Are you ready for total DOMINATION?!! (Feb. 2011) Forum

[Jack Smirks]

I spent all day on TLS instead of taking a PT. Someone yell at me

You need a self-imposed ban until after the Feb. test. Also, *YELLS!

[99.9luft]

I spent all day on TLS instead of taking a PT. Someone yell at me

Sweetheart, i'll split your blame. A day's gone (but there's always tomorrow )

[Pleasye]

I spent all day on TLS instead of taking a PT. Someone yell at me

You need a self-imposed ban until after the Feb. test. Also, *YELLS!

If I ban myself from TLS I'll just find something else to do on the internet.

But thanks for yelling.

[DarkPhantom]

The not doesn't matter here because it is a some statement. Just try to visualize it. If there are some A's that are not B's and some not B's that are A's and all not B's are C's. Then you know that some A's are C's.

AA
B/B/B/B/B/
C C C C C

There is an overlap and you can see for yourself when you draw it out like this that some A's are C's.

That was EXACTLY what was in my head...but I don't know why it didn't make sense:

So this would be Some As are NOT Bs
AAAAAA
BBB

and ALL not Bs are Cs

AAAAA
BBB
----CCCCC

Oh duh...lol so some As are Cs

[DarkPhantom]

yeah I totally skipped the LG yesterday because I was too busy with the LR...*smacks self*

More LG today! wee!

[risktaker]

Did back to back to back RC sections yesterday and was happy with the results. Got a -3, -2, and -2. I have been reading Scientific American and the Economist daily and it seems to have helped. Will be taking Dec 10 LSAT this weekend and hopefully I can get a 167+.

[Pleasye]

Grrr k I hate questions like this and instead of glossing over it I'll ask someone to help me out...

PT 50 LR1 #9. Can someone please explain this shit. Why is B right and all the others are wrong, lol

[DarkPhantom]

here's the question for reference:

PT50 LR1 #9

9. One should always capitalize the main words and the
first and last words of a title. But one should never
capitalize articles, or prepositions and conjunctions
with fewer than five letters, when they occur in the
middle of a title.
Which one of the following can be properly inferred
from the statements above?

inferred = must be true, thus we are looking for an answer that is in the stimulus, this is usually a paraphrase of the premise. I will not look at the answers since I am going to do this, I just simply copied and pasted it and looked at the question stem. here are the answers for someone that wants to explain:

(A) If a word that is a preposition or conjunction
should be capitalized, then it is the first or last
word of the title.
(B) If a word in the middle of a title should be
capitalized, then that word is neither an article
nor a conjunction shorter than five letters.
(C) All prepositions and conjunctions with fewer
than five letters should be uncapitalized in
titles.
(D) If a word is neither a main word nor a first or
last word of a title, then it should not be
capitalized.
(E) Prepositions and conjunctions with five or more
letters should be capitalized in any text

[Dotson525]

Quick question for you all - When you first started doing Logic Games (for the first time say AFTER you figured out some diagramming strategies), did it take you about 15-20 minutes to complete 5-6 questions for an easy Game, and about 25-40 minutes to complete 5-6 questions for a more difficult game? I'm curious to know since now that I'm coming back to Logic Games, it's taking me quite a long time to finish just 1 game. It seems as though I'm ages away from completing a game in under 9 minutes. However, the bright side is I almost always get all the answers correctly (but I think anyone would if they were allowed that much time on one game).

Here are some tips that I learned along the way with Logic games
1. Diagrams are essential tool when working with games. However, they should not consume most of your time. Many courses have students draw diagrams that display many conditional symbols within the grid. Too many symbols can confuse and slow ones performance. Draw a diagram that works well for you!

2. Sometimes you have to see it to believe! Before beginning the questions, try coming up with possible answers by yourself.
For instance, if within a game you notice a particular strict or odd rules (If L is on bus 1, then V joins him. If V is not on bus 2, then X is) combine these rules and place a possible answer within your grid. EX: Bus 1: LV Bus 2: X After placing 1 or 2 possible answers within the grid, then continue to questions.

3. Attack questions such as "which is a possible assignment" first. You can weed out a few wrong answers by looking for assignments that break the non-conditional rules (T rides bus 2. Answer D has T riding bus 1. Eliminate immediately.)

