The Official June 2016 Study Group Forum

[ayylmao]

Guys I was doing an LG section the other day and, uh...I liked it. I got enjoyment out of doing a games section. It felt satisfying. I don't know if I like the person I've become.

[Mikey]

Guys I was doing an LG section the other day and, uh...I liked it. I got enjoyment out of doing a games section. It felt satisfying. I don't know if I like the person I've become.

I like doing them as well honestly, they're like puzzles haha. I just hate the time pressure.

[pretzeltime]

Hi everybody! I am checking in.

Took the Dec LSAT and tanked. I had done all of the Powerscore stuff, studied loads, but could never PT 170+.

Took time off until around February, and finally got the LSAT Trainer. Something clicked. now I'm PTing mostly in the mid-170s on a beautiful rollercoaster (nahhht). Go from 178 to 168 to 172 and back again. Frustrating but at least I'm doing better than last year.

No particular weak spot as far as sections go. One test I'll do a bit worse on RC, the next LR, the next LG. Sigh. It's hard to know how to fix that at this level.

Looking forward to some solidarity here. Good luck everybody!!

[longpig]

Hi everybody! I am checking in.

Took the Dec LSAT and tanked. I had done all of the Powerscore stuff, studied loads, but could never PT 170+.

Took time off until around February, and finally got the LSAT Trainer. Something clicked. now I'm PTing mostly in the mid-170s on a beautiful rollercoaster (nahhht). Go from 178 to 168 to 172 and back again. Frustrating but at least I'm doing better than last year.

No particular weak spot as far as sections go. One test I'll do a bit worse on RC, the next LR, the next LG. Sigh. It's hard to know how to fix that at this level.

Looking forward to some solidarity here. Good luck everybody!!

Hey there!

What did you think of the Trainer? Obviously it seems to have helped you... I'm wondering because I bought it a while ago but have barely looked at it. Might be too late to be looking into new strategies at this point but I'm curious what it brought to the table for you.

I'm in a similar PT range to you (with a little less variation).

[pretzeltime]

Hi everybody! I am checking in.

Took the Dec LSAT and tanked. I had done all of the Powerscore stuff, studied loads, but could never PT 170+.

Took time off until around February, and finally got the LSAT Trainer. Something clicked. now I'm PTing mostly in the mid-170s on a beautiful rollercoaster (nahhht). Go from 178 to 168 to 172 and back again. Frustrating but at least I'm doing better than last year.

No particular weak spot as far as sections go. One test I'll do a bit worse on RC, the next LR, the next LG. Sigh. It's hard to know how to fix that at this level.

Looking forward to some solidarity here. Good luck everybody!!

Hey there!

What did you think of the Trainer? Obviously it seems to have helped you... I'm wondering because I bought it a while ago but have barely looked at it. Might be too late to be looking into new strategies at this point but I'm curious what it brought to the table for you.

I'm in a similar PT range to you (with a little less variation).

So it's a bit hard to completely distinguish between what was the Trainer and what was the benefit of taking time off from studying and letting the concepts I'd crammed so hard pre-Dec sink in.

That being said, I guess the Trainer primarily helped me with LR and that is what has upped my game generally. I went from -4 to -5 per LR section to more like -1 to -2 per section. Since there are two sections, that's naturally very helpful.

I think I'm a pretty smart person (most people who are reasonably shooting for 170+ are 'pretty smart') but for some reason all of my diligent work with PowerScore was not paying off when I was intensely studying for December. As I mentioned, I bombed, took time off until Feb, then got the Trainer. The Trainer helped me in two ways. First off, it advocates reading the question stem first whereas PS is very committed to the opposite. Reading the question first has absolutely helped to focus me and save time. Huge. Second, more broadly, the Trainer is less obsessed with categorizing and trademarking things and instead tries to highlight the commonalities and simplicity of all of the tasks/questions in LR. So instead of trademarking all of XYZ steps if you see X type of question, the Trainer appeals to, I don't know, my intelligence rather than trying to program me as a robot. It helped me step back and look at the bigger picture of LR and for some reason that really helped me.

I think it's definitely worth the time to read through the Trainer's sections on LR. And also RC, although I am still working on RC (can't seem to improve past the -2 to -4 area). I think it restores a bit of common sense and sanity and also has some good tips.

