October 2011 Study Log: 180 or Bust! Forum

[Jack Smirks]

This is now my study log thread (thanks crumps).


Taking PT 39.

[freestallion]

I have the same problem as you with RC - My scores are generally in the 170 range but I always have difficulty improving with RC. And honestly, I can't figure out what to do about it. To warn you, the RC on the most recent tests have gotten considerably difficult so I'd recommend that you take a few more recent PTs to get a feel for them.

[crumpetsandtea]

39 -- 03/27/11 ----- LR: -1/2 ; RC: -3 ; LG: -2 ------------ 94/175 ----- 5 sections (w/PT 19 RC) Yay! Now gotta get over 175.

Breakdown was 1) LG 2) LR 3) EXP RC 4) RC 5) LR

IMPORTANT NOTE: First time taking time-restricted sections (33 minutes per section). Finished LG barely under time, as usual, finished with ~10 minutes each for LR, and with 4 minutes for RC. Pretty standard.

Q to those who want to offer advice: is it a good idea to be crunching down my time w/LG when I know I already barely make it? What's a good way to improve on timing?

Also, I was VERY ANTSY towards the end of the test (I kept getting excited that the test was almost over and it was REALLY hard to concentrate). I think this negatively impacted my scores a liiiittle bit. Sorta disappointed in the -2 LR, but hey you win some you lose some (:

[Logic STUD]

Very impressed!


Keep it up!

[crumpetsandtea]

Very impressed!


Keep it up!

(: Thanks!!

[incompetentia]

Q to those who want to offer advice: is it a good idea to be crunching down my time w/LG when I know I already barely make it? What's a good way to improve on timing?

Also, I was VERY ANTSY towards the end of the test (I kept getting excited that the test was almost over and it was REALLY hard to concentrate). I think this negatively impacted my scores a liiiittle bit. Sorta disappointed in the -2 LR, but hey you win some you lose some (:

The fact that you didn't dip this time with a 33-minute test is encouraging. Keep the time crunch on.

Are you noticing any types of games that you are tripped up on OR bleeding time on fairly regularly?

[crumpetsandtea]

Q to those who want to offer advice: is it a good idea to be crunching down my time w/LG when I know I already barely make it? What's a good way to improve on timing?

Also, I was VERY ANTSY towards the end of the test (I kept getting excited that the test was almost over and it was REALLY hard to concentrate). I think this negatively impacted my scores a liiiittle bit. Sorta disappointed in the -2 LR, but hey you win some you lose some (:

The fact that you didn't dip this time with a 33-minute test is encouraging. Keep the time crunch on.

Are you noticing any types of games that you are tripped up on OR bleeding time on fairly regularly?

It's not so much the type as the order. I spend like 12 minutes on the first one, 10 ish on the second, then scramble through the last two. :\

[incompetentia]

Even if you do, say, game 4 first?

[crumpetsandtea]

Even if you do, say, game 4 first?

HAven't tried that....will do that next time.

[Jack Smirks]

First time taking time-restricted sections (33 minutes per section). Finished LG barely under time, as usual, finished with ~10 minutes each for LR, :

How are you finishing with so much time left?

[crumpetsandtea]

First time taking time-restricted sections (33 minutes per section). Finished LG barely under time, as usual, finished with ~10 minutes each for LR, :

How are you finishing with so much time left?

I have no idea. I just...do the questions the best I can (1-15 first, then backwards from the end), and then I check time & write how much time I have left (just for my own knowledge) quickly before I go back to check my answers. I'm not really sure why I finish LR so early and barely have enough time for LG. :\

Side note: I think I'm going to start timing myself with both my cell (what I use now) and an analog wristwatch...the cell phone for accuracy so I don't cheat and give myself a few extra seconds/minutes and the analog for reference during the actual test so I don't get used to just glancing at the digital display on my cell phone.

[incompetentia]

Have you been drilling games outside of PTs yet?

[Curry]

Is this becoming the newest megathread? Sweet.

[incompetentia]

Be careful when this gets lounge'd in July with 560 pages already attached.

