October 2010 Test Prep Forum

[jfb]

PT 46: 175, LR -2 RC -3 LG -0 Really happy about the -3 RC as I have been in the -5 to -9 range on my last several tests.

QUESTION: I am reading other threads and seeing so much talk about people already applying, getting ED acceptances, going complete, etc. Is that making anyone else nervous?? I am a retaker and figured I would wait until I got my Oct. score to submit apps but seeing so many others that have already applied is making me a little uneasy. Is there much merit to this concern??

You gotta remember that TSL is light years ahead of normal people and eons ahead of the late ones. Before Thanksgiving is "early." There's just an abnormal amount of ahead-of-the-game folks here. The people I'm studying for the LSAT with IRL haven't even thought about where to apply and won't do so until scores come back, so I'd say you're ok. It's probably wise to get your apps all together between the 10th and anticipated score release date, so you'll be ready to roll.

If some random person's opinion on the internet isn't enough to soothe you , check the dates ppl apply on LSN

haha nothing to soothe the soul like a random internet poster. I am planning on getting my apps ready, essays written between the 10th and score release day so should be good to go. I guess I tend to forget that TLS is not representative of all law school applicants.

Good advice on checking LSN dates - thanks.

[LSAT Blog]

haha nothing to soothe the soul like a random internet poster. I am planning on getting my apps ready, essays written between the 10th and score release day so should be good to go.

That's a solid plan - get the apps together and upload them to LSAC while waiting for score release. Once you get your score, it'll be final piece, and you can zip everything out to law schools.

You may want to get essays written between the 11th and score release day, though. You'll deserve (and possibly need) at least one full day off!

[2014]

You may want to get essays written between the 11th and score release day, though. You'll deserve (and possibly need) at least one full day off!

This just caused me to rethink my entire strategy

[Eugenie Danglars]

haha nothing to soothe the soul like a random internet poster. I am planning on getting my apps ready, essays written between the 10th and score release day so should be good to go.

That's a solid plan - get the apps together and upload them to LSAC while waiting for score release. Once you get your score, it'll be final piece, and you can zip everything out to law schools.

You may want to get essays written between the 11th and score release day, though. You'll deserve (and possibly need) at least one full day off!

Lol hence the "between." My test is on the 10th, and I'm going to be traveling the 1000 miles back on the 11th and then start working, so I won't be working on it til the next weekend. Definitely need some time off.

[downing]

The maize passage destroyed me, and I was lacking time. Got 4 wrong.

PT49
breakdown
AR: 21/22 -1
LR: 23/26 -3
LR: 22/25 -3
RC: 21/27 -6

raw: 87/100 (-13)
scored: 167

[jfb]

haha nothing to soothe the soul like a random internet poster. I am planning on getting my apps ready, essays written between the 10th and score release day so should be good to go.

That's a solid plan - get the apps together and upload them to LSAC while waiting for score release. Once you get your score, it'll be final piece, and you can zip everything out to law schools.

You may want to get essays written between the 11th and score release day, though. You'll deserve (and possibly need) at least one full day off!

Lol hence the "between." My test is on the 10th, and I'm going to be traveling the 1000 miles back on the 11th and then start working, so I won't be working on it til the next weekend. Definitely need some time off.

A break??? A break??? u cannot be serious!!! I will NOT rest!!!

But yea, I will probably take a couple of days off before I start putting together my apps. Gives me a chance to say hi to my SO before I head back into the library for another month

[Sinra]

I'm flipping out because apparently I have forgotten how to read. It's like every time I pull up one of the sections to acceptable levels, the others go back. One step forward, two steps back. I'm getting so frustrated.

[Adjudicator]

PT56 is in the books, and I feel like I'm on fire right now. After my 178 on PT55, I scored -3 on PT56 for a 179, including -0 on LG for the second PT in a row, and a very satisfying -0 on RC!

