October 2010 Test Prep Forum

[Dany]

Hey! Took the June exam, not retaking, but if you guys have any questions about test day (whether procedural or mindset-related) feel free to ask.

Good luck going into next Saturday; it was my experience that TLSers generally come out on top!

[Pleasye]

Hey! Took the June exam, not retaking, but if you guys have any questions about test day (whether procedural or mindset-related) feel free to ask.

Good luck going into next Saturday; it was my experience that TLSers generally come out on top!

<3

[Hedwig]

Thanks for the well wishes. I also think everyone on here is going to kick ass.

[Nonok]

Just got back from taking PT54. I took it in the library with minor distractions around this time. 172... again. The lack of progress is frustrating (Last 7 scores: 171, 172, 176, 171, 171, 172, 172).

RC -4
LR1 -3 (3 questions in a row actually, grr)
LG -0
LR2 -1 (Question 11... I never miss questions this early) (I also ended up changing two answers on this section and ended up getting them right, go me!)

I've never taken a perfectly emulated test yet (6 sections including the writing), but plan on emulating test conditions the best I can Wednesday morning. I'm satisfied with my LR and LG performance on most of my tests and will be working on RC today and all this week. By far my worst section.

I don't know if I'll be happy or not if I end up getting a 172 on test day. On one hand, that's a great score. On the other, I haven't progressed at all in like a month. Also, my undergraduate GPA isn't the greatest (3.3) and will probably limit my college choices unless I can get a 177+. Oh well, we're on the home stretch now.

[Sandro]

Just got back from taking PT54. I took it in the library with minor distractions around this time. 172... again. The lack of progress is frustrating (Last 7 scores: 171, 172, 176, 171, 171, 172, 172).

RC -4
LR1 -3 (3 questions in a row actually, grr)
LG -0
LR2 -1 (Question 11... I never miss questions this early) (I also ended up changing two answers on this section and ended up getting them right, go me!)

I've never taken a perfectly emulated test yet (6 sections including the writing), but plan on emulating test conditions the best I can Wednesday morning. I'm satisfied with my LR and LG performance on most of my tests and will be working on RC today and all this week. By far my worst section.

I don't know if I'll be happy or not if I end up getting a 172 on test day. On one hand, that's a great score. On the other, I haven't progressed at all in like a month. Also, my undergraduate GPA isn't the greatest (3.3) and will probably limit my college choices unless I can get a 177+. Oh well, we're on the home stretch now.

Taking a 6 section test would be pointless because once you finish section 5 your exam is effectively over. As long as you dont break down to the point you start drawing cartoons on the writing section.... also a 172 with a 3.3 puts you in consideration everywhere outside the top 6 or 7 not exactly too limiting lol

[Nonok]

Just got back from taking PT54. I took it in the library with minor distractions around this time. 172... again. The lack of progress is frustrating (Last 7 scores: 171, 172, 176, 171, 171, 172, 172).

RC -4
LR1 -3 (3 questions in a row actually, grr)
LG -0
LR2 -1 (Question 11... I never miss questions this early) (I also ended up changing two answers on this section and ended up getting them right, go me!)

I've never taken a perfectly emulated test yet (6 sections including the writing), but plan on emulating test conditions the best I can Wednesday morning. I'm satisfied with my LR and LG performance on most of my tests and will be working on RC today and all this week. By far my worst section.

I don't know if I'll be happy or not if I end up getting a 172 on test day. On one hand, that's a great score. On the other, I haven't progressed at all in like a month. Also, my undergraduate GPA isn't the greatest (3.3) and will probably limit my college choices unless I can get a 177+. Oh well, we're on the home stretch now.

Taking a 6 section test would be pointless because once you finish section 5 your exam is effectively over. As long as you dont break down to the point you start drawing cartoons on the writing section.... also a 172 with a 3.3 puts you in consideration everywhere outside the top 6 or 7 not exactly too limiting lol

I'd like to go to the top 6 or 7 schools if possible, though! And yeah, I know the writing section isn't that important, but its worth doing a couple just to get the hang of it.

[Cromartie]

Just got back from taking PT54. I took it in the library with minor distractions around this time. 172... again. The lack of progress is frustrating (Last 7 scores: 171, 172, 176, 171, 171, 172, 172).

RC -4
LR1 -3 (3 questions in a row actually, grr)
LG -0
LR2 -1 (Question 11... I never miss questions this early) (I also ended up changing two answers on this section and ended up getting them right, go me!)

I've never taken a perfectly emulated test yet (6 sections including the writing), but plan on emulating test conditions the best I can Wednesday morning. I'm satisfied with my LR and LG performance on most of my tests and will be working on RC today and all this week. By far my worst section.

I don't know if I'll be happy or not if I end up getting a 172 on test day. On one hand, that's a great score. On the other, I haven't progressed at all in like a month. Also, my undergraduate GPA isn't the greatest (3.3) and will probably limit my college choices unless I can get a 177+. Oh well, we're on the home stretch now.