[Jack Smirks]

Side note: I think I'm going to start timing myself with both my cell (what I use now) and an analog wristwatch...the cell phone for accuracy so I don't cheat and give myself a few extra seconds/minutes and the analog for reference during the actual test so I don't get used to just glancing at the digital display on my cell phone.

Yeah this is what I do.

As far as LR pacing I'm wondering if maybe I should try doing the first 15 and then working my way backwards. I usually only glance at my watch after my second round of bubbling (usually question 13-15) and then adjust accordingly until around what I think would be the 5 minute warning. Most of the time I finish right around the 35 minute mark (maybe with like a minute to spare).

Another thing... do you read all of the answer choices or if you have a strong prephase and you match it in the choices do you just circle it and move on? I think I might be wasting too much time on the easier questions by reading through all the choices when I feel like I know exactly the sort of answer I'm looking for. I guess I'm always worried there might be that very subtle difference in a better answer so I end up checking all of them.

[crumpetsandtea]

Have you been drilling games outside of PTs yet?

Yeah, a little bit. The funny thing is the only section I've seriously done this for is LG. :\ LR, I didn't really drill (just worked through LRB), and RC I was going to start drilling during my lunch hour but that's been a fail.

As far as LR pacing I'm wondering if maybe I should try doing the first 15 and then working my way backwards. I usually only glance at my watch after my second round of bubbling (usually question 13-15) and then adjust accordingly until around what I think would be the 5 minute warning. Most of the time I finish right around the 35 minute mark (maybe with like a minute to spare).

Another thing... do you read all of the answer choices or if you have a strong prephase and you match it in the choices do you just circle it and move on? I think I might be wasting too much time on the easier questions by reading through all the choices when I feel like I know exactly the sort of answer I'm looking for. I guess I'm always worried there might be that very subtle difference in a better answer so I end up checking all of them.

Yeah I def recommend starting from the end and working backwards after 15,or 14/16. I usually just stop at the end of the page closest to 15. I didn't do this a few times and saw myself making a few more mistakes than usual. When I switched back my score went up as well.

As for reading all the answer choices...I think I do read all of them, but I typically have a strong prephase, so it's more like glancing. I'll spend more time if the prephase isn't set in my head, but typically I'll have some idea of what I'm looking for, briefly glance through the answers to narrow it down, then if 2 seem to fit the bill I'll take a closer look. If I feel like I'm moving a little fast, I'll circle the question and go back to it just to give the other answers some more reading time.

TBF though there are questions where I'm just like "OK yeah this HAS to be it" and then move on. Probably not the smartest idea but oh well ><

Also LOLOL at this turning into a megathread XP

[Curry]

Side note: I think I'm going to start timing myself with both my cell (what I use now) and an analog wristwatch...the cell phone for accuracy so I don't cheat and give myself a few extra seconds/minutes and the analog for reference during the actual test so I don't get used to just glancing at the digital display on my cell phone.

Yeah this is what I do.

As far as LR pacing I'm wondering if maybe I should try doing the first 15 and then working my way backwards. I usually only glance at my watch after my second round of bubbling (usually question 13-15) and then adjust accordingly until around what I think would be the 5 minute warning. Most of the time I finish right around the 35 minute mark (maybe with like a minute to spare).

Another thing... do you read all of the answer choices or if you have a strong prephase and you match it in the choices do you just circle it and move on? I think I might be wasting too much time on the easier questions by reading through all the choices when I feel like I know exactly the sort of answer I'm looking for. I guess I'm always worried there might be that very subtle difference in a better answer so I end up checking all of them.

1) Always read all the answer choices. At the stage in the game that you are at, you don't want to sacrifice a point because you didn't read one answer choice over the others. The time you save isn't worth the potential loss in points. That being said, you need to trim time off in other ways. Start timing yourself at 33 minutes. You're already quite good at this thing so its all about getting your timing and accuracy up. If you reduce the amount of time you have, you'll move faster and probably miss more questions. You have till june to fix that though, so cutting down your time may be a good idea.

