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

[tofuspeedstar]

Decided to do un-timed RC stuff for a while to get used to 7sage's method. I figured I shouldn't go hard with the timing yet and to just try and get good at RC the same way I got decent at LR and LG.. Un-timed, understanding what I'm doing--> Timed later on

Did 1 RC passage un-timed with 7sage's memory method, thoroughly reviewed it and then watched their explanation. Went 5/7 pre-review.

That is what I'm thinking I am going to do. And I honestly think that is the best way. Hopefully over time you will start to recognize patterns, much like with LR/LG.

I noticed once I changed my mindset to pretend to be interested in reading whatever is presented, and knowing one of the Qs missed could be the difference between 169 and 170 (in turn being the difference to being admitted w/ $$$$ vs admitted w/ $$). I started doing better.

On my Oct '13 attempt I missed 13 or 14 in RC alone. During drilling after 7 sage I do 4-5 RC passages together and miss maybe 4-5 pre-review and get all right after BR.

[Mikey]

Decided to do un-timed RC stuff for a while to get used to 7sage's method. I figured I shouldn't go hard with the timing yet and to just try and get good at RC the same way I got decent at LR and LG.. Un-timed, understanding what I'm doing--> Timed later on

Did 1 RC passage un-timed with 7sage's memory method, thoroughly reviewed it and then watched their explanation. Went 5/7 pre-review.

That is what I'm thinking I am going to do. And I honestly think that is the best way. Hopefully over time you will start to recognize patterns, much like with LR/LG.

I noticed once I changed my mindset to pretend to be interested in reading whatever is presented, and knowing one of the Qs missed could be the difference between 169 and 170 (in turn being the difference to being admitted w/ $$$$ vs admitted w/ $$). I started doing better.

On my Oct '13 attempt I missed 13 or 14 in RC alone. During drilling after 7 sage I do 4-5 RC passages together and miss maybe 4-5 pre-review and get all right after BR.

Nice improvement! So you used 7sage's memory method? Or did you do your own thing and just use their explanations?

[tofuspeedstar]

Decided to do un-timed RC stuff for a while to get used to 7sage's method. I figured I shouldn't go hard with the timing yet and to just try and get good at RC the same way I got decent at LR and LG.. Un-timed, understanding what I'm doing--> Timed later on

Did 1 RC passage un-timed with 7sage's memory method, thoroughly reviewed it and then watched their explanation. Went 5/7 pre-review.

That is what I'm thinking I am going to do. And I honestly think that is the best way. Hopefully over time you will start to recognize patterns, much like with LR/LG.

I noticed once I changed my mindset to pretend to be interested in reading whatever is presented, and knowing one of the Qs missed could be the difference between 169 and 170 (in turn being the difference to being admitted w/ $$$$ vs admitted w/ $$). I started doing better.

On my Oct '13 attempt I missed 13 or 14 in RC alone. During drilling after 7 sage I do 4-5 RC passages together and miss maybe 4-5 pre-review and get all right after BR.

Nice improvement! So you used 7sage's memory method? Or did you do your own thing and just use their explanations?

I did 7sage's way. So while I'm reading I'm writing on the side what the point of that paragraph is. Combined with pretending to give a shit or reading in Morgan Freeman's voice makes it a bit more fun.

[20170322]

Decided to PT again tomorrow. Let's see if lightning can strike the same place twice.

[Mikey]

Decided to do un-timed RC stuff for a while to get used to 7sage's method. I figured I shouldn't go hard with the timing yet and to just try and get good at RC the same way I got decent at LR and LG.. Un-timed, understanding what I'm doing--> Timed later on

Did 1 RC passage un-timed with 7sage's memory method, thoroughly reviewed it and then watched their explanation. Went 5/7 pre-review.

That is what I'm thinking I am going to do. And I honestly think that is the best way. Hopefully over time you will start to recognize patterns, much like with LR/LG.

I noticed once I changed my mindset to pretend to be interested in reading whatever is presented, and knowing one of the Qs missed could be the difference between 169 and 170 (in turn being the difference to being admitted w/ $$$$ vs admitted w/ $$). I started doing better.