4. I happen to enjoy puzzles. On my down time I played time sudoku. Found that it helped me work through grids and placement a bit faster.

Hope some of these ideas help.

[99.9luft]

Grrr k I hate questions like this and instead of glossing over it I'll ask someone to help me out...

PT 50 LR1 #9. Can someone please explain this shit. Why is B right and all the others are wrong, lol

DarkPhantom, thanks for posting the question! I don't know how qualified i am as an LSAT tutor, but why not give it a try (someone else please correct my reasoning if you spot a problem)

Let's go over the stimulus:

Premise 1: if a word is main, first, or last --> we capitalize it
Premise 2: if a word is an article, prep. or conj. with less than 5 letters (e.g. "of" in 'A Tale of Two Cities') in the middle of a sentence --> we shouldn't capitalize it (the contrapositive of this is: "capitalize it --> middle-sentence article, prep. or conj with 5 letters or more

(A) not necessarily, the first premise says that you can be capitalized in the title.
(B) leaves out the preposition (to confuse you) but what it says doesn't conflict with the premises above. It's true, you can be a 5-letter word in the middle like, say a conjunction "After" in "Pleasy's Guide to TLS Picwhoring After Dark"
(C) not necessarily. What about being an article as the first word in a title (e.g. "A" in 'A Tale of Two Cities')
(D) & (E) are too general and strong and go beyond the scope of our argument

HTH!

[Pleasye]

thank you 99.9 <3

[SchopenhauerFTW]

Awesome to see great test takers ITT. I know where to turn when I start PTing again... which should be tomorrow. I hope.

[thsmthcrmnl]

Hello, fellow February-ers. I have nothing to do this weekend, so I should do something LSAT-related, but I really don't want to do tests. So instead, if anybody's interested:

PT-ing at 178+, taking questions

[DarkPhantom]

Congrats on the PTs! Any 180s thus far?

Also, would you not recommend doing LGB and LRB together?

p.s. I have not yet bought the RCB but I don't know if I really need to...

[thsmthcrmnl]

Congrats on the PTs! Any 180s thus far?

Also, would you not recommend doing LGB and LRB together?

p.s. I have not yet bought the RCB but I don't know if I really need to...

Thanks. I have.

I only used the LGB, but I liked what I saw of that. I don't see anything wrong with doing the LGB and LRB together. Since standard logical reasoning is used in both, I'd think they'd support each other. But that's conjecture.

I haven't even seen the RCB. I don't know how much advice they could possibly give. In my experience as a test tutor (not LSAT though), I think the best way to get better at reading is to read a lot. Many people suggest The Economist.

[DarkPhantom]

Yeah, TheEconomist definitely helps - thanks and good luck to everyone whomever is studying!

[Dotson525]

Has anyone use the PowerScore RC bible yet? I was thinking about purchasing it. I know the PowerScore LR Bible was of great help.

[xyzzzzzzzz]

Hello, fellow February-ers. I have nothing to do this weekend, so I should do something LSAT-related, but I really don't want to do tests. So instead, if anybody's interested:

PT-ing at 178+, taking questions

best advice for lg? I'm currently in the repeat repeat repeat phase, but still have issues with timing.

[thsmthcrmnl]

best advice for lg? I'm currently in the repeat repeat repeat phase, but still have issues with timing.

Well repeat repeat repeat is the most important (and autological) thing. I can also give you lots of little advice.

If you don't have time to practice full sections, give yourself 8 minutes whenever you can to do one game, ideally a harder one. I like this because you want on test day (and in life, I suppose) to be able to turn on the logic like a switch.

Glance at the game before you decide to do it. Since all questions are worth equal points, save the hardest game, and even the hardest questions within a game, for last.

Draw a master diagram with all your global deductions and then separate local diagrams for each game.

Recognize extremely restrictive games. In some there's a combination of rules such that you can draw two or three almost complete diagrams that map out every situation.

On the first question look at one rule and then check it against all the possible examples. This is much faster than checking each possible example against all the rules.

Keep your hypotheticals neat. Do something to indicate valid generated examples (including the answer to the first question) and then check back against them if they are relevant in later questions.

