The Official October 2015 Study Group Forum

Mint-Berry_Crunch · Post by **Mint-Berry_Crunch** » Fri Aug 28, 2015 10:29 am

Post removed...

Billy Madison · Post by **Billy Madison** » Fri Aug 28, 2015 10:43 am

bigv wrote:
somethingelse55 wrote:So those of you who are planning on applying to schools this cycle, are you going to have all your apps 100% filled out and ready to go, and then once scores are in - and assuming you are happy enough with the score to go ahead and apply - THEN at that point officially submit apps?
I'm still trying to figure out how I'll go about it. I'm still in school, so I'll have to somehow juggle school, applications and maybe even more studying for December.

Right there with ya...

Is there anyone who started out terribly with LG on their diagnostic (by terribly I mean maybe 50%) and has improved to -2 or better on a consistent basis? I know people are out there in other threads, but I'm curious as to when most of you planning for Oct made a breakthrough. I've been studying since July, albeit inconsistently and largely reading through the LRB and LGB, but I'm still awful on LG. Too slow (10-15 mins per game, sometimes almost 20 mins for 7 question games) and often missing 1 question per game. I feel like a lot of people kill the LG and hate RC, but for me its the opposite. Starting to think I'll be waiting until next cycle so I can retake in Feb after studying for a couple months after graduating...

ugg · Post by **ugg** » Fri Aug 28, 2015 10:56 am

Post removed.

mist4bison · Post by **mist4bison** » Fri Aug 28, 2015 11:01 am

The Abyss wrote:
mist4bison wrote:Trying to figure out what to do tomorrow and would love advice. I went -4 on RC my last Pt and -10 before that. Both times I ran out of time and wasn't able to finish a passage. Because of that, I feel like I should focus on RC.

Right now I'm wondering if I should take a PT tomorrow or start drilling RC and plan to do 4 sections times (so 16 passages). I haven't really touched RC, so I feel like I should do that. However, I also know I need to start PTing more regularly. Thoughts on how to spend my weekend?
Drill RC tomorrow and PT Sunday, and see if the drilling helped.

That's a good idea. Or I'll take Monday off and PT then. Thanks!

mist4bison · Post by **mist4bison** » Fri Aug 28, 2015 11:03 am

Mint-Berry_Crunch wrote:
mist4bison wrote:
theugg wrote:Have you guys requested your letters of recommendation yet? I've been procrastinating.
My top two haven't submitted, but my two backups have. I'm wondering when I should send a reminder to the two that haven't if I want them in by Oct 20th or so.
When was the last time you talked to them? I would remind them, they're probably swamped with classes about to start and need an extra nudge.

I requested them in mid-July and gave a mid-October deadline, no specific date. I think I'll follow up this week and remind them and maybe give an exact date? Or should I wait longer to remind them? One of them I talked to about it a few days ago, so he knows he needs to do it. The other is a professor that I haven't talked to since mid-July.

The Abyss · Post by **The Abyss** » Fri Aug 28, 2015 11:10 am

mist4bison wrote:
Mint-Berry_Crunch wrote:
mist4bison wrote:
theugg wrote:Have you guys requested your letters of recommendation yet? I've been procrastinating.
My top two haven't submitted, but my two backups have. I'm wondering when I should send a reminder to the two that haven't if I want them in by Oct 20th or so.
When was the last time you talked to them? I would remind them, they're probably swamped with classes about to start and need an extra nudge.
I requested them in mid-July and gave a mid-October deadline, no specific date. I think I'll follow up this week and remind them and maybe give an exact date? Or should I wait longer to remind them? One of them I talked to about it a few days ago, so he knows he needs to do it. The other is a professor that I haven't talked to since mid-July.

I would remind the latter soon. Maybe say "if there is any additional information I can provide you to help just let me know."

