The Official June 2017 Study Group Forum

[Walliums]

op hath forsaken us

Skip to last verse.

Also, Walliums has one of my favorite avatars. You rock dudette.

You rock as well! My avi is a genuine snapshot from the future of what my face will be like when I finally do the PT with Eileen Gray...

Also I just realized your avatar is a blinged out gremlin. Nice. One of my favorite movies as a kid.

[Walliums]

I tend to think slow is smooth smooth is fast.

So this time around I've decided to start with reading the q first and not going on to the q stem until I have a very thorough understanding of the Q and it's been saving me a lot of time compared to before where I did things in the reverse order. Anyone else notice this

Someone has been listening to The Thinking LSAT podcast.

Lolol actually no. The gf does work for one of them then tho so maybe there's some influence haha

What's the The Thinking LSAT Podcast?

Thinking LSAT is a great podcast you should start listening to. It's two guys who run their own LSAT classes. They will go through a LR question each podcast and answer listener emails and give advice (LSAT and for apps), and a lot of times have interviews with lawyers, former admissions people, etc. I really enjoy it and they are highly entertaining - it's now how I get through my commute

[Walliums]

Hi guys!

Just wanted to share my frustration. I am international (Italy), more or less 20 PTs. I score on average 163-164 (never more than 165, never less than 161, very constant). Now the fact is: I am completely unbalanced!
The classic situation could be:
LR: -2/4 (total)
LG: -4
RC: -10/12

I NEVER reach the 4th reading and even the others have a couple of errors each. I'm going mad.
I'm afraid it's a non-solvable problem due to language difficulty. In my mother tongue, reading comprehension is my strongest point. However, on the TOEFL I scored a perfect 30/30 on that. But this LSAT section is something I just don't know how to face.
Thoughts?

You know, I actually think you would be someone who would benefit from reading The Economist, Scientific American, Foreign Policy, The New Yorker, or whatever dense English you can get your hands on. Read those articles and look up in the dictionary every word that you do not know. Or do the same with early (1-10) PTs.

Major kudos to you for taking a test in your non-native tongue. I'm sure most of us only speak one language

[InterLaw]

Hi guys!

Just wanted to share my frustration. I am international (Italy), more or less 20 PTs. I score on average 163-164 (never more than 165, never less than 161, very constant). Now the fact is: I am completely unbalanced!
The classic situation could be:
LR: -2/4 (total)
LG: -4
RC: -10/12

I NEVER reach the 4th reading and even the others have a couple of errors each. I'm going mad.
I'm afraid it's a non-solvable problem due to language difficulty. In my mother tongue, reading comprehension is my strongest point. However, on the TOEFL I scored a perfect 30/30 on that. But this LSAT section is something I just don't know how to face.
Thoughts?

You know, I actually think you would be someone who would benefit from reading The Economist, Scientific American, Foreign Policy, The New Yorker, or whatever dense English you can get your hands on. Read those articles and look up in the dictionary every word that you do not know. Or do the same with early (1-10) PTs.

Major kudos to you for taking a test in your non-native tongue. I'm sure most of us only speak one language

I'm now improving my third language (French). I think that it would be a somewhat added value for International law practice.

However, thank you for the advice! I could set a goal like 5 articles every day, let's see how it works.
Do you know a dense yet entertaining American novel I could read meanwhile? I love reading and I could easily read 1h every night... I just need a strong book!

[Walliums]

Hi guys!

Just wanted to share my frustration. I am international (Italy), more or less 20 PTs. I score on average 163-164 (never more than 165, never less than 161, very constant). Now the fact is: I am completely unbalanced!
The classic situation could be:
LR: -2/4 (total)
LG: -4
RC: -10/12

I NEVER reach the 4th reading and even the others have a couple of errors each. I'm going mad.
I'm afraid it's a non-solvable problem due to language difficulty. In my mother tongue, reading comprehension is my strongest point. However, on the TOEFL I scored a perfect 30/30 on that. But this LSAT section is something I just don't know how to face.
Thoughts?

You know, I actually think you would be someone who would benefit from reading The Economist, Scientific American, Foreign Policy, The New Yorker, or whatever dense English you can get your hands on. Read those articles and look up in the dictionary every word that you do not know. Or do the same with early (1-10) PTs.

Major kudos to you for taking a test in your non-native tongue. I'm sure most of us only speak one language

I'm now improving my third language (French). I think that it would be a somewhat added value for International law practice.

However, thank you for the advice! I could set a goal like 5 articles every day, let's see how it works.
Do you know a dense yet entertaining American novel I could read meanwhile? I love reading and I could easily read 1h every night... I just need a strong book!

Here are some thoughts:
The Silmarilion
Great Gatsby
Heart of Darkness
anything written by Steinbeck (I hate that guy but his books are always a dense, challenging read)
and anything written by Kafka

[34iplaw]

op hath forsaken us

Skip to last verse.

Also, Walliums has one of my favorite avatars. You rock dudette.

You rock as well! My avi is a genuine snapshot from the future of what my face will be like when I finally do the PT with Eileen Gray...

