October 2010 Test Prep Forum

[lparker]

Meh. PT 60 games were the hardest in the history of the test IMO.

SPOILER alert for GDane

Well I definitely would have agreed with you in June. I cancelled because I felt so unsure about PT60's LG. When I took PT60 last weekend, though, I only missed 2. Which is pretty normal for me. I think the biggest thing was the mulch game was "different" and the last game just took FOREVER. You'll be fine on 61. You're like a LG guru!

[incompetentia]

PT58 results are in.

LR1: -5 (Killer Queen)
RC: -4 (Under Pressure)
LG: -0 (I Want It All)
LR2: -1 (Bicycle Race)

I had about fifty things happen in the middle of LR1 (phone call, doorbell, branch fell on window and made a loud racket) and not surprisingly I missed 3 LR questions in a row (11-13). I looked over them again quickly and kicked myself about fifty times after I finished.

I thought I completely bombed the RC section - the Emeagwali passage ended up being a time hog for me, started it at 27:00, and finished at 13:20 (and I missed two for good measure). I completely rushed through the remaining two RC passages and thought for sure I'd bombed. (I ended up -1 on tangible-object theory and -0 on music, although I was greatly helped by the fact that my masters' is in music composition, so both passages were ridiculously easy reads...)

This caused me to finish both LG and LR2 in about 18 minutes, as I thought I was going to score in the low 160s and was eager to put the experience behind me. The only question I missed, 22, was a parallel reasoning question in which I only read one answer choice and figured it was close enough (and would have easily gotten if I had taken the time to look more closely at it).

Scaled score is 171 on a -11 curve. If I'd answered 3/4 of 11-13 + 22 right (which under sterile circumstances I might be able to do), that would raise me to a 175. Not encouraging, but enough signs for hope that I'm not discouraged, at least.

I tried my pitfall-question method, and used it only once before the stress of RC overwhelmed me, but I did change an answer from incorrect to correct. It seems though that if I'm loose and free going into the test, I shouldn't even have to worry about the pitfalls as much as I'd thought.

All we hear is LSAT ga ga
LSAT goo goo
LSAT ga ga

[Moral_Midgetry]

Did anyone taking the test Saturday see the 30 for 30 last night about the Red Sox-Yankees 2004 ALCS? I'm going to watch it again Friday night. It was very inspiring.

[Rudy]

Meh. PT 60 games were the hardest in the history of the test IMO.

SPOILER alert for GDane

Well I definitely would have agreed with you in June. I cancelled because I felt so unsure about PT60's LG. When I took PT60 last weekend, though, I only missed 2. Which is pretty normal for me. I think the biggest thing was the mulch game was "different" and the last game just took FOREVER. You'll be fine on 61. You're like a LG guru!

I agree- I was nervous about games going in to 60 in June, and and the test day just made me jittery- totally blanked on the FIRST game (which is insanely easy), skipped it to do the last game (which I bombed). Aced the middle two, -7 on logic games, and demotivation to the rest of the sections.

60 is weird. Expect weird going in.

The upshot is, I know now that if I stay calm I can crush the test. And I will. Clear your mind, embrace your fear. Repeat:

"I must not fear.
Fear is the mind-killer.
Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration.
I will face my fear.
I will permit it to pass over me and through me.
And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path.
Where the fear has gone there will be nothing......Only a 180 will remain."

[CGI Fridays]

Only book I've ever read twice.

[The Gentleman]

OMG, PT 59's RC was the most incredibly lucky guessing spree you can imagine. I was hoping for a -5 or -6, but by some divine miracle managed a -1! I think I pooped ma' pants after grading it. lol

[Patriot1208]

OMG, PT 59's RC was the most incredibly lucky guessing spree you can imagine. I was hoping for a -5 or -6, but by some divine miracle managed a -1! I think I pooped ma' pants after grading it. lol

You blew your load too early.

[The Gentleman]

You blew your load too early.

Never a good thing...

[CGI Fridays]

Today is break day. Thu & Fri are rev up days.

[jfb]

Anyone know where to find a breakdown of lsat score to percentile??