MrBalloons · Post by **MrBalloons** » Fri Aug 28, 2015 11:18 am

gunton224 wrote:
bigv wrote:
somethingelse55 wrote:So those of you who are planning on applying to schools this cycle, are you going to have all your apps 100% filled out and ready to go, and then once scores are in - and assuming you are happy enough with the score to go ahead and apply - THEN at that point officially submit apps?
I'm still trying to figure out how I'll go about it. I'm still in school, so I'll have to somehow juggle school, applications and maybe even more studying for December.
Right there with ya...

Is there anyone who started out terribly with LG on their diagnostic (by terribly I mean maybe 50%) and has improved to -2 or better on a consistent basis? I know people are out there in other threads, but I'm curious as to when most of you planning for Oct made a breakthrough. I've been studying since July, albeit inconsistently and largely reading through the LRB and LGB, but I'm still awful on LG. Too slow (10-15 mins per game, sometimes almost 20 mins for 7 question games) and often missing 1 question per game. I feel like a lot of people kill the LG and hate RC, but for me its the opposite. Starting to think I'll be waiting until next cycle so I can retake in Feb after studying for a couple months after graduating...

I started off in the -6 to -9 range. After some poor studying, I'd gotten that to like -5 to -7. Then after a month of more focused studying I'm down to about -2 on average.

There was never a moment where it "clicked." I just started doing better.

mist4bison · Post by **mist4bison** » Fri Aug 28, 2015 11:22 am

The Abyss wrote:
mist4bison wrote:
Mint-Berry_Crunch wrote:
mist4bison wrote:
theugg wrote:Have you guys requested your letters of recommendation yet? I've been procrastinating.
My top two haven't submitted, but my two backups have. I'm wondering when I should send a reminder to the two that haven't if I want them in by Oct 20th or so.
When was the last time you talked to them? I would remind them, they're probably swamped with classes about to start and need an extra nudge.
I requested them in mid-July and gave a mid-October deadline, no specific date. I think I'll follow up this week and remind them and maybe give an exact date? Or should I wait longer to remind them? One of them I talked to about it a few days ago, so he knows he needs to do it. The other is a professor that I haven't talked to since mid-July.
I would remind the latter soon. Maybe say "if there is any additional information I can provide you to help just let me know."

Yeah, that's good. Not pushy. Thanks for the advice.

pterodactyls · Post by **pterodactyls** » Fri Aug 28, 2015 11:32 am

Took PT 54 on Monday. Just finished BR last night (had a busy week).

RC1-EXP: -9 (-2 BR)
RC2: -10 (-10 BR)
LR1: -2 (-1 BR)
LG: -1
LR2: -5 (-2 BR)

Total -18 / 162... BR -15 / 165.

One silly mistake on LG because I misread a question. For LR, I feel like that's a pretty decent place to be 5 weeks from the test. RC is killing me. Even BR'ing the one passage, I corrected a few answers but changed others that were correct, so still ended up with -10.

Been going through the Manhattan RC book. Going to finish it today. Then deciding whether to take PTs all weekend (could fit in ~3) or if I should start by drilling RC. Drilling games worked wonders for me (just made copies of 160 of them and did them all). Wondering if I should make copies of the RC passages from one of my older "10 LSAT" books and just drill them all. Maybe that will help me solidify a strategy. Then could maybe do a PT on Sunday. Any advice on drilling RC vs. whole PTs?

Goal is 175. Would be great for October but will retake in December if necessary. But my problem is pretty isolated to RC (I'm sure I can get my LR down in 5 weeks). If I could just get my RC to -3/-2 or so, I would be set. If I could go -3 RC and -3 total LR on the test, that should put me around 175.

Any advice for RC studying is much appreciated!

PatriotP74 · Post by **PatriotP74** » Fri Aug 28, 2015 11:37 am

Post removed...

