June 2011 Study Group Forum

[geverett]

There tend to be words that indicate the author's tone. For example, I was reading a RC passage this morning about folklore and a new approach to studying folklore by placing the "lore" i.e. stories, songs, etc. into context through a study of the biography of the actual people who transmitted them. The author listed 2 recent book that embraced this, and qualified his appreciation of one by writing: "Another notable work is Roger Abraham's book, which presents a very clear picture of the significance of traditional singing in the life of noted ballad singer Almeda Riddle. Unfortunately, unlike Pentikanen's study, Abraham's study contains little repertoire analysis." The last questions say: "The author's attitude toward Roger Abraham's book can best be described as one of:" and the answer is "qualified admiration". The word "Unfortunately" would lead you there. Granted this is an easier example, but there tend to be indicator words that will tip you off to how the author feels about various subjects in the stimulus.

[thouse]

I think the author's tone questions are hard. To me, the author always seems relatively neutral and sometimes the credited response is "indignant and offended." Any tips on how to pick up the author's subtle mood?

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These answers are also stated in the text. If the answer is indignant and offended. Then in the text there might be something said by the author like. Ex. The scientists hypothesis is a blatant slap in the face to the theory of Plato a world renowned scholar. In that sentence he is clearly offended by the hypothesis. So you have to look closely at the statements made by the author. Just my two cents. I would suggest doing a few of these types of questions and then once you find out what the answer is go back to the text and see can you find statements that match the correct answers tone. Untimed of course.

[geverett]

Having a rough time with grouping games today.

[neeko]

I think the author's tone questions are hard. To me, the author always seems relatively neutral and sometimes the credited response is "indignant and offended." Any tips on how to pick up the author's subtle mood?

I look for words that are not the viewpoint of other groups ( some critics, proponents etc) where the author will say consequently, surprisingly, unfortunately, troubling and things of that nature You can usually deduce it from there. Next to those words I will write Va ( viewpoint author) in the margin.

Edited: typing on an iPad is not as nice as easy as it may seem.

[EbonyEsq]

Thanks for the review, I was considering the RC bible. I'm not familiar with what method the RC bible is advocating, but in what way did the RC bible make it worse?

The way they have you marking up the passage, I just dont know that it helps. I did better when I would just read and then try to answer the questions. I'm going to try a few this weekend without all the crazy markings and see if I do better.

Ditto. Seriously, its not as difficult as they make it out to be if we just focus on the passage while observing the structure and where applicable, highlighting or underlining the major stuff (ie main point, opposing viewpoints, etc.).

The tone can be easily picked up if we take the time to not only read but listen.

[EbonyEsq]

So I've just ordered all of my prep material on Amazon - all the prep tests, the three LSAT series of 10 etc, LSAT Superprep and LSAT Handbok.

I'll be following S. Schwartz' day-by-day schedule and later on in my studies order some grouped questions by game/LR type on Cambridge for drilling purposes.

[thouse]

I also answer tone questions and main idea questions last, and start with direct questions or questions that ask about specific lines first. What I have found is that after answering those other questions first you have gotten a better understanding of the passage and can easily answer the tone and main idea questions.

[freestallion]

I also answer tone questions and main idea questions last, and start with direct questions or questions that ask about specific lines first. What I have found is that after answering those other questions first you have gotten a better understanding of the passage and can easily answer the tone and main idea questions.

This is a good idea. I have found this technique to be really helpful too! I am going to start saving the main point questions for last because sometimes, they are hard to answer as they are more vague.

[geverett]

I also answer tone questions and main idea questions last, and start with direct questions or questions that ask about specific lines first. What I have found is that after answering those other questions first you have gotten a better understanding of the passage and can easily answer the tone and main idea questions.

This is a good idea. I have found this technique to be really helpful too! I am going to start saving the main point questions for last because sometimes, they are hard to answer as they are more vague.

I'm doing the same thing, and have seen my accuracy on MP questions improve. Also after going through all of the questions you have a much firmer grasp of the overarching themes that the stimulus is trying to communicate. LSAT blog advocates this method, and I couldn't agree more. I'm working on grouping games today. I hate it when I mis-read a question.

[Yeags]

good advice on the RC section, I'm also really confused by the "tone" questions, earlier today I was trying to look for a list of the key adjective words that are associated with each "tone" but couldn't find any.

Also, do people know what time the June LSAT test actually begins? 1 pm? I know it takes a while to get everyone checked in and settled.

[dr123]

I'm planning on taking the June LSAT. I am moving to the mountain west tomorrow and starting a new job on tuesday, so unfortunately I have not been able to start prepping yet. However, I plan to start prepping again (I took the december lsat) in a couple of weeks. With LR and RC my biggest problem is timing more than anything so I feel that will get better if I take more PTs this time. My biggest problem is Games, I do absolutely awful on the games section and it always weighs my score down big time. Does anyone have any tips on how to improve on the LG portion?

