The Official September 2016 Study Group - WAKE ME UP WHEN SEPTEMBER ENDS Forum

[proteinshake]

okay so my PT scores, in order, have been: 172 171 168 167. scores have been going down with time. I literally just BOMBED the RC on PT 45.

LR -2
RC -10 wtf
LG -0
LR -3

the LRs were 4/5 and 5/5 on the difficulty. RC was 5/5 and was TOUGH. LG was real easy. 1/5 gonna start focusing on hard LR questions and working on RC. ugh what should have been an easy 170+, ruined by one section. idk if the RC was as hard if I'm thinking it is or if I just royally screwed up. I went -3 on hard RC sections before so I think I just had a bad section this time.

Damn, sorry bro. You did really well on the other sections though, that's something positive!

That score breakdown reminds me of when I was PTing for June.. It would always go like LR: -3,LR: -4, LG: -1 and then RC would just be like -9 or -10, lol.

yeah haha I'm glad it happened now rather than later. now I can work on it and make sure I'm more consistent.

[20170322]

okay so my PT scores, in order, have been: 172 171 168 167. scores have been going down with time. I literally just BOMBED the RC on PT 45.

LR -2
RC -10 wtf
LG -0
LR -3

the LRs were 4/5 and 5/5 on the difficulty. RC was 5/5 and was TOUGH. LG was real easy. 1/5 gonna start focusing on hard LR questions and working on RC. ugh what should have been an easy 170+, ruined by one section. idk if the RC was as hard if I'm thinking it is or if I just royally screwed up. I went -3 on hard RC sections before so I think I just had a bad section this time.

Damn, sorry bro. You did really well on the other sections though, that's something positive!

That score breakdown reminds me of when I was PTing for June.. It would always go like LR: -3,LR: -4, LG: -1 and then RC would just be like -9 or -10, lol.

yeah haha I'm glad it happened now rather than later. now I can work on it and make sure I'm more consistent.

Drill baby drill.

[Mikey]

Confession: I've been procrastinating with RC because I suck at it and when I do a passage, I feel like I'm back to square one of not knowing shit. LR and LG improvement make me feel accomplished, but RC sucks! I need to get out of this mentality and start destroying RC as well.

[Alexandros]

Confession: I've been procrastinating with RC because I suck at it and when I do a passage, I feel like I'm back to square one of not knowing shit. LR and LG improvement make me feel accomplished, but RC sucks! I need to get out of this mentality and start destroying RC as well.

Same tbh D: I might've gotten a few strategies to avoid bombing it completely, but I don't think I've really made headway since diagnostic.

Need to get out of this mentality for sure. My plan - once I get back - is 3-4 RC sets per day, + 3 -4 LG sets, and the rest of the time on LR. That way I should be spending a solid 2 hours per section. With heavy drilling, improvements will have to come eventually. (*knock on wood*)

I'm trying to learn to like RC - It's kind of nice in that it's reading, and the content is sometimes interesting, and you learn some random facts. Which I do appreciate, as a die-hard Ravenclaw with limited time to read / accumulate factoids.

[proteinshake]

Confession: I've been procrastinating with RC because I suck at it and when I do a passage, I feel like I'm back to square one of not knowing shit. LR and LG improvement make me feel accomplished, but RC sucks! I need to get out of this mentality and start destroying RC as well.

Same tbh D: I might've gotten a few strategies to avoid bombing it completely, but I don't think I've really made headway since diagnostic.

Need to get out of this mentality for sure. My plan - once I get back - is 3-4 RC sets per day, + 3 -4 LG sets, and the rest of the time on LR. That way I should be spending a solid 2 hours per section. With heavy drilling, improvements will have to come eventually. (*knock on wood*)

I'm trying to learn to like RC - It's kind of nice in that it's reading, and the content is sometimes interesting, and you learn some random facts. Which I do appreciate, as a die-hard Ravenclaw with limited time to read / accumulate factoids.

have y'all seen this? http://www.top-law-schools.com/forums/v ... php?t=7240

[Mikey]

Confession: I've been procrastinating with RC because I suck at it and when I do a passage, I feel like I'm back to square one of not knowing shit. LR and LG improvement make me feel accomplished, but RC sucks! I need to get out of this mentality and start destroying RC as well.

Same tbh D: I might've gotten a few strategies to avoid bombing it completely, but I don't think I've really made headway since diagnostic.