Billy Madison · Post by **Billy Madison** » Fri Aug 28, 2015 12:19 pm

MrBalloons wrote:
gunton224 wrote:
bigv wrote:
somethingelse55 wrote:So those of you who are planning on applying to schools this cycle, are you going to have all your apps 100% filled out and ready to go, and then once scores are in - and assuming you are happy enough with the score to go ahead and apply - THEN at that point officially submit apps?
I'm still trying to figure out how I'll go about it. I'm still in school, so I'll have to somehow juggle school, applications and maybe even more studying for December.
Right there with ya...

Is there anyone who started out terribly with LG on their diagnostic (by terribly I mean maybe 50%) and has improved to -2 or better on a consistent basis? I know people are out there in other threads, but I'm curious as to when most of you planning for Oct made a breakthrough. I've been studying since July, albeit inconsistently and largely reading through the LRB and LGB, but I'm still awful on LG. Too slow (10-15 mins per game, sometimes almost 20 mins for 7 question games) and often missing 1 question per game. I feel like a lot of people kill the LG and hate RC, but for me its the opposite. Starting to think I'll be waiting until next cycle so I can retake in Feb after studying for a couple months after graduating...
I started off in the -6 to -9 range. After some poor studying, I'd gotten that to like -5 to -7. Then after a month of more focused studying I'm down to about -2 on average.

There was never a moment where it "clicked." I just started doing better.

Was "studying" simply drilling over and over or did you utilize some other method?

lymenheimer · Post by **lymenheimer** » Fri Aug 28, 2015 1:10 pm

pterodactyls wrote:Took PT 54 on Monday. Just finished BR last night (had a busy week).

RC1-EXP: -9 (-2 BR)
RC2: -10 (-10 BR)
LR1: -2 (-1 BR)
LG: -1
LR2: -5 (-2 BR)

Total -18 / 162... BR -15 / 165.

One silly mistake on LG because I misread a question. For LR, I feel like that's a pretty decent place to be 5 weeks from the test. RC is killing me. Even BR'ing the one passage, I corrected a few answers but changed others that were correct, so still ended up with -10.

Been going through the Manhattan RC book. Going to finish it today. Then deciding whether to take PTs all weekend (could fit in ~3) or if I should start by drilling RC. Drilling games worked wonders for me (just made copies of 160 of them and did them all). Wondering if I should make copies of the RC passages from one of my older "10 LSAT" books and just drill them all. Maybe that will help me solidify a strategy. Then could maybe do a PT on Sunday. Any advice on drilling RC vs. whole PTs?

Goal is 175. Would be great for October but will retake in December if necessary. But my problem is pretty isolated to RC (I'm sure I can get my LR down in 5 weeks). If I could just get my RC to -3/-2 or so, I would be set. If I could go -3 RC and -3 total LR on the test, that should put me around 175.

Any advice for RC studying is much appreciated!

RC is my nervous section because I usually do the worst and have less room for error since if I misread one part of the passage it can cause me to miss most of the questions in that section. I went RC -2 on the June test and I am honestly surprised at that, but I did take some steps to improve my score on it. If you want to PM me instead of talking over everyone ITT, I'd be happy to try and help you work out some issues you may be having.

MrBalloons · Post by **MrBalloons** » Fri Aug 28, 2015 1:12 pm

gunton224 wrote: Was "studying" simply drilling over and over or did you utilize some other method?

Just drilling with Cambridge packets. And using 7sage video explanations.

I did a little of it in July (maybe 10 hours on the whole for the month) and probably 40 hours in August and I've seen big, big improvement.

lymenheimer · Post by **lymenheimer** » Fri Aug 28, 2015 1:15 pm

gunton224 wrote:
Was "studying" simply drilling over and over or did you utilize some other method?

