The Official September 2014 Study Group Forum

[HRomanus]

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

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

That's definitely how I am, which surprised me more than anything. In PTs I've been doing recently I get really bummed when the LG is my first section. I think my favorite sequence is LR-LG-LR-RC - and I suppose an experimental LG would be my preference.

[Colonel_funkadunk]

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

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

That's definitely how I am, which surprised me more than anything. In PTs I've been doing recently I get really bummed when the LG is my first section. I think my favorite sequence is LR-LG-LR-RC - and I suppose an experimental LG would be my preference.

I had RC-LR-LR-LG today and the last section felt like a breeze.

[HRomanus]

I don't understand the answer for this LR question.

PT 55 S1 Q8 -Wouldn't D, the CR, mean that *any* formerly large production crop would benefit the farmers and economy? But the stimulus says nothing about large production crops aside from sunflower seeds. It is possible that a formerly large production crop - peanuts, coffee, whatever - would harm the farmers and economy. I didn't think any of the answers logically followed, but I selected A.

[chimera]

I don't understand the answer for this LR question.

PT 55 S1 Q8 -Wouldn't D, the CR, mean that *any* formerly large production crop would benefit the farmers and economy? But the stimulus says nothing about large production crops aside from sunflower seeds. It is possible that a formerly large production crop - peanuts, coffee, whatever - would harm the farmers and economy. I didn't think any of the answers logically followed, but I selected A.

(A) (~SF-->Industry Deteriorate) isn't really supported, since there isn't any conditional language that implies ~SF guaranteeing industry deteriorating. (B)(C)(E) are out of scope or unsupported in the same way (bad logic) that (A) is. (D) definitely isn't a perfect answer, but this part in the stim: "The renewed growing of SF would provide relief..." is sufficient to guarantee (D).

I think you're right that the CR includes any formerly large production crop. Since sunflowers fall under the umbrella of formerly large production crops, it could be that one (A production crop), and so the implication is at least somewhat supported. So I think (D) is the best answer there out of a bunch of bad answers that are either out of scope or contain faulty logic. It's not 100% provable, but it doesn't have to be. That's how I see it at least, but I am far from an LR master.

[Colonel_funkadunk]

Does anybody have any tips on blind reviewing, or the best way of doing it? It may be answered earlier in this thread but I haven't seen it since I've been following it.

[Gray]

.

[Colonel_funkadunk]

Does anybody have any tips on blind reviewing, or the best way of doing it? It may be answered earlier in this thread but I haven't seen it since I've been following it.

If you haven't already read the 7sage article... this is probably what you need The Blind Review: How to correctly prep for LSAT

Thanks!

[HRomanus]

(A) (~SF-->Industry Deteriorate) isn't really supported, since there isn't any conditional language that implies ~SF guaranteeing industry deteriorating. (B)(C)(E) are out of scope or unsupported in the same way (bad logic) that (A) is. (D) definitely isn't a perfect answer, but this part in the stim: "The renewed growing of SF would provide relief..." is sufficient to guarantee (D).

I think you're right that the CR includes any formerly large production crop. Since sunflowers fall under the umbrella of formerly large production crops, it could be that one (A production crop), and so the implication is at least somewhat supported. So I think (D) is the best answer there out of a bunch of bad answers that are either out of scope or contain faulty logic. It's not 100% provable, but it doesn't have to be. That's how I see it at least, but I am far from an LR master.

That makes sense. I definitely misread D too broadly. I knew A wasn't a good answer, but I couldn't get past my reading of D.

Does anyone else have seemingly hundreds of pages worth of LG diagrams strewn across their apartment?

[mmorrell94]

(A) (~SF-->Industry Deteriorate) isn't really supported, since there isn't any conditional language that implies ~SF guaranteeing industry deteriorating. (B)(C)(E) are out of scope or unsupported in the same way (bad logic) that (A) is. (D) definitely isn't a perfect answer, but this part in the stim: "The renewed growing of SF would provide relief..." is sufficient to guarantee (D).

I think you're right that the CR includes any formerly large production crop. Since sunflowers fall under the umbrella of formerly large production crops, it could be that one (A production crop), and so the implication is at least somewhat supported. So I think (D) is the best answer there out of a bunch of bad answers that are either out of scope or contain faulty logic. It's not 100% provable, but it doesn't have to be. That's how I see it at least, but I am far from an LR master.

That makes sense. I definitely misread D too broadly. I knew A wasn't a good answer, but I couldn't get past my reading of D.

Does anyone else have seemingly hundreds of pages worth of LG diagrams strewn across their apartment?

Personally, I fold my LGs into fourths and set them in between my LRB and LGB. The stack is over too feet tall now

[Gray]

.

[LeeAllen]

Just thinking about the BR question I answered earlier - Does anyone else NOT use blind review?

I tried it once and I hated it! I'm usually very confident in my answer, and I'm never really inclined to change it. When I know that it's a guess, I usually note my second choice while I'm taking it. When I check my answers, I can usually see why the correct answer was correct immediately, and I make vulgarity-ridden, somewhat rude notes to myself on why I was wrong. So my PTs are filled with notes like "Actually read the whole fucking question!" in LR and "Pay attention to names, FUCK" in RC. And in LG I don't usually have issues, but there will be the occasional note that just says "ELIMINATE!!!"

