December LSAT Study Diary (formerly October) Forum

[Anaconda]

Tuesday, July 6

Started with Must Be True Questions. Here's how I did:

1 Star: 7/10
2 Star: 12/13
3 Star: 4/5
4 Star: 4/9

Total: 27/37 (73%)

Annoying how poorly I did on 1 star questions, especially in comparison to 2 & 3 star problems.

Did Most Strong Supported Questions as well:

1 Star: 6/7
2 Star: 8/9
3 Star: 1/4
4 Star: 2/6

Total: 17/26 (65%)

I'm clearly struggling here, and the lack of noticeable improvement is really disheartening.

Edit: Did 4 more problems tonight:

2 Star: 3/3
3 Star: 1/1

This makes me feel a little bit better, especially since I tried these 4 after extensively reviewing my errors from before.

Total for day: 48/67 (72%). My goal for the LSAT is to get 90%+ of the LR questions correct.

[Nulli Secundus]

I am at 12 PTs with 172,25 dynamic average right now.

Have no idea whether this is a sucky method, but I will just take every PT there is, read explanations for questions and read bibles the last, for them to function as a true review instead of as tools for cheating my way in the future PTs where questions were taken (and no, for me, doood you wont remember the question when you come across it in the PT argument does not work, I do ).

Waddya think?

[Audio Technica Guy]

I am at 12 PTs with 172,25 dynamic average right now.

Have no idea whether this is a sucky method, but I will just take every PT there is, read explanations for questions and read bibles the last, for them to function as a true review instead of as tools for cheating my way in the future PTs where questions were taken (and no, for me, doood you wont remember the question when you come across it in the PT argument does not work, I do ).

Waddya think?

So you're practicing first and then learning how to do the methods second?

[Nulli Secundus]

Well, yes indeed it sounds counterintuitive but I have no area I specifically fail, my mistakes are usually due to lack of focus. Thus, I didn't think I need to do a lot of reading about specific question types and taking all PTs when I never saw any of the questions in them ever before somehow seemed better. But I am open to suggestions.

[LSAT Blog]

I am at 12 PTs with 172,25 dynamic average right now.

Have no idea whether this is a sucky method, but I will just take every PT there is, read explanations for questions and read bibles the last, for them to function as a true review instead of as tools for cheating my way in the future PTs where questions were taken (and no, for me, doood you wont remember the question when you come across it in the PT argument does not work, I do ).

Waddya think?

So you're practicing first and then learning how to do the methods second?

+1,000,000

You should learn techniques first, then practice.

Skip the questions in the bibles taken from the most recent PTs if remembering them is a concern. Most of the questions in the bibles are taken from older PTs, so there's still plenty to learn from without ruining the newer PTs.

Taking all 65 released PTs without techniques is far from the most effective way to go about your prep. I'd go so far as to say that it's a "sucky method."

[Anaconda]

Wed, July 6th

Most Strongly Supported/Must Be True:

1 Star: 4/4
2 Star: 16/20
3 Star: 4/5
4 Star: 5/10

Total: 29/39

Edit: In my last 10, I got 9/10, including four 1 stars, four 3 stars (all right), and two 4 stars (1/2 right)

Updated Total:

1 Star: 8/8
2 Star: 16/20
3 Star: 8/9
4 Star: 6/12

38/49 = (78%)

Will try to tackle some more later tonight. Although ~80% isn't bad, I still want to get it over 90%, clearly seems that 4 stars are killing me.

[Anaconda]

Thursday, July 8

Breakthrough!

Did some more must be true/ most supported questions.
1 star: 10/12
2 star: 6/6
3 star: 9/9
4 star: 6/8

Total 31/35 (89%)
For some reason it seemed everything clicked today. I knew how to attack the answer choices, and knew when I saw the right answer.

These did take me a long time though, so speed obviously a major concern since i'd like to maintain this accuracy.

