The Official June 2014 Study Group Forum

[Learn_Live_Hope]

Summertime sadness



Just working on one of the hardest logic games ever! PT 60 Game 4

Awwww Louie working hard

[DaRascal]

Just exhausted my last RC section. Out of prep materials. Could re-do the December 2013 RC section I suppose. I don't feel great when I'm getting anywhere from -3 to -7 on RC, but, I notice that generally my # wrong tends to fall into the 4-5 range.

Anyway, let's do this!! Let's just try to take it one question at a time, try to get everything right using the abilities we've honed through these tough months of LSAT prep, and then we'll see where the chips fall. I think if we worry about what our PT averages are and how we've never had a -0 on a certain section, we'll psychologically take ourselves out of the best score we can achieve before the exam even starts.

[alexrodriguez]

My memory serves me so well that when redoing LR sections I don't even have to read the question.

I can scan answers and easily choose the correct one.

This will not be good if I end up having to retake, but I probably won't have to. I can feel a 180 coming.

[Learn_Live_Hope]

My memory serves me so well that when redoing LR sections I don't even have to read the question.

I can scan answers and easily choose the correct one.

This will not be good if I end up having to retake, but I probably won't have to. I can feel a 180 coming.

What a confidence!

[Yeezus]

Just exhausted my last RC section. Out of prep materials. Could re-do the December 2013 RC section I suppose. I don't feel great when I'm getting anywhere from -3 to -7 on RC, but, I notice that generally my # wrong tends to fall into the 4-5 range.

Anyway, let's do this!! Let's just try to take it one question at a time, try to get everything right using the abilities we've honed through these tough months of LSAT prep, and then we'll see where the chips fall. I think if we worry about what our PT averages are and how we've never had a -0 on a certain section, we'll psychologically take ourselves out of the best score we can achieve before the exam even starts.

I'm in a similar situation in terms of RC. Don't really know what else I could be doing to improve on it in the week before the test. And I really wish I could stop psyching myself out. I'm strongly considering doing nothing for the last week seeing as how my past few scores lately have been below my average and it's starting to snowball.

[DaRascal]

I'm in a similar situation in terms of RC. Don't really know what else I could be doing to improve on it in the week before the test. And I really wish I could stop psyching myself out. I'm strongly considering doing nothing for the last week seeing as how my past few scores lately have been below my average and it's starting to snowball.

Haha same here! I'm just going to convince myself that my troubles with RC are because I am not as focused as I'll be on June 9th and that I should either take the week before the exam off or focus on LR to take my mind off of my RC deficiencies.

[WorldsCollide]

On that note, I was wondering what everyone thought about possibly postponing for September? I'm definitely not scoring where I want to be scoring and the exam is just so close. I currently have a 4.0 GPA and don't want my GPA to basically become meaningless when coupled with a low LSAT score ;(.

What have your last few PTs been and what score are you hoping to get in June?

This is kind of embarrassing but my last three: 155, 156 and 157 (in that order). My "peak" was 163 and I am aiming for (kind of unrealistic at this point) above a 170. Honestly, RC is what's killing me at this point. I've never been a very fast reader so I think that trying to read fast to get to all the passages and questions is not really helping. (And now with the comparative reading... it's just not helping. I was doing much better on the 30s preptests).

Master two of the sections then you should score above 170. Try to get LG & LR down first (LG for -0/1 and LR for -1/3). RC is my weak point as well, but a solid performance on LG & LR makes me safely land on 170s.
At this point, I recommend you to postpone. With a sub-170s, You can get into HLS:)

Thanks for the advice and for saying that about HLS =). I'll keep taking PTs and see where it gets me until a few days before the test.

Now I ma going to go back and drill LR assumption family type questions from 1-39 (not all of them, just some hard ones).

Is there anywhere online that states what type is each LR question?

You can filter for LR on (link removed).

Wow! Thank you so much!


Also a problem specific question... Preptest55 Section 4 Game 4:

Why is this a biconditional? Honestly, the first time I read the rule it just sounds like it's saying "if F is before (or equal to) J, then S can be anywhere in relation to G":

"If Jasmine is still on board when the van reaches Fundy, then Greg is still on board when the van reaches Simcoe; otherwise, Greg is not still on board when the van reaches Simcoe."

[Calbears123]

Well with work this week I only have time for 2 more PT (70 and 71) which I'll take on thursday and friday. Its been an honor wasting time I could be studying with you all. Cya in the september retake thread

[DaRascal]

[
Also a problem specific question... Preptest55 Section 4 Game 4:

Why is this a biconditional? Honestly, the first time I read the rule it just sounds like it's saying "if F is before (or equal to) J, then S can be anywhere in relation to G":

"If Jasmine is still on board when the van reaches Fundy, then Greg is still on board when the van reaches Simcoe; otherwise, Greg is not still on board when the van reaches Simcoe."