I think 90% of why I hate blind review is that I'm so anxious to see my score than I don't have the patience to go through the flagged questions again. Plus, more of my mistakes are just sort of "oops didn't read that properly" than "what the actual fuck is this?"

I'm kind of in the same position as you. Once I finish, I really just want to know how I did and then evaluate my responses after I get a score. I feel like I can't focus as well when I'm still not sure how I did. Most of my mistakes are, like yours, from being too careless or overlooking important parts of the stimulus or answer choices.

I haven't really been doing blind review, but I'm going to start doing it more because I'm at a point where unless I really understand exactly what I'm doing wrong, its going to be hard to improve. I'm consistently scoring well in LG+RC, so my main problem is getting over my plateau of 5-6 wrong in LR. Hopefully blind review can help me understand what I'm doing wrong and then I can drill until it's less of a problem.

[ilikebaseball]

So I want the HARDEST LR and RC questions. Maybe I can lower the amount of difficult questions I miss if I drill these over and over and perhaps recognize a pattern. What's the best way to get the hard ones?

[vracovino]

Just took PT 47:

LR: -3 (ran low on time, guessed on one)
RC: -3 (ran low on time)
LR: -6 (ran low on time, guessed last two)
LG: -3 (did well on "hard" game, definitely screwed up some rules on the last game)

Raw: 85
Scaled: 166

While it is just my third PT, this is somewhat of a rude awakening that I still have such a long way to go for that 170+ score. Stupid mistakes everywhere and I guess I was just a bit too slow through the first half of the LR. I'm at a weird place right now where I'm not really sure how to improve other than to take more PTs and practice timing.

Just thinking about the BR question I answered earlier - Does anyone else NOT use blind review?

I tried it once and I hated it! I'm usually very confident in my answer, and I'm never really inclined to change it. When I know that it's a guess, I usually note my second choice while I'm taking it. When I check my answers, I can usually see why the correct answer was correct immediately, and I make vulgarity-ridden, somewhat rude notes to myself on why I was wrong. So my PTs are filled with notes like "Actually read the whole fucking question!" in LR and "Pay attention to names, FUCK" in RC. And in LG I don't usually have issues, but there will be the occasional note that just says "ELIMINATE!!!"

I think 90% of why I hate blind review is that I'm so anxious to see my score than I don't have the patience to go through the flagged questions again. Plus, more of my mistakes are just sort of "oops didn't read that properly" than "what the actual fuck is this?"

I'm about to try my own version of Blind Review now because I feel the same way in that I'm too anxious after I finish the exam. When I check my answers now, I only look at the answer sheet and keep a tally under each section with how many I got wrong rather than making a mark to each individual question, that way I don't know which questions I actually got wrong. In like thirty minutes I'm gonna open the test back up and try to review it.

[LeeAllen]

So I want the HARDEST LR and RC questions. Maybe I can lower the amount of difficult questions I miss if I drill these over and over and perhaps recognize a pattern. What's the best way to get the hard ones?

PowerScore sells the 50 hardest RC passages on its downloadable documents store. They also sell the 50 hardest LGs, but I haven't seen anything on LR. If you find one let me know.

[dasani13]

cross-posting: I took 61 yesterday and I'll be taking 47 some time this week. Another TLSer and I will be reviewing both tests on Skype this weekend so if anyone would like to join, just let me know.

[CFC1524]

So I want the HARDEST LR and RC questions. Maybe I can lower the amount of difficult questions I miss if I drill these over and over and perhaps recognize a pattern. What's the best way to get the hard ones?

PowerScore sells the 50 hardest RC passages on its downloadable documents store. They also sell the 50 hardest LGs, but I haven't seen anything on LR. If you find one let me know.

Cambridge has packets of the "hardest" LR/LG/RC questions, I believe. They're pretty cheap and definitely worth doing.

[ilikebaseball]

So I want the HARDEST LR and RC questions. Maybe I can lower the amount of difficult questions I miss if I drill these over and over and perhaps recognize a pattern. What's the best way to get the hard ones?

PowerScore sells the 50 hardest RC passages on its downloadable documents store. They also sell the 50 hardest LGs, but I haven't seen anything on LR. If you find one let me know.

Cambridge has packets of the "hardest" LR/LG/RC questions, I believe. They're pretty cheap and definitely worth doing.

can you provide a link to these hard ones?

[CFC1524]

So I want the HARDEST LR and RC questions. Maybe I can lower the amount of difficult questions I miss if I drill these over and over and perhaps recognize a pattern. What's the best way to get the hard ones?

PowerScore sells the 50 hardest RC passages on its downloadable documents store. They also sell the 50 hardest LGs, but I haven't seen anything on LR. If you find one let me know.

Cambridge has packets of the "hardest" LR/LG/RC questions, I believe. They're pretty cheap and definitely worth doing.

can you provide a link to these hard ones?

