The Official June 2015 Study Group Forum

[betterLawyerUP]

I think it has a lot to do with personal preference but I think most people would agree that less is more. Like if you underline every other sentence it looks complicated and the underling loses its significance. I personally circle a word that is about to defined and peoples names and write "vp" next to a view point. Less is more also because if you make too many notations it can be a time waster.

Most study books use questions from PTs 1-39, which will still leave you with 30+ fresh PTs for PTing. The conventional wisdom around these parts is to get the Cambridge bundle that takes PT 1-39 and separates everything by section and then question type within the sections. Use that bundle for drilling, and then use the 30+ others for PTing.

Also, you don't want to use ANY study material that makes up questions/uses fake questions.

I don't make many marks during RC. I'll bracket main points/topic sentences of a paragraph, but most of what I'm doing is just active reading. So, say you just read the 1st paragraph of the passage. Quickly think: what was the main point of that paragraph? Can I predict what this next paragraph is going to be about? And if it was the 2nd or 3rd paragraph, also ask: How did that relate to the previous paragraphs. Reading like this will help you focus on the structure of the passage and the main point of the passage. Don't focus too much on the details, as questions about the details tend to reference line #'s for quick reference.

My dry test I read RC and just tried to internalize everything and it felt better. I tried one exercise after and made notations, I found I comprehended less and took too much time. I guess its a matter of personal preference but it seems no notes or limited to occasional circling is the best method.

Btw, is there any chat function or anything like that. I would like to compare and see how long other people take on questions. I am still puzzled as to how people score in the 0 to -2 range in RC

[ChoboPie]

apparently ITT: poli sci majors

Definitely not surprising. There was that LSAT score by major study (I think it was this one: http://taxprof.typepad.com/taxprof_blog ... -math.html), and the number of poli sci majors compared to every other major was insane. Surprised that there were so many business management people, and the bottom part of the table seems to lend some credence to the old joke that the worst major for law school is pre-law.

[betterLawyerUP]

I've been going -1 on RC and I mark up the passage quite a bit. I box names that seem important and underline transition words, phrases that capture main ideas, terms that may need defined, etc. I don't read super fast but I allow myself time to refer back to the passage when I need to, and those markings help me do that.

wow thats impressive. If you dont mind me asking, do you limit yourself to circling and underlining (in text quick notations), or do u at any point right outside the text, for example, summarizing a para in a word or two. Lastly, do you ever use logical symbols in the convoluted passages, where they have conditional relationships, or do you just read through and internalize the relationship in your mind? Thanks

[RZ5646]

wow thats impressive. If you dont mind me asking, do you limit yourself to circling and underlining (in text quick notations), or do u at any point right outside the text, for example, summarizing a para in a word or two. Lastly, do you ever use logical symbols in the convoluted passages, where they have conditional relationships, or do you just read through and internalize the relationship in your mind? Thanks

I think I've probably written little notes before but it's not really a part of my routine. A lot of people try to understand the passage in detail the first time through, but I just try to get a general idea of what's going on and make it easier to refer back to sections when I need to. I then look back to the passage for (I'm guessing) close to half the questions.

[RZ5646]

apparently ITT: poli sci majors

Definitely not surprising. There was that LSAT score by major study (I think it was this one: http://taxprof.typepad.com/taxprof_blog ... -math.html), and the number of poli sci majors compared to every other major was insane. Surprised that there were so many business management people, and the bottom part of the table seems to lend some credence to the old joke that the worst major for law school is pre-law.

I've seen charts for IQ and SAT score that have basically the same results. Math, physics, and philosophy are always near the top while majors like education, business, and criminal justice are always near the bottom.

[Webpolice]

Do you guys think the spreadsheet provided free by the Cambridge Packets any way useful?

[betterLawyerUP]

Do you guys ever list vertically as recommended by LGB or strictly horizontal sequencing?

[RZ5646]

Do you guys ever list vertically as recommended by LGB or strictly horizontal sequencing?