Taking a 6 section test would be pointless because once you finish section 5 your exam is effectively over. As long as you dont break down to the point you start drawing cartoons on the writing section.... also a 172 with a 3.3 puts you in consideration everywhere outside the top 6 or 7 not exactly too limiting lol

I'd like to go to the top 6 or 7 schools if possible, though! And yeah, I know the writing section isn't that important, but its worth doing a couple just to get the hang of it.

This would be particularly true if you're aiming for Yale. I remember reading an interview with Asha somewhere where she indicated that some of the faculty reviewers there purportedly weigh the writing sample very heavily, or something to that effect.

[Sandro]

Well yes, I guess if the top 6 is your goal it does limit you. I could prob get a 175 and be more limited than you with a 172 with my crappy gpa.

[Nonok]

Has anyone taken 2 PTs in one day? I'm bored and am considering doing another one.

[psychlaw]

When I took the test in June, my proctor was awful. Nothing in the bags was checked, and she even blatantly disregarded some rules (i.e. "No body cares if someone else needs to drink water during the test, right? Right. You can have water bottles on your desk")... she allowed people to eat as well. Just what I need, someone making crinkling noises because they finished 5 minutes early. Argg. But my friend took it at a different place and her proctor was super strict. Maybe it was because there were over 100 test takers in my room, and she was in a small classroom of less than 20. I don't know, but I've heard from others have proctor-dependent your experience is. Just be prepared for both instances!

Just some advice for test day, do NOT let the proctors get away with stuff! If they are talking to each other or allowing people to make a lot of noise tell them to stop. When I took the test my proctor told us we were not going to be getting a 15 min break because he needed to leave early. It totally fucked up my score and I had no energy by the last section. If you think the proctors are doing something wrong report them, because this is supposed to be standardized and fair to all. Plus they are all volunteers so no excuse for bad behavior

Good luck

[WonkyPanda]

..wow, I feel like jumping off a cliff. I don't know what the frak happened but I just pretty much bombed PT 58. I don't even know what the hell happened. Especially going to an 'easier' PT from 57 that I did pretty well on. I mean, i took yesterday off so maybe that it's it but it's no excuse...wow. This is absolutely infuriating beyond belief. UGHHHHHHHH

[Patriot1208]

PT 58. 93 Raw, 172 scaled. Happy that the last 4 tests have been 170 or better with a 172.5 average. Hoping to keep up the scores on 59 on tuesday and 60 on thursday. Just hoping for a 170+ next week. Breakdown:

LR - 3
RC - 4
LG - 0
LR - 1

Hit my average of -4 total on LR and -0 on LG. Did a little better than average on RC. I've been drilling RC this week and I am really hoping I can keep a -4 or better. I'll keep drilling up until thursday.

[incompetentia]

Has anyone taken 2 PTs in one day? I'm bored and am considering doing another one.

Done this twice. First time I went +8 (165 -> 173), second time I was panicky and actually went an additional -7
(169-162).


I've pretty much told myself to not take more than 20 more practice sections between now and the test...I wouldn't recommend it.


Planning on taking two tests of entirely RC sections (Monday/Wednesday), and two normal tests (Tuesday/Thursday). I have 54/57-59 left - can anybody point toward which of those have more difficult LR sections? I'll pillage RC from the other two as well as some others from the 30s...

[northwood]

i think the general consensus would be to do as many of the 50's section work as possible. The early 50 LR gets difficult faster than usual ( instead of the first 10 being easy, you have to read carefullly after 5 or so), and the games on those puppies are slightly different than the 40's ( they are more hybrid) ONce you get a hang of them they become easier. I found that there is one game per game section that relies a lot on the initial rules to solve ( and diagramming the rules can be difficult), but if you understand the rules you will be fine on it.

practice those RC sections. There is a change of how they word questions,and the passages have more condensed info in them. It makes it slightly more difficult, but you do learn something by reading them. ( I found that if you have the mindset of " oh boy, what jeopardy knowledge will this passage enlighten me with" it makes reading go easier, and its easier to get the overall big picture)

[jfb]

Just finished PT 58 with a 169. Would be totally fine with that score on test day. I'm happy with my LG and RC performance but not pleased with a -3 and -4 on LR. I'm pretty inconsistent on LR, bouncing around between -1 to -4 per section.

Any last minute advice for LR that could help help me to secure an extra point or two over the next week??

[Chris_cpb]

Did this really just happen? During a timed LR section I come across a typo which my study materials made on a crucial date in a stimulus. I google the question and find that the date had originally appeared as "1492" in the stimulus for LR Q#19 Sec. 3 PT 23 but is printed as "arrival of Europeans in the Americas in 1942" in my prep book. The correct answer uses the date 1492 which, according to my prep book, is not even mentioned in the stimulus.

[yzero1]

Two bits of good news for me.. marked PT5 which I used as experimental sections for my previous PTs and ended up with a 180.

Also took PT59 today and ended up with -0 LG (though the 3rd game gave me trouble because I initially screwed up my interpretation of the Stats 9am/3pm rule), -0 LR1, -0 LR2, and -1 RC (from the Noguchi passage) for another 180. 3 straight 180's marked in the last 3 days. Now I only have June'10 left to do.

