The Official June 2016 Study Group Forum

[appind]

Did any of your OVERALL PT scores end up being substantially lower in a PT that had a fucked up game (like dinosaurs, workpiece etc.) ?? Because for me it was pretty small and in some cases zero difference.

I suspect that LSAT wouldn't throw something like that in there without making the other sections (or other games in that section) a little easier to compensate. I would prob just assume that a weird game will show up, this way you won't panic and will have the composure to kill the other - relatively easier than normal - LRs and RCs (or LGs).

Plus we've all come across such a wide variety of games that I think we'll be pretty well equipped to handle a new format reasonably well - the only thing that would hinder us is panic.

my pt score suffers for tests with effed up games. e.g. pt-72 and pt-77 both robbed me of 5-6 raw points due to the virtue of their bad ass lg.

[appind]

PT 72 BR is done:

174:
LR -5, RC -2, LG -1. Getting better at the new PTs, especially on my BR, which is good. Lol at missing 1 games question because I mistook "minimum" for "maximum." At this point stamping out dumb shit like that is part of the battle for me. LR continues to be a bit of a bugaboo though. Can't keep dropping this many points on it.

Is this your BR score?

I want your LR. Lol

No that's the real score. After doing a billion LR questions I can usually see where they're trying to go. It gets repetitive. Though I definitely think it's the most mentally taxing section and the easiest to slip up on.

that' a great score on a very tough pt. i recall lg kicking my backside on this one.

btw, as one can notice i am hopeless enough to be going thru the last 10-15 pages of the thread i missed

[pretzeltime]

holy crap, this thread has moved only like 10 pages in the last month!







i haven't cracked open a single lsat question in the last 3 weeks or so due to a major distraction at work. i was all set on my way prepping for june like a month ago, but this hiatus was bad. feeling a little panic that i couldn't study at all during the prime study period.

It could've been good for you, though! A big nice break is good (sounds like you were busy with other stuff buuuuttt) and now you have 3 weeks to hit it hard again. Ideal really.

[dodint]

I've been using the new Blueprint RC book lately and I'm really liking it. I do my LSAT Trainer stuff through the evening and then when I'm in bed instead of watching TV to fall asleep I read a few chapters of the Blueprint book. I didn't think they'd be able to make RC interesting enough to study but they have. It's written at a fairly low but engaging level, which I think it has to be to keep your attention.

Just really wish both the LSAT Trainer and the Blueprint book was in Kindle format. Trying to lay in bed and read these phonebook sized tomes really is a pain in the ass.

[Mikey]

these phonebook sized tomes really is a pain in the ass.

xD

[Hennessy]

PT 69:

LR -4. jackhammer on my street starts at about question 17. sunday afternoon.
LG -4
RC jackhammer and ice cream truck on my street both start at the same time, got fed up, couldn't focus, got drunk.

mad that i wasted a more recent PT.

Omg, lol. Better though than a guy sniffling throughout the entire test. That's what happened to me last week at one of my proctored LSATs. So damn annoying, RC was my first section and I bombed it. Couldn't recover rest of the test. I can deal with any type of outside noise, but sniffling drives me insane. If a similar thing happens on test day I'm screwed.

usually i can deal with noise just fine
but that's not totally true I guess
focusing on LSAT questions requires a kind of focus that I (and I imagine most people) am not used to: uninterrupted comprehension and analysis of reasoning rather than subject matter. makes it hard to ignore stuff like sniffles and ice cream trucks when you're supposed to be dissecting sentence structure.

[appind]

holy crap, this thread has moved only like 10 pages in the last month!







i haven't cracked open a single lsat question in the last 3 weeks or so due to a major distraction at work. i was all set on my way prepping for june like a month ago, but this hiatus was bad. feeling a little panic that i couldn't study at all during the prime study period.