This last one is a little more complicated, so make sure you understand it before you do it. Use symmetry. If two variables, or even two locations in an arrangement, are affected by the rules in all the same ways, they sometimes can't be the answer, because then the other symmetric objects would also have to be the answer. This actually makes that notorious Snakes and Lizards or whatever game pretty easy.

Hope that helps.

[xyzzzzzzzz]

best advice for lg? I'm currently in the repeat repeat repeat phase, but still have issues with timing.

Well repeat repeat repeat is the most important (and autological) thing. I can also give you lots of little advice.

If you don't have time to practice full sections, give yourself 8 minutes whenever you can to do one game, ideally a harder one. I like this because you want on test day (and in life, I suppose) to be able to turn on the logic like a switch.

Glance at the game before you decide to do it. Since all questions are worth equal points, save the hardest game, and even the hardest questions within a game, for last.

Draw a master diagram with all your global deductions and then separate local diagrams for each game.

Recognize extremely restrictive games. In some there's a combination of rules such that you can draw two or three almost complete diagrams that map out every situation.

On the first question look at one rule and then check it against all the possible examples. This is much faster than checking each possible example against all the rules.

Keep your hypotheticals neat. Do something to indicate valid generated examples (including the answer to the first question) and then check back against them if they are relevant in later questions.

This last one is a little more complicated, so make sure you understand it before you do it. Use symmetry. If two variables, or even two locations in an arrangement, are affected by the rules in all the same ways, they sometimes can't be the answer, because then the other symmetric objects would also have to be the answer. This actually makes that notorious Snakes and Lizards or whatever game pretty easy.

Hope that helps.

Thanks for this, how long did/have you been studying for? I'm getting worried I won't be ready for feb.

[thsmthcrmnl]

Thanks for this, how long did/have you been studying for? I'm getting worried I won't be ready for feb.

You're welcome.

It took about twenty tests over six weeks, but I started pretty high. And my situation is weird anyway (I'm retaking from last February to try to get more money), so I doubt it's a good example. I think ready is when you're consistently scoring three or four points above whatever score would be enough for you.

[risktaker]

Took Dec 10 LSAT today and scored well below my goal of 167+. Got a damn 160. While RC has been my problem and LR has been a piece of cake, this test proved the opposite. Got -4 on RC and -20 total on the two LR sections. I have never got that many LR questions wrong in a long time. I was a bit out of it today, but that should not be an excuse. Will drill LR and RC more for the next couple weeks and hope that I can hit 165 at least on game day.

[Lasker]

Just did PT 54 - First 180 when doing 4 sections at once, first -0 test!

Got a bit lucky on the RC though; the final passage had some difficult questions where I didn't feel certain of my answer. I seem to have at least 1-2 questions like that on every recent (PT 50 on) RC section. Finding a way to eliminate those will be one of my main goals in the next few weeks. Does anyone have any advice?

I find it interesting how the difficulty of comprehending the RC passages doesn't always correlate to the difficulty of the questions - Some tricky science or ambiguous social science passages seem to have easy questions, whereas some relatively straightforward passages like the fourth one on PT 54 one end up having very tricky questions.

[Dotson525]

Thanks for this, how long did/have you been studying for? I'm getting worried I won't be ready for feb.

You're welcome.

It took about twenty tests over six weeks, but I started pretty high. And my situation is weird anyway (I'm retaking from last February to try to get more money), so I doubt it's a good example. I think ready is when you're consistently scoring three or four points above whatever score would be enough for you.

In your opinion, how does the previous Feb. test you've taken compared to the other tests? Since Feb. is undisclosed, there is little to compare it to.

[thsmthcrmnl]

Got a bit lucky on the RC though; the final passage had some difficult questions where I didn't feel certain of my answer. I seem to have at least 1-2 questions like that on every recent (PT 50 on) RC section. Finding a way to eliminate those will be one of my main goals in the next few weeks. Does anyone have any advice?

Keep in mind that an LSAT question won't have a good answer and a goodish answer; it has a right answer and a wrong answer. If you're unsure about a question, it's because you're missing something, maybe something as subtle as a word like "might" instead of "will" or calling a subsidiary conclusion "the conclusion" instead of "a conclusion." In the time left over after finishing a section, I'll go back and spend a few minutes on just one question I was unsure of to really carefully parse the diction of the two choices I'm considering.