One of the LR that I missed was the second problem in its section, and a simple case of misreading the question. If not for that, it would have been a 180.

I hope I can keep this up until Oct. 9th.

[jfb]

I'm flipping out because apparently I have forgotten how to read. It's like every time I pull up one of the sections to acceptable levels, the others go back. One step forward, two steps back. I'm getting so frustrated.

Have u taken a break from studying lately? If not, try taking a couple days off from pts, do some individual sections, review the bibles and get your confidence back up.

[gdane]

Oh yea! I hit a brand new all time high today, 82 raw, 164 on PT 53. While this may not seem amazing to some people, it sure is to me considering the abysmal score I got on Sept 2009.

I really want to replicate this on my remaining 7 PT's. I have to admit I think I got a favorable test. LG's were ridiculously easy and LR had many of the questions Im good at. RC continues to give me trouble. I have to fix this. Nevertheless, Im happy and this is a huge confidence booster.

I'm definitely getting hot though. Definitely. LR has been great on the last 3 PT's. Im improving on LR every test. I just wish tomorrow wasnt an "off day" for me. I have no choice though. I only have 7 PT's to work with and Ive scheduled those for specific days leading to October 9th. I'm not taking the day off from LSAT prep though, just not doing a PT. Im going to go over the sections in the "10 actual" and "Next 10" books and redo the questions I got wrong. I reckon this is better than nothing. Also going to do some of the RC passages from the 30's since Im pretty sure I never did those.

Good luck to everyone else!!!

[Sinra]

I'm flipping out because apparently I have forgotten how to read. It's like every time I pull up one of the sections to acceptable levels, the others go back. One step forward, two steps back. I'm getting so frustrated.

Have u taken a break from studying lately? If not, try taking a couple days off from pts, do some individual sections, review the bibles and get your confidence back up.

I think I'm going to take a break tomorrow. I'm beat. I can't seem to nail down a better-than ok RC strategy and it's making me insane. I need to step back and take a breather methinks. Good god I hope all this prep is worth it.

[jfb]

I'm flipping out because apparently I have forgotten how to read. It's like every time I pull up one of the sections to acceptable levels, the others go back. One step forward, two steps back. I'm getting so frustrated.

Have u taken a break from studying lately? If not, try taking a couple days off from pts, do some individual sections, review the bibles and get your confidence back up.

I think I'm going to take a break tomorrow. I'm beat. I can't seem to nail down a better-than ok RC strategy and it's making me insane. I need to step back and take a breather methinks. Good god I hope all this prep is worth it.

try doing this:

http://lsatblog.blogspot.com/2009/05/ls ... sages.html

I've been doing individual rc passages using this strategy on non pt days and I've seen improvement.

[CGI Fridays]

I'm flipping out because apparently I have forgotten how to read. It's like every time I pull up one of the sections to acceptable levels, the others go back. One step forward, two steps back. I'm getting so frustrated.

As long as your step forward covers more ground than your average step back multiplied by 2, you're okay!

In all seriousness though, is this "forgetting how to read" due to a trend or a single test?

[Sinra]

try doing this:

http://lsatblog.blogspot.com/2009/05/ls ... sages.html

I'm flipping out because apparently I have forgotten how to read. It's like every time I pull up one of the sections to acceptable levels, the others go back. One step forward, two steps back. I'm getting so frustrated.

It's weird because RC was usually okay for me...especially in the 40s and 50s. I took PT 50 (riddled basins) for the first time last week and got -0 on that section. Consistently did about -1 or -2 for a long time and have seen a drop off lately...to like -4 usually or -5 or -6 at times. I'm trying to solidify the best strategy.

I used this method above for PT50 but kind of came to a wall a little bit when it wasn't so clearly "view 1 or view 2" and more just lots of information about something.

I find that taking notes helps me the most but it takes longer and leaves me no wiggle room time-wise for the harder questions. Redoing sections from the 30s and early teens and I'm having a harder time than the 40s and 50s I've encountered thus far. I just can't afford to develop all-new strategies this late in the game I think.