Always horizontal.

[nlee10]

Do you guys ever list vertically as recommended by LGB or strictly horizontal sequencing?

Always horizontal.

It depends on the context of the game. I remember a cake layer game and a few floor building games where it made more sense for me to list vertically.

[TheWalkingDebt]

I've been going -1 on RC and I mark up the passage quite a bit. I box names that seem important and underline transition words, phrases that capture main ideas, terms that may need defined, etc. I don't read super fast but I allow myself time to refer back to the passage when I need to, and those markings help me do that.

wow thats impressive. If you dont mind me asking, do you limit yourself to circling and underlining (in text quick notations), or do u at any point right outside the text, for example, summarizing a para in a word or two. Lastly, do you ever use logical symbols in the convoluted passages, where they have conditional relationships, or do you just read through and internalize the relationship in your mind? Thanks

As an alternative suggestion (I also am rocking the -1's on RC). I use a similar approach as the LSAT trainer, which is just boxing in and noting main ideas (and author opinions) and then larger brackets outside of each paragraph with notes regarding context of that paragraph (bg for 1/ev. for 1, OS/opinion shift). It seems if the LSAT has a specific term/sentence to answer a question about it will give you the line it is on, so I found a reduced need for notating. Hope it helps!

[The Abyss]

Good morning folks. My plan for the weekend is some heavy games drilling and to get through the Manhattan LR book. I'll also be taking PT 45 this Sunday. What's everyone else's weekend study plans?

[cheesy145]

Good morning folks. My plan for the weekend is some heavy games drilling and to get through the Manhattan LR book. I'll also be taking PT 45 this Sunday. What's everyone else's weekend study plans?

I'm hopefully finishing the LSAT trainer and then taking a PT. Also might be starting powerscore LR for a quick review. I already did the whole book for my first LSAT

[prestont123]

Good morning folks. My plan for the weekend is some heavy games drilling and to get through the Manhattan LR book. I'll also be taking PT 45 this Sunday. What's everyone else's weekend study plans?

Doing chapters 14-27 in the trainer and drilling with questions from PTs 52-56

[celvreal]

I was just waitlisted at my first choice school so it looks like I'll be taking the June LSAT! I'm trying to keep positive vibes going and hoping I get into my dream school!

[Gluteus]

Just bought the Manhattan LR/RC books off Amazon for Kindle for $8.02 each. Already have PS LG (Physical copy).

Off to the library to spend 3 hours reading/taking notes on the Manhattan LR.

[TheWalkingDebt]

Good morning folks. My plan for the weekend is some heavy games drilling and to get through the Manhattan LR book. I'll also be taking PT 45 this Sunday. What's everyone else's weekend study plans?

More drills than I care to think about: Limited allocations, most strongly support, grouping (distribution) and finishing MLSAT LG book

[betterLawyerUP]

Good morning folks. My plan for the weekend is some heavy games drilling and to get through the Manhattan LR book. I'll also be taking PT 45 this Sunday. What's everyone else's weekend study plans?

work is killing me cause I get home so tired, but this weekend I think all im doing is LGB and mix some Manhattan RC in there. My focus is understanding as of now so I can PT later. Although, all I want to do is PT to see if I made progress.

[179orBust]

Drilled 27 Flaw questions from PT's 1-5 and got 24/27. Not the best, but not too bad either. All misses were from level 3 and level 4 questions where the answer choices were convoluted. Gotta do a better job of dissecting them. So freakin aggravating though since I seem to be stuck in the 88-90% range when drilling.

Guys, do you ALWAYS prephrase for flaw questions? I try to prephrase all of the flaws before moving on to the choices but I never know how much time to spend when the flaw doesn't seem obvious. In the latter case, is it worth trying to think it through for an extra 10-15 seconds or should I just move on to the choices?

And, I want to thank all of you for always offering support and great advice. A guy I met on campus told me that he's studying for the LSAT and I asked if he wanted to study together. He responded saying he'd be crazy to do that since I'll be applying the same cycle and he doesn't want to help out a competitor. Thought he was joking but he was dead serious.