2) Don't go first 15 then move backwards. Instead go first 15, then skip to number 20, and then do 15-20 in order. I tried both ways and noticed that I missed less questions consistently when i skipped to 20 and went forward and then moved back rather than just going backwards.

[Logic STUD]

Crumpetsandtea, what's your best advice for gaining speed. You appear to be quite fast.

[Curry]

Crumpetsandtea, what's your best advice for gaining speed. You appear to be quite fast.

Crumpets loses control of herself and just rides that thing like.... oh. nevermind.

[crumpetsandtea]

Crumpetsandtea, what's your best advice for gaining speed. You appear to be quite fast.

Crumpets loses control of herself and just rides that thing like.... oh. nevermind.

@ Curry: ಠ_ಠ

@ Logic STUD: I think the first thing to focus on is accuracy and practicing with a variety of questions. Once you've seen a lot of different questions of the same type, patterns/typical pre-phases become easier to pick out, as well as typical 'wrong answers'/tricks that the LSAC tosses in to trip you up. Also, if you haven't already, I highly recommend picking up the Powerscore Bibles. They helped a lot with my ability to categorize/answer questions appropriately.

[incompetentia]

Another thing... do you read all of the answer choices or if you have a strong prephase and you match it in the choices do you just circle it and move on? I think I might be wasting too much time on the easier questions by reading through all the choices when I feel like I know exactly the sort of answer I'm looking for. I guess I'm always worried there might be that very subtle difference in a better answer so I end up checking all of them.

I got burned one time too many on PTs with this. You can't trip up like this, or you'll hate yourself forever.

If you see an answer choice that paraphrases what you're looking for, you don't necessarily need to pore over every word of the rest, but it's still a good idea to look over the rest.

They usually make the strongest distractor choice A for this reason - at one point I started reading the choices from bottom to top instead to try to counter this. (It didn't work all that well.)

[Logic STUD]

Crumpetsandtea, what's your best advice for gaining speed. You appear to be quite fast.

Crumpets loses control of herself and just rides that thing like.... oh. nevermind.

@ Curry: ಠ_ಠ

@ Logic STUD: I think the first thing to focus on is accuracy and practicing with a variety of questions. Once you've seen a lot of different questions of the same type, patterns/typical pre-phases become easier to pick out, as well as typical 'wrong answers'/tricks that the LSAC tosses in to trip you up. Also, if you haven't already, I highly recommend picking up the Powerscore Bibles. They helped a lot with my ability to categorize/answer questions appropriately.

Thanks for the advice, I plan on picking those up. I guess my study plan has been a bad one. So I'm kind of back to ground zero. sigh

[crumpetsandtea]

Thanks for the advice, I plan on picking those up. I guess my study plan has been a bad one. So I'm kind of back to ground zero. sigh

It's okay, that's why TLS is so awesome. There's a wealth of knowledge in these forums that you can learn. Check out the LSATBlog for some good advice/study information. Are you planning on applying this fall? If you don't score high enough in June, you can always study more over the summer and retake in October, if you're willing to send your apps in a little later.

Curry--I think I might try the whole 20-end in order thing on my LR sections today, see if it has any affect. Did it really help you more than just going straight backwards from the end?.

[Jack Smirks]

I got burned one time too many on PTs with this.

But my pre-phrases are battle tested bayonets bro!

No you're right, I'm just going to stick to glancing at all the answer choices to be certain. I just feel like I'm plateauing in that 170-173 range and I really want to adopt whatever strategies I can to push deep into the 170's. I think my main area for improvement is still logic games; I'm objectively terrible at them considering how long I've been studying for this test. I still find myself goofing on a game and it's always like 1 game per section that throws me off. If I can turn my -3, -4s into consistent -0s it will do a lot for my confidence going into June.

@LogicStud. I think your plan had a good idea on focusing on the most recent PTs but there's no way that's going to be enough, especially if you're just repeating them. Are you trying to take June or October?

[incompetentia]

-4 LG and -0 LG is the difference between 173 and 177.
Matter of concentration or of actually doing the problems?