The Official June 2014 Study Group Forum

[alexrodriguez]

Congratulations, Walt.

Leigh, what is your GPA? and what did you score first time around?

[lurj]

Hello everyone. I've been lurking this thread for a bit but decided to make a TLS account. I've started my prep in the last month and a half (started early april-ish) and I'm wondering if what I am doing is the best use of my time. I generally take a practice test in the morning, and then review and read my powerscore books in the afternoon. I do this 6 days a week, taking a break on saturday. Seem like a good plan?

edit: I'm not sure if my current scores are relevant, so I'll add them and the sections I am having issues with. I generally score anywhere from a 171-174 on my practice tests. I get -2/3 consistently on each LR section, -2/-3 on RC, and LG is a crapshoot. I am especially frustrated because I spent a large bulk of time in the beginning of my prep mastering LG and I feel as if I have gotten worse at it. I wonder if mashing out logic games instead of taking full lsat's every day would be a more beneficial use of my time.

[alexrodriguez]

Hello everyone. I've been lurking this thread for a bit but decided to make a TLS account. I've started my prep in the last month and a half (started early april-ish) and I'm wondering if what I am doing is the best use of my time. I generally take a practice test in the morning, and then review and read my powerscore books in the afternoon. I do this 6 days a week, taking a break on saturday. Seem like a good plan?

Try to do all the recent PT's before test day.

do some LR Sections by themselves and review immediately after.

get your timing squared away

stay calm and collective while reading.

once you find the correct answer and are sure it's correct... move on.. don't waste time

[alexrodriguez]

[BaberhamLincoln]

Leigh, what is your GPA? and what did you score first time around?

Low 3's. I studied engineering at Carnegie Mellon and graduated in 3.5 years while juggling 2 jobs and a ton of extracurriculars. So "school wasn't everything to me" is an understatement.

161 last June.

[redbull12]

louie what are you averaging nowadays?

[MtnGinger]

Ok as I finalize my PT schedule for the homestretch I want some opinions. I am fairly consistently scoring 172-175, but every so often I will dip to 168 whether from exhaustion or any other random factors. I plan my last Pt to be the Saturday before test and give myself Sunday to relax. Are the rest of you guys gonna score your last PT or just Blind Review carefully and never look at an answer key? I know I should review what I miss but I'm afraid if I were to do bad on my last PT it would affect my nerves for the real thing. Appreciate some insight especially those who have already taken it.

[agalfano]

Ok real quick can I have some help with LR Test 18, Section 4, Question 25...

I was drilling Flaw Questions and I was 99% sure that A was the correct answer, although when I looked at E I thought to myself "hmmm, this sounds interesting, but this answer doesn't match the flaw." Needless to say, when I saw that the answer was E I immediately jumped out of my seat and took a 30 minute break because I was so frustrated!! Love to hear your insight! Ughhhh

[dasani13]

Ok as I finalize my PT schedule for the homestretch I want some opinions. I am fairly consistently scoring 172-175, but every so often I will dip to 168 whether from exhaustion or any other random factors. I plan my last Pt to be the Saturday before test and give myself Sunday to relax. Are the rest of you guys gonna score your last PT or just Blind Review carefully and never look at an answer key? I know I should review what I miss but I'm afraid if I were to do bad on my last PT it would affect my nerves for the real thing. Appreciate some insight especially those who have already taken it.

You might want to post this in the June 2014 Retakers thread as well.

[dd235]

Ok as I finalize my PT schedule for the homestretch I want some opinions. I am fairly consistently scoring 172-175, but every so often I will dip to 168 whether from exhaustion or any other random factors. I plan my last Pt to be the Saturday before test and give myself Sunday to relax. Are the rest of you guys gonna score your last PT or just Blind Review carefully and never look at an answer key? I know I should review what I miss but I'm afraid if I were to do bad on my last PT it would affect my nerves for the real thing. Appreciate some insight especially those who have already taken it.

I’ll jump threads in order to answer your question. Short answer is that there is no right or wrong when deciding this. I am personally taking my last PT on Friday, blind reviewing on Saturday, and taking the day off on the Sunday before the test. I will be scoring it. I have selected a PT that I did well on last go around so that it is likely that I will also do well on it this time (I really recommend this strategy. It is very unlikely that taking a completely fresh PT as your last one will benefit you at all IMO). If for some reason I do end up bombing it, I am fairly certain that I will be able to move on without it affecting me on test day. So if you think that you will be able to move on from a bad score, then grade it. If not, then don’t.