I'm sorry if you've discussed your study method prior, I've been absent ITT but I'm feeling helpful today. I did not have the problem described above. When I took an untimed cold test, I had some idea what to do with the games (in that I understood the logic) but didn't think to diagram to keep my thoughts organized, so I missed some of the more in depth questions and they took me longer to work through. Then, when I realized people diagrammed, I did what made sense for me. How did you start learning logic games? Did you have any exposure prior to studying with them, or are you struggling with understanding a diagramming method? If you want to PM me, feel free. I know that LG was my strongest point, so I may not be very helpful for learning LG, but I may be able to help you click with some study technique.

lymenheimer · Post by **lymenheimer** » Fri Aug 28, 2015 1:36 pm

How close are people actually coming to their untimed practice test/blind review scores when doing timed scoring? This will be my 3rd take, so not a cold score by any means. I'm just trying to jump into a studying schedule now (work is slowing down finally) and over the past 2(?) days I did a walk through of PT 32 and did very well (significantly better than my previous test score). This is also recognizing that the curve was -14 (I do not know if this test was generally easier, but the -14 curve makes me think it was a bit harder comparatively). I did not take a ridiculous amount of time on each section (maybe 45-60 minutes total with some interruptions included in that time), and did not go behind myself checking every answer for correctness. Has anyone been particularly successful (recently or in a short amount of time) at converting their high untimed scores to a similarly high timed score? I guess with the "accuracy --> timing" study method, I am (re-)starting at a good place, I suppose I'm just looking for some anecdotal comfort saying that I might not actually score horribly when I get closer to strict timing.

numb3r4 · Post by **numb3r4** » Fri Aug 28, 2015 1:52 pm

In three months we're all going to be sitting around waiting for acceptance letters.

gamerish · Post by **gamerish** » Fri Aug 28, 2015 2:36 pm

Post removed...

PoopNpants · Post by **PoopNpants** » Fri Aug 28, 2015 3:03 pm

numb3r4 wrote:In three months we're all going to be sitting around waiting for acceptance letters with full schollies.

FTFY

MrBalloons · Post by **MrBalloons** » Fri Aug 28, 2015 4:06 pm

PT 69 went 173.

LR1: -3
LG: -2
RC: -2
LR2: -1

Will be (somewhat) blind reviewing tonight. Not too happy with the -6 on non-LG, but it's my 6th test in a row over 170, so I can't complain much.

PatriotP74 · Post by **PatriotP74** » Fri Aug 28, 2015 4:41 pm

Post removed...

pterodactyls · Post by **pterodactyls** » Fri Aug 28, 2015 6:07 pm

PatriotP74 wrote:
numb3r4 wrote:In three months we're all going to be sitting around waiting for acceptance letters.
Or in the December study group

True life

pterodactyls · Post by **pterodactyls** » Fri Aug 28, 2015 6:28 pm

Going to try drilling RC this weekend after I finish the Manhattan book. Went to the library and made copies of 72 RC passages from old tests (that I wasn't planning on using for full PTs).

I learned LG pretty fast by untimed drilling (though games are much easier to learn - I know), so I'm hoping it can help me with RC as well. I think going through the passages without a time limit (though still timing myself so I can track if I'm getting faster) and taking the time to identify why each incorrect answer is wrong and why the correct answer is right will help me learn. I think part of it is just learning the patterns and question types and getting a reading strategy down.

Here's to a productive weekend! My noisy roommate is away, so there is some serious studying to be done.

RZ5646 · Post by **RZ5646** » Fri Aug 28, 2015 6:48 pm

How did you go about requesting LoRs? Did you email them your resume, PT scores, PS? Advice about what you want highlighted?

The Abyss · Post by **The Abyss** » Fri Aug 28, 2015 6:50 pm

RZ5646 wrote:How did you go about requesting LoRs? Did you email them your resume, PT scores, PS? Advice about what you want highlighted?

Visited during office hours with my resume, ps and transcript and gave them a quick rundown on why I wanted to attend law school.

RZ5646 · Post by **RZ5646** » Fri Aug 28, 2015 6:57 pm

The Abyss wrote:
RZ5646 wrote:How did you go about requesting LoRs? Did you email them your resume, PT scores, PS? Advice about what you want highlighted?
Visited during office hours with my resume, ps and transcript and gave them a quick rundown on why I wanted to attend law school.

I need to get started on a PS asap, but I really have no idea what to write about.