[McJimJam]

Post removed.

[The Abyss]

I was an mechanical engineering student until I got to differential equations.

[msp8]

Got my Trainer in the mail today. Curious to dig into it in the next few days. Hoping it helps me break through some consistency issues.

[TheWalkingDebt]

I feel like I've come a hell of a long way on LG. Just went -0 on the snakes game from PT27 in 15 minutes (a bit over the time, but still) and -0 on the Bus game on 36 (game 3) in 12 minutes having never seen either prior. It's a bit of a humblebrag, but I'm pretty jazzed about it.

[Blueprint Ben]

work is killing me cause I get home so tired, but this weekend I think all im doing is LGB and mix some Manhattan RC in there. My focus is understanding as of now so I can PT later. Although, all I want to do is PT to see if I made progress.

Just a note: Make sure you're drilling pretty heavily to supplement and solidify the methods you're learning in the bookwork. It's good to focus on "understanding" for the initial phase of your prep, but bear in mind that reading the books alone won't enable you to make very much progress with your skill set. You should aim to start developing your muscle memory as soon as you learn the methods. So it's really important to drill by question type immediately after each corresponding chapter that you read.

It's the implementation of methods, rather than the methods themselves, that make high scorers.

[The Abyss]

work is killing me cause I get home so tired, but this weekend I think all im doing is LGB and mix some Manhattan RC in there. My focus is understanding as of now so I can PT later. Although, all I want to do is PT to see if I made progress.

Just a note: Make sure you're drilling pretty heavily to supplement and solidify the methods you're learning in the bookwork. It's good to focus on "understanding" for the initial phase of your prep, but bear in mind that reading the books alone won't enable you to make very much progress with your skill set. You should aim to start developing your muscle memory as soon as you learn the methods. So it's really important to drill by question type immediately after each corresponding chapter that you read.

It's the implementation of methods, rather than the methods themselves, that make high scorers.

I've been drilling 20-30 questions after learning the methods for a particular question type for LR and 8-10 games for LG. Now that I'm nearly finished with bookwork, I'll be moving on to drilling everything in the Cambridge bundle with one PT a week to direct my focus. Then in April and May I plan on ratcheting up the PTing to 2-3 test a week, with some lighter drilling to supplement and strengthen my weaknesses.

Does this seem like a solid plan for the next 3.5 months?

[The LSAT Trainer]

I am using the trainer right now. Going through the whole book and then hitting the PS bibles/Manhattan books. I think the most important thing after reading through these books is to PT hard. I bought the author of the trainer's 16 week schedule and for the last month it has me doing all PT's (36 total). I think the key to doing well is taking lots of PTs, figure out what you are getting wrong, and then attacking from there.

Hi -- I think it's generally best for me to stay off the study group thread, but just wanted to clarify -- my study schedules are free (available on the lsat trainer website), and they do not include so many PT's in the last month -- just want to make sure you aren't confusing the actual trainer schedules with those sold by third parties.

I bought a schedule from LSATi's website, which included your book, the bibles, and all of the practice tests. Is it bad to be doing so many PTs? This is week 2/16 for me so I can adapt easily, but I want to make sure I am on the right track to getting a 170+.

Glad you are enjoying the trainer so far -- I'd prefer not to comment on their schedule (other than to say I am not involved with it in any way) -- probably best for you to ask them about it --

However, I noticed you mentioning you are going through 14 lessons of the trainer this wknd -- I know that students often know how to use my products better than I do, but please know that that is not how the trainer is intended to be used, and not how any reputable teacher would recommend you go through it. It is literally meant to be a training tool -- rushing through it will not do you nearly as much good as working through it carefully would.

Okay -- now I promise I will not come back onto the study group thread again unless there is some extreme need to do so -- I'll go back in my corner and you guys can come see me in my thread when you need me -- MK