[3|ink]

Did this really just happen? During a timed LR section I come across a typo which my study materials made on a crucial date in a stimulus. I google the question and find that the date had originally appeared as "1492" in the stimulus for LR Q#19 Sec. 3 PT 23 but is printed as "arrival of Europeans in the Americas in 1942" in my prep book. The correct answer uses the date 1492 which, according to my prep book, is not even mentioned in the stimulus.

What company?

[Nonok]

Two bits of good news for me.. marked PT5 which I used as experimental sections for my previous PTs and ended up with a 180.

Also took PT59 today and ended up with -0 LG (though the 3rd game gave me trouble because I initially screwed up my interpretation of the Stats 9am/3pm rule), -0 LR1, -0 LR2, and -1 RC (from the Noguchi passage) for another 180. 3 straight 180's marked in the last 3 days. Now I only have June'10 left to do.

Three 180s in a row! Congrats.

I ended up deciding NOT to do another PT today. One is enough. I just finished the RC from PT49 and ended up with a -1. I finished with 4 minutes to spare and seriously considering changing my answer to the correct one too. Gah! Still. Improvement. If I get RC -1 or -0 on Saturday I could pull off a 180 maybe! It's the only section that I struggle with regularly.

[2014]

Did this really just happen? During a timed LR section I come across a typo which my study materials made on a crucial date in a stimulus. I google the question and find that the date had originally appeared as "1492" in the stimulus for LR Q#19 Sec. 3 PT 23 but is printed as "arrival of Europeans in the Americas in 1942" in my prep book. The correct answer uses the date 1492 which, according to my prep book, is not even mentioned in the stimulus.

It is correct in the "10 More Actual, Official LSAT Preptests" book, so it must just be your company. That's a bad oversight though.

[stargazin]

Just some advice for test day, do NOT let the proctors get away with stuff! If they are talking to each other or allowing people to make a lot of noise tell them to stop. When I took the test my proctor told us we were not going to be getting a 15 min break because he needed to leave early. It totally fucked up my score and I had no energy by the last section. If you think the proctors are doing something wrong report them, because this is supposed to be standardized and fair to all. Plus they are all volunteers so no excuse for bad behavior

Good luck

Unbelieveable. Your score should not have counted under those circumstances.

[Chris_cpb]

Did this really just happen? During a timed LR section I come across a typo which my study materials made on a crucial date in a stimulus. I google the question and find that the date had originally appeared as "1492" in the stimulus for LR Q#19 Sec. 3 PT 23 but is printed as "arrival of Europeans in the Americas in 1942" in my prep book. The correct answer uses the date 1492 which, according to my prep book, is not even mentioned in the stimulus.

What company?

It's the Blueprint Prep company and this is not the first time something like this has happened in these books. I am getting pretty frustrated with the humor they throw into the books combined with so many typos. Nothing is funny about this.

[3|ink]

Did this really just happen? During a timed LR section I come across a typo which my study materials made on a crucial date in a stimulus. I google the question and find that the date had originally appeared as "1492" in the stimulus for LR Q#19 Sec. 3 PT 23 but is printed as "arrival of Europeans in the Americas in 1942" in my prep book. The correct answer uses the date 1492 which, according to my prep book, is not even mentioned in the stimulus.

What company?

It's the Blueprint Prep company and this is not the first time something like this has happened in these books. I am getting pretty frustrated with the humor they throw into the books combined with so many typos. Nothing is funny about this.

I haven't read their books, but humor would really frustrate me if I were having a hard time grasping the material.

[Sandro]

Just looked over my -7 RC from 56 - If its possible to have a -7 RC section feel good than this is it. Only missed 1 on Kinship passage and the rest can be attributed to running out of time/possibly the effect of having the entire testing room come back in en masse during the middle of the section.

[lennonist]

Did this really just happen? During a timed LR section I come across a typo which my study materials made on a crucial date in a stimulus. I google the question and find that the date had originally appeared as "1492" in the stimulus for LR Q#19 Sec. 3 PT 23 but is printed as "arrival of Europeans in the Americas in 1942" in my prep book. The correct answer uses the date 1492 which, according to my prep book, is not even mentioned in the stimulus.

What company?

It's the Blueprint Prep company and this is not the first time something like this has happened in these books. I am getting pretty frustrated with the humor they throw into the books combined with so many typos. Nothing is funny about this.

I haven't read their books, but humor would really frustrate me if I were having a hard time grasping the material.

from what i remember, the humor is minimal (and largely in the first few lessons) and not annoying (unless, of course, one is a nerve-wreck a week before the test - then it's perfectly understandable why it can be annoying. After all, my relatives, car, house - everything is highly annoying nowadays. Except for weather - LA is 80 and gorgeous today).

However, the BP typos are definitely annoying. On a recent PT (~40-50), they mistyped an answer on one LR section. I double-checked via TLS, and got 1 point higher (amazing feeling, btw). At least they could have corrected the mistakes they've been carrying since 2004, you would think, but no, they just reprint the same books over and over again. Lame.