February 2012 LSAT Study Group Forum

[lhess218]

Thursdays are generally bad days for me: 14 hour work day and all... If it's the only day that works for people, go ahead without me and I'll see if I can catch up.

[ngogirl]

I can do Thursdays or other days if that works better for other people!!

[ngogirl]

Does anyone have a PDF of the Point of Issue questions? My file cuts it off after 1/4 of the questions.. I think its my ghetto labtop, but if anyone could help me out, I would be incredibly grateful!

[cany]

Thursdays are generally bad days for me: 14 hour work day and all... If it's the only day that works for people, go ahead without me and I'll see if I can catch up.

We can meet on Thursday evening and carry on the review till Friday........

[legit101]

Hi all,
first posting (and surely not last)- I just took the Dec test and I'm pretty sure I'll be canceling it and I'm going to retake the February test. On the practice tests I was scoring in mid 160s closest to the test and scored a 168 as my highest just a few days before the test. When I walked out of the test, I had a lot of uncertainties and though I'm never good at assessing how I do on standardized tests, I feel that it's better to cancel it and not have a possible bad score on my record and then go in stronger for the Feb test. I'm hoping to score in the 170s and am very excited to see so many other dedicated individuals who will support each other with questions/advice/etc.
Happy studying!

[ngogirl]

Hi all,
first posting (and surely not last)- I just took the Dec test and I'm pretty sure I'll be canceling it and I'm going to retake the February test. On the practice tests I was scoring in mid 160s closest to the test and scored a 168 as my highest just a few days before the test. When I walked out of the test, I had a lot of uncertainties and though I'm never good at assessing how I do on standardized tests, I feel that it's better to cancel it and not have a possible bad score on my record and then go in stronger for the Feb test. I'm hoping to score in the 170s and am very excited to see so many other dedicated individuals who will support each other with questions/advice/etc.
Happy studying!

Hi!! I just want to let you know that you only have 6 days to cancel, so I think that would be Thursday!

I canceled my score Sunday night and got an email from LSAC Monday confirming the cancel. My pitfall was that I wrote a rule incorrectly on game 1 and failed to notice until I was halfway through the game, so unfortunately I wasn't able to transfer my answers for game 4 onto my answer sheet. I also thought the second passage from RC was hard... Grr!! My goal is to be able to do each game under 5 minutes, so I will not have this problem in February! I was doing that in my prep, but towards the end of my prep I got lazy and began settling for a game in 7-9 minutes.

There is no room for laziness this time around!!!

[062914123]

.

[princeR]

How are you guys going to work on RC? I ordered the set of PT 21-40 sorted by difficulty and type from Cambridge and am going to be trying to implement a Voyager's strategy to work on a systematic approach to it. With that being said, what are you guys planning on doing. I just took the December one, and let me tell you, I am NOT going to let RC be my downfall again. That last passage was such a terrible feeling after feeling very confident on the LR and knowing I missed 0 on LG. Please guys, put the necessary work into RC!

[ngogirl]

Well greeeat news!! I emailed Manhattan LSAT Noah and told him we're interested in using the elluminate room, so he's going to put something together for us which includes LR, RC, and LG!!!

[iMisto]

I'm right there with PrinceR.

I have been studying since July, and had finally made 170-174 a regular occurrence. Finally began scoring perfectly on LR/LG. RC became a weak point that I just couldn't overcome in time. Sadly, RC was the toughest section on this Dec. test, IMO. Would much rather have taken a tough LR/LG section. At least I would have had the proper mental tools to work through them.

As I was hoping for a 170+, I'm definitely considering a go for February. Thinking about Voyager's RC strat. as well. Looking for advice and suggestions.

[princeR]

I'm right there with PrinceR.

I have been studying since July, and had finally made 170-174 a regular occurrence. Finally began scoring perfectly on LR/LG. RC became a weak point that I just couldn't overcome in time. Sadly, RC was the toughest section on this Dec. test, IMO. Would much rather have taken a tough LR/LG section. At least I would have had the proper mental tools to work through them.

As I was hoping for a 170+, I'm definitely considering a go for February. Thinking about Voyager's RC strat. as well. Looking for advice and suggestions.

I already registered for February, might as well give it another go, this time actually working on RC instead of praying that I can stay focused. I just bought the Cambridge RC PT 21-40, it sorts it by difficulty and passage type. I would definitely recommend it as it gives you ample opportunity to work on a strategy.

[062914123]

.

[princeR]

We should get a little discussion going about ways to improve on RC lol. I have done 10 RC passages today, all humanities from the cambridge selection of pt's 21-40. I am just going through untimed, trying to use Voyager's techniques and just seeing ways to better notate through a passage. What do you guys do when doing RC?

[iMisto]

I generally spend at least 3 minutes on each passage. I read the first paragraph slowly, to get my bearings on the topic, then take note of author's opinion(AO), definitions(Def), main ideas(MI), cause and effect statements(c/e), and structure of the passage.

[willwash]

Refried PT 61 tonight. First took it on 11/6 (I think) and got 163. Tonight I got 172 (-3 LG, -2 RC, -1 and -3 LR). Arguments are KILLING me lately. The last next to last argument in section 4, I got to with a solid 5 minutes left. I was so burned out I just sat there staring at it for 5 minutes, ran out of time and guessed C for the last 2 (missed both). Fatigue definitely played a role toinght. Had trouble concentrating.