[Naila23]

Hi Guys,

My name is Naila and I am a third year student at York University. I have already got my ticket for LSAT exam for June 2011. I just have a few questions and I would greatly appreciate it if any of you could answer them.

1) Is it enough to start studying for the LSAT exam starting now? As I mentioned above I am in my third year of university and due to this I will only be about to give myself an hour or two everyday till june to study for the exam. Do you think this is enough, for a first attempt at LSAT?

2) I was thinking of taking a one month course with Prinston or Kaplan, but a lot of people have advised me to study on my own and how these are a waste of money. What opinions do you guys have on this?

I will be waiting for a reply, thank-you. Good luck to everyone for the exam. Hopefully we all can give each other some useful studying tips!

-Naila

[99.9luft]

Hi Guys,

My name is Naila and I am a third year student at York University. I have already got my ticket for LSAT exam for June 2011. I just have a few questions and I would greatly appreciate it if any of you could answer them.

1) Is it enough to start studying for the LSAT exam starting now? As I mentioned above I am in my third year of university and due to this I will only be about to give myself an hour or two everyday till june to study for the exam. Do you think this is enough, for a first attempt at LSAT?

2) I was thinking of taking a one month course with Prinston or Kaplan, but a lot of people have advised me to study on my own and how these are a waste of money. What opinions do you guys have on this?

I will be waiting for a reply, thank-you. Good luck to everyone for the exam. Hopefully we all can give each other some useful studying tips!

-Naila

1. Yes, it is enough for a first attempt. Serious studying for 2-3 months should be at least 3 hours per day, though (predicting this as your Oct retake schedule)
2. Princeton/Kaplan = crap. Take TM/BP or do the bibles+PTs on your own.

-not yet (and hopefully will not be) a part of this thread, since studying for Feb. 1 week to decide to bail or not. [goes back to studying...]

[gamblera]

.

[dkb17xzx]

Hi Guys,

My name is Naila and I am a third year student at York University. I have already got my ticket for LSAT exam for June 2011. I just have a few questions and I would greatly appreciate it if any of you could answer them.

1) Is it enough to start studying for the LSAT exam starting now? As I mentioned above I am in my third year of university and due to this I will only be about to give myself an hour or two everyday till june to study for the exam. Do you think this is enough, for a first attempt at LSAT?

2) I was thinking of taking a one month course with Prinston or Kaplan, but a lot of people have advised me to study on my own and how these are a waste of money. What opinions do you guys have on this?

I will be waiting for a reply, thank-you. Good luck to everyone for the exam. Hopefully we all can give each other some useful studying tips!

-Naila

Nalia,

1. It is my first attempt as well, and while I am not in school, I do have full-time work. If you browse through the various prep threads (especially the "How to Get a 160+" thread), you will find that 20 weeks is adequate for your first time.

2. I don't know what you are using to study, but if you want to get an introduction to PS Bibles, I would suggest a PS weekend course. I took it almost a year back (I was planning on the June 2010 LSAT before), and I did find it helpful. HOWEVER, this is NOT needed. From what I have read (students as well as instructors), Princeton and Kaplan are not highly recommended.

[LSATBuddha]

Hey guys,

I've been a long time lurker, but now its time for me to tackle this beast! I am currently on LSAT Blog's 5-month study schedule. Its going well so far. I have seen threads like this become a great resource for other test takers. I hope I can say the same thing.

I look forward to seeing all the tremendous strides we make in this thread. Let's do this!

[gamblera]

how do you like the 5 month? I am on the three month, and I feel it isn't nearly enough. I am on my second week of lsat prep, but I have already worked my way through to combination games. I've done all the readings//drills (each problem at least three times /// I review the kaplan explanations for all).

Maybe it is b/c it has been winter break and all I have really been doing is lg work. I have read that a few people are using pithypikes guide with steve's. maybe ill start doing that.

[joebloe]

Well, I finally pulled the finger out and registered for June. Amazon shipped my bibles and superprep. Gonna have to get used to these suckers again:

Remember to keep exercising folks. Single most important component of my study regimen, both from an endurance perspective (reduces back pain and hand cramping) and from a cognitive perspective (various reasons).

I didn't work out today and I am in a rut. Hit that gym daily.

[LSATBuddha]

how do you like the 5 month? I am on the three month, and I feel it isn't nearly enough. I am on my second week of lsat prep, but I have already worked my way through to combination games. I've done all the readings//drills (each problem at least three times /// I review the kaplan explanations for all).

Maybe it is b/c it has been winter break and all I have really been doing is lg work. I have read that a few people are using pithypikes guide with steve's. maybe ill start doing that.