Need to get out of this mentality for sure. My plan - once I get back - is 3-4 RC sets per day, + 3 -4 LG sets, and the rest of the time on LR. That way I should be spending a solid 2 hours per section. With heavy drilling, improvements will have to come eventually. (*knock on wood*)

I'm trying to learn to like RC - It's kind of nice in that it's reading, and the content is sometimes interesting, and you learn some random facts. Which I do appreciate, as a die-hard Ravenclaw with limited time to read / accumulate factoids.

Yeah man.. I just can't stand RC.. I try thinking of each paragraph of a passage as an LR stimulus to try and keep my focus but that doesn't work, ugh.

[Mikey]

have y'all seen this? http://www.top-law-schools.com/forums/v ... php?t=7240

I actually have that bookmarked.. lmao.. I feel like annotating slows me down and makes me lose focus though.. So at this point I don't even know what kind of approach to take.

[proteinshake]

have y'all seen this? http://www.top-law-schools.com/forums/v ... php?t=7240

I actually have that bookmarked.. lmao.. I feel like annotating slows me down and makes me lose focus though.. So at this point I don't even know what kind of approach to take.

yea same. I just read passages like I read a book.

[Mikey]

have y'all seen this? http://www.top-law-schools.com/forums/v ... php?t=7240

I actually have that bookmarked.. lmao.. I feel like annotating slows me down and makes me lose focus though.. So at this point I don't even know what kind of approach to take.

yea same. I just read passages like I read a book.

Yup. It seems like no approach works better over the other for me though.. I'm still slow af with RC no matter what, but I think it's because I've changed between methods so much, idk.

[Alexandros]

Confession: I've been procrastinating with RC because I suck at it and when I do a passage, I feel like I'm back to square one of not knowing shit. LR and LG improvement make me feel accomplished, but RC sucks! I need to get out of this mentality and start destroying RC as well.

Same tbh D: I might've gotten a few strategies to avoid bombing it completely, but I don't think I've really made headway since diagnostic.

Need to get out of this mentality for sure. My plan - once I get back - is 3-4 RC sets per day, + 3 -4 LG sets, and the rest of the time on LR. That way I should be spending a solid 2 hours per section. With heavy drilling, improvements will have to come eventually. (*knock on wood*)

I'm trying to learn to like RC - It's kind of nice in that it's reading, and the content is sometimes interesting, and you learn some random facts. Which I do appreciate, as a die-hard Ravenclaw with limited time to read / accumulate factoids.

Yeah man.. I just can't stand RC.. I try thinking of each paragraph of a passage as an LR stimulus to try and keep my focus but that doesn't work, ugh.

Honestly switching between LR and RC - esp doing RC right after a bunch of LR - really throws me off. Imo, while they're kind of similar in that you're trying understand texts for both, the approach you have to use for most of the LR questions (as in, flaw / assumption questions - inference qs excepted.) is so different - I find that approaching RC with a remotely critical mindset, which is crucial for LR, is super distracting for RC.

Gah. We'll get this eventually!

[Alexandros]

Confession: I've been procrastinating with RC because I suck at it and when I do a passage, I feel like I'm back to square one of not knowing shit. LR and LG improvement make me feel accomplished, but RC sucks! I need to get out of this mentality and start destroying RC as well.

Same tbh D: I might've gotten a few strategies to avoid bombing it completely, but I don't think I've really made headway since diagnostic.

Need to get out of this mentality for sure. My plan - once I get back - is 3-4 RC sets per day, + 3 -4 LG sets, and the rest of the time on LR. That way I should be spending a solid 2 hours per section. With heavy drilling, improvements will have to come eventually. (*knock on wood*)

I'm trying to learn to like RC - It's kind of nice in that it's reading, and the content is sometimes interesting, and you learn some random facts. Which I do appreciate, as a die-hard Ravenclaw with limited time to read / accumulate factoids.

have y'all seen this? http://www.top-law-schools.com/forums/v ... php?t=7240

I hadn't - bookmarking it look forward to looking at it closer when I get the chance! (I fear the fam will notice my absence...) Not sure how well heavy annotation would work for me but I do underline and draw some arrows as it is, so having something more systematized couldn't hurt. Thanks!

[20170322]

Today was a nice relaxed day. Glad I took some time to chill. Going to drill hard tomorrow, then PT Tuesday.

[34iplaw]

Got through 50/60 questions with 48/50 correct. I started to work on the last ten, but they are definitely much, much, much harder and I'm really too fatigued to give them my all. I'll do a light watching of relevant lessons from Saturday before bed. Maybe Silicon Valley quick [ I forget whether last weekends episode was the last one or note ].