[Sinra]

I'm flipping out because apparently I have forgotten how to read. It's like every time I pull up one of the sections to acceptable levels, the others go back. One step forward, two steps back. I'm getting so frustrated.

As long as your step forward covers more ground than your average step back multiplied by 2, you're okay!

In all seriousness though, is this "forgetting how to read" due to a trend or a single test?

Sort of random. One test will be -1 or -2, some outliers of -0 (two so far) and then randomly like -5 and even -6! It's making me insane. I also find the RC in the newer tests easier. I'm doing older ones and having a harder time. Confounded.

[Kurst]

Oh yea! I hit a brand new all time high today, 82 raw, 164 on PT 53.

Congratulations!

I have to admit I think I got a favorable test. LG's were ridiculously easy and LR had many of the questions Im good at. RC continues to give me trouble.

I remember PT53's easy grouping game involving Lil Wayne deciding whether to use Mulch or Stone in his garden, but what was it about the logical reasoning section that you found easy? There were no causal reasoning arguments involving angry rich people or arguments in which college drinking games were discussed. I can see why RC gave you trouble, though -- that passage by Paris Hilton was incomprehensible.

[RFKScott]

Oh yea! I hit a brand new all time high today, 82 raw, 164 on PT 53. While this may not seem amazing to some people, it sure is to me considering the abysmal score I got on Sept 2009.

I really want to replicate this on my remaining 7 PT's. I have to admit I think I got a favorable test. LG's were ridiculously easy and LR had many of the questions Im good at. RC continues to give me trouble. I have to fix this. Nevertheless, Im happy and this is a huge confidence booster.

I'm definitely getting hot though. Definitely. LR has been great on the last 3 PT's. Im improving on LR every test. I just wish tomorrow wasnt an "off day" for me. I have no choice though. I only have 7 PT's to work with and Ive scheduled those for specific days leading to October 9th. I'm not taking the day off from LSAT prep though, just not doing a PT. Im going to go over the sections in the "10 actual" and "Next 10" books and redo the questions I got wrong. I reckon this is better than nothing. Also going to do some of the RC passages from the 30's since Im pretty sure I never did those.

Good luck to everyone else!!!

Nice! Took 53 today and did solid until I hit RC section. Passage 2 (English common law) completely destroyed me and basically caused me to bomb the final 2 passages as well. My worst score yet on RC. Any suggestions on how to spot a difficult passage like this and initially skip it?

[CGI Fridays]

I'm flipping out because apparently I have forgotten how to read. It's like every time I pull up one of the sections to acceptable levels, the others go back. One step forward, two steps back. I'm getting so frustrated.

As long as your step forward covers more ground than your average step back multiplied by 2, you're okay!

In all seriousness though, is this "forgetting how to read" due to a trend or a single test?

Sort of random. One test will be -1 or -2, some outliers of -0 (two so far) and then randomly like -5 and even -6! It's making me insane. I also find the RC in the newer tests easier. I'm doing older ones and having a harder time. Confounded.

Same happens to me. Does your scaled score dip when this happens? Some RC sections are just plain harder, in my opinion.

I actually got -5 on RC today (PT42), but managed a 170 (171 if you forgive going 1:40 over time on a LR section that I spent ~3 mins going to the bathroom during).

I've had lame RC days on a number of occasions, but rarely do I have a lame scaled score day (lately). My comment about the steps was tongue in cheek, but it was kidding on the square. If you're practiced, have faith in your ability relative to your peers, NOT faith in your ability to get at most 2 Q's wrong on a RC section.
If your scaled score dipped, you can ignore everything in this post

[CGI Fridays]

HELP!!!
My impetus to join this forum - PT 40's Zephyr Airlines game - is still plaguing me. I tried it again today, and still had a brutal time. Anyone willing to divulge a successful diagram?