On my Oct '13 attempt I missed 13 or 14 in RC alone. During drilling after 7 sage I do 4-5 RC passages together and miss maybe 4-5 pre-review and get all right after BR.

Nice improvement! So you used 7sage's memory method? Or did you do your own thing and just use their explanations?

I did 7sage's way. So while I'm reading I'm writing on the side what the point of that paragraph is. Combined with pretending to give a shit or reading in Morgan Freeman's voice makes it a bit more fun.

Haha, I'm going to try out his voice when reading! xD Out of curiosity, around how long did it take you to see some improvement using their method?

[tofuspeedstar]

Decided to do un-timed RC stuff for a while to get used to 7sage's method. I figured I shouldn't go hard with the timing yet and to just try and get good at RC the same way I got decent at LR and LG.. Un-timed, understanding what I'm doing--> Timed later on

Did 1 RC passage un-timed with 7sage's memory method, thoroughly reviewed it and then watched their explanation. Went 5/7 pre-review.

That is what I'm thinking I am going to do. And I honestly think that is the best way. Hopefully over time you will start to recognize patterns, much like with LR/LG.

I noticed once I changed my mindset to pretend to be interested in reading whatever is presented, and knowing one of the Qs missed could be the difference between 169 and 170 (in turn being the difference to being admitted w/ $$$$ vs admitted w/ $$). I started doing better.

On my Oct '13 attempt I missed 13 or 14 in RC alone. During drilling after 7 sage I do 4-5 RC passages together and miss maybe 4-5 pre-review and get all right after BR.

Nice improvement! So you used 7sage's memory method? Or did you do your own thing and just use their explanations?

I did 7sage's way. So while I'm reading I'm writing on the side what the point of that paragraph is. Combined with pretending to give a shit or reading in Morgan Freeman's voice makes it a bit more fun.

Haha, I'm going to try out his voice when reading! xD Out of curiosity, around how long did it take you to see some improvement using their method?

For me it was rather instant, after going over the videos and example passages. I went back and did the RC from PT62 (One I sat for IRL) and missed 3. I haven't seen PT62 since actually taking it either, so it was fresh (4 years and some change)

[34iplaw]

I feel like games with distribution issues will be my jam when I get slightly more consistent with them. I've had some that take me 2-3 minutes longer than the 7sage on first try, some that I made initial diagramming errors on, and some that I've finished in like 4 minutes when 7sage recommends 9 minutes.

Blegh. Typically, it's the ones with the huge up front inferences that I get relatively quick. I'm not so great with some of the like semi-local ones... i.e. a game will have like 3 local questions that all test really the same inference [i.e. cutting the board].

[34iplaw]

LR question from one of the first 38 PT's.

[+] Spoiler

Nearly all mail that is correctly addressed arrives at its destination within two business days of being sent. In fact, correctly addressed mail takes longer than this only when it is damaged in transit. Overall, however, most mail arrives three business days or more after being sent.

If the statements above are true, which one of the following must be true?


Correct Answer: D) A large proportion of the mail is incorrectly addressed.

Here's my question; couldn't it be the case that all the mail that is sent is addressed correctly, but damaged in transit? In which case, answer D doesn't HAVE to be true?

D seems to make sense. I think your reasoning would contradict the paragraph. It's saying that almost all mail that is correctly addressed arrives in two days. If it arrives in more than two days, it is either incorrectly addressed or correctly addressed and damaged in transit. *Most* mail that is correctly addressed arrives on time, so only a small portion of that can actually be damaged.

I'm not sure if that's clear...but I think your justification for why it could be wrong is contradicted by the paragraph.

OOOOHHHHHH, I totally overlooked the first sentence. That makes sense. Thanks!

No problem. I now state my claim for the credit for your 180.

I sat at Starbucks for at least six hours today studying. Going to watch some of the Testmasters' game videos that I did to see if they drop any nuggets of wisdom. It's a little annoying, as the videos seem way too long... didn't want to do it while I was still fairly focused.