[Norlan]

Tuesday, July 6

Started with Must Be True Questions. Here's how I did:

1 Star: 7/10
2 Star: 12/13
3 Star: 4/5
4 Star: 4/9

Total: 27/37 (73%)

Annoying how poorly I did on 1 star questions, especially in comparison to 2 & 3 star problems.

Did Most Strong Supported Questions as well:

1 Star: 6/7
2 Star: 8/9
3 Star: 1/4
4 Star: 2/6

Total: 17/26 (65%)

I'm clearly struggling here, and the lack of noticeable improvement is really disheartening.

Edit: Did 4 more problems tonight:

2 Star: 3/3
3 Star: 1/1

This makes me feel a little bit better, especially since I tried these 4 after extensively reviewing my errors from before.

Total for day: 48/67 (72%). My goal for the LSAT is to get 90%+ of the LR questions correct.

Are you timing yourself for doing all these?

[Anaconda]

Nope.

Tuesday, July 6

Started with Must Be True Questions. Here's how I did:

1 Star: 7/10
2 Star: 12/13
3 Star: 4/5
4 Star: 4/9

Total: 27/37 (73%)

Annoying how poorly I did on 1 star questions, especially in comparison to 2 & 3 star problems.

Did Most Strong Supported Questions as well:

1 Star: 6/7
2 Star: 8/9
3 Star: 1/4
4 Star: 2/6

Total: 17/26 (65%)

I'm clearly struggling here, and the lack of noticeable improvement is really disheartening.

Edit: Did 4 more problems tonight:

2 Star: 3/3
3 Star: 1/1

This makes me feel a little bit better, especially since I tried these 4 after extensively reviewing my errors from before.

Total for day: 48/67 (72%). My goal for the LSAT is to get 90%+ of the LR questions correct.

Are you timing yourself for doing all these?

[Anaconda]

Didn't do much this weekend besides a couple Must Be True problems. I was preoccupied all week, with tons of distractions and I did TERRIBLY on the problems that I tried. At point, I got 0/7 4 star questions I did. When I did a few problems when I wasn't distracted and was focused, I got 4/4 2 stars, and 2/2 4 stars right, so I'm hoping my abysmal ~50% rate this past weekend was due to a lack of focus and fatigue from lack of sleep. The questions I mainly struggle on are the conditional reasoning ones, especially the very long ones. I get overwhelmed.

Monday, July 12th

Read LRB chapter on Main Point Questions

Did some questions afterwards:

1 Star: 11/12
2 Star: 13/16
3 Star: 1/1
4 Star: 2/4

Total: 27/33 (82%) - could have done much better, I did always get the right answer down to the last two, however. I'll do about 30 more MP questions tonight or tomorrow. There's not too much to MP - much easier than MBT.

---

Logic Games - after only 10-11 days of not looking at LG's, my skills are significantly rusty.

Did 6 problems - got a total of 30/39 (77% - ouch) - none were very difficult according to the Q rater

PT 5 Game 3 - Got 3/6 (!!) in 9 min 20 sec. I got lazy here. Had I plugged in everything with some effort I would have easily gotten -1/-0; I was just careless.

PT 32 Game 4 - Got 5/6 in 8 min 20 sec. Got 2/3 of 4 star questions right.

PT 15 Game 1 - Got 5/6 in 9 min 30 sec. Made stupid mistake of not diagraming possibilities of an easy question.

PT 13 Game 3 - Got 5/6 in 9 min 30 sec. Struggled with 4 star question. In reality I was just missing how to tackle it properly - which was simply process of elimination.

PT 34 Game 3 - 4/6 in 10 min - this was a tricky sequencing game, got both 4 star questions wrong. Once again, failed to diagram all the possibilities to make the questions easier.

PT 21 Game 3 - 3/6 - advanced linear - didn't make out the 3 possibilities, so questions were very hard.

PT 35 Game 3 (advanced linear) - 5/5 in under 8 minutes - not bad at all - 2 2 stars, and 3 3 stars

Total:
1 star: 9/9
2 star: 12/15
3 star: 6/9
4 star: 3/8

I'm very concerned that I'm doing so poorly on fairly average games, and these were all re-dos. Is it normal to decline so much after just 2 weeks of not touching LG's?

