The Official September 2014 Study Group Forum

[HRomanus]

Yeah, not looking forward to balancing LSAT prep with schoolwork in September, plus all the distractions of the undergrad lifestyle haha

I thought that senior year and decided to take a gap year. Taking a gap year was a phenomenal decision, not taking the LSAT then was a horrible one. Unlesss you're one of the many under- or unemployed PGPs, you'll never have more free time and you'll never be as intellectually attuned. But seriously, take a (at least) gap year - it really makes a difference in admissions and is phenomenal for personal growth.

[jmjm]

Unlesss you're one of the many under- or unemployed PGPs, you'll never have more free time and you'll never be as intellectually attuned.

[Gray]

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[gavaga1]

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[Gray]

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[Valamar]

Yeah, not looking forward to balancing LSAT prep with schoolwork in September, plus all the distractions of the undergrad lifestyle haha

I thought that senior year and decided to take a gap year. Taking a gap year was a phenomenal decision, not taking the LSAT then was a horrible one. Unlesss you're one of the many under- or unemployed PGPs, you'll never have more free time and you'll never be as intellectually attuned. But seriously, take a (at least) gap year - it really makes a difference in admissions and is phenomenal for personal growth.

Oh totally with you, I'm just coming off a gap year actually, where I worked full time in China. Starting junior year in September. Agree 100% on the personal growth aspect, and I feel as if I dodged a bullet in coming back refreshed and avoiding the senioritis that afflicted many of my friends last year haha. I complain now but also looking forward to getting back into being a college student, definitely September 27th, 12pm onward should be quite fun =P

[Gray]

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[lsat_hopefull]

I have recently decided to make a serious effort to prepare for the September LSAT exam. I have been have to date only been half-heartedly studying. I have been scoring between 155-160 on the practice tests I have taken so far. My weakest test section seems to be the logic games area. I am missing roughly 10-12 questions in that section on every practice test. Does anyone have any advice on how to improve my score in the logic games section? Any help and/or suggestions would be greatly appreciated! thanks in advance.

I think general advice here is to use power score bible or other prep book and just drill. I was the same way but mastered lg in a month or less.

Ps I say powerscore because that's what I used other books can be helpful too it's just your preference. Good luck

Thanks for the advice. Can I get away with an edition from a year or two ago, or do I need to buy the 2014 edition(s)?

[fra]

I have recently decided to make a serious effort to prepare for the September LSAT exam. I have been have to date only been half-heartedly studying. I have been scoring between 155-160 on the practice tests I have taken so far. My weakest test section seems to be the logic games area. I am missing roughly 10-12 questions in that section on every practice test. Does anyone have any advice on how to improve my score in the logic games section? Any help and/or suggestions would be greatly appreciated! thanks in advance.

I think general advice here is to use power score bible or other prep book and just drill. I was the same way but mastered lg in a month or less.

Ps I say powerscore because that's what I used other books can be helpful too it's just your preference. Good luck

Thanks for the advice. Can I get away with an edition from a year or two ago, or do I need to buy the 2014 edition(s)?

Get old editions, used the money saved to buy wine.

[cavalier2015]

so far i've taken PTs 45,47,48,49. PT 46 was eaten by my dog even before I had to chance to grade it (everyone hates the LSAT).

According to 7sage breakdown, my average across those 4 (mostly untimed PTs) is a 167. LR (average 82%), LG (average 97%), and RC (average 87%).

I've got 6.5 weeks to bring that average up to about a 173-174 so come test day I can get a 171/172.

Starting to stress, but hoping with time and effort I can up my LR and get those few extra points.

When should I move into timed PTs? I was thinking about starting to do them timed from PT52 as that's when the comparative RC starts and is replica of the real deal. Thoughts? With my schedule, I should be getting through PTs 45-72 come test date. Hope thats enough!

Hope everyone is doing well!

[Gray]

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[HRomanus]

so far i've taken PTs 45,47,48,49. PT 46 was eaten by my dog even before I had to chance to grade it (everyone hates the LSAT).

