September 2014 Retakers Forum

[5618715218781]

Checking in…disappointing 173

this is show off....ok....

[dasani13]

Does anyone have a list of the "weird" games ever since PT 1? I'd appreciate if someone shared it with me! I'd also be down to getting together on Skype or something and coming up with a list if there isn't one already made.

[Calbears123]

Posted in the other thread

Finally back in business. Took PT 42

LG, -2
LR, -1
RC, -6
LR, -3

Score = 169

Full Blind Review

LG, -0
LR, -0
RC, -6 (didnt BR study place closed on me)
LR, -2

Score = 174

I haven't watched a 7sage LG video yet until today. Omg he makes those games look so simple

Next test is PT 43 on friday. Next two days I plan on using the LSAT trainer and drill level 3 and 4's

[lawyergonnabe]

.

[BlackCanary]

Hi everyone. I'm retaking September as well. Took December, but I didn't really study too much.

[dasani13]

Hi everyone. I'm retaking September as well. Took December, but I didn't really study too much.

Welcome! what's your plan this time?

[BlackCanary]

Welcome! what's your plan this time?

Thanks. Actually studying, for one. I took a prep course starting in April, but I was distracted by the world cup as soon as that ended. I've been majorly slacking. Easing back into it with 4 hours / day, 4 x a week. Want to get that up to at least 28 hours a week.

[thequigley]

Totally bombed the June 2014 LSAT - 144. Def. retaking in September. Anyone on this thread located in L.A.? Would love to get a weekly study (slash prayer, lol) group going.

You're not "gonnabe" anything with those stats. GL, hope you didn't study for June with that number....

[appind]

Hey retakers,
I have a question that I posted earlier but it looks like it got buried in posts. I would like to know what your studying includes.

I'll just add a couple things:
I felt like the Trainer got me to believe in myself again after the first letdown (which everyone here has had if you're retaking), hunker down and just study like mad.

99% of my study time is taking prep test questions by type/sections or taking full prep tests and reviewing them. What else can be included in studying? Am I doing it right? I already know the material having done bibles and trainer so there is no actual studying that I do.

also, I am trying to improve RC and feel like I am not doing the first read through the passage fast enough. I take about 3-4 minutes. Recent RC trend shows that spending a lot of time upfront doesn't allow one to do this reread parts that are important for getting right those 2-3 tricky questions per passage. For high scorers in RC, what's your approach?

[rebexness]

Totally bombed the June 2014 LSAT - 144. Def. retaking in September. Anyone on this thread located in L.A.? Would love to get a weekly study (slash prayer, lol) group going.

You're not "gonnabe" anything with those stats. GL, hope you didn't study for June with that number....

Unnecessary, dick.

[MegamanX2]

Hey retakers,
I have a question that I posted earlier but it looks like it got buried in posts. I would like to know what your studying includes.

I'll just add a couple things:
I felt like the Trainer got me to believe in myself again after the first letdown (which everyone here has had if you're retaking), hunker down and just study like mad.

99% of my study time is taking prep test questions by type/sections or taking full prep tests and reviewing them. What else can be included in studying? Am I doing it right? I already know the material having done bibles and trainer so there is no actual studying that I do.

also, I am trying to improve RC and feel like I am not doing the first read through the passage fast enough. I take about 3-4 minutes. Recent RC trend shows that spending a lot of time upfront doesn't allow one to do this reread parts that are important for getting right those 2-3 tricky questions per passage. For high scorers in RC, what's your approach?

Hey everyone haven't checked this in a while but just came back and saw people had a couple questions:

1) PTing: In my experience the usefulness of PTing comes from putting into practice the skills you've gained through going through other prep materials, so starting out doing a bunch of PTs, especially if you're not reviewing very thoroughly, is not a good use of time. I know people on here just PT like mad and there's nothing wrong with that, but for example if you're using the trainer I would recommend going through the entire thing (including all the drills, problems - of which there are a ton - and reviewing a lot), and then PT after that. The Trainer recommends something like 5-6 PTs at the end, I think if you're aiming for a very high score it would be good to add another week or two and make it 10+ PTs. I scored a 171 but missed 4/6 of the last section of LR, usually my best section, so I think I likely could have gotten up to 173-174 if I had taken more PTs at the end to acclimate myself more so I wouldn't get fatigued. But I do not think just jamming 40 PTs without thorough review or learning the material first is very useful or effective. Basically you just schedule as many weeks as you can afford to at the end of the study schedule and do 2-3 PTs a week, with very solid review on the off days. The review is where you really identify what you're doing wrong and figure out how to fix it, so it should take as long or longer than the PT or you're doing something wrong.

2) Side note - I learned that you get faster not by trying to speed up but by knowing more - the more you understand the sections that faster you will can move through them. That is why the slow, grindy review that Mike recommends is so important. I don't think I need to go over exactly how he suggests you review - that's all on his site for free.