[Anaconda]

Tuesday, July 13

Did a lot of reading in the LRB (chapters 6 + 7)

Finished up the remaining Main Point questions - did okay on them, but missed a few 1 star questions (wtf?) - and maybe only got like 75% total right. Might need some review on conclusions.

Also started doing Weaken questions. Although they seemed hard at first, I got 10/12 right that I tried, including 3/3 4 stars (I missed one 2 star, and one 3 star). Will hopefully do ~30 more tomorrow. With 199 Weaken question (from Cambridge) I hopefully won't have to do many of them. I'll try to save a lot of the 3 and 4 star questions for later review closer to the exam if I have that liberty (meaning I do well on Weaken questions).

Also did 2 logic games:

PT 3 Game 4 (partially defined grouping) - on this one I didn't realize all the pilots could only be in one plane. Funny since I did this game on 6/24, and got 4/5 right in under 8 minutes. Once I realized something was seriously wrong, I redid the problem and it was a piece of cake

PT 31 Game 1 (advanced linear) - 6/6 in 5 min 40 sec. This game got all 1 and 2's from Kaplan. Piece of cake. I've done the other LG's from PT 31, and this was certainly a little confidence booster before 3 much more difficult games.


Goal for tomorrow:

Continue w/ Weaken questions
Do 2-3 more logic games (no rush to do more since they're all review)
Start chapter 8 in the LRB, start new problem types IF I like where I am w/ weaken questions.

[Anaconda]

Did A LOT of Weaken questions today (pretty much finished them up) with very disappointing results. It was pretty much a marathon, so I broke off the questions into several sections during the course of the day.

My results:

1 Star: 7/7
2 Star: 30/42
3 Star: 9/15
4 Star: 10/21

56/85 (66%)

The things that pisses me off is that I got 10/12 last night, including 3/3 on 4 stars. WTF?

I did WAY too many LR q's today, but since I was doing so consistently poorly, I kept pushing and pushing myself and the results never came.

Also did 2 LG's repeats:

PT 2 Game 2 (Basic Linear) - 7/7 in 6 min 30 sec. Destroyed this game, had 3 1 stars, and 3 3 stars.

PT 22 Game 3 (Advanced Linear) - 3/5 in 5 min 50 sec. Don't know what I was thinking on the 2 I got wrong. They were beyond careless mistakes.

Tomorrow I'm going to deeply analyze every single LR problem I got wrong today (I analyzed the ones I got wrong today, but that clearly didn't work) and hopefully do a few more LG problems. On Friday, I'll start another chapter in the LRB and hopefully progress. Lack of progress on LR is so, so, so disheartening.

[Anaconda]

Thursday, July 15th

Procrastination fever hit me today (which is amazing what I call procrastination after I probably did 2-2.5 hours of LSAT stuff today), but after the last 2 long days of 7+ hours each, I took it really easy today.

I simply went over 20+ of the weaken questions I got wrong yesterday, and slowly and carefully re-did them all, writing down explanations why I thought the wrong answers were wrong, and why the right answers were right. Only got 2 wrong, but they were tricky, and considering I got these questions all wrong yesterday, it's a great feeling that I was able to understand and write down the reasoning behind everything. This is a helpful strategy I'll try to continue in future LR problems.

I also read chapter 8 in the LRB on cause and effect. This chapter is a jewel since it has a pretty key rule that a cause and effect relationship in the conclusion is always a flaw. Knowing this makes the questions that has this a breeze since you know exactly what the answer will address.

Also tried one infamous LG:

PT 36 Game (Bus - aisle/window game: advanced linear): This game is a beast! First misread the rule the H and G were aisle seats, which is why I was finding the game impossible. Afterwards I did the game, but it probably took me over 15 minutes although I got a 5/5. This is a cruel game. It's only 5 questions but very time consuming since you have to try out most of the answer choices. The games on PT 36 are brutal.