[Mikey]

For me it was rather instant, after going over the videos and example passages. I went back and did the RC from PT62 (One I sat for IRL) and missed 3. I haven't seen PT62 since actually taking it either, so it was fresh (4 years and some change)

Hmmm.. Then I guess my memory just sucks ass then haha

[20170322]

I'm considering that once I finish all the PT's, I should get the first 10/20 I took and drill them, especially the RC. I've drilled the shit out of my current materials, so it might be nice to see some fresher stuff.

[Barack O'Drama]

So today I took notes on the last few pages of the MLSAT RC Guide. It was really helpful, they have common questions from students with answers and strategies as to how to approach such issues. There was also information/advice on what to do if you have a bit of time left versus not much time and right before test day.

I also just watched the 7Sage webinar on LSAT Prep for 170+, such an invaluable webinar. The speaker, Allison talked about her study prep and essentials in prep. One thing she mentioned was how she pushed her PT date back to ensure she had the curriculum/foundation down. That was really reassuring for me because I was supposed to be PTing by now, but I pushed it back to make sure I got through the curriculum coupled with my Cambridge drilling. I spent a lot of time on the conditional logic lessons, drills, quizzes, and repetition of the lessons because I find them to be crucial in MBT, strengthening, and weakening questions.

She also talked about the importance of BR and not just looking at JY and other forums for explanations. She said this is where the real learning curve is. She suggested printing out a fresh copy of the PT for blind review so you are not influenced by your initial go/reasoning. I haven't been PTing yet, but when I am drilling I don't really BR. I just mark the questions I get wrong and after I do a set of 30 or 50 questions I take a break and try to review why the question is wrong (essentially what you would do in BR but with the knowledge of the correct answer). I think when I get to the PT stage, I will definitely follow her recommendation for the BR.

I have seen that! With Nicole Hopkins? Really inspirational and helped me to realize more time is a good thing. I credit that webinar as one of the main reasons I decided to wait until December. Also the importance of avoiding burnout.

Great Webinar!

[RamTitan]

For me it was rather instant, after going over the videos and example passages. I went back and did the RC from PT62 (One I sat for IRL) and missed 3. I haven't seen PT62 since actually taking it either, so it was fresh (4 years and some change)

Hmmm.. Then I guess my memory just sucks ass then haha

I've done a lot of different annotation methods, and I think for getting a good RC score it comes down to not annotating whatsoever and really being in-tune with the structure of the passage. This takes time obviously, but once you've started to do passages like 4-5 times you'll see these same patterns emerge in all of the other passages as well.

[Alexandros]

gonna have to call it quits for tonight. wine and netflix it is.

Finished MLR (for the second time) - just have to finish Explain a result drilling then back to chapter 1 for more. I'm thinking I might start doing a practice PT (PPT?) on a workday of one of the 1-38 tests, in addition to the weekly PT. I dunno. regardless, practice makes perfect - we'll get there y'all.

[ngogirl12]

She also talked about the importance of BR and not just looking at JY and other forums for explanations. She said this is where the real learning curve is. She suggested printing out a fresh copy of the PT for blind review so you are not influenced by your initial go/reasoning. I haven't been PTing yet, but when I am drilling I don't really BR. I just mark the questions I get wrong and after I do a set of 30 or 50 questions I take a break and try to review why the question is wrong (essentially what you would do in BR but with the knowledge of the correct answer). I think when I get to the PT stage, I will definitely follow her recommendation for the BR.

I would recommend doing BR during your drilling as well, not just for PT. I think it's beneficial to do so during drilling, even for questions you know 100% for a fact you got right, because it allows you to really hone in on how answer choices are attractive but wrong for certain question types, which is very important to get used to.

I mean, I'm by no means amazing at this test, but because of BR during drilling, I've gotten to the point where I can go like -3 on a timed LR section. It makes you go deep into the actual patterns of each question type, and how they try to screw you with wrong answer choices.