It could've been good for you, though! A big nice break is good (sounds like you were busy with other stuff buuuuttt) and now you have 3 weeks to hit it hard again. Ideal really.

usually a break helps, but these past coupla weeks were pretty stressful (and it may still not be over) so not really a break in true sense. hope to get up to speed a little this week and see how it goes.

[appind]

PT 69:

LR -4. jackhammer on my street starts at about question 17. sunday afternoon.
LG -4
RC jackhammer and ice cream truck on my street both start at the same time, got fed up, couldn't focus, got drunk.

mad that i wasted a more recent PT.

Omg, lol. Better though than a guy sniffling throughout the entire test. That's what happened to me last week at one of my proctored LSATs. So damn annoying, RC was my first section and I bombed it. Couldn't recover rest of the test. I can deal with any type of outside noise, but sniffling drives me insane. If a similar thing happens on test day I'm screwed.

usually i can deal with noise just fine
but that's not totally true I guess
focusing on LSAT questions requires a kind of focus that I (and I imagine most people) am not used to: uninterrupted comprehension and analysis of reasoning rather than subject matter. makes it hard to ignore stuff like sniffles and ice cream trucks when you're supposed to be dissecting sentence structure.

i had snifflers sitting next to me in dec. i think there is an RC passage about how even a slight repetitive noise can drive someone insane and there is a biological basis for it. that's likely why sniffling is so maddening.

[carasrook]

PT 69:

LR -4. jackhammer on my street starts at about question 17. sunday afternoon.
LG -4
RC jackhammer and ice cream truck on my street both start at the same time, got fed up, couldn't focus, got drunk.

mad that i wasted a more recent PT.

Omg, lol. Better though than a guy sniffling throughout the entire test. That's what happened to me last week at one of my proctored LSATs. So damn annoying, RC was my first section and I bombed it. Couldn't recover rest of the test. I can deal with any type of outside noise, but sniffling drives me insane. If a similar thing happens on test day I'm screwed.

usually i can deal with noise just fine
but that's not totally true I guess
focusing on LSAT questions requires a kind of focus that I (and I imagine most people) am not used to: uninterrupted comprehension and analysis of reasoning rather than subject matter. makes it hard to ignore stuff like sniffles and ice cream trucks when you're supposed to be dissecting sentence structure.

i had snifflers sitting next to me in dec. i think there is an RC passage about how even a slight repetitive noise can drive someone insane and there is a biological basis for it. that's likely why sniffling is so maddening.

Idek what I'm gonna do if there's any kind of distracting noise in my test center. The fan on my boyfriend's laptop bothered me so much I had to go in another room. Granted, it was a loud fan, but still...

[Mikey]

Just drilled the shit out of 15 parallel flaw questions since I've been getting wrecked by them lately. Got only 1 wrong which was because of a stupid mistake but aye whatevs.

[appind]

PT 69:

LR -4. jackhammer on my street starts at about question 17. sunday afternoon.
LG -4
RC jackhammer and ice cream truck on my street both start at the same time, got fed up, couldn't focus, got drunk.

mad that i wasted a more recent PT.

Omg, lol. Better though than a guy sniffling throughout the entire test. That's what happened to me last week at one of my proctored LSATs. So damn annoying, RC was my first section and I bombed it. Couldn't recover rest of the test. I can deal with any type of outside noise, but sniffling drives me insane. If a similar thing happens on test day I'm screwed.

usually i can deal with noise just fine
but that's not totally true I guess
focusing on LSAT questions requires a kind of focus that I (and I imagine most people) am not used to: uninterrupted comprehension and analysis of reasoning rather than subject matter. makes it hard to ignore stuff like sniffles and ice cream trucks when you're supposed to be dissecting sentence structure.

i had snifflers sitting next to me in dec. i think there is an RC passage about how even a slight repetitive noise can drive someone insane and there is a biological basis for it. that's likely why sniffling is so maddening.

Idek what I'm gonna do if there's any kind of distracting noise in my test center. The fan on my boyfriend's laptop bothered me so much I had to go in another room. Granted, it was a loud fan, but still...