[Sinra]

I'm flipping out because apparently I have forgotten how to read. It's like every time I pull up one of the sections to acceptable levels, the others go back. One step forward, two steps back. I'm getting so frustrated.

As long as your step forward covers more ground than your average step back multiplied by 2, you're okay!

In all seriousness though, is this "forgetting how to read" due to a trend or a single test?

Sort of random. One test will be -1 or -2, some outliers of -0 (two so far) and then randomly like -5 and even -6! It's making me insane. I also find the RC in the newer tests easier. I'm doing older ones and having a harder time. Confounded.

Same happens to me. Does your scaled score dip when this happens? Some RC sections are just plain harder, in my opinion.

I actually got -5 on RC today (PT42), but managed a 170 (171 if you forgive going 1:40 over time on a LR section that I spent ~3 mins going to the bathroom during).

I've had lame RC days on a number of occasions, but rarely do I have a lame scaled score day (lately). My comment about the steps was tongue in cheek, but it was kidding on the square. If you're practiced, have faith in your ability relative to your peers, NOT faith in your ability to get at most 2 Q's wrong on a RC section.
If your scaled score dipped, you can ignore everything in this post

Hee. Since a too-generous curve will give me an over-inflated sense of my performance so I usually gauge by raw score. I started out in the solid 80-84 raw correct and then slowly but surely climbed up to 87-89. And that's where I'm stuck (except two outliers so far in the 90s raw). So they're definitely going up. I just really want them to be unstuck from 87-89 and go to 92-94! Dreams.

I actually think I had an RC breakthrough today just from sheer brute force. It's going to sound so stupid but I realized that the questions that ask "likely to agree" are just like most strongly supported Q's in LR. I honestly had not put that together until today. I noticed that most wrong answers in those questions have terms like "must" "unless" "necessary" making them much much easier to identify and get rid of. Right answers from what I'm seeing tend to use "likely" "can" "could" etc.

[Cromartie]

HELP!!!
My impetus to join this forum - PT 40's Zephyr Airlines game - is still plaguing me. I tried it again today, and still had a brutal time. Anyone willing to divulge a successful diagram?

Are you jumpjump?

[kpuc]

I'm scared of the change that apparently comes with PT 57 or so. I've consistently been getting -0LG throughout the 40's and low 50's, but apparently they start getting weird again in the newest PTs... ugh. I'm repeating/doing all the older games though (on a semi regular basis) to try to keep my mind thinking in the difficult ways.

Oh, and that last game was kind of confusing to me. I had an issue with the J4 --> J > S/T or -J4 --> S/T > J kind of thing. I must have been reading fast cause I amalgamated the two rules into one and it confused the heck of me so I re-diagrammed it, thankfully.

Whew! I just got the "Next 10 LSATs" book and did some LGs in PT 31 and I happened to come across what I've just learned is an infamous game: the CD store game!

Not only were the rules almost all conditionals, but they were COMPOUND conditionals! Almost all my free space was taken up writing the rules and contras.

Good news for me was that I was able to do 5/7 questions at about the 10 minute mark, and after that, I simply stopped timing myself in order to just try to figure the damn thing out. Took me about 10 more minutes to get everything down for sure, but at least those 5 questions that I had answered at the 10 minute mark were all correct. If I can escape with just a -2 on a fiendish LG like this, I'll be happy.

The better news is that the scale was extremely generous, and even a -8 would've netted you a 175. So I guess it all balances out at the end.

But man, those 30 LGs are something else. It's great training though.

[Eugenie Danglars]

Aiyo, I just found a bubbling error that cost me two scaled points.Gaaah.

[downing]

Took pt 50 today.
I was wandering around tipsy in Seoul last night, so I wonder if the worst score (85/166)in my last five attempts is indicative of my general level, or of my stupid outing.

[lparker]

Only TWO more weekends of PTs. I'm so ready to get this over with!