[Rupert Pupkin]

Confession: I've been procrastinating with RC because I suck at it and when I do a passage, I feel like I'm back to square one of not knowing shit. LR and LG improvement make me feel accomplished, but RC sucks! I need to get out of this mentality and start destroying RC as well.

Same tbh D: I might've gotten a few strategies to avoid bombing it completely, but I don't think I've really made headway since diagnostic.

Need to get out of this mentality for sure. My plan - once I get back - is 3-4 RC sets per day, + 3 -4 LG sets, and the rest of the time on LR. That way I should be spending a solid 2 hours per section. With heavy drilling, improvements will have to come eventually. (*knock on wood*)

I'm trying to learn to like RC - It's kind of nice in that it's reading, and the content is sometimes interesting, and you learn some random facts. Which I do appreciate, as a die-hard Ravenclaw with limited time to read / accumulate factoids.

have y'all seen this? http://www.top-law-schools.com/forums/v ... php?t=7240

I hadn't - bookmarking it look forward to looking at it closer when I get the chance! (I fear the fam will notice my absence...) Not sure how well heavy annotation would work for me but I do underline and draw some arrows as it is, so having something more systematized couldn't hurt. Thanks!

Yeaaaa.. I have been procrastinating with RC drilling too tbh; however, I have been consistent with dense LSAT reading from Novels, the Economist, WSJ etc and ive noticed tough passages or even questions haven't been to "mind-boggling" for me. Ive noticed an improvement in focus and retention for sure just from keeping up with dense readings and making it a habit the past few months.

[Alexandros]

Confession: I've been procrastinating with RC because I suck at it and when I do a passage, I feel like I'm back to square one of not knowing shit. LR and LG improvement make me feel accomplished, but RC sucks! I need to get out of this mentality and start destroying RC as well.

Same tbh D: I might've gotten a few strategies to avoid bombing it completely, but I don't think I've really made headway since diagnostic.

Need to get out of this mentality for sure. My plan - once I get back - is 3-4 RC sets per day, + 3 -4 LG sets, and the rest of the time on LR. That way I should be spending a solid 2 hours per section. With heavy drilling, improvements will have to come eventually. (*knock on wood*)

I'm trying to learn to like RC - It's kind of nice in that it's reading, and the content is sometimes interesting, and you learn some random facts. Which I do appreciate, as a die-hard Ravenclaw with limited time to read / accumulate factoids.

have y'all seen this? http://www.top-law-schools.com/forums/v ... php?t=7240

I hadn't - bookmarking it look forward to looking at it closer when I get the chance! (I fear the fam will notice my absence...) Not sure how well heavy annotation would work for me but I do underline and draw some arrows as it is, so having something more systematized couldn't hurt. Thanks!

Yeaaaa.. I have been procrastinating with RC drilling too tbh; however, I have been consistent with dense LSAT reading from Novels, the Economist, WSJ etc and ive noticed tough passages or even questions haven't been to "mind-boggling" for me. Ive noticed an improvement in focus and retention for sure just from keeping up with dense readings and making it a habit the past few months.

That's really good to hear.

People seem to have one or two topics that seem to consistently cause them problems/make their eyes glaze over, and mine seems to be economics, sometimes legal theory. Definitely need to get more exposure to those areas.

[mwells56]

I'm having trouble with one of the questions on 7sage. It's PT33 S3Q9, "Just Social Policies"

I don't understand why E is incorrect. The conclusion states that "general principles of justice are never sufficient to determine the details of social policies fixed within a particular state". The premise in the stimulus is that "Different communities that each recognize the dignity and equality of all citizens will, for example, nevertheless settle on somewhat different provisions for the elderly"

The answer is D, "Two states founded on and adhering to similar principles of justice had different requirements that had to be met in order to be eligible for government-subsidized day care". My issue with this is that I feel it doesn't add any real strength to the argument, all it does is give one more example of the same relationship that the stimulus gives (same principles= different policies= not predictive).

When I read the conclusion, my takeaway was that principles of justice don't have predictive power over social policies. A possible way to block this would be that if they DID hold predictive power, then different principles of justice should lead to different social policies. Alas, answer choice E puts down this potential block by saying that "Two societies based on different principles of justice, each adhering to its own principles, had the same unemployment benefits". (different principles= same policies= not predictive)

The reasoning on 7sage says that because it talks about societies based on different principles of justice, it falls out of the scope of our argument. But nowhere in the conclusion does it mention similar/different policies, all it says is that they aren't sufficient for predictions.