I don't know, do any others in this group use the Trainer? Any similar feelings about it? I'm having a hard time articulating it but literally I went through all of PS and Manhattan and the Trainer was the last book I got and it helped click the last bits into place for me. (That being said, I went into the Trainer having done months of merciless PS training and drilling and that did help me to a certain degree as far as the basics of logic, etc etc)

What books/methods have you primarily been using longpig?

[nerdylsat]

I read both the Trainer and the Bibles as well.

Trainer is indeed more simpler and a "bigger picture" sort of book that helps you look at the arguments in the LSAT in general. Powerscore is much more mechanical and also goes alot more in depth into each question type and formal logic. I happen to like both, however, if you're going to read just one of these, the Trainer will probably be best.


On another note, after having gotten a 171 and a 169 recently, dipped back down to a 165 on PT74. The second LR and RC rocked me and I'm back to feeling really discouraged.

So hard to keep motivated and optimistic when things go bad.

[R. Jeeves]

The 7sage guy talks so fast lol. Sometimes i watch the review parts of khan academy videos on 2x speed and it feels like a 7sage vid.

Not to knock on him though. 7sage is an awesome resource and the guy deserves mad props for making the LG explanations free.

[StopLawying]

Beautiful day outside, and I'm sitting here typing up explanations for LR questions I got wrong.

[Sean_33]

The 7sage guy talks so fast lol. Sometimes i watch the review parts of khan academy videos on 2x speed and it feels like a 7sage vid.

Not to knock on him though. 7sage is an awesome resource and the guy deserves mad props for making the LG explanations free.

If you watch the 7sage videos on the "7sage player" instead of youtube, you can slow the video down to .8% speed.

[pretzeltime]

I read both the Trainer and the Bibles as well.

Trainer is indeed more simpler and a "bigger picture" sort of book that helps you look at the arguments in the LSAT in general. Powerscore is much more mechanical and also goes alot more in depth into each question type and formal logic. I happen to like both, however, if you're going to read just one of these, the Trainer will probably be best.


On another note, after having gotten a 171 and a 169 recently, dipped back down to a 165 on PT74. The second LR and RC rocked me and I'm back to feeling really discouraged.

So hard to keep motivated and optimistic when things go bad.

I feel ya. Wish I had something particularly helpful to say but I am in the same boat. When that happens to me I want to take another PT immediately like an addict who needs to get her 170 fix...I don't think it's the healthiest move to tie emotions to scores as much as I (and probably a lot others) do.

[nerdylsat]

Yeah...whenever I get a bad score I kinda wanna take another PT to validate that I'm able to score high.

Still, thats probably not the right way to go...just gonna review, drill, rest and take another PT with a clear head in a couple days.

If I score low again I'm gna be REALLY worried this close to the test.

[ponderingmeerkat]

Super demoralized right now. I had a nice trend line going, consistently upper 160's as well as a 170 on Thursday...then yesterday happened. Apparently I had a grand mal seizure and completely forgot how to do the LSAT.

PT 64: 164

Section breakdown: -4/-4 LR, -6 LG, -7 RC (Fifth section PT 34 Section 2: -0. Why? Because older LR sections were easier that's why. Were olds dumber one wonders.)

What's weird is it didn't feel all that terrible. Admittedly, it didn't feel as solid as my 170 did, but I figured I'd drop back to my typical 167-168 range. Nope...fuck you Meerkat. You get a sub 165 is what you get. Fuck your studying, fuck your time commitment, fuck your efforts.

[nerdylsat]

Yeah I know how you feel, I just got a 165 on PT74 after getting a 169 and 171.

The LR and RC on the newer tests is definitely trickier. Not sure if I'll be able to get 170+ on the newer tests but definitely gonna try.

[Hennessy]

I actually just got my best score yet, y'all. 170 this past week, hadn't cracked it yet.

Adittedly it was one of those 169/170 cusps, but I'm choosing to call it a 170.
I haven't PT'd below 166 in over a month and a half.

I've also told myself that if I score +169 in June, I'll buy a car as a reward - I'm thinking of sellng my current car and buying something outright to avoid car payments during school. It's keeping me motivated.

[nerdylsat]

I really feel the pressure coming down on me now that were less than a month from the test.

I already didn't go to law school this year because my December score was too low. I'm on my second take and if I don't do well now in June I think I'd have a heart attack.

Being on my third take and having to take the September test forcefully as to not miss another year would make me go literally crazy.