Tomorrow I'm going to start chapter 9 on Strengthen, Assumption, and Justify questions. I hope to finish the chapter and questions by the weekend.

I might take a preptest next week, just to see where I am, but I'm a little nervous that I'll get a disappointing score. I'd like to be at a 160 right now, but I think it might be high 150's if I had to guess.

[Anaconda]

Friday, July 16th

Did a bunch of strengthen questions writing down brief mini explanations for every answer choice:

1 Star: 8/8
2 Star: 13/13
3 Star: 6/15
4 Star: 7/12

Total: 34/48 (71%) - YUCK

My fundamentals seem to be strong on the easy questions, but turn to hell on the harder ones.

What's up with 3 star questions? I seemed to have misread a lot of stimuli and answer choices, I did a lot better on 4 star question than 3 star questions!!

I need to read more carefully, even though I did all questions untimed with mini explanations for each answer choice...


Also did 3 fairly easy LG's according to Kaplan, all basic linear, and I made mistakes on all of them...

PT 3 Game 2 - Got 5/6 in 8 min 45 sec. This game was one of the first LG i EVER did, and I messed up on it big time then, and did the same here. Kept on confusing East West and the positions that correspond, so even though 5/6 q's were 1 stars, I still somewhat struggled.

PT 21 Game 3 - Got 4/5 in 10 min 30 sec. This game is really annoying. Don't know why it took me so long, but there are much harder games of this type that I've encountered before.

PT 13 Game 2 - Got 4/5 in 7 min 20 sec. Made a really stupid mistake with a hypothetical diagram for one of the questions, otherwise would have gotten them all right.

Bottom line: Haven't done basic linear problems in a while and it showed.

[Anaconda]

Sunday, July 18th

Today I only did re-dos of LR questions (Main Point, MBT, Most strongly supported).

For some 3 star, and all 4 star questions, I typed out detailed explanations which I think help out a lot. As I was doing the questions, I was very careful, and had little/no problem seeing why the right answers were corrects and why the wrong answer choices had problems. Only got 2 questions wrong all day (one was a stupid and careless error on a 1 star problem). About 20-22 were 3 and 4 star questions. Granted, I did these all before, but it was nice that I was able to articulate all the answer choices, and notice why I made stupid mistakes/saw why I picked the wrong answer choice on the ones I got wrong again.

These questions (expect for one insane formal logic question I got wrong - and luckily Kaplan says no longer appears on the LSAT) all seemed like a piece of cake, I was able to quickly rip apart each question about 80% of the time. Only a handful made me ponder the last two choices I had left.

Only downside is typing out 13 question explanations took 2100 words, which is a lot, but totally worth it.

I think this strategy of redoing the questions and then typing out the answer key for the hardest is VERY effective. I'm going to do it again tomorrow with weaken questions, and then again next week w/ more types of questions. After being so down the past week with little/no improvement in LR, I now feel like I simple understand how to attack these questions and how to spot attractive but wrong answer choices.



Tomorrow I'm going to do the same thing for weaken questions (maybe 15-20 questions, type out the ten hardest) and do 4-6 logic games.

[Anaconda]

Monday, July 19th

Today I worked on weaken questions for LR. I did ~25 repeats, mostly all 3 stars and 4 stars. I typed out detail explanations for like 8 or 10 questions. On the few I did get wrong again, I either misread one of the answer-choices or wasn't expanding my thought bubble enough to see how the right answer could weaken the conclusion. Weaken questions are definitely harder than MBP/MP, but I think today's session was helpful in understanding how to spot the right answer - mostly by attacking the conclusion or undermining how that conclusion was reached or finding alternative explanations.

I also did 4 logic games, taking me a total of ~37 minutes. Timing could definitely be improved, as could accuracy:

PT 34 Game 1 - supermarket aisles (basic linear unbalanced) 6/7 in 11 minutes. This game is really hard, especially for a linear game. 5/7 questions were 4 stars, so every questions right was earned. One the question I got wrong (#5) i made the fatal mistake of NOT using the the maximum separation possible, so I wasn't able to get one correct answer. When I looked over the answers, I realized I missed another scenario that would indeed result in max. separation.

