June 2011 Study Group Forum

[Lemon Lyman]

After a worthless Christmas Break, I'm starting tomorrow morning... Going the PS / self-studying route. For those who have started recently, how many hours of studying per week have y'all been aiming for?

[LSATBuddha]

After a worthless Christmas Break, I'm starting tomorrow morning... Going the PS / self-studying route. For those who have started recently, how many hours of studying per week have y'all been aiming for?

I've been aiming for at least 15 hours per week....if i have more time i always do more...depending on your situation(seems like you are still in school) you should probably be aiming for 15 hours per week according to Steve Schwartz's lsat blog:

http://lsatblog.blogspot.com/2010/08/ls ... llege.html

hope this helps!

[geverett]

I am doing a practice test this morning. I just sucked at the logic games section before the break. Oh well, will see what happens. I am aiming for 15-20 hours per week.

[freestallion]

I'm also aiming for about 15 hours a week, and hopefully more leading up to the days of the test. I have to take a 1 week break in March as I will be out of the country, but hopefully this won't adversely affect me.

Anyway, my problem at this point is mainly that I can't get from around the 170-173 score on practice tests to consistently scoring above 176. I don't know how to get past this "hump" so to speak. I am going to try to pinpoint the types of questions that are tripping me up on LR, but I don't see too much consistency except that I have difficulty on flaw in reasoning question types. I'm not sure how to pinpoint my weaknesses in games as usually I just run out time and lose a couple of points as a result. As for RC, again I'm not sure how to pinpoint my weaknesses.. I analyze my wrong answers but I don't really see any clearly identifiable patterns. Anyone have any tips on finding your weaknesses?

[geverett]

162 =(

I need to improve on RC badly. I missed 12 on that section alone.

[neeko]

162 =(

I need to improve on RC badly. I missed 12 on that section alone.

I'm going to take a timed test this weekend, I'm sure I will be in this boat with you. If anyone has tips on ways to improve RC they would be greatly appreciate, thats for sure.

[O.T.P.]

Hello everyone. I will be taking June test as well. Want to be a part of your study group.

Good luck.

[joebloe]

I'm working through the Kaplan RC mastery book, specifically for the "humanities" passages, which are by far my most unpredictable. Kind of going deliberately slow at this point. Gonna try to speed things up, maybe do a timed passage here and there. My PS bibles finally shipped too... can't wait.

[geverett]

Just re-did the same RC section and got -8 this time. Snap!

[geverett]

I'm starting to see great improvement in LR. The logic games section I went through this morning resulted in -3. It was a sloppy performance, however. I should have been able to get -0, but just sucked. However, there is no excuse for my poor RC score. It's just plain abysmal. I think I'm gonna hold off until my Atlas RC book comes in to work on that section anymore. I don't seem to be experiencing too much improvement in it through the PS methodology.

[Manash]

162 =(

I need to improve on RC badly. I missed 12 on that section alone.

Which test? What was your test breakdown? Sample below.

Poster: thickfreakness
Sat Nov 28, 2009 7:06 pm

PT 57 (June 09)

LG: 18/23 (-5)
LR1: 24/26 (-2)
LR2: 23/25 (-2)
RC: 26/27 (-1)

Raw: 91/101 (-1)
Scaled: 171

Dino game didn't trick me up, really. I made 1 careless error on it and then 1 error on the game before. Last game I was running on short time (about 8 minutes left) and there was NO space to diagram anywhere, which really screwed me up. Got to all but two in the time allotted, went 1/2 on the guesses, but whiffed on 2 that I actually answered. Not too encouraging. LR seemed really difficult, and I was glad I pulled out a -4 combined. RC seemed tougher, as well, but I nailed that, missing only the last question on fractal geometry passage (after changing from D to E). Prep was slow last week because of Thanksgiving and the like, but here's how I anticipate the rest of my schedule shaping up:

[thouse]

162 =(

I need to improve on RC badly. I missed 12 on that section alone.

Are you taking these sections timed? I would seriously stop timing and work on accuracy first. You need to find your sweetspot on how to tackle the passages.

[thouse]

What are you guys strategy on RC? Meaning do you skip around, doing the shortest passage or the ones you like best first? Or do you do them in order?

[joebloe]

162 =(

I need to improve on RC badly. I missed 12 on that section alone.

Are you taking these sections timed? I would seriously stop timing and work on accuracy first. You need to find your sweetspot on how to tackle the passages.

Absolutely agreed. Work through some passages at a deliberate pace, practice taking margin notes, and figure out the main idea/purpose of the passage and structure of individual paragraphs. For parallel passages, take your time and figure out the relationship between them. If you have explanations, read them and figure out how you would have independently gotten that explanation.

