JUNE 2013 Study Group / Study Partner Thread Forum

[wtrc]

During PT's, I don't usually find strengthen questions to be the hardest or most challenging. But according to LSATQA, it's by far my weakest section (23/31 in past 5 tests). Really glad I entered everything onto there, going to re-drill strengthen this weekend. Anybody else have trouble with these? Interestingly, parallel flaw- which take me the longest- seem to be okay with accuracy.

Seriously, LSATQA, guys. Get an account, if you don't have one yet.

Do you click "QTypes" on LSATQA to find out your weaknesses? I get an Application Error everytime I click that

I click on "Skills & Drills."

One more thing: I log on through Facebook. A few months back, I changed the email address associated with my Facebook account... and everything I had on LSATQA disappeared. I was okay with it, because it was right when I was starting a new study strategy- but still frustrating. Just a warning if you do that.

[wtrc]

Only tangentially related, but searching the #lsat tag on instagram can be quite amusing.

Haha, when the LSAT scores are released sometimes I'll search #lsat on Twitter. Combination of amusing things/freak outs, and misspellings of the word "last."

[rebexness]

Is Circular Linear a secret code label for "Mapping" for game types?

[bdeans91]

Just broke the 170 mark on my 4th PT.

Diagnostic 157, next month Super Prep A 169, mid-March Super Prep B 167, and today PT 45 171

Experimental RC (PT 23): -0
LR1: -3
RC: -3
LG: -0
LR: -5

88/99 --> 171

Excited because this is actually my first PT in my PT cycle of doing it every 4th day, so this is a great way to start.
(PS: I'm ecstatic about the 171 because I'm essentially applying to only Canadian law schools - I come here because you guys have a higher standard and make me push myself)

[wtrc]

Just broke the 170 mark on my 4th PT.

Diagnostic 157, next month Super Prep A 169, mid-March Super Prep B 167, and today PT 45 171

Experimental RC (PT 23): -0
LR1: -3
RC: -3
LG: -0
LR: -5

88/99 --> 171

Excited because this is actually my first PT in my PT cycle of doing it every 4th day, so this is a great way to start.
(PS: I'm ecstatic about the 171 because I'm essentially applying to only