LR: http://www.cambridgelsat.com/problem-se ... reasoning/
LG: http://www.cambridgelsat.com/problem-sets/logic-games/
RC: http://www.cambridgelsat.com/problem-se ... rehension/

Just scroll down until you find the "difficult" section.

[jmjm]

Any of you spend more time thinking about lsat and not so called 'studying' for it? My work even though it's only 5 days a week leaves little time for study.
how are full timers here managing it?

[ilikebaseball]

Any of you spend more time thinking about lsat and not so called 'studying' for it? My work even though it's only 5 days a week leaves little time for study.
how are full timers here managing it?

You just have to man lol. I bring lunch to work, get a quick workout in during my hour and a half lunchbreak (not much, but its manageable) and then go to the library straight from work. Leave at about 7:45 in the morning, usually get home around 8-8:30. If I am taking a PT, I'm able to work an extra hour the day before to give me enough time to finish it the next day by taking an hour off earlier.

My work isnt real "work" but its full time nonetheless. I just have to work a certain number of hours. It doesnt matter really when I complete them. I could work 10 hours a day, 4 days a week if I wanted.

Also, whenever there's any down time I drill a section. I'm also fortunate in that department.

[valen]

Any of you spend more time thinking about lsat and not so called 'studying' for it? My work even though it's only 5 days a week leaves little time for study.
how are full timers here managing it?

I bring drills with me to work on when I have downtime at work. I have never gotten flack for it because I make sure to do my work first and only use free/downtime to study. I also always bring a lunch and sit in a conference room during my lunch hour eating and studying. I'll sometimes read over reference passages during breakfast in the morning too. After work I give myself an hour or so to relax, walk the pup, etc before I'm back at the desk for another 2-4 hours of focused studying/pting/drilling.

I'm also doing my masters full time so it's really important for me to be diligent in time management. Once you get in a rhythm it'll be easier to maintain. Ya just need to suck it up at first and realize that this is only temporary - you'll have a life again after September.

Edit: also remember that weekends are invaluable for getting 10+ hours of studying in. I usually do 4-5 hrs Saturday and Sunday morning, and then another 2 or so both evenings.

[ilikebaseball]

Any of you spend more time thinking about lsat and not so called 'studying' for it? My work even though it's only 5 days a week leaves little time for study.
how are full timers here managing it?

I bring drills with me to work on when I have downtime at work. I have never gotten flack for it because I make sure to do my work first and only use free/downtime to study. I also always bring a lunch and sit in a conference room during my lunch hour eating and studying. I'll sometimes read over reference passages during breakfast in the morning too. After work I give myself an hour or so to relax, walk the pup, etc before I'm back at the desk for another 2-4 hours of focused studying/pting/drilling.

I'm also doing my masters full time so it's really important for me to be diligent in time management. Once you get in a rhythm it'll be easier to maintain. Ya just need to suck it up at first and realize that this is only temporary - you'll have a life again after September.

Edit: also remember that weekends are invaluable for getting 10+ hours of studying in. I usually do 4-5 hrs Saturday and Sunday morning, and then another 2 or so both evenings.

Now this I could never do. Some of the stories here on TLS amaze me. I try to never find an excuse NOT to study because I constantly here about guys "who are married with 2 kids, work full time, and take classes" or something of that nature.

[MtnGinger]

Any of you spend more time thinking about lsat and not so called 'studying' for it? My work even though it's only 5 days a week leaves little time for study.
how are full timers here managing it?

You just have to man lol. I bring lunch to work, get a quick workout in during my hour and a half lunchbreak (not much, but its manageable) and then go to the library straight from work. Leave at about 7:45 in the morning, usually get home around 8-8:30. If I am taking a PT, I'm able to work an extra hour the day before to give me enough time to finish it the next day by taking an hour off earlier.

My work isnt real "work" but its full time nonetheless. I just have to work a certain number of hours. It doesnt matter really when I complete them. I could work 10 hours a day, 4 days a week if I wanted.

Also, whenever there's any down time I drill a section. I'm also fortunate in that department.

So lucky I get off at 6 each day so I'm wore out and I only get half hour lunch. I'm looking forward to school starting back so I can study

[chimera]

Now this I could never do. Some of the stories here on TLS amaze me. I try to never find an excuse NOT to study because I constantly here about guys "who are married with 2 kids, work full time, and take classes" or something of that nature.

qft

[rebexness]

Just thinking about the BR question I answered earlier - Does anyone else NOT use blind review?

I tried it once and I hated it! I'm usually very confident in my answer, and I'm never really inclined to change it. When I know that it's a guess, I usually note my second choice while I'm taking it. When I check my answers, I can usually see why the correct answer was correct immediately, and I make vulgarity-ridden, somewhat rude notes to myself on why I was wrong. So my PTs are filled with notes like "Actually read the whole fucking question!" in LR and "Pay attention to names, FUCK" in RC. And in LG I don't usually have issues, but there will be the occasional note that just says "ELIMINATE!!!"

I maybe BR'd twice in 30+ PTs for June. My notes sound very similar to yours. BR didn't seem helpful nor did I really have the time or desire. Maybe i left points on the table because of it.