I will definitely take your advice, thanks for that. LR has always been my problem area and RC is a hit or miss, hopefully with the RC guide and 7Sage both will improve dramatically. She also said that LR and RC are where you get all the dividends in BR. She said for LG she just would redo the LG as a clean copy, and she also redid all the newer games (which I think I will do as well when I start PTing). She also said the weird games in the newer administrations are similar to the much earlier games.

My question for doing RC blind review is how do you do it? Do you redo the passage or erase your answers on said questions and blind review the specific questions?

I just reread your post again, so you redo every question you drilled but you write out why every answer choice is correct and why the incorrect ones are incorrect? Essentially you do two sets of drilling?

[proteinshake]

pretty much did nothing today. usually take Fridays off but I took today off since I did a PT yesterday.

[ngogirl12]

So today I took notes on the last few pages of the MLSAT RC Guide. It was really helpful, they have common questions from students with answers and strategies as to how to approach such issues. There was also information/advice on what to do if you have a bit of time left versus not much time and right before test day.

I also just watched the 7Sage webinar on LSAT Prep for 170+, such an invaluable webinar. The speaker, Allison talked about her study prep and essentials in prep. One thing she mentioned was how she pushed her PT date back to ensure she had the curriculum/foundation down. That was really reassuring for me because I was supposed to be PTing by now, but I pushed it back to make sure I got through the curriculum coupled with my Cambridge drilling. I spent a lot of time on the conditional logic lessons, drills, quizzes, and repetition of the lessons because I find them to be crucial in MBT, strengthening, and weakening questions.

She also talked about the importance of BR and not just looking at JY and other forums for explanations. She said this is where the real learning curve is. She suggested printing out a fresh copy of the PT for blind review so you are not influenced by your initial go/reasoning. I haven't been PTing yet, but when I am drilling I don't really BR. I just mark the questions I get wrong and after I do a set of 30 or 50 questions I take a break and try to review why the question is wrong (essentially what you would do in BR but with the knowledge of the correct answer). I think when I get to the PT stage, I will definitely follow her recommendation for the BR.

I have seen that! With Nicole Hopkins? Really inspirational and helped me to realize more time is a good thing. I credit that webinar as one of the main reasons I decided to wait until December. Also the importance of avoiding burnout.

Great Webinar!

No, its the one with Alison (173). She said she started studying hard core in June from June-October she did the curriculum and trainer, and October to December she did PT's, BR'ed, and drilled. She only did 19 PT's and started from a 150 something diagnostic (I think!), she recommended people take 20-30 PT's. Her webinar gave me so much hope for myself because I was studying for the December test but rushing through the curriculum and taking PT's, in November I realized I wasn't ready, and restarted the curriculum but SLOWLY and with breaks in between and for the last few weeks I've been going hard core. I was getting a bit worried if I could make my timeline because I was supposed to be PTing right now, I probably won't PT for a week or two, but my timeline is very similar to hers so I have renewed hope!

I highly recommend this webinar, it's on page two of the webinar videos the second from the top, she has so much great advice that I could not get all of it in my post, but I'm definitely going to heed it all!

Sorry for the superlong post!!

[ngogirl12]

For me it was rather instant, after going over the videos and example passages. I went back and did the RC from PT62 (One I sat for IRL) and missed 3. I haven't seen PT62 since actually taking it either, so it was fresh (4 years and some change)

Hmmm.. Then I guess my memory just sucks ass then haha

I've done a lot of different annotation methods, and I think for getting a good RC score it comes down to not annotating whatsoever and really being in-tune with the structure of the passage. This takes time obviously, but once you've started to do passages like 4-5 times you'll see these same patterns emerge in all of the other passages as well.

+1 I think the best thing is to read the passage slowly, mark a few important things such as definitions, authors opinion, change of arguments/theories etc (I usually do this with underlining, but a short underlining, I never mark up the passage or annotate bc I feel it wastes time), and do a mental passage map which is basically a quick overview in your head of each paragraph or know where the argument is going, and then go into the questions. This is my version of the M RC guide which I found REALLY helpful!!