If there is a serious noise you should at least bring it up to the proctors and administrator. I guess if the sniffles have a low frequency, like once every few minutes, one may not be annoyed. but the ones next to me were sniffling every 5 seconds or so and loudly, so it was distracting. I am sure they were sick and probably should have been separately.

[carasrook]

Just drilled the shit out of 15 parallel flaw questions since I've been getting wrecked by them lately. Got only 1 wrong which was because of a stupid mistake but aye whatevs.

ayyy nice!

[Mikey]

Just drilled the shit out of 15 parallel flaw questions since I've been getting wrecked by them lately. Got only 1 wrong which was because of a stupid mistake but aye whatevs.

ayyy nice!

Thanks m8. Got a final later on today, yet I'm more worried about parallel flaw questions HAHAHA.

[ponderingmeerkat]

Well PT 67 is in the bag. Scored a 169 with a 177 blind review.

Section breakdown:

-4/-2 LR, -4 LG, -2 RC.

I'll take it I suppose. It's movement in the right direction. I'm celebrating the fact my five game average score has been on a slow but steady climb northward. Ya gotta win this game at the margins.

[cantis]

Just got done with PT 72. I knew the weird game was coming and yet I still wasn't ready for it. Had 15 mins for it and still could not figure out wtf I should've done. It seemed so simple but I just couldn't wrap my head around it. To 7sage I go.

[ayylmao]

PT 65 (jumping back into the 60s so I can leave the late 70s till the end):

174 (BR: 180)

LR: -1 (finally!)
LG: -4 (why I gotta make these dumb mistakes bruh)
RC: -4 (really tough, could only see clearly the structure of the passages and Qs on BR. Last passage was a doozy.)

Overall, not bad. Frustrating that I could have gotten into even rarer air if I had just been less rushed/flustered. Two 180 BRs in a row indicate that the potential is there though. I'd be quite happy with this score on the actual test, though I'd likely miss out on the suuuuper good scholly dough.

[ayylmao]

Just got done with PT 72. I knew the weird game was coming and yet I still wasn't ready for it. Had 15 mins for it and still could not figure out wtf I should've done. It seemed so simple but I just couldn't wrap my head around it. To 7sage I go.

There's one recurring inference that breaks that game's back. I glimpsed it during my first run because I realized there was some weird shit going on and played around with the setup. I still didn't see it in its entirety; tough game.

[Mikey]

174 (BR: 180)

LR: -1 (finally!)

Mmmmm, good job bby

[appind]

So... PT 67 had its way with me as well. Tough RC plus a tough curve. Ugh. 68 on Monday.

RC -5
LR -2
LG -1

172

!Kung! Just did that one too. The RC was tougher than most i felt.

Dude 4 of my 5 errors were on that passage.

!kung is a v hard passage and along with zones lg makes 67 a p hard pt

i don't get why the curve on 67 doesn't reflect these tough sections at all.

[appind]

Question about 7 Sage Logic Games video explanations target times.

I apologize if this question has already been asked I can't remember and 84 pages is a lot to scroll through. But is there a consensus on the 7 sage logic games target times being accurate. I seem to be consistently significantly lower than their estimates (example I was just drilling and did a game they suggested 11 minutes for I did under 8 and a game they suggested 7 minutes for I did under 5 – and this is the norm for me).

Logic games are a pretty strong subject for me so I'm just trying to figure out if I'm faster than their estimates because of skill or because there is something funky with their timing and to take it with a grain of salt.

(oh and the times I'm reporting are for games in which I score perfectly.. idk if that helps or not)

well, if you're doing games faster than 7sage target times, then i'd say you're pretty well off in LG. may be it'll be useful if you post which games specifically you are referring the timing for.

in any case i don't think their target times are accurate. there have been some games i have finished faster than their target time by a little margin, but i think there are a large number of very hard games on which 7sage underestimates the time.

[StopLawying]

So... PT 67 had its way with me as well. Tough RC plus a tough curve. Ugh. 68 on Monday.