I assume that the 5 month has a few more details....but it does feel like there are sometimes when I could be doing more. Thats when I usually supplement it with stuff from older pts steve doesn't use.I also don't see to many problems with using pithypikes guide with steve's. The worst that could happen is repetition. However, just make sure it doesn't interfere with any of your timed sections to come or upcoming full-length pts. Its kind of hard to advise when I'm not sure what is exactly on the three-month.

The best thing might be to shoot an email to Steve. He is familiar with this forum, and most likely pithypikes guide. I am sure he would be happy to answer you back!

[LSATBuddha]

Well, I finally pulled the finger out and registered for June. Amazon shipped my bibles and superprep. Gonna have to get used to these suckers again:

Remember to keep exercising folks. Single most important component of my study regimen, both from an endurance perspective (reduces back pain and hand cramping) and from a cognitive perspective (various reasons).

I didn't work out today and I am in a rut. Hit that gym daily.

Ditto on the registering....it honestly felt good though! Yea I am going nuts that I didn't work out today as well. It really helps me focus and get energized.

[theaether]

The best thing might be to shoot an email to Steve. He is familiar with this forum, and most likely pithypikes guide. I am sure he would be happy to answer you back!

Just gonna butt in here and say that I sent Steve an e-mail about the workload in the 5month day-to-day and he recommended doing and re-doing the 10 older PT's that aren't dealt with in the schedule, pacing yourself and not burning out, and also reviewing everything thoroughly.

So personally I've been reading books that aren't included in the study plan (like atlas/manhattan) to add on hours of study time, and I'm taking an old PT on sundays when the plan advises a day off.

[LSATBuddha]

yea thats what i've been doing...good to hear some confirmation...thanks theaether

[freestallion]

The best thing might be to shoot an email to Steve. He is familiar with this forum, and most likely pithypikes guide. I am sure he would be happy to answer you back!

Just gonna butt in here and say that I sent Steve an e-mail about the workload in the 5month day-to-day and he recommended doing and re-doing the 10 older PT's that aren't dealt with in the schedule, pacing yourself and not burning out, and also reviewing everything thoroughly.

So personally I've been reading books that aren't included in the study plan (like atlas/manhattan) to add on hours of study time, and I'm taking an old PT on sundays when the plan advises a day off.

I haven't really sat down and decided to go with one plan or another, but I am leaning towards pithypike's plan. I'm getting the Kaplan Mastery book soon so it seems like that's the simplest and yet most effective study plan. I've looked at the LSAT blog study plan and it sounds really quite complex and *too* involved for me, for some reason. But perhaps such a regimented plan could be helpful. I'll try to sit down and figure out the plan tomorrow.

[theaether]

regardless of what kind of plan you decide on, i'd definitely recommend reading every post on steve's LSAT blog. there's tons of useful info there, like categorized LR questions. so for example if you are bad at type X LR questions, you can look it up and find which PTs have those type X questions and review them.

he also has some logic games he wrote himself that are helpful, since they're slightly harder than normal but keep the same basic structure and LSATness. i think some of the LG's in the 20s or 30s PTwise can really throw u off because they are too shallow. a remarkable contrast between those easy ones and the recent december LG section

[elisedfra]

how do you like the 5 month? I am on the three month, and I feel it isn't nearly enough. I am on my second week of lsat prep, but I have already worked my way through to combination games. I've done all the readings//drills (each problem at least three times /// I review the kaplan explanations for all).

Maybe it is b/c it has been winter break and all I have really been doing is lg work. I have read that a few people are using pithypikes guide with steve's. maybe ill start doing that.

I assume that the 5 month has a few more details....but it does feel like there are sometimes when I could be doing more. Thats when I usually supplement it with stuff from older pts steve doesn't use.I also don't see to many problems with using pithypikes guide with steve's. The worst that could happen is repetition. However, just make sure it doesn't interfere with any of your timed sections to come or upcoming full-length pts. Its kind of hard to advise when I'm not sure what is exactly on the three-month.

The best thing might be to shoot an email to Steve. He is familiar with this forum, and most likely pithypikes guide. I am sure he would be happy to answer you back!

I am doing the 6 month plan, which is similar and my biggest critique is that there aren't enough PT's integrated into the study plan. I shot Steve an e-mail about it and I'm still waiting to hear back from him. In the study plan you don't take full PT's until the last month or so of STudying. Also, he doesn't require you to go through the entire LRB either. So, I'm curious to hear other people's thoughts on the plan. It seems that if you can work through more tests appropriately with time for review than required by the 6 month plan, it's worth it according to many top scorers.

Also, it looks like the major contrast from Pithypike and Voyager to Steve Shwartz's plan is that they have you practice all three sections each month, whereas, Steve has students focus on one section at a time more intensely each month. Any thoughts on these different approaches?