[CGI Fridays]

Anyone know where to find a breakdown of lsat score to percentile??

http://www.alpha-score.com/resources/ls ... onversion/

That's just for one test though.

[jfb]

yea, thats helpful, thanks.

[Norlan]

on the real test, are you given only with 2-3 inches of space right under the questions to draw diagrams fro LG? is it 2-3 inches of space per game?

[CGI Fridays]

on the real test, are you given only with 2-3 inches of space right under the questions to draw diagrams fro LG? is it 2-3 inches of space per game?

??? I believe it's exactly as it is on the PTs.
Usually you have a bunch of space, every once in a while you get screwed.

[Dany]

on the real test, are you given only with 2-3 inches of space right under the questions to draw diagrams fro LG? is it 2-3 inches of space per game?

It looks exactly like official PTs, and the space varies by game.

[catsparka]

PT58 results are in.

LR1: -5 (Killer Queen)
RC: -4 (Under Pressure)
LG: -0 (I Want It All)
LR2: -1 (Bicycle Race)

I had about fifty things happen in the middle of LR1 (phone call, doorbell, branch fell on window and made a loud racket) and not surprisingly I missed 3 LR questions in a row (11-13). I looked over them again quickly and kicked myself about fifty times after I finished.

I thought I completely bombed the RC section - the Emeagwali passage ended up being a time hog for me, started it at 27:00, and finished at 13:20 (and I missed two for good measure). I completely rushed through the remaining two RC passages and thought for sure I'd bombed. (I ended up -1 on tangible-object theory and -0 on music, although I was greatly helped by the fact that my masters' is in music composition, so both passages were ridiculously easy reads...)

This caused me to finish both LG and LR2 in about 18 minutes, as I thought I was going to score in the low 160s and was eager to put the experience behind me. The only question I missed, 22, was a parallel reasoning question in which I only read one answer choice and figured it was close enough (and would have easily gotten if I had taken the time to look more closely at it).

Scaled score is 171 on a -11 curve. If I'd answered 3/4 of 11-13 + 22 right (which under sterile circumstances I might be able to do), that would raise me to a 175. Not encouraging, but enough signs for hope that I'm not discouraged, at least.

I tried my pitfall-question method, and used it only once before the stress of RC overwhelmed me, but I did change an answer from incorrect to correct. It seems though that if I'm loose and free going into the test, I shouldn't even have to worry about the pitfalls as much as I'd thought.

All we hear is LSAT ga ga
LSAT goo goo
LSAT ga ga

What's the pitfall-question method? I'm curious!

[catsparka]

on the real test, are you given only with 2-3 inches of space right under the questions to draw diagrams fro LG? is it 2-3 inches of space per game?

??? I believe it's exactly as it is on the PTs.
Usually you have a bunch of space, every once in a while you get screwed.

This has been happening more frequently recently. Especially on the last game, where they give you an ENTIRE PAGE OF TEXT.

[CGI Fridays]

This has been happening more frequently recently. Especially on the last game, where they give you an ENTIRE PAGE OF TEXT.

Just remember, if it's really bad, you can always rock the eraser & nuke your work on game 3 to do game 4 on that page. 'Cause yeah, when this problem occurs, it always seem to occur on game 4.

[JJDancer]

I freaked a little last night when i scored -3 on LG from PT 55
and the night before when I scored -6 on RC from PT 56
Then I realized this whole sections at 11 pm when I have been up since 8 was NOT working out for me and would cause me to worry just before bed, not allowing me to fall asleep on time.

Did PT 57 LR and LG this morning
LR 1 = -0
LG = -1/-2 (missed 1, but took 10-15 seconds past 35 mins to finish) Technically -2.

When I took this exam a week before my sept 09 test, I missed 8 total on those two sections...feeling good

PT 57 RC and LR 2 later today.

semi spoiler? (PT 57+59) noticed LG had a question of "if you suspend this rule, which rule would have the same effect" question... I saw another one of these recently on PT 59 but the one on 57 was Much simpler..