I was doing that game not too long ago. I had to check it up because I didn't get it at first either.

There are two distinct scenarios- The first being that either Jasmine is on board when the van reaches Fundy (or at any point afterward) in which case it triggers Greg being on board when the van reaches Simcoe (or at any point afterward).

The second scenario is that Jasmine gets off before Fundy which triggers Greg getting off before Simcoe.

One or the other must occur and, as such, the two separate scenarios are biconditionals because the occurrence of Greg getting off at or after Simcoe means the first scenario must have been triggered and if Greg gets off before then, the second scenario was triggered.

[WorldsCollide]

[
Also a problem specific question... Preptest55 Section 4 Game 4:

Why is this a biconditional? Honestly, the first time I read the rule it just sounds like it's saying "if F is before (or equal to) J, then S can be anywhere in relation to G":

"If Jasmine is still on board when the van reaches Fundy, then Greg is still on board when the van reaches Simcoe; otherwise, Greg is not still on board when the van reaches Simcoe."

I was doing that game not too long ago. I had to check it up because I didn't get it at first either.

There are two distinct scenarios- The first being that either Jasmine is on board when the van reaches Fundy (or at any point afterward) in which case it triggers Greg being on board when the van reaches Simcoe (or at any point afterward).

The second scenario is that Jasmine gets off before Fundy which triggers Greg getting off before Simcoe.

One or the other must occur and, as such, the two separate scenarios are biconditionals because the occurrence of Greg getting off at or after Simcoe means the first scenario must have been triggered and if Greg gets off before then, the second scenario was triggered.

So the otherwise actually negates Jasmine still being on board at Fundy?

1) If Jasmine is still on board when the van reaches Fundy,, then Greg is on board when the van reaches Simcoe.
If Jasmime is not on board when the van reaches Fundy, then Greg is not on board when the van reaches Simcoe?

[DaRascal]

Yeah because it's the only other possible placement of J if she doesn't get off at Fundy or afterwards so I read the otherwise as implicitly expressing the 2nd conditional statement in your post. But it's easier to diagram it like the guy in the YouTube video for that game did where he diagrammed the two biconditionals as:

J ------- G
|\ <---> |\
F--------S

or else
J---------G
/ <----> /
F-----------S

[WorldsCollide]

Yeah because it's the only other possible placement of J if she doesn't get off at Fundy or afterwards so I read the otherwise as implicitly expressing the 2nd conditional statement in your post. But it's easier to diagram it like the guy in the YouTube video for that game did where he diagrammed the two biconditionals as:

J ------- G
|\ <---> |\
F--------S

or else
J---------G
/ <----> /
F-----------S

Okay, thank you so much for the explanation!

[dd235]

That bus stop game is definitely one of my least favorites. I spent the better part of the day redoing logic games that gave me trouble. It was very disheartening.

[rebexness]

Bus stops are awful.

[DaRascal]

Great news, guys, I invested all of yesterday into studying Reading Comprehension and I finally experienced a breakthrough this morning after going through the 1st 100 pages of the MLSAT RC book for the fifth or so time.

Anyway, I have a newfound confidence in my abilities in the section, but the problem I'm running into is that it takes me 3:30 to 4 minutes to read any passage with my new system of annotating although it leads to a high level of accuracy when I get to the questions.

Should I speed up my reading and underlining/bracketing or will that compromise my understanding of the passage? What's the right balance so that an average reader like myself can finish all 26-28 questions IN TIME without getting more than say 2 or 3 wrong?

[papercut]

Great news, guys, I invested all of yesterday into studying Reading Comprehension and I finally experienced a breakthrough this morning after going through the 1st 100 pages of the MLSAT RC book for the fifth or so time.

Anyway, I have a newfound confidence in my abilities in the section, but the problem I'm running into is that it takes me 3:30 to 4 minutes to read any passage with my new system of annotating although it leads to a high level of accuracy when I get to the questions.

Should I speed up my reading and underlining/bracketing or will that compromise my understanding of the passage? What's the right balance so that an average reader like myself can finish all 26-28 questions IN TIME without getting more than say 2 or 3 wrong?

RC has always been my strongest section. I very rarely miss a question. I take as much as 5 minutes to read the passage, but then I go very quickly, and accurately through the questions.

I wouldn't try to cut out more time form reading the passage, you have to get better at anticipating the questions they'll ask based on what you saw in the passage. That way, when they do come up, you'll recognize the right answer very quickly.

[DaRascal]

papercut, I actually see what you mean! Ok cool cool. Thanks for that advice! With that approach, as long as a person doesn't lose focus, they can finish RC with about 4 or 5 minutes to spare and go back and check any tough questions with two attractive answer choices they might have circled.