PT 10 game 4 (grouping/linear combo) - 6/6 in 7 min 50 sec. game wasn't too bad. A lot of the solution simply required analyzing the rules, rather than diagramming, so it makes you feel smart if you get them all right.

PT 10 Games 1 (pure sequencing) - 4/5 in 9 minutes - this is a weird sequencing/slight grouping game. One question tripped me up, but when I looked at the answer, it seemed obvious.

PT 26 Game 1 (advanced linear balanced) - 6/7 in 9 minutes. Got a 2 star wrong that I shouldn't have, simply wasn't being careful enough.

Tomorrow, I'm going to read the LRB on Justify questions, and do a few more LG's. I'm really, really, really tempted to take a PT on Thursday or Friday and see where I am. If I get a 160, I think my confidence will shoot through the roof, since I haven't touched RC, and wouldn't have gotten half-way in the LRB at that point. That would mean my raw score improved by 10-12 points, which I feel pretty good about at this point.

[Anaconda]

Tuesday, July 20

Today focused on Justify/Sufficient Assumption questions. At first I was totally clueless even after reading the LRB. These questions are HARD. Started off distatrous:

1 Star: 2/4
2 Star: 1/3
3 Star: 2/2
4 Star: 1/3

For the questions I got wrong and the 3+4 stars, I typed out explanations.

I re-read the LRB chapter later in the day and did some more:
1 Star: 4/4
2 Star: 3/3
4 Star: 1/3

On the 4 stars, I was able to get the right answer down to the last 2 for each - I even picked the correct answer for the two I got wrong, and then switched it to the wrong answer! One of the questions I got wrong I simply cannot tell why the right answer is right and why the wrong answer is wrong (conditionals). Complex conditionals are not fun.

Also did 2 LG's both basic linear/sequencing - both given easy rating by Kaplan

PT 29 Game 3 - 6/6 in 12 minutes 30 sec (!!!!) - this game took me forever and none of the answers came quickly. I think this is because of the lack of clear diagramming. Kaplan actually has a nice diagramming model for sequencing games I think I might use. Had I used their model, this game would have taken me 4-5 minutes less.

PT 26 Game 2 - 5/5 in 6 minutes 30 seconds. Game was a breeze, 4 questions were 1 stars and 1 questions was a 2 star.


---

Not sure if I should finish the few Justify questions I have (only ~60 total for the first 38 PT's) or move on to assumption questions (200+).

If I do only justify questions tomorrow, I'll probably start the RCB.

[Anaconda]

Wednesday, July 21

Did the LRB chapter on Assumption (necessary assumption) questions.

Started off very shaky, only getting 50-60% right on 1 and 2 stars, and terrible on 3 and 4 stars.

By the end of the night, I was doing a lot better on 1 and 2 Star questions, better on 3 stars (but still inconsistent), and around 40-50% for 4 stars.

Assumption questions are fun, tricky, and a pain all at the same time.

Totals for day

1 Star: 6/8
2 Star: 10/13
3 Star: 10/15 (bizarre strings of 1/4, 2/4, 4/4, 3/3)
4 Star: 3/8

Total: 66% (29/44)

Tomorrow I am doing PT 14. My first PT since my diagnostic almost 2 months ago (scored 152). I'm really hoping I hit 160. I'd like to see AT LEAST upper 150's - so at least I know I made some progress these past 2 months. My initial raw score was a 62. I'd like to get at least a 75. If I hit a 88/89 on the actual LSAT, I'll be ecstatic, so a 75 would signify solid progress towards that goal, with 2 1/2 months left to study and 30 PT's available for me to take. The way it's looking now, if I don't meet expectations in October, I should still have a solid 10-15 used PT's, since there's no way I'll be able to do 1 PT every other day, especially once school starts.