[gdane]

Just drilled the "10 Hardest LG" according to LSATBlog. It took me an hour and 33 minutes. I think thats a little more than what I shouldve taken. However, these were really tough and its unlikely that LSAC would put more than 1 of these on any given test. So, taking an extra 5 or so minutes is cool.

I dont know why, but LG has clicked for me. Im happy as hell. A month ago it looked like I was headed to a poor LG score.

Just going to drill old questions today and thats that. PT 60 tomorrow.

Good luck everyone!

[incompetentia]

What's the pitfall-question method? I'm curious!

I'd noticed that most of the LR questions that I spent more than 60-80 seconds agonizing over I was getting correct, and that most of my incorrect answers were on questions where I did have to get down and eliminate answer choices, but where I usually went with an answer choice that looked right after too long. (I could usually spot the correct answer after realizing my original choice was wrong or being told so.)
I also had 3-4 minutes left on average at the end of each LR section where it seemed like going over the agonizing questions was having no positive effect anymore

I marked these possibly-dangerous questions at least for the first test section that I took today - I think I marked 4, and went back to them after I finished the section (~3:10 remaining once I finished 25). Three looked like I made the right decision; however, I did change one to a different answer choice (and felt very confident about doing it after seeing the problem again). This one happened to be a wrong answer that I saved.

I did miss two others that fit my characterization, but I did save myself one point, which does make a difference.

For me, this would require more testing to see if this would help, and it has several requirements in terms of how fast you already finish and which questions you currently get wrong for implementation, but it could work for some people.

[jfb]

Just drilled the "10 Hardest LG" according to LSATBlog. It took me an hour and 33 minutes. I think thats a little more than what I shouldve taken. However, these were really tough and its unlikely that LSAC would put more than 1 of these on any given test. So, taking an extra 5 or so minutes is cool.

I dont know why, but LG has clicked for me. Im happy as hell. A month ago it looked like I was headed to a poor LG score.

Just going to drill old questions today and thats that. PT 60 tomorrow.

Good luck everyone!

PT 60 for me tomorrow as well. Best of luck. A nice confidence on 60 would be very welcome.

[kpuc]

168 on PT 60 today. That's like a monthly low for me. I haven't gone below 170 in quite some time. Here's the breakdown:

LR1: -1
LR2: -3
RC: -1
LG: -9!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Exp LR: -2

Wow. I haven't missed more than 3 in LG in ages. I knew I performed poorly on it, but I was thinking -4 or something like that. Holy crap. I personally found those games retardedly difficult. The last game was simply unbelievable.

Oh well. I'll just have to drill games in the next couple of days.

PT 60 didn't go so well for me either this morning.

I found LR 1 very difficult. I thought it was comparable in difficulty to PT 57's LR 1, but in that test, I only got -2 (and -0 for LR 2), whereas for PT 60, I got -4 for LR 1 and -3 for LR 2. I guess it just wasn't my day. I suspect burnout: this past week, I've either been PT'ing or studying about 4-5 hours a day.

I actually didn't find the games THAT difficult, though I still went -5 because I didn't keep very good track of the rules in the last game. Mulch was fun though. Unusual, in a good way.

I knew that this test wasn't going well, so rather than waste another hour doing an experimental and the RC, I just decided to see how I did. I would've had to pull off a -0 RC to get a 170.

Meh, I'm not even that discouraged. PT 57 was maybe even more difficult, and I did fine on that. I'm just gonna chalk it up to an off-day. Maybe the non-stop rain had something to do with it. Lucky for me, forecast for Saturday is sunny!

Even the best-trained athletes who have honed skills over a lifetime aren't guaranteed to perform well when it matters. As long as we know that we are prepared and know that we have the abilities to strive for the score that we want, we can do well on the test. The rest is up to luck.

[Norlan]

on the real test, are you given only with 2-3 inches of space right under the questions to draw diagrams fro LG? is it 2-3 inches of space per game?

so basically you can write on the question book during the real test, including eliminating letter choices? i seem to have developed a habit of eliminating A ~ E in order to help myself to focus better

[lparker]

so basically you can write on the question book during the real test, including eliminating letter choices?

Yes, you can write in the question book. You won't be given any scratch paper except for the writing section.