Now I'm unsure about whether I should spend the rest of my week continuing to work at RC or if I should brush up on LR (haven't touched it in two weeks).

[papercut]

papercut, I actually see what you mean! Ok cool cool. Thanks for that advice! With that approach, as long as a person doesn't lose focus, they can finish RC with about 4 or 5 minutes to spare and go back and check any tough questions with two attractive answer choices they might have circled.

Now I'm unsure about whether I should spend the rest of my week continuing to work at RC or if I should brush up on LR (haven't touched it in two weeks).

I almost never have more than a minute left on RC. I think it makes sense to use up your time as the questions/passages come. Whenever you have to go back, you'll inevitably do some re-reading, which is a waste of time. Just try to get your pacing right so that you have maybe a minute left at the end.

RC and LR are very much linked together. You should be using your LR question specific strategies on RC questions of the same type, and your RC reading annotations on LR questions. LR is also 2 sections, so you get twice the bang for your studying buck by spending time on LR.

[WorldsCollide]

Thanks for the RC advice! I think I found a strategy, too. But even though I'm accurate, I spend too much time on the first three passages and don't get to the fourth.

How often does everyone diagram LR?

[BaberhamLincoln]

Thanks for the RC advice! I think I found a strategy, too. But even though I'm accurate, I spend too much time on the first three passages and don't get to the fourth.

How often does everyone diagram LR?

Rarely. Maybe 1-3 times in a section. But then again I need to work on my LG so maybe I should use them more

[papercut]

Thanks for the RC advice! I think I found a strategy, too. But even though I'm accurate, I spend too much time on the first three passages and don't get to the fourth.

How often does everyone diagram LR?

Getting the timing right on RC is pretty hard since it's so variable.

You should try to catch yourself re-reading. I'm a super slow reader, but I never run out of time because I almost always read only once. Sometimes I won't read all the answer choices (never true for MP questions). If I catch myself re-reading something I know I'm burning time. You can't let yourself re-read more than 2-3 times per section.

As far as diagraming LR:

You want to diagram whenever you have more than one diagramable claim (look for those sufficient and necessary keywords) because you might be able to apply the transitive property, OR if the claim is so complicated that you have to diagram it out to simplify it and understand it better (e.g. "unless," double negatives, really long conditionals).

Must Be True, Sufficient, and Necessary questions tend to be diagrammable, but not always.

[WorldsCollide]

Thanks!

^ RC is so damn time-consuming.

I really want to postpone to September... but I'm starting my semester at the beginning of September so that sucks. Besides, I have family pressure to at least finish up this week of studying before making a decision =,(.

[WaltGrace83]

Thanks!

^ RC is so damn time-consuming.

I really want to postpone to September... but I'm starting my semester at the beginning of September so that sucks. Besides, I have family pressure to at least finish up this week of studying before making a decision =,(.

One thing I would warn you about is to not have your decision influenced by anyone else but yourself. My whole entire family completely fails to understand why I postponed to September. It sucks that they don't and their support for me is basically next to nothing now but it doesn't matter. This is YOUR career and, unless your parents are willing to give you $250k in cash right now to pay for schooling, this is YOUR money. You - and only you - should decide what you should do with it.

That is why I postponed. I could have done well in June but "well" is not going to cut it to get into the schools I want to go to for a price I can justify paying.

[WorldsCollide]

Thanks!

^ RC is so damn time-consuming.

I really want to postpone to September... but I'm starting my semester at the beginning of September so that sucks. Besides, I have family pressure to at least finish up this week of studying before making a decision =,(.

One thing I would warn you about is to not have your decision influenced by anyone else but yourself. My whole entire family completely fails to understand why I postponed to September. It sucks that they don't and their support for me is basically next to nothing now but it doesn't matter. This is YOUR career and, unless your parents are willing to give you $250k in cash right now to pay for schooling, this is YOUR money. You - and only you - should decide what you should do with it.

That is why I postponed. I could have done well in June but "well" is not going to cut it to get into the schools I want to go to for a price I can justify paying.

Thank you. And I completely agree. My parents keep saying "You'll do well on the exam! And even if not, you have a very impressive resume!" They don't seem to understand that numbers are practically everything. My GPA, internships, leadership positions mean literally nothing if I can't get above a 170 on the LSAT. They also don't understand the difference a few points could make. They think a 160 could be good enough while I try to explain that the difference between a 168 and a 173 could be the difference between getting accepted to all T-14s and getting accepted to, maybe, one or two. But it's just so frustrating that they keep arguing with me about it even when they're not informed.

[Yeezus]

Can't believe it took me until now to find that going slower and understanding things better the first time around > rushing through and rereading over and over again on the RC. Probably wouldn't have found out if it weren't for this thread