According to 7sage breakdown, my average across those 4 (mostly untimed PTs) is a 167. LR (average 82%), LG (average 97%), and RC (average 87%).

I've got 6.5 weeks to bring that average up to about a 173-174 so come test day I can get a 171/172.

Starting to stress, but hoping with time and effort I can up my LR and get those few extra points.

When should I move into timed PTs? I was thinking about starting to do them timed from PT52 as that's when the comparative RC starts and is replica of the real deal. Thoughts? With my schedule, I should be getting through PTs 45-72 come test date. Hope thats enough!

Hope everyone is doing well!

I wouldn't trust your untimed PTs as a reflection of scoring, particularly LG. Everyone can do well on LG with unlimited time. That being said, untimed LR shouldn't be that low if you're solid on your fundamentals. RC as well, to a lesser extent. Taked a timed PT ASAP so you can diagnose where you really need to focus your drilling.

[Frozinite]

so far i've taken PTs 45,47,48,49. PT 46 was eaten by my dog even before I had to chance to grade it (everyone hates the LSAT).

According to 7sage breakdown, my average across those 4 (mostly untimed PTs) is a 167. LR (average 82%), LG (average 97%), and RC (average 87%).

I've got 6.5 weeks to bring that average up to about a 173-174 so come test day I can get a 171/172.

Starting to stress, but hoping with time and effort I can up my LR and get those few extra points.

When should I move into timed PTs? I was thinking about starting to do them timed from PT52 as that's when the comparative RC starts and is replica of the real deal. Thoughts? With my schedule, I should be getting through PTs 45-72 come test date. Hope thats enough!

Hope everyone is doing well!

When you say untimed, are you keeping track of how long each section takes? If you're at say 37-40 minutes, I'd suggest timed ASAP. But if you're not, or just want to start with 52 - how about just noting your time for every section until you get to 52? Just keeping track of it will make you more aware of the clock.

I agree here. You should be using a count-up timer and tracking how long you actually take to complete the section, even during your untimed attempts. If they're anything more than 38+ minutes, you should start to pick up your pace. You really want to be down to 31-32 to give yourself time to review, plus test-day jitters always slows you down a few minutes (unless you're one of those rare people who work faster and more accurately under adrenaline).

If you haven't been keeping track at all, you should do that immediately. Fully untimed PTs are not very helpful if you have no idea how you actually fit within 35 minutes.

[cavalier2015]

i was planing on taking taking PT50 today. I will do it timed but using a stop watch that counts up to see if I'm taking too long.

Thanks for these tips, this is why i love this forum!

[Colonel_funkadunk]

Anybody have any good tips on LR timing? About 1 in every 3 sections I miss the last question due to time. The other ones I have anywhere from 2 minutes to 10seconds left. My accuracy is fine w the questions I just need to get the timing down and don't know if anyone has tips. My LG is at like 27-30 minutes and id ideally like to match this on LR.

Thanks

[Straw_Mandible]

I took PT62 on Saturday, and I just finished BR. It went MUCH better than it felt like when I was taking it (thanks in part to a generous -14 curve). In fact, I got my highest PT score yet! Here's the breakdown:

RC -3
LR -3
LG -5 stained glass
LR -0
Scaled: 173

I'm not quite celebrating, for a few reasons:

1. I took RC 48 as an experimental for my first section, and I scored a dismal -9. I haven't finished reviewing that section, but timing was definitely a problem. I had to guess on the last 4 questions. I don't know why I'm so inconsistent with RC.

2. RC 62 has the notoriously tough dental caries comparative passage, which I had already seen in a prep book. And I still lost 2 on that passage--but I think my timing for the section as a whole was artificially improved because I knew what to look for in the caries passages.

3. I think I could have done much better on LG if I had been more strategic about my timing. I chose to spend a lot of time waffling on certain questions in stained glass (Game 2), when I should have moved on to the next game. Game 3 was actually pretty tough, even compared to stained glass, which I didn't find too difficult on the whole. Most of my points were lost from guessing on G3, so I could make it through G4.

So, good PT score, but it still revealed plenty of room for improvement in my skill set. Back to drills!