Also I just realized your avatar is a blinged out gremlin. Nice. One of my favorite movies as a kid.

Haha - I found it traumatizing.

What's the The Thinking LSAT Podcast?

Thinking LSAT is a great podcast you should start listening to. It's two guys who run their own LSAT classes. They will go through a LR question each podcast and answer listener emails and give advice (LSAT and for apps), and a lot of times have interviews with lawyers, former admissions people, etc. I really enjoy it and they are highly entertaining - it's now how I get through my commute

Another good podcast is GRE Vocab by VictorPrep. It's not really useful for the LSAT, but it is pretty good for the GRE and generally increasing vocab IMO. At first, I wasn't sold since it's four words every ten-fifteen minutes which seems slow but I've had pretty solid retention - i.e. seeing InterLaw's post and thinking that s/he is a polyglot.

I'm now improving my third language (French). I think that it would be a somewhat added value for International law practice.

However, thank you for the advice! I could set a goal like 5 articles every day, let's see how it works.
Do you know a dense yet entertaining American novel I could read meanwhile? I love reading and I could easily read 1h every night... I just need a strong book!

You should start a thread or search the forum for a thread on taking the LSAT from a non-native's perspective. Is the -10/-12 from missing questions or not finishing or both?

[Mint-Berry_Crunch]

Hi guys!

Just wanted to share my frustration. I am international (Italy), more or less 20 PTs. I score on average 163-164 (never more than 165, never less than 161, very constant). Now the fact is: I am completely unbalanced!
The classic situation could be:
LR: -2/4 (total)
LG: -4
RC: -10/12

I NEVER reach the 4th reading and even the others have a couple of errors each. I'm going mad.
I'm afraid it's a non-solvable problem due to language difficulty. In my mother tongue, reading comprehension is my strongest point. However, on the TOEFL I scored a perfect 30/30 on that. But this LSAT section is something I just don't know how to face.
Thoughts?

You know, I actually think you would be someone who would benefit from reading The Economist, Scientific American, Foreign Policy, The New Yorker, or whatever dense English you can get your hands on. Read those articles and look up in the dictionary every word that you do not know. Or do the same with early (1-10) PTs.

Major kudos to you for taking a test in your non-native tongue. I'm sure most of us only speak one language

I'm now improving my third language (French). I think that it would be a somewhat added value for International law practice.

However, thank you for the advice! I could set a goal like 5 articles every day, let's see how it works.
Do you know a dense yet entertaining American novel I could read meanwhile? I love reading and I could easily read 1h every night... I just need a strong book!

I would also suggest liking these all on FB (including Longform and the Atlantic) they often post multiple articles a day and it's just an easy way to get exposure to them. My fb feed got wayyyy more interesting after I started liking better news sources.



Something to think about for RC, is that you're reading for structure. Focus on how things are being used and don't get bogged down understanding every little nuance. I view each paragraph as an LR question, and on my initial read I'm really just mentally flagging where info is located in the passage so i can use it later.

[InterLaw]

Here are some thoughts:
The Silmarilion
Great Gatsby
Heart of Darkness
anything written by Steinbeck (I hate that guy but his books are always a dense, challenging read)
and anything written by Kafka

How could I miss it?! I'm a huge Tolkien fan and I've never read it! Just ordered on amazon, thank you.

(Speaking of FB, my wall is full of that kind of page! And it is indeed a good way to read something every day).

[InterLaw]

op hath forsaken us

You should start a thread or search the forum for a thread on taking the LSAT from a non-native's perspective. Is the -10/-12 from missing questions or not finishing or both?

You're right, I'll start a thread and see if someone else is interested! For the moment, if it's okay for you guys, I'd like to post here... it's being kinda helpful actually.

I completely miss the 4th reading, and on the other 3 I got 1-2 answers wrong each piece... *grumbles*

[34iplaw]

op hath forsaken us

You should start a thread or search the forum for a thread on taking the LSAT from a non-native's perspective. Is the -10/-12 from missing questions or not finishing or both?

You're right, I'll start a thread and see if someone else is interested! For the moment, if it's okay for you guys, I'd like to post here... it's being kinda helpful actually.

I completely miss the 4th reading, and on the other 3 I got 1-2 answers wrong each piece... *grumbles*

That's totally fine. Post where ever you like. I didn't mean to not post here. I just meant you may get better help by addressing a wider audience than just those with some intent to take the LSAT in the next offering or two.

By miss, do you mean you didn't have time to get to it or you got to it and you got nothing right after reading the passage and questions?

[InterLaw]

Something to think about for RC, is that you're reading for structure. Focus on how things are being used and don't get bogged down understanding every little nuance. I view each paragraph as an LR question, and on my initial read I'm really just mentally flagging where info is located in the passage so i can use it later.

Yeah I know that in theory. The fact is, maybe being English-speaking you don't understand how complicated are them. I clearly leave something behind, but if I just try to read it fast, believe me, I don't even understand what are we talking about. It is mainly a matter of topic (the English syntax is always kinda easy): there are so many vocabs I just never heard that it is so hard for me to immediately get the topic. Considering that I spent a semester studying (not much actually) in California and I've never had a linguistic problem, these enjoyable readings must be at some very uncommon level...