[Mikey]

Anyone else hoping for a LG experimental section so they can have an extra 35 mins to partly chill the fuck out? Haha

[StopLawying]

Anyone else hoping for a LG experimental section so they can have an extra 35 mins to partly chill the fuck out? Haha

If I have a LG experimental I think I'd have a heart attack. Hoping for a LR experimental

[Mikey]

Anyone else hoping for a LG experimental section so they can have an extra 35 mins to partly chill the fuck out? Haha

If I have a LG experimental I think I'd have a heart attack. Hoping for a LR experimental

Seriously? Haha, I think LR and RC are much more mind taxing than LG.

[pretzeltime]

Anyone else hoping for a LG experimental section so they can have an extra 35 mins to partly chill the fuck out? Haha

If I have a LG experimental I think I'd have a heart attack. Hoping for a LR experimental

Seriously? Haha, I think LR and RC are much more mind taxing than LG.

Definitely. LG requires a different aspect of my brain and generally I'd prefer an LG experimental.

Except if the LG experimental was super duper hard and I don't perform well and then I have a meltdown for the rest of the test wondering if that was the real LG...

[Mikey]

Anyone else hoping for a LG experimental section so they can have an extra 35 mins to partly chill the fuck out? Haha

If I have a LG experimental I think I'd have a heart attack. Hoping for a LR experimental

Seriously? Haha, I think LR and RC are much more mind taxing than LG.

Definitely. LG requires a different aspect of my brain and generally I'd prefer an LG experimental.

Except if the LG experimental was super duper hard and I don't perform well and then I have a meltdown for the rest of the test wondering if that was the real LG...

+1 haha let's hope for the best!

[proteinshake]

Anyone else hoping for a LG experimental section so they can have an extra 35 mins to partly chill the fuck out? Haha

If I have a LG experimental I think I'd have a heart attack. Hoping for a LR experimental

Seriously? Haha, I think LR and RC are much more mind taxing than LG.

Definitely. LG requires a different aspect of my brain and generally I'd prefer an LG experimental.

Except if the LG experimental was super duper hard and I don't perform well and then I have a meltdown for the rest of the test wondering if that was the real LG...

+1 haha let's hope for the best!

I had RC-RC-LR-LR-LG during the Dec Test. truly terrible haha.

[Mikey]

Anyone else hoping for a LG experimental section so they can have an extra 35 mins to partly chill the fuck out? Haha

If I have a LG experimental I think I'd have a heart attack. Hoping for a LR experimental

Seriously? Haha, I think LR and RC are much more mind taxing than LG.

Definitely. LG requires a different aspect of my brain and generally I'd prefer an LG experimental.

Except if the LG experimental was super duper hard and I don't perform well and then I have a meltdown for the rest of the test wondering if that was the real LG...

+1 haha let's hope for the best!

I had RC-RC-LR-LR-LG during the Dec Test. truly terrible haha.

I think I would literally cry in the testing center if I got 2 RC sections.

[Hennessy]

Anyone else hoping for a LG experimental section so they can have an extra 35 mins to partly chill the fuck out? Haha

If I have a LG experimental I think I'd have a heart attack. Hoping for a LR experimental

Seriously? Haha, I think LR and RC are much more mind taxing than LG.

Definitely. LG requires a different aspect of my brain and generally I'd prefer an LG experimental.

Except if the LG experimental was super duper hard and I don't perform well and then I have a meltdown for the rest of the test wondering if that was the real LG...

+1 haha let's hope for the best!

I had RC-RC-LR-LR-LG during the Dec Test. truly terrible haha.

I think I would literally cry in the testing center if I got 2 RC sections.

Agreed. I think at this point, the only thing standing in the way of a 170 is the idea that I'll get one hard RC or LG and freak out and wonder how much time I'm wasting and then cringe for the rest of the test about bombing 5 Q's in a row.

[Mikey]

^ If the real LG section doesn't have any annoying miscellaneous games, I think it's definitely possible for me to go -0 or -1 on the section.. Now if they give us an extremely hard/weird game that has 7 questions, I will have a mental breakdown.

[Hennessy]

^ If the real LG section doesn't have any annoying miscellaneous games, I think it's definitely possible for me to go -0 or -1 on the section.. Now if they give us an extremely hard/weird game that has 7 questions, I will have a mental breakdown.

same. i haven't gone over -1 in like eight tests. except for the dinosaurs. hnnggg.