Still, 172 is pretty good. I just hope that ALL of that increase isn't due to prior familiarity. We'll see on Sunday when I take an all new- never before seen PT.

Might take tomorrow off or just drill arguments.

EDIT: Trend is now:

PT 61 on 11/6=163 (161 was a typo in my previous posts )
PT 64 on 11/9=168
PT 62 on 11/27=169
PT 63 on 12/3=168
PT 61 retake on 12/7=172

[Gail]

Eh... I won $20 with a scratch off and got my paycheck last week (of about the same amount). I just signed up. What the fuck, right?

I'm going to end up retaking for the last time in June anyways. Gnome sane?

[Gail]

Refried PT 61 tonight. First took it on 11/6 (I think) and got 163. Tonight I got 172 (-3 LG, -2 RC, -1 and -3 LR). Arguments are KILLING me lately. The last next to last argument in section 4, I got to with a solid 5 minutes left. I was so burned out I just sat there staring at it for 5 minutes, ran out of time and guessed C for the last 2 (missed both). Fatigue definitely played a role toinght. Had trouble concentrating.

Still, 172 is pretty good. I just hope that ALL of that increase isn't due to prior familiarity. We'll see on Sunday when I take an all new- never before seen PT.

Might take tomorrow off or just drill arguments.

It's mostly due to familiarity.

[willwash]

Refried PT 61 tonight. First took it on 11/6 (I think) and got 163. Tonight I got 172 (-3 LG, -2 RC, -1 and -3 LR). Arguments are KILLING me lately. The last next to last argument in section 4, I got to with a solid 5 minutes left. I was so burned out I just sat there staring at it for 5 minutes, ran out of time and guessed C for the last 2 (missed both). Fatigue definitely played a role toinght. Had trouble concentrating.

Still, 172 is pretty good. I just hope that ALL of that increase isn't due to prior familiarity. We'll see on Sunday when I take an all new- never before seen PT.

Might take tomorrow off or just drill arguments.

It's mostly due to familiarity.

I know some of it is due to actual improvement in skills due to my trend in later PTs. I got up at 5:45 am yesterday for work, and started the test at about 6:30 pm, so I was fairly fatigued when I began. By the end my brain was completely fried. I couldn't even review and understand why I had missed what I missed. I'll have to review today after a good night's sleep. I'm wondering whether I'd have gotten 175+ had I been fresh.

[cany]

Well greeeat news!! I emailed Manhattan LSAT Noah and told him we're interested in using the elluminate room, so he's going to put something together for us which includes LR, RC, and LG!!!

Awesome..can't wait for Noah's plan of action!!!!

[cany]

As a side note, have any of you guys looked into the best testing centers near you? E.g. ones with big desks and adequate lighting, not too many test takers, no construction nearby, etc. I know BP recommends some for the L.A. area (like Southwestern) and says not to take it at other places (like UCLA/USC).

I figure it can't hurt to be this neurotic since I'll be sitting in the test room for a not inconsequential amount of hours

http://www.simugator.com/lsat-test-site-rater.php

[cany]

We should get a little discussion going about ways to improve on RC lol. I have done 10 RC passages today, all humanities from the cambridge selection of pt's 21-40. I am just going through untimed, trying to use Voyager's techniques and just seeing ways to better notate through a passage. What do you guys do when doing RC?

Howz the reviewing going? Is it helpful to do same type of passages together?
I am thinking to get the Cambridge RC bundle after I am half way through LR..

[ngogirl]

I also have the Cambridge RC book, volume 2. I intend on starting it either today or tomorrow!!

@prince whenever I practice RC I always do 4 passages at a time timed. I might do 1 set review and repeat.

[willwash]

Not to oversimplify, but the best way to prep for RC is to read. Pick dense material like academic journals or older popular works (stuff written in the 30s, 40s and 50s).

I used to get -5 to -7 on RC. WHen I was on deployment earlier this year (lots of down time on the boat), I read most of Dumas Malone's Thomas Jefferson 6-volume bio as well as some Carl Sagan books. Now I very rarely do worse than -2 on RC. I attribute it not to any kind of LSAT RC-specific drills or prep, but to, quite simply, being a better reader now after negotiating all that dense material.

[princeR]

I'm trying to do Voyager's strategy but it just takes up so much time. Also, I'm looking back at my passages and seeing that I underline and bracket a lot of things that I don't even really need. I wish someone who was very good at RC could upload a pdf of some of their passages to see what they look like.

When I think about it, I still feel like I'm reading for content, trying to bracket and underline things that I think are important. I need to constantly remind myself to follow the structure and the flow of the viewpoints/arguments.

[princeR]

We should get a little discussion going about ways to improve on RC lol. I have done 10 RC passages today, all humanities from the cambridge selection of pt's 21-40. I am just going through untimed, trying to use Voyager's techniques and just seeing ways to better notate through a passage. What do you guys do when doing RC?

Howz the reviewing going? Is it helpful to do same type of passages together?
I am thinking to get the Cambridge RC bundle after I am half way through LR..

Honestly, there really isn't a need to separate it by type, I think you approach them all pretty much the same way. It is nice that they are arranged by difficulty because I can try to get a system working on the easier ones and than gradually as I improve use it on the harder passages. But like I just posted above, Voyager's strategy is tough, it takes up a lot of time and I already use too much time. I need some help really bad with RC

As a former LD debater, I struggle with this RC stuff, I am VERY used to finding small details in arguments and picking them apart, trying to follow the flow of the argument and the big picture is a struggle sometimes.