[Anaconda]

RESULTS OF PT 14

LG : (-2) 22/24
LR1: (-6) 19/25
RC: (-7) 20/27
LR2: (-9) 16/25

Total: 77/101 (-24)
Score: 161

Improvement from my diagnostic (PT 36): 152 --> 161, +16 raw score

Raw Score Comparison (Diagnostic -> Most recent PT)
LR: -22 -> -15 (+7)
RC: -9 -> -7 (+2)
LG: -9 -> -2 (LG in diagnostic were much harder) (+7)

Test difficulty breakdown in comparison to initial diagnostic:

Logic Games - this exam was much easier than diagnostic
PT 14/PT 36
1 Star: 9/4
2 Star: 11/6
3 Star: 3/6
4 Star: 1/7

Reading Comp - comparable
PT 14/PT 36
1 Star: 14/9
2 Star: 8/11
3 Star: 2/4
4 Star: 3/2


Logic Reasoning
PT 14/PT 36 - comparable
1 Star: 17/19
2 Star: 15/11
3 Star: 8/ 11
4 Star: 10/11

Satisfied with my progress, but several points of concern:
-I cheated with RC - gave myself 2-3.5 extra minutes
-I wasn't confident on any of the LR/RC - no answers seemed like a slam-dunk, I almost felt as if I was guessing on every question
-felt rushed the whole exam
-struggled to understand the set-up of game 1, and struggled in general on game 3
-couldn't sleep very much last night - the test was definitely on my mind

LR feels completely different between practicing individual problems untimed and taking a PT. During this PT I felt like I wasn't consciously applying any tricks/strategy employed in the LRB. For example, I didn't really ever used the negation trick when faced with assumption questions. Kind of lost on how to utilize strategies/tricks when doing the LR section.

I got 70% accuracy on LR. I need to bring that up to 80-85% to have a competitive score. Hopefully once I finish the LRB, it will be up to 75% or higher, and then I can move from there once I start taking regular PT and become familiar with taking actual LR sections rather than doing individual problems.

I have A LOT of work left with LR and RC. LG seem kind of solid, however the LGs on this test were fairly easy - no infamous games here. The fact that I struggled on two of them isn't a positive sign. Had I had a snakes/lizards or birds in a forest game, I could have seen myself getting -6/-7 on games.

[Anaconda]

Friday, July 23rd

Today I only reviewed the LR sections from PT 14. Also read the LRB chapter on Paradox questions.


Tomorrow I'm going to re-read the chapter on Paradox q's, actually do some practice questions, start the RCB, and do a few LG's.

[Anaconda]

Saturday, July 24th

Did a bunch of Paradox games. And ironically the breakdown of how I did is kind of a paradox:

1 Star: 6/7
2 Star: 7/10 (WTF?)
3 Star: 6/6
4 Star: 4/4

Overall: 23/27

I really did not have any trouble on the 3 and 4 stars, in fact almost all the answers seemed pretty obvious to me. Don't know why I'm so inconsistent on the EASIER paradox questions...

I love paradox questions, they're actually fun to do and I don't think there's much ambiguity in them in comparison to other question types.

Also did 2 LG's:

PT 36 Game 2 (advanced linear) - 7/7 in 7 minutes. This was a game I did on my original diagnostic (only got a 5/7). I killed this game, and made a lot of key deductions early on which made the questions easy. Overall game wasn't hard at all, but nice to know I did well on it and I've made some big improvements since I started studying.

PT 20 Game 1 (advanced linear) - 5/5 in 9 min 50 sec. Poor diagramming messed me up. I had trouble reading the rules, which is why it took me so long. The questions are really easy - all were 2 stars. I seem to have trouble with games involving seats, but I think had I written/understood the rules correctly from the beginning, I would have finished this in 7-8 minutes. Have to be more careful with rule wording (confused besides with behind, which I'm sure was intentional on LSAC's part to mess people up on an easy game).


Also read a few pages in the RCB. Also redid 2 of the RC passages from PT 14. I went from a -6 between the two to a -3, which isn't too bad, but 100% accuracy is key. I think timing is really my biggest problem, I think I could get a -4/-5 on RC untimed, but when I'm rushed I get -7 to -10.