[Rupert Pupkin]

In honor of the Suit's premiere tonight, I bumped this Suits thread. So if it's lit in there because of the premiere, be there

http://www.top-law-schools.com/forums/v ... 8#p9452508

Also,

Donna, are you ready?!?!?!

Just saw this!I'll make some time over the weekend. Its super tough for me during the week- Im usually working 9 AM - 7:00PM sometimes later. Its tougher than it sounds to find time for an hour when I am trying to study and sleep too. How was it though?!?!?!?

[Mikey]

She also talked about the importance of BR and not just looking at JY and other forums for explanations. She said this is where the real learning curve is. She suggested printing out a fresh copy of the PT for blind review so you are not influenced by your initial go/reasoning. I haven't been PTing yet, but when I am drilling I don't really BR. I just mark the questions I get wrong and after I do a set of 30 or 50 questions I take a break and try to review why the question is wrong (essentially what you would do in BR but with the knowledge of the correct answer). I think when I get to the PT stage, I will definitely follow her recommendation for the BR.

I would recommend doing BR during your drilling as well, not just for PT. I think it's beneficial to do so during drilling, even for questions you know 100% for a fact you got right, because it allows you to really hone in on how answer choices are attractive but wrong for certain question types, which is very important to get used to.

I mean, I'm by no means amazing at this test, but because of BR during drilling, I've gotten to the point where I can go like -3 on a timed LR section. It makes you go deep into the actual patterns of each question type, and how they try to screw you with wrong answer choices.

I will definitely take your advice, thanks for that. LR has always been my problem area and RC is a hit or miss, hopefully with the RC guide and 7Sage both will improve dramatically. She also said that LR and RC are where you get all the dividends in BR. She said for LG she just would redo the LG as a clean copy, and she also redid all the newer games (which I think I will do as well when I start PTing). She also said the weird games in the newer administrations are similar to the much earlier games.

My question for doing RC blind review is how do you do it? Do you redo the passage or erase your answers on said questions and blind review the specific questions?

I just reread your post again, so you redo every question you drilled but you write out why every answer choice is correct and why the incorrect ones are incorrect? Essentially you do two sets of drilling?

Yeah basically just redo them but slower (assuming you're drilling timed) and really understand the argument, why the conclusion is what it is, and why the argument's premises lead to the conclusion. Then look at why the answer choices are wrong/right. Personally for LR, I don't write anything down as to why an A/C is wrong or right, although I used to, but instead now I just say it in my head why an A/C is wrong. After a while you will get to the point where like 3 answer choices are just noticeably and straight up wrong, and then you will be left with 2 A/C's to analyze. Obviously you can get down to 1 A/C with knowing 4 are just not the answer though, which usually follows pre-phrasing.

For RC I don't erase or print out a new copy for BR, although that could be beneficial for some people in a way i'm sure. I'm working on 7sage's memory method so I do all of that, but during BR, I re-read the passage and write next to each paragraph a small summary as I would during the memory method. Then I go onto the questions with having read the passage twice and just go from there with the questions.

eta: I'm not a master at RC, not even close. But my advice for LR is what I did/still do and I wouldn't be giving the advice to do it if I didn't see improvement myself

[Mikey]

Just saw this!I'll make some time over the weekend. Its super tough for me during the week- Im usually working 9 AM - 7:00PM sometimes later. Its tougher than it sounds to find time for an hour when I am trying to study and sleep too. How was it though?!?!?!?

It was dope. Some pretty funny moments with Louis, Harvey and Jessica!

[ngogirl12]

So, I did a set of the first 4 RC from the Science set (since the two passages I messed up on yesterday were science and legal) and it was almost the same thing: two passages perfect score, two passages -3..

I noticed on one of the passages I was able to see why the questions I chose were wrong, one I had changed my answer from the correct answer. The other passage not so much. SO, my friend from 7Sage and I are doing a Skype powow tonight basically I explain the questions she doesn't understand and she explains the questions I don't understand, I'm going to see if we can go over this passage.

BUT people who are Master's of RC BR, do you usually redo the passage or erase your answers you got wrong and blind review those?