RC -5
LR -2
LG -1

172

!Kung! Just did that one too. The RC was tougher than most i felt.

Dude 4 of my 5 errors were on that passage.

!kung is a v hard passage and along with zones lg makes 67 a p hard pt

i don't get why the curve on 67 doesn't reflect these tough sections at all.

Agreed, 67 was hard. People say that all tests are of equal difficulty b/c the curve properly reflects the difficulty, but I disagree. Ther are some tests that are inherently more difficult and these still have tight curves. 67 is just one example.

[appind]

Finished PT69:
LR1: -3
LR2: -3
LG: -6
RC: -2
168 overall

LG is ruining my life, seriously. Every freakin' test it's around -5, and that's what is preventing me from hitting 170+. Pushed off taking the exam in Feb to fix games but it's not working out. Drilling doesn't help because I can usually finish sections I've already taken in around 25-30 min, it's just the first time I see a game I can't get my **** together. So aggravating. Can usually finish the 3 easier games in around 25-30, but it's that last/killer game that gets me every time. Anyone have any advice?

My LR wasn't bad here and I'm really happy with my RC score, especially since I thought I went like -5. Overall, I'd take a 168 for my first take in a second but it kills me to be giving up points with games.

I'm not retaking or anything, I was just bored and looking at this thread. So I guess I'm sort of an interloper?

Anyway, I really struggled with LG for a long time until I got my system down. So Mr or Ms Lawying, I think that you made need to try another process for setup.

Are you using the same notation system for the same question types? Are you taking time to find all of the deductions before jumping into the questions? Are you creating scenarios in your initial setup? Are you writing fresh diagrams for each question?

The way I improved my score way by doing the exact same process for every game.

is it a good idea to always do the bolded in all games?

[ayylmao]

174 (BR: 180)

LR: -1 (finally!)

Mmmmm, good job bby

thanks bro

[appind]

Feeling terrible today guys. Just took PT 73 and I haven't BR'ed it but god what a fucking trainwreck. RC and LR just nuked me, I barely even had enough time to finish the sections. I basically guessed on a couple questions. God wtf, do you sometimes feel like you're inexplicably dumber? I don't understand it. At least games felt fine. This test is like fucking whack a mole, every time I think I have one problem sorted three more just pop up.

Fuuuck after finals I think I'm gonna lock myself in a room with LR and RC for a weekend and just binge.

iirc you were scoring pretty high. could it be burnout?

[appind]

By far my BIGGEST issue with LR isn't so much my accuracy, it's more of my timing. I've noticed a trend in which within the given 35 minutes I can usually only complete about 22 questions, leaving 3-4 to be left to guessing. Sometimes I do go over the time just to finish up the questions and try to understand them in a fast manner, but this is my issue and I can't seem to shake it off. If I go over time btw, I usually only go about 5 mins more. I try my best to complete the first 8ish questions as fast as I can but sometimes slip up with my accuracy and get at least 1 of them wrong due to this mentality that the 1-8/10 should be the fastest to do. Any advice?

make it your goal to finish the first 10 in 10 minutes. after you can do that, do 15 in 15 minutes. once I did that, I finished LR sections with 1-2 minutes left and -1-3 across both sections. the important thing here is that the first 10 are by far the easiest questions in the section, so you can get away with just circling the correct answer once you see it, rather than eliminating every wrong answer even after you are confident you know the right one.

Great advice, but I want to add one thing. Don't assume the first 10 are easy. Often there are at least a couple of harder ones in there, and in at least a few instances most of them were difficult. While I totally agree with the 10 in 10, don't think that because you're at question 10 after 14 minutes means you are way behind pace...my two cents...time for PT

the recent LR has some a couple tough questions early on between q1-8 in the section that can really throw out the 10in10/15in15 rule out the window.

i for one am usually at 12-13 min after 10 q and 18-20 mins after 15q. somehow q16-20 go a lot faster for me than q10-15.