Tonight, I'm going to start reading some heavy reading (Scientific America, Economist, etc.) to get my mind in RC form.

Tomorrow, I'm going to start reading the RCB in depth and also read the chapter on formal logic in the LRB (yuck), and also do a few more LG's.

I'm aiming for another PT by the first week of August. Hopefully I'll have finished the LR bible by then.

[Anaconda]

Sunday, July 25th

LR:
-Read the chapter on formal logic. LR's techniques seem easy to apply on the easy formal logic questions, but I think I'm screwed if I get a really hard question. I'm going to review this chapter again tomorrow and redo the drills.


Also worked on Method (Argument) questions.

1 Star: 4/4
2 Star: 3/4
3 Star: 6/6
4 Star 3/6

Total: 16/20 (actually 20/24 if I include the ones I got right in the LRB - including a really, really hard 4 star)

There's a HUGE discrepancy between the 4 stars and 3 stars, the 4 stars have highly abstract answer choices which makes eliminating four kind of difficult to do.

One thing I'm noticing now is that I seem to be approaching LR problem way more effectively. I'm starting to see shell answers more often than I used to, noticing the subtle tricks the test creators use to try to trip you up. Even though I only got 3/6 right on the 4 star, on 2/3 I got wrong, I was able to knock it down to the best 2 options, so it was a 50/50 in those 2 cases. The answers for method questions are really subtle, but one word or perspective makes all the difference (ex - the difference between undermining the conclusion and demonstrating reasoning is flawed: both are totally distinct things, but it's easy to understand how one can pick one over the other, especially if the rest of the answer choice is enticing).


I'm going to do some more questions tomorrow, including Method (Statement) questions.

RC: read chapter from the RCB - on the "VIEW-STAMP" way of approaching the passages (different views, structure, tone, arguments, main point).


LG: Did 2 games:

PT 2 Game 4 (about a dog show - advanced linear): 6/7 in 9 min 45 sec. This game was hard! It was totally deduction based, and there were so many to make that it's easy to comprehend why it can take so long to finish. This game had three 4 stars, one 3 Star, and three 2 stars, so it was most definitely not an easy game. I got the 3 star wrong - pretty stupid mistake in retrospect, don't know what I was thinking. This was the kind of game where I felt confident with my answers but felt uneasy and nervous when doing the actual game.

PT 20 Game 2: 6/7 in 8 min 20 sec - this is an annoying grouping game based only on conditionals. Had two 4 stars, two 2 stars and three 1 stars, so 2 questions definitely made the game a little tricky. Of course my wrong answer was a 2 star question, and it was a stupid misreading of the question. Otherwise, I should have theoretically had a -0 on this one. This is a good game because it's a fairly basic in-out game - nowhere near as brutal as some of the classic in-out games but still requires you to use similar tactics to break the game down.

[Anaconda]

Monday, July 26th
LR: Did some more Method questions - this time with poor results.

I suck at Method statement questions, and I got several Method Argument questions wrong. Abstract language is destroying me. If the language is clear even on the 3 and 4 stars, I get them right. If the language is heavily abstract, I get them wrong.

I'm going to write out explanations for each one I got wrong today.

LG: Did 2 games ---

PT 30 Game 3 - the infamous car wash game with Vinquetta and Jabrohn! I couldn't do this the first time I tried today! 14 minutes in after guessing on 5/6 questions, I gave up and looked at Kaplan's diagram. They did 2 separate diagrams to signify the possible positions of the floater. Why couldn't I think of that? It's alarming that I froze and was unable to improvise. Seriously troublesome... What if this was the actual LSAT? This would have totally demoralized me (I actually got 3/6 on educated guessing which isn't terrible, haha). Why the hell didn't I even think of making 4 hypotheticals to place where the floater needed to go - would have taken longer but it would have worked - real lapse in strategy here.

