind review this PT. So I'm guessing that's something I should be doing.

[MtnGinger]

Anyone have experience with downloading cambridge lsat PTs? I want to retake a diag we were given in class, but its marked with all my answers and work.They seem to be the only website with instant access to PTs. Can they be printed or are they restricted due to licensing?

Idk about PTs but I use the drill packs and you just have to save it to your compute within 3 days then print all you want

[jmjm]

When you guys go through RC passages, how much do you notate? I'm finding that reading through with minimal notation, then quickly marking main points and support helps me to retain the full idea of the passage better.

*Voyager's Guide*

I hope I am wrong about this but I find that notating takes a lot of time and is not very useful. It may be helpful in the beginning to guide one's focus but after one knows what to focus on, notating seems like time wasted. When I notate my focus is on the notation and I find that voyager's approach may work till 40s RC but recent RC is a different beast.
Limited time is what makes RC so difficult for me and I'm beginning to think that RC cannot be improved much. I don't think there is any tester out there who improved RC from -12 or so till near perfect.

[cavalier2015]

PT 47 today

LR: -15…
RC: -1
LG: -0
166/167

this was my second ever PT. took 45 a few days back and got the same score but had (-8LR, -8RC, and -0LG.

yup…

not sure how to feel about this.

[chimera]

PT 47 today

LR: -15…
RC: -1
LG: -0
166/167

this was my second ever PT. took 45 a few days back and got the same score but had (-8LR, -8RC, and -0LG.

yup…

not sure how to feel about this.

I'd be proud of that score, especially going -0 and -1 on games and RC! Plus there's plenty of time to shore up your LR skills before September 27. Review those LR questions thoroughly and you're well on your way to a great score

[berkeleynick]

PT 47 today

LR: -15…
RC: -1
LG: -0
166/167

this was my second ever PT. took 45 a few days back and got the same score but had (-8LR, -8RC, and -0LG.

yup…

not sure how to feel about this.

Drill baby drill.

[Louis1127]

PT 47 today

LR: -15…
RC: -1
LG: -0
166/167

this was my second ever PT. took 45 a few days back and got the same score but had (-8LR, -8RC, and -0LG.

yup…

not sure how to feel about this.

Holy crap that's an awesome distribution- because you know exactly where you need to focus your time. Sweet.

[kbrizz]

Drilling away at LG. Feeling like time is my ultimate enemy.

[flash21]

Drilling away at LG. Feeling like time is my ultimate enemy.

I enjoy LG now - used to despise it. How about you?

[kbrizz]

Drilling away at LG. Feeling like time is my ultimate enemy.

I enjoy LG now - used to despise it. How about you?

Funnily enough, I am starting to enjoy them! They were my worst, most frustrating section when I took my diagnostic and now I feel like there is some hope. Plus, the feeling of going -0 or even -1 on a game is fantastic especially when I couldn't have fathomed that a month ago.