What the **** is up with PT 55? Forum

[jamlip]

I got 175 on PT55 - my best PT ever

Same here - 169. Hopefully this bodes well for the rest of my PTs.

[tomwatts]

I can't for the life of me find my notes for this test, but now I'm kind of curious. I remember the buses kind of sucking, but I don't remember having any real problems in the RC (could just be that I'm forgetting — it was maybe a year ago that I first did this, I think). My students are going to be working through this one for class next week; I suppose I'll do it myself and let you guys know what I think.

[JasonR]

For a half-second I thought Sourpunch was back to crapping his special grade of stupidity all over the board. Whew.

[DaveBear07]

Just took this one, did well (171) but I have a question---

The key says the correct answer for question 4 on the LGs is B. I couldn't see why my diagrams were wrong. Anybody else?

[Cambridge LSAT]

Since R is with V, we know that M is with G (first rule). This leaves S to be paired with L. Since L prepares an opening argument (second rule), S must prepare a final argument. Although we know the composition of all three teams, the division of duties for two of them is uncertain. The third rule allows for two possibilities:
F: G V
O: M R

F: M R
O: G V

[DaveBear07]

Since R is with V, we know that M is with G (first rule). This leaves S to be paired with L. Since L prepares an opening argument (second rule), S must prepare a final argument. Although we know the composition of all three teams, the division of duties for two of them is uncertain. The third rule allows for two possibilities:
F: G V
O: M R

F: M R
O: G V

You are most definitely right. Thank you sir.

[shoop]

I went into PT55 yesterday thinking it had that stupid dinosaur LG that everyone feels so violated by (turns out it's in 57). I had a huge rain cloud over my head and was expecting low 170s, so I was pretty thrilled over my 174.

Does anyone know a fast way to actually figure out the answer to the final LG question (last Q on the bus stop game)? I got the right answer, but only by guessing. I threw together a diagram that incorporated all the local info and the global rules, but I think it was a "must be true" question and my diagram involved more than one of the answers, so I guessed D with 10 seconds left.

[Cambridge LSAT]

The question gives us G - S. Applying the fourth rule, we have J - F. Combining this with the third rule gives V - J - F. Thus, choice D must be false.

[d34d9823]

Weird, I got my best score yet on 55. I've been PTing at like 176, but I made a 179 on this one.

[malfurion]

I had been avoiding reading this thread until now cause I didn't want to bias my results, but finally took PT55 today. Didn't feel too confident after I finished but I only missed 6 for a 174 so I'm happy with that. That damn talk-story passage messed me up bad; that's the exact type of passage that I just can't stand. It wasn't that it was particularly difficult to read, but it made it really hard to stay focused and the questions were pretty ridiculous. The cotton fiber/cloth was a total WTF. So I missed 3 on that passage, but amazingly didn't miss any others on RC. Both of the LR sections seemed easier than normal to me, I finished them both with 6-7 minutes remaining and missed 1 on each. I flew through the first 3 games and had 15 minutes left for the last game, which was good because I needed almost all of that time to do the bus stop game. Figured I must have screwed it up and missed something for it to take that long, but apparently not. I made one stupid mistake on a question in the email game and that was my only miss on LG. It seems like I always make one just completely retarded, inexcusable, dumbass mistake on each test... counting is hard, apparently.

[BigA]

hmmn, guess everyone's different then. I thought the first LR section was one of the hardest ever given. What gives?

[am060459]

took PT 55 today and balanced in my view of it. i got a 160 on it (bounced back after break yesterday in which i was crying over my 154 on PT 54 from the day before that).

RC was a bitch on this. the first and last passages were okay but passages 2 (purple lossestrife) and passage 3 (Kingston) were hard (more so Kingston).

the first LR was harder than the second one.

the freaking buses game tripped me up and i got my -2 for the section from the last two questions.

PT 55
LR -8
LG -2
RC -13 FML!!!!!!

[Knock]

Taking this PT now. Halfway through, on my 15 min break. The RC was really tough, especially the talk-story passage, which was probably the hardest ever for me. Guess we will see when I grade it.

[jpSartre]

Taking this PT now. Halfway through, on my 15 min break. The RC was really tough, especially the talk-story passage, which was probably the hardest ever for me. Guess we will see when I grade it.

I went -3 on that RC, and missed 1 on the talk story passage. But that, combined with -2 on both LRs, -3 on LGs and the tight curve... 169 coming off of a 176 on 54 didn't feel so great. Both those were after two days of 5 hour LG/RC sessions which I think depressed me a little. I took the day off yesterday and did light review of 54/55 today. 56 tomorrow, hoping the burnout feelings will be gone.

[pilawpcv]

You know, I had finally managed to forget about the madness that was October '08. Thanks for bringing it up again * tear *

Seriously, it was pretty bizarre; RC is always my best section, and I was freaked out when I had a ton of trouble with it. And! The buses! It was my second take of the LSAT, and I thought I was ready. Oops. Hence, October '10 here I come!

[absolutazn87]

Wow. Glad to see I wasn't the only one that felt totally screwed by this test.

I actually took it for real in October 2008 and was shellshocked when I got my score and saw the curve.

But I took it as a PT a month ago and scored a 171. So....progress! 10 more days til June 7th!

[Dr. Strangelove]

I'm taking PT 55 today.
I'll let you know what happens..

[confusedlawyer]

took it yesterday, 167, actually got the cotton fiber right but -3 on the talk story passage. First LR really screwed me made some dumb mistakes

[confusedlawyer]

The last logic game was time consuming, but the only thing that bothered me was the last question. I got to it when time was done so I just guessed D without even reading it (D is my de facto guess choice and lucky enough the answer was D). However I took some time just to do the question and it took me 5 minutes on a count of it being an absolutely rediculous question. Safe to say if I see anything like that on test day I'll gladly guess D and move along

[jmc8y]

I got 175 on PT55 - my best PT ever

I'm with you. this was my best PT ever. looooved the reading comp but maybe it's because i'm a humanities guy

[Rotor]

I got 175 on PT55 - my best PT ever

I'm with you. this was my best PT ever. looooved the reading comp but maybe it's because i'm a humanities guy

Nope. I'm a humanities guy and got pwned by stupid talk stories. Hated the bus game too, but did OK on it. I was amazed when scores were released and we saw what the curve was.

[typ3]

Yea, normally i only miss -2 on RC and I was bent over a barrel with -8 on this RC. No idea why.

[jmc8y]

that's really strange. i'm normally in the -2 - -6 range on RC but pulled a -0 on that one. didn't think the talk story was a problem at all.

[zworykin]

Agreed; the RC passages didn't seem anything out of the ordinary for me. I made a mistake bubbling one of my responses on loosestrife--bringing me to a -2 overall for the test and a 179. I really, really have to remember to check my bubbling on test day!

My other miss was a stupid mistake on LR1 #19.

And I made a major mistake on LG that could have cost me big-time. My strategy is to rewrite all the rules even if I'm not trying to make diagrams, and I properly wrote first=last, but somehow I internalized it as first=/=last. That cost me a couple minutes of time redoing the first few questions. I ended the section with 50 seconds left. The bus game took me 10 minutes, much longer than my average.

[Maddie]

I just took this one and ended up with a 161 which is a tie for my worst PT score. I was blaming it on having cramps until reading this. Now I have 2 excuses so I feel even better

LR -7 combined which is my average
LG -3 ( avg. is -2) but I got lucky and guessed D correctly on 2 of those bus questions)
RC -10 (my avg. is -6)