I'm seeing this as a "two-front war" argument, where the stimulus covers one end, and answer choice E covers the other end, whereas choice D just sends extra troops the the first front. What am I missing here?

[BlackCanary]

Just finished PT. 7sage proctored, 33-min sections. Don't even want to grade. I'm fully expecting it to be far below any of my recent PTs.

I never run out of time... ever. Except today on LG. I barely even got to the last game.
My LG average is -1. That's definitely not possible. Ugh.

I was super flustered for half of the section after that.

They weren't even difficult games.

[isjd]

I don't know if this is an appropriate place to put this so moderators should move it if it is inappropriate here.

I'm registered for the September sit but only really started studying again most recently a week or so ago because I just came off of a big trial where we were working round the clock (Litigation paralegal) I'm 30 now and this isn't my first time registering - I was registered a couple times before a few years ago before deciding the time wasn't right for family reasons ostensibly (and it would have in fact been a terrible time to go for family reasons) but really because I was afraid (also I suspect for fairly deep down reasons since I am a good test taker generally- I think standardized tests are fun-even the LSAT).

And even though I won't be super well prepared I am determined to sit for psychological reasons- to kind of break the seal on the fear so I will decide to go whole hog for next cycle in preparation or decide that it's not worth the effort and figure out what else I should do with myself (paralegaling not being a long term option). There's also a shot in hell I can do well enough to apply this cycle and go this year. The only draw backs I see to this are using up one of my three shots and possibly using up some testing material. Just want to throw it out there to the hive to see if there is something else I am missing?

[34iplaw]

54/60 on the Type Eights [argument structures/roles]. Those last 10 that were all #20-#26s were really rough.

[20170322]

I don't know if this is an appropriate place to put this so moderators should move it if it is inappropriate here.

I'm registered for the September sit but only really started studying again most recently a week or so ago because I just came off of a big trial where we were working round the clock (Litigation paralegal) I'm 30 now and this isn't my first time registering - I was registered a couple times before a few years ago before deciding the time wasn't right for family reasons ostensibly (and it would have in fact been a terrible time to go for family reasons) but really because I was afraid (also I suspect for fairly deep down reasons since I am a good test taker generally- I think standardized tests are fun-even the LSAT).

And even though I won't be super well prepared I am determined to sit for psychological reasons- to kind of break the seal on the fear so I will decide to go whole hog for next cycle in preparation or decide that it's not worth the effort and figure out what else I should do with myself (paralegaling not being a long term option). There's also a shot in hell I can do well enough to apply this cycle and go this year. The only draw backs I see to this are using up one of my three shots and possibly using up some testing material. Just want to throw it out there to the hive to see if there is something else I am missing?

I don't think it's a good idea planning on retaking. If you have to retake, fine, but go full force on the September test with the intention of not retaking.

[20170322]

Just finished PT. 7sage proctored, 33-min sections. Don't even want to grade. I'm fully expecting it to be far below any of my recent PTs.

I never run out of time... ever. Except today on LG. I barely even got to the last game.
My LG average is -1. That's definitely not possible. Ugh.

I was super flustered for half of the section after that.

They weren't even difficult games.

Why 33 minute sections?

[unachievabledoubt]

Confession: I've been procrastinating with RC because I suck at it and when I do a passage, I feel like I'm back to square one of not knowing shit. LR and LG improvement make me feel accomplished, but RC sucks! I need to get out of this mentality and start destroying RC as well.

Hey Mikey, have you taken a look at the Manhattan Prep RC book? Just started reading it/working through it the other day and I really like the methods they suggest versus the methods I've read about elsewhere.

[proteinshake]

just finished up an RC section to (hopefully) gain back some confidence after that disappointment of an RC section yesterday. gonna head to the gym and review it after a workout. feeling pretty good about it. one thing that really helps me is after each paragraph, I ask myself what the point of the paragraph was before I keep reading. this helps me structurally organize the passage, which is important!

[BlackCanary]

Why 33 minute sections?

To train myself to finish in under 35. It's usually not a problem, as I tend to finish around 30-33 anyways.

[20170322]

Why 33 minute sections?

To train myself to finish in under 35. It's usually not a problem, as I tend to finish around 30-33 anyways.

Gotcha. I do this when drilling, but not with full PT's. Maybe should try it out.