[InterLaw]

op hath forsaken us

You should start a thread or search the forum for a thread on taking the LSAT from a non-native's perspective. Is the -10/-12 from missing questions or not finishing or both?

You're right, I'll start a thread and see if someone else is interested! For the moment, if it's okay for you guys, I'd like to post here... it's being kinda helpful actually.

I completely miss the 4th reading, and on the other 3 I got 1-2 answers wrong each piece... *grumbles*

That's totally fine. Post where ever you like. I didn't mean to not post here. I just meant you may get better help by addressing a wider audience than just those with some intent to take the LSAT in the next offering or two.

Absolutely agree with you.

By miss, do you mean you didn't have time to get to it or you got to it and you got nothing right after reading the passage and questions?

I mean 4 times out of 5 I don't even have time to turn the page on the final passage, and I go with all B's. Sometimes I have 2-3 minutes left and I try to understand in 1 minute what are we talking about, then I try to answer the first question (classic main point) and I go with all B's with the others. However, since even in the latter case I get some answers wrong in the first 3 pieces, I probably should take more time on them and guess the whole 4th passage.

I usually watch which is the passage with less questions and I start with the other 3, in order to guess as few answers as possible.

[34iplaw]

I mean 4 times out of 5 I don't even have time to turn the page on the final passage, and I go with all B's. Sometimes I have 2-3 minutes left and I try to understand in 1 minute what are we talking about, then I try to answer the first question (classic main point) and I go with all B's with the others. However, since even in the latter case I get some answers wrong in the first 3 pieces, I probably should take more time on them and guess the whole 4th passage.

I usually watch which is the passage with less questions and I start with the other 3, in order to guess as few answers as possible.

Personally, I think you can get through RC faster than you are if LR isn't causing you timing issues, but it may take some work. That said, I don't want to give you too much advice on this front, because English is my native language and I don't think I can entirely relate in an appropriate fashion to what you are struggling with. I can totally see how the LSAT would be challenging, as it is largely a test of language.

[Alexandros]

I mean 4 times out of 5 I don't even have time to turn the page on the final passage, and I go with all B's. Sometimes I have 2-3 minutes left and I try to understand in 1 minute what are we talking about, then I try to answer the first question (classic main point) and I go with all B's with the others. However, since even in the latter case I get some answers wrong in the first 3 pieces, I probably should take more time on them and guess the whole 4th passage.

I usually watch which is the passage with less questions and I start with the other 3, in order to guess as few answers as possible.

Personally, I think you can get through RC faster than you are if LR isn't causing you timing issues, but it may take some work. That said, I don't want to give you too much advice on this front, because English is my native language and I don't think I can entirely relate in an appropriate fashion to what you are struggling with. I can totally see how the LSAT would be challenging, as it is largely a test of language.

Also a native speaker so obviously not the same struggle but one thing that helped me with timing is doing passages individually with a strict time limit - Practicing passages one at a time with a 7 minute time limit, for example.

[Mint-Berry_Crunch]

hows everyone doing. hitting any averages yet? we feelin good or eh?


in other news, i bought a printer, which is exciting. go me. no i can lolsat more yay.

[Mint-Berry_Crunch]

any fun plans for the weekend?

[Mikey]

any fun plans for the weekend?

Atlantic City

hbu?

[Mint-Berry_Crunch]

any fun plans for the weekend?

Atlantic City

hbu?

Pting on easter suh dude

never been to atlantic city is it like east coast vegas

[Mikey]

any fun plans for the weekend?

Atlantic City

hbu?

Pting on easter suh dude

never been to atlantic city is it like east coast vegas

Yeah it is. Never been to Vegas tho

The dedication is real

[Mint-Berry_Crunch]

any fun plans for the weekend?

Atlantic City

hbu?

Pting on easter suh dude

never been to atlantic city is it like east coast vegas

Yeah it is. Never been to Vegas tho

The dedication desperation is real

edited for accuracy.


ive been really bad with my studying actually lol

[Mikey]

any fun plans for the weekend?

Atlantic City

hbu?

Pting on easter suh dude

never been to atlantic city is it like east coast vegas

Yeah it is. Never been to Vegas tho

The dedication desperation is real

edited for accuracy.


ive been really bad with my studying actually lol

haha, I feel you. I've slacked off a lot lately too but hey, breaks do more good than bad! haha, at least that's what I tell myself

[Walliums]

any fun plans for the weekend?

PTing like you bud.

Though tomorrow I have required sunshine time for part of the afternoon at the park. Something to do with relaxing and enjoying the little free time I have?

[Platopus]

any fun plans for the weekend?

I had today off from work, so I PT'ed, and I'll PT again tomorrow. Maybe Sunday too. PT's fer dayz

[Barry grandpapy]

.

[Platopus]

any fun plans for the weekend?

Looking forward to getting day drunk on Easter!

Mimosas? What's your poison?