When I did set it up using 2 main hypothetical scenarios, I got 6/6 in 8 minutes 30 seconds. This game SUCKS because it's easy if you diagram it correctly and make all the inferences....IF...5/6 questions are 4 stars, which means this game is easily one of the toughest ever. I will be doing this one again, and certainly on the day before the LSAT******

PT 12 Game 2 - easy grouping game. 5/5 in 6 min 30 sec. Three questions were 2 stars, one was a 1 star, and one was a 3 star.
No trouble here, very straightforward.


RC: simply re-read chapter 2 in the RCB on what to look out for when reading (VIEWSTAMP)

---

Tomorrow:
-Work on more method questions -write out detailed explanations to begin the day, and do more difficult problems later in the day
-Do a few more LG's
-Read chapter 3 of the RCB

Tentative goals for the rest of the week:
-Improve on Method questions
-Start Flaw questions (maybe...)
-review previous LR question types (re-read/re-do MBT, MP, Strengthen/Weaken questions)
-Get up to chapter 4 in the RCB
-do a bunch more LG's

I need to finish the LRB by late next week and start taking regular PTs soon. Reviewing the LGB and LRB while taking PTs should be very helpful too.

[Anaconda]

Today was a Jackal and Hyde kind of day. I can't remember another instance in which I sucked at games so badly.

PT 29 Game 1 - this is an EASY game. Every single question is 1 star. It's the easiest grouping game ever...anyone could do this game even if you don't know how to do grouping games... Of course, I fuck it up by diagramming it poorly, forgetting to write down the key rule of the game. When I realize I mess up, I redo the game in literally 2.5 minutes - it was that simple.

PT 17 Game 4 - this is a hard game. Once again my diagramming was messy enough that I couldn't keep track of the rules. I also did a crappy job checking out each answer choice. Got 2/7 my first try. Redid and got 7/7 in 8 min 30 sec. The game is manageable, but my diagram was so messy I couldn't even keep track of the rules.

I'm now seriously considering getting the LGB setup guide. I'm good at LGs, but when I diagram poorly or I'm sloppy when writing them down even easy games are impossible to get right.


Logic Reasoning:

Wrote down the explanations of all the method questions I got wrong yesterday. Afterwards did a bunch of new ones:

Method (argument)
1 Star: 2/3 (stupid mistake of not finding the proper conclusion)
2 Star: 3/3
3 Star: 1/2
4 Star: 2/2

Method (Statement)
2 Star: 6/7

Overall: 14/17 without the careless error, should have been 15/17. The other 2 I got wrong were also avoidable mistakes, but it was a much better showing than yesterday, so I'm pleased.

Reading Comp:
-Read chapter 3 of the RCB

Tomorrow:
-Not too sure If I'll review the LRB chapters on MBT & MP, or move onto Flaw questions. Leaning toward starting Flaw questions.
-Do 2-3 more LG's - hopefully diagram them carefully so it doesn't mess me up and make them impossible
-Re-read RCB chapter 3

[Anaconda]

Wed, July 28th

LR: Reading the LRB chapter on flaw questions. Got 6/8 questions in the book correct (both of which were the result of not being meticulous enough)

I have a new strategy for trying out LR question types for the first time - NO 4 stars! I'm only going to do 4 stars on the second day, after I've had some practice. Here's how the practice went:

1 Star: 4/4
2 Star: 6/8
3 Star: 6/7

Total: 16/19 overall - not bad. I feel pretty comfortable on flaw questions, I think I can improve with some practice. Tomorrow I'll do some 4 stars.

RC: Re-read chapter 3 of the RCB.

LG: Did 2 games:

PT 23 Game 3 - first attempt was a disaster I didn't even notice til I graded it. I kept on forgetting to apply 2 rules to the questions! This resulted in a 4/7 in 10 min 30 sec. when I redid and was CAREFUL I got a 7/7 pretty quickly. The fact that my games have been so sloppy as of late is concerning. The game itself was hard - three 4 stars, one 3 star, one 2 star, one 1 star.

PT 33 Game 1 - basic sequencing game. EASY. 5/5 in 5 min 30 sec.


Tomorrow going to do more Flaw question, continue reading the RCB bible, and do 2 more LG's.