Here's my question for those of you who take margin notes- what's your process? Do you read a whole paragraph and go back to annotate? Or do you read a few sentences and then annotate? I always feel like I'm going at a snail's pace when I'm annotating the passage, and normally I read quite quickly. I guess it's time to break out the stopwatch and do time studies.

[joebloe]

What are you guys strategy on RC? Meaning do you skip around, doing the shortest passage or the ones you like best first? Or do you do them in order?

I like to go for my best subjects first- for me that usually gives an ordering of law, natural science, social science, humanities. You should be flexible though, since the specific topic may be good for you even if the subject usually isn't. For instance, if the humanities passage was on science fiction literature, and the natural science was on the life cycle of the cicada, I might switch their order.

There are other factors too. A low number of paragraphs can be a red flag for a hard passage.

[stlisforlovers]

I wonder what percent of LSAT test takers start studying this early...
Hopefully not a lot, so we can school them all.

[geverett]

Here is the breakdown of my performance

T 54 (June 2008)
RC: 16/27 (-11)
LR1: 22/26 (-4)
LR2: 23/25 (-2)
LG: 20/23 (-3)

Raw: 81/101
Scaled: 162

[thouse]

Here is the breakdown of my performance

T 54 (June 2008)
RC: 16/27 (-11)
LR1: 22/26 (-4)
LR2: 23/25 (-2)
LG: 20/23 (-3)

Raw: 81/101
Scaled: 162

Goodness this is really good, you hone in on the RC section and you are set.

[thouse]

162 =(

I need to improve on RC badly. I missed 12 on that section alone.

Are you taking these sections timed? I would seriously stop timing and work on accuracy first. You need to find your sweetspot on how to tackle the passages.

Absolutely agreed. Work through some passages at a deliberate pace, practice taking margin notes, and figure out the main idea/purpose of the passage and structure of individual paragraphs. For parallel passages, take your time and figure out the relationship between them. If you have explanations, read them and figure out how you would have independently gotten that explanation.

Here's my question for those of you who take margin notes- what's your process? Do you read a whole paragraph and go back to annotate? Or do you read a few sentences and then annotate? I always feel like I'm going at a snail's pace when I'm annotating the passage, and normally I read quite quickly. I guess it's time to break out the stopwatch and do time studies.

Sorry I really don't have any advice on this as I don't do margin notes, I use brackets mostly for information I deem important.

[freestallion]

What are you guys strategy on RC? Meaning do you skip around, doing the shortest passage or the ones you like best first? Or do you do them in order?

I usually do them in order because my goal is to finish all 4 of them anyway. However I try to do all the specific reference questions first, because I find them easier.

[oyyyyyy]

Anyone have any additional resources they recommend for preparing for LG? I went through the LG Bible and I've been going through games in the second Grouped by Game Type book, but I just feel like I need more guided work on technique before I stick to just attempting game after game after game. The LG Bible actually made me worse at games. I was doing better on them before.

[Warren Harding]

Starting my studying tomorrow.

I plan to begin by going through the LG Bible.

What is a reasonable amount of studying per day to start out?

I really hope to find some added motivation here. Like everyone - hoping for 170+

Good luck to everyone, and i'll be reading from here on out.

[dextermorgan]

Starting my studying tomorrow.

I plan to begin by going through the LG Bible.

What is a reasonable amount of studying per day to start out?

I really hope to find some added motivation here. Like everyone - hoping for 170+

Good luck to everyone, and i'll be reading from here on out.

I am aiming for 20 hours per week, and I have a full time job. 3 hours each weekday and five on saturday or sunday.

[thouse]

Anyone have any additional resources they recommend for preparing for LG? I went through the LG Bible and I've been going through games in the second Grouped by Game Type book, but I just feel like I need more guided work on technique before I stick to just attempting game after game after game. The LG Bible actually made me worse at games. I was doing better on them before.

.


I actually find the LG bible complicated even though everyone swears by them. I actually prefer the Atlas books, but I bet a blend of both could be beneficial.

[dextermorgan]

Anyone have any additional resources they recommend for preparing for LG? I went through the LG Bible and I've been going through games in the second Grouped by Game Type book, but I just feel like I need more guided work on technique before I stick to just attempting game after game after game. The LG Bible actually made me worse at games. I was doing better on them before.

Did you have a method before? If so, you might be better going back to it. PS's methods don't work for everyone. I don't think any prep company has methods that work 100% of the time for 100% of test takers.