[Valamar]

Anybody have any good tips on LR timing? About 1 in every 3 sections I miss the last question due to time. The other ones I have anywhere from 2 minutes to 10seconds left. My accuracy is fine w the questions I just need to get the timing down and don't know if anyone has tips. My LG is at like 27-30 minutes and id ideally like to match this on LR.

Thanks

If accuracy is not a problem at your current rate you should try speeding up, especially with the easier questions. I try to aim for an average of about 40 seconds per easy question, which gives me the luxury of spending as much as 5 minutes on a particularly tricky question. I think generally the first 2 - 2 1/2 pages are easier than the later ones, so you should be going through the first 10 or so questions relatively quickly. I use an analog watch to keep track of my time during sections, and usually find that if I am at Q.10 by the 10th minute I'm on good track to finish just on time or with 2-4 minutes left. Recently I've been hitting Q.15 around the 15 minute mark, which usually means I am finished the section with a good 5-10 minutes to go and have ample time to review.

Are you habitually getting stuck on particularly tough questions? I often find with more difficult questions that I'll have narrowed it down to two possible choices but can't pick a clear winner. In those cases I follow my gut instinct and bubble in one of the answers accordingly, then circle the question and move on. Then when I am finished the section and have time to review I come back to all my circled questions and reevaluate thoroughly. I have found that I am better able to think logically and deduce the correct answer using this method, as I no longer have the pressure of finishing the section on time on my mind.

[Colonel_funkadunk]

Anybody have any good tips on LR timing? About 1 in every 3 sections I miss the last question due to time. The other ones I have anywhere from 2 minutes to 10seconds left. My accuracy is fine w the questions I just need to get the timing down and don't know if anyone has tips. My LG is at like 27-30 minutes and id ideally like to match this on LR.

Thanks

If accuracy is not a problem at your current rate you should try speeding up, especially with the easier questions. I try to aim for an average of about 40 seconds per easy question, which gives me the luxury of spending as much as 5 minutes on a particularly tricky question. I think generally the first 2 - 2 1/2 pages are easier than the later ones, so you should be going through the first 10 or so questions relatively quickly. I use an analog watch to keep track of my time during sections, and usually find that if I am at Q.10 by the 10th minute I'm on good track to finish just on time or with 2-4 minutes left. Recently I've been hitting Q.15 around the 15 minute mark, which usually means I am finished the section with a good 5-10 minutes to go and have ample time to review.

Are you habitually getting stuck on particularly tough questions? I often find with more difficult questions that I'll have narrowed it down to two possible choices but can't pick a clear winner. In those cases I follow my gut instinct and bubble in one of the answers accordingly, then circle the question and move on. Then when I am finished the section and have time to review I come back to all my circled questions and reevaluate thoroughly. I have found that I am better able to think logically and deduce the correct answer using this method, as I no longer have the pressure of finishing the section on time on my mind.

Thanks for the advice. I think that's a good goal to shoot for 15 in 15. I think a lot of my problems are getting unfocused and rereading some of the stimulus when I should've only read through it once. The conditional questions that require diagramming take me longer than the rest. But there is maybe 1 per test so idk if there is a particular type that takes me longer than others.

[Oskosh]

You guys are telling me! I'm a teacher (Teach for America), and I begin my 2nd year next Monday. As it were, I'm doing something unrelated to my first year of teaching (actually teaching younger kids), so I predict it will be strenuous and taxing. Not looking forward to the next month or so.

[Comstock]

PT 53:

LR 1 (22/25) -3
LG (22/23) -1
LR 2 (25/25) -0
RC 21/27 -6

Score: 171

A lot of mixed emotions in this PT, but overall very happy (I can never complain for anything over 170). First LR I got flustered with timing, causing me to miss the last two questions with half guesses (Sped-read through the stimulus and didn't really read through all the answer choices, just picked the one that looked the best). It really all started to crumble when I checked by time after 10 questions and was already around 15-16 minutes in. I knew I had to push the speed up more for the second LR and I did just that. The 2nd LR went basically textbook; I got to 15 in 15, ended up finishing around 33~ minutes in. Very happy with that section, especially because it's my first time in a real PT going -0 on LR. Gives me hope that I can do that consistently and that -0 in LR is very double for me.