It’s all about perspective. Deviations from test to test happen for everyone (even those in the 180 range), you need to realize that it is all about trends and not individual tests. I really see a lot of similarities between the LSAT and sports. For example, say LeBron James averages 30 points per game throughout the season. All of a sudden he has a bad game and only scores 17 points. As a fan, there is absolutely no reason to be alarmed. Sure it sucks, but these things happen. If he is averaging 30 ppg it is extremely unlikely that his next game will be awful as well (In fact a majority of the time athletes will follow up a poor performance with a better-than-average performance). And I assure you, LeBron will use that poor performance as motivation for his next game rather than letting it effect his nerves.

When you score a 168 do you usually know that you did poorly, or does it feel the same to you as it does when you score a 175? Another thing you can do is just to see how you feel after completing the PT and then decide. If you feel great then score it, if not then don’t.

[MtnGinger]

Thanks I may wait and see how I feel. I didn't feel horrible about the 168 but I felt myself tiring more than usual and the last 2 sections is where I missed the most.

[dasani13]

Speaking of last PT, I think my last one is gonna be the Sunday before. I have an issue with stamina.

[rebexness]

I think I'm doing both sat and Sunday. I'm better when I'm on a roll.

[dasani13]

I think I'm doing both sat and Sunday. I'm better when I'm on a roll.

Ya I think I'm gonna do:

Thursday: off
Friday: Drill
Saturday + Sunday: PT

[politibro44]

Any of you guys do better after warming up? Or plan to take a section or two on the morning of the real thing?

I feel I get better as I go with RC and LR especially.

[rebexness]

Any of you guys do better after warming up? Or plan to take a section or two on the morning of the real thing?

I feel I get better as I go with RC and LR especially.

I'll probably do a few LGs.

[alexrodriguez]

louie what are you averaging nowadays?

Haven't taken a full PT in a while.

Logic Games are nearly perfected.

Focusing on LR right now. I've already noticed major improvement. And it's coming simply through repetition and time management. My main problem is that I think I'm moving to slow which causes me to rush which then causes me to have go slower because I end up having to reread everything.

[redbull12]

louie what are you averaging nowadays?

Haven't taken a full PT in a while.

Logic Games are nearly perfected.

Focusing on LR right now. I've already noticed major improvement. And it's coming simply through repetition and time management. My main problem is that I think I'm moving to slow which causes me to rush which then causes me to have go slower because I end up having to reread everything.

Good luck man.

[BaberhamLincoln]

Daang. You guys are machines. No way I'm studying the day of the test. Probably not the day before it either. My brain does best after a break.

[jk148706]

Daang. You guys are machines. No way I'm studying the day of the test. Probably not the day before it either. My brain does best after a break.

It has more to do with warming up. It's 100% credited to see a game, some LR and maybe even RC the day of the test. That way, you're not walking in cold.

It's not "studying" the day of the test; it's just getting the brain going. I pick super easy games, LR so I won't ruin my confidence.

But I would def do something before the test

[Hand]

[tfinndogm]

it's been a while. been working on my resume/PS/gathering LORs.

took the Dec '13 PT today. 160. I'm okay with it, considering I've had a traumatic morning. My dog got attacked by another dog off it's leash this morning. My little guy is alright... but now I know my morning can go to sh!t and I can still pull a 160.

[Louis1127]

it's been a while. been working on my resume/PS/gathering LORs.

took the Dec '13 PT today. 160. I'm okay with it, considering I've had a traumatic morning. My dog got attacked by another dog off it's leash this morning. My little guy is alright... but now I know my morning can go to sh!t and I can still pull a 160.

That's what I'm talking about!

[BaberhamLincoln]

took the Dec '13 PT today. 160. I'm okay with it, considering I've had a traumatic morning. My dog got attacked by another dog off it's leash this morning. My little guy is alright... but now I know my morning can go to sh!t and I can still pull a 160.

OMG.
The morning of my LSAT last June, my little man had explosive diarrhea all over my apartment. Which is crazy because he never has before and also never has since -- he's really well house trained. I panicked because I was moving out in a month and I had to go take the lsat!!! Scheduled carpet cleaners for later that day and did what I could (not much -- it was so serious). But it was TRAUMATIC as well.

Scored a 161 that day. Sigh. Horrible.

[agalfano]

Do you guys think it may have been a bad idea to drill strengthen AND weaken questions in the same day?

I just did my first weaken question and I got it wrong because I strengthened it

haha that can't be good!!