Starting tomorrow, I'm doing a set of 4 passages science and 4 passages legal EVERY DAY; I'll alternate between morning and night for stamina. Once I get through these sets, I'll redo the passages I got questions wrong, and hit the Literature and Social Sciences passages. I'm going to try and hit the Trainer for RC since people on here seem to have major dividends with their RC progress. Also, when I start PTing, I'm going to make copies of the RC's and redo them at least once.

One thing I read in the last few pages of the M RC Guide is to build up stamina do 8 RC passages in 70 minutes but I'm not at the point of doing RC timed yet even though I think I'm getting the passage reading down in 2-3 minutes when I do it untimed.

Sigh RC I'm going to OWN you!!!

I really need to learn how to stop writing a novel on here lol

[Rupert Pupkin]

Just saw this!I'll make some time over the weekend. Its super tough for me during the week- Im usually working 9 AM - 7:00PM sometimes later. Its tougher than it sounds to find time for an hour when I am trying to study and sleep too. How was it though?!?!?!?

It was dope. Some pretty funny moments with Louis, Harvey and Jessica!

Nice! Sounds like classic suits. I look forward to seeing it this weekend.

[34iplaw]

So Louis is still the best character in the show?

Well, other than Donna, because...duh.

[ngogirl12]

I have some concern with 7sage in using much older exams as PTs. Should I be concerned? It recs PT 38 onwards starting next week according to my schedule as those are all the ones w/ full video explanations available.

Should I ignore that and use tests in the 50+ range?

Also, lately I've been feeling slightly discouraged with recent prep (mostly the sequencing games w/ a twist have been murking me the last day) and debating sitting in December. This is going to be my 3rd take and I want to be a 3 time LSAT champion. I've been on this grind since getting laid off back in March (I'm basically getting paid by my previous employer to study for this exam).

I think I'm the only one in here not aiming to go anywhere in the T14 (SMU is my top choice, I'm a Texas resident and plan on staying here after LS)

I'm planning on doing some 50s, and all the 60s and 70s with the 40s as my experimental sections to ensure my eyes get a fresh look at all the prep material lol. That said, I'm using Cambridge 1-38 for drilling for LR/RC/LG. I think even if you don't have the material from the 30s on, it's important to see the newer material since that is what our LSAT looks like.

Re: sequencing games, have you thought about just drilling that game type to help improve your accuracy?

I would like to do 50+ to PT ( I have all the exams, I've taken 62/70 IRL (June '12/Oct '13) however, my 7sage account access is limited from PT 38-59 atm..I could upgrade...but it's a few extra hundred bucks.. I have the cambridge packets as well.

I plan on doing that this weekend while my girlfriend is getting her white coat. Standard sequencing games I can blur through no problem. But when they add some conditional like PT 35, game 4 I just look at it like wtf mate.

Edit: Did just BR/check PT 34, Game 1. Went 6/7 but took 2 1/2 minutes over the 7sage target time of 8 min. Missed one due to a careless reading mistake.

If you can afford it, I highly recommend upgrading. I upgraded to Ultimate + and you get all the explanations from PT 17 onwards. To be honest though, I don't like all of JY's explanations for LR (I feel like sometimes he glosses over answer choices). For the lessons he is definitely more thorough and there are many more questions for the upgraded versions. I mainly upgraded for the LR explanations and the increased amount of quizzes and LR questions in the lesson sets.

I think the Cambridge sets are an invaluable prep resource. I just use those for drilling. I think you should make copies of the games you struggled with such as 34 and 35 and use JY's Fool Proof method, I did that for the dogs game (I think PT 1?) and yesterday I got it in 6 minutes!

White coat? Sorry, I don't follow..

One thing Allison said in her webinar for LG is to understand/constantly question why you are doing what you are doing and that helps you stay engaged and not take any game for granted. She said that is very helpful in the weirder games, I haven't done them but if anything I think mastering every game especially the earlier ones is key.

Also, even if your not aiming for T14, isn't UT in the T14? It's a win-win!

[Mikey]

So Louis is still the best character in the show?

Well, other than Donna, because...duh.

Donna is bae af