LG, went fine. Wasted a bit of time on a question that I simply read wrong which made me rush at the last game and miss a question. I'm going to get back into the grove of doing a 35-minute sections of LG at least 5 days a week in order to just keep my brain going with it. At this point I don't feel that I need to 'learn' as much for LG as much as I have to make sure my brain muscles are ready to go and move quickly. A lot of practice should help with that.

RC was the big "ouch" here. From the first passage on I felt quite flustered and that I was rushing against time. Quite a big contrasts from last PT when RC felt wonderful. I think I didn't listen to my own advice and let myself get flustered, as the first passage I only got one wrong but I felt like I got 3 to 4 wrong, which made me stressed and worried about getting perfect on the other sections, making me additionally stress and wasteful of time when I thought I wasn't doing too well on future passages. Ultimately, it ended up being the 2nd passage that did the most damage (-3) on that, which was right after I had the freak out about the 1st passage. I'll be reviewing it in detail, but thinking back I don't think it was as much difficult as it was me being distracted and worried. Mental fortitude is so important for RC, but I feel like its way easier to talk about it conceptually than to implement it in practice.

Still, very happy with a 171 anyday, and I know I can do better in RC which would boost my score up even more.

[HRomanus]

You guys are telling me! I'm a teacher (Teach for America), and I begin my 2nd year next Monday. As it were, I'm doing something unrelated to my first year of teaching (actually teaching younger kids), so I predict it will be strenuous and taxing. Not looking forward to the next month or so.

You can do it! Just remember that this test has a greater affect on your life than almost anything you can be doing in your minutes, hours, and days between now and Sept 27.

[valen]

Oh totally with you, I'm just coming off a gap year actually, where I worked full time in China. Starting junior year in September. Agree 100% on the personal growth aspect, and I feel as if I dodged a bullet in coming back refreshed and avoiding the senioritis that afflicted many of my friends last year haha. I complain now but also looking forward to getting back into being a college student, definitely September 27th, 12pm onward should be quite fun =P

TBH I'm hoping September 27th from 8:30 to 12 will be at least a little fun. You have to appreciate the little things, like the absurdity of the LG scenarios. Yes, yes, we're displaying toy dinosaurs in a window and they MUST be just so. Go on, LSAC, tell me more...

Hahaha, totally agree. It's all in the journey.

[ilikebaseball]

guys we got 3 people (probably 4 but im waiting for response) for 7sage so far... hopefully 2 more join by the end of the day. pm me

[Toby Ziegler]

Using my 300th post to say I need to step the study game up.

"Took" PT A from the Superprep and rage quit during the LG section.
I was -7 on the first LR
and -6 on RC

I haven't finished all of the LR sections from Cambridge and I still need to study grouping games and RC. Feeling discouraged AF. Work has had me working overtime and when I get home I spend time with my wife and kids then have no energy to study. Gave my work an ultimatum today and they're backing my schedule off starting Thursday. I'll put 2 hours in today and tomorrow then back to 5 hour study days from Thursday til game day.

ETA: The questions I missed on LR were types I haven't studied yet. So there is a small glimmer of hope in this experience.

[vracovino]

Using my 300th post to say I need to step the study game up.

"Took" PT A from the Superprep and rage quit during the LG section.
I was -7 on the first LR
and -6 on RC

I haven't finished all of the LR sections from Cambridge and I still need to study grouping games and RC. Feeling discouraged AF. Work has had me working overtime and when I get home I spend time with my wife and kids then have no energy to study. Gave my work an ultimatum today and they're backing my schedule off starting Thursday. I'll put 2 hours in today and tomorrow then back to 5 hour study days from Thursday til game day.

ETA: The questions I missed on LR were types I haven't studied yet. So there is a small glimmer of hope in this experience.

That's quite an encouraging glimmer of hope if you ask me!