3) RC - It's my worst section so I will defer to others, but reading for structure and spending less time notating did help me on the section. I do think I would have benefitted by supplementing, but so far I haven't found anything that really gets me over the hump with RC either, so I'll leave that to others to answer.

Hope that helps! Good luck everyone!

[MegamanX2]

Note: The above I think works well for people who are trying to go from the 160s to 170s, etc. If you really need to be 175+, then I think you probably do need to do some extreme things like doing 40 PTs, double-PT days, etc., but I would think that would only be really effective if you do it on top of everything else, not instead of it. Or you could just be a genius who walks in and gets 178, but then you probably wouldn't be in this thread

[MegamanX2]

Last thing: I think I mentioned this before but the LR explanations on the Manhattan website and the LG video explanations on the 7sage site are both awesome and free. I used those resources during review for every single question I missed or couldn't fully explain why I got right, and made sure that after reviewing I knew it well enough that I could explain to a stranger the reason one answer is correct and the other four are incorrect. Do this enough and you'll start noticing when similar questions come up and you'll be able to instinctively avoid traps and hone in on the correct answer (and you'll be able to do it faster).

[Learn_Live_Hope]

Does anyone have a list of the "weird" games ever since PT 1? I'd appreciate if someone shared it with me! I'd also be down to getting together on Skype or something and coming up with a list if there isn't one already made.

Were you able to find them or do you still need them?

[Yeezus]

Damn this thread is dead... How has everyone's studying been going? Started studying again today for the first time since June 9 with some LG drilling. Those skills surprisingly came back pretty quickly. Hopefully I won't be rusty on LR and RC, not that I was ever that good at RC to begin with .

[kinseyjo]

Damn this thread is dead... How has everyone's studying been going? Started studying again today for the first time since June 9 with some LG drilling. Those skills surprisingly came back pretty quickly. Hopefully I won't be rusty on LR and RC, not that I was ever that good at RC to begin with .

Yes, agreed. We need to liven up this thread a bit. I've been drilling RC all week using 7sage/manhattan methods and timing myself for each passage and it's going... surprisingly well. I keep hitting myself for not even trying to find a good method/drilling for the test in June. Didn't study near enough. I missed 12 on RC. This week I've been missing 6 or less. Want to get down to consistently -4 or less.

[Learn_Live_Hope]

Damn this thread is dead... How has everyone's studying been going? Started studying again today for the first time since June 9 with some LG drilling. Those skills surprisingly came back pretty quickly. Hopefully I won't be rusty on LR and RC, not that I was ever that good at RC to begin with .

Yes, agreed. We need to liven up this thread a bit. I've been drilling RC all week using 7sage/manhattan methods and timing myself for each passage and it's going... surprisingly well. I keep hitting myself for not even trying to find a good method/drilling for the test in June. Didn't study near enough. I missed 12 on RC. This week I've been missing 6 or less. Want to get down to consistently -4 or less.

I like his method as well. Very simple.

I just got done drilling SS RC packet from cambridge...might be working on some weaken questions now.

[batesc14]

Does anyone have a list of the "weird" games ever since PT 1? I'd appreciate if someone shared it with me! I'd also be down to getting together on Skype or something and coming up with a list if there isn't one already made.

Were you able to find them or do you still need them?

Would love some help with this too. Took practice tests 40-71 and can't remember any games like game 4.

[Yeezus]

Does anyone have a list of the "weird" games ever since PT 1? I'd appreciate if someone shared it with me! I'd also be down to getting together on Skype or something and coming up with a list if there isn't one already made.

Were you able to find them or do you still need them?

Would love some help with this too. Took practice tests 40-71 and can't remember any games like game 4.

That's because all the unusual games are from the really early preptests, like 1-2x. Also, have any of you held off on reviewing the June exam like I have? I'm considering retaking it in a couple weeks or so after some drilling to see if it was just nerves that did me in on test day. I figured it's almost fresh since I don't know which questions I got wrong.

[kinseyjo]

That's because all the unusual games are from the really early preptests, like 1-2x. Also, have any of you held off on reviewing the June exam like I have? I'm considering retaking it in a couple weeks or so after some drilling to see if it was just nerves that did me in on test day. I figured it's almost fresh since I don't know which questions I got wrong.

My plan is to keep drilling and doing weekly preptests and save the June test for later, like maybe two months from now or shortly before September when it's far from my mind and I can really test my improvement from it.

[Learn_Live_Hope]

That's because all the unusual games are from the really early preptests, like 1-2x. Also, have any of you held off on reviewing the June exam like I have? I'm considering retaking it in a couple weeks or so after some drilling to see if it was just nerves that did me in on test day. I figured it's almost fresh since I don't know which questions I got wrong.

My plan is to keep drilling and doing weekly preptests and save the June test for later, like maybe two months from now or shortly before September when it's far from my mind and I can really test my improvement from it.

I will be doing the same thing. I haven't even touched it yet. I will take it as my last test before the official PT.

[Learn_Live_Hope]

But, what about having taken almost every single PT out there?

I posted this earlier, but here it is again if you didn't see it: http://www.top-law-schools.com/forums/v ... 6&t=150072

Though it's true that you may not be able to get a truly accurate picture of what you're scoring, I think retaking old tests is still very valuable. After all, taking PTs is not about predicting how well you will do. It's about practice. Unless you have an absurd memory, you won't remember a lot of the questions, especially if you took the PT three months ago. And, what you're trying to do is not remember what answer was right, but attacking each answer choice and identifying the reasons why four of them are wrong and one is right.

Have you tried retaking a PT you took a long while back? Did you get a 180? My guess is probably not, which means there's still something to learn about where your reasoning was flawed.

Granted, old tests will be less useful for games, as you won't be caught off guard by tricky games for which you already know how to do the setup. I'm predicting another Forgotten Few game for Sept., so I'm all ears for anyone who has ideas for how to be able to tackle those weird games.

Dipper,

You got lost again where are you?

[scandk]

Finally started my prep again. I made a schedule for the June retake, but didn't stick to it. Here's my tentative september plan.

July – Getting back into the LSAT groove
1. Re-read LSAT Trainer
2. Re-read Blueprint Logic Games
3. Light Drilling (Daily workload entails 2-3 RC passages, 20-25 LR Q’s, 3-4 LG games)
4. 1 re-diagnostic PT

August – Picking up the pace
1. Begin with two PTs (one will be PT72)
2. Analyze 3 recent PTs for trends
3. Hardcore drilling, working my way from weaknesses then to “strengths;” daily workload will entail…
a. 8 to 10 logic games
b. 50 to 100 LR questions
c. 6-8 RC passages
d. Thorough review and write-ups of wrong answers
• Look for trends within wrong-answer write ups
4. Drill sections to work on timing and rhythm
5. 2 PTs in Aug week 3
6. 2 PTs in Aug week 4

September – Final preparations
1. 2 PTs in Sept week 1
• Review, drill weaknesses throughout the week
2. 2 PTs in Sept week 2
• Review, drill weaknesses throughout the week
3. 2 PTs in Sept week 3
• Review, drill weaknesses throughout the week
4. Light drilling and some section work during week 4

[scandk]

That's because all the unusual games are from the really early preptests, like 1-2x. Also, have any of you held off on reviewing the June exam like I have? I'm considering retaking it in a couple weeks or so after some drilling to see if it was just nerves that did me in on test day. I figured it's almost fresh since I don't know which questions I got wrong.

My plan is to keep drilling and doing weekly preptests and save the June test for later, like maybe two months from now or shortly before September when it's far from my mind and I can really test my improvement from it.

I will be doing the same thing. I haven't even touched it yet. I will take it as my last test before the official PT.

That's a great idea. I was thinking of using it before to kind of see where I went wrong, but I think it would also be encouraging if I wrecked PT72 before taking september. I still can't believe I effed up LR so much. -1 LG, -4 RC, got GGpwned by -8/9 LR (forgot what it was, and it hurts too much to check). I was averaging -1 to -3, and -4 on a bad day. On the one hand, I want to figure out what went wrong, on the other hand I'd love to use it as a final hurdle/confidence booster. Hmm.

[kinseyjo]

Finally started my prep again. I made a schedule for the June retake, but didn't stick to it. Here's my tentative september plan.

July – Getting back into the LSAT groove
1. Re-read LSAT Trainer
2. Re-read Blueprint Logic Games
3. Light Drilling (Daily workload entails 2-3 RC passages, 20-25 LR Q’s, 3-4 LG games)
4. 1 re-diagnostic PT

August – Picking up the pace
1. Begin with two PTs (one will be PT72)
2. Analyze 3 recent PTs for trends
3. Hardcore drilling, working my way from weaknesses then to “strengths;” daily workload will entail…
a. 8 to 10 logic games
b. 50 to 100 LR questions
c. 6-8 RC passages
d. Thorough review and write-ups of wrong answers
• Look for trends within wrong-answer write ups
4. Drill sections to work on timing and rhythm
5. 2 PTs in Aug week 3
6. 2 PTs in Aug week 4

September – Final preparations
1. 2 PTs in Sept week 1
• Review, drill weaknesses throughout the week
2. 2 PTs in Sept week 2
• Review, drill weaknesses throughout the week
3. 2 PTs in Sept week 3
• Review, drill weaknesses throughout the week
4. Light drilling and some section work during week 4

This is intense. How many hours per week are you putting in? How much did you put in for June? I start back up school in August and I'm already worried about balancing LSAT/friends/classes/applications all in those 6 weeks leading up to the test. But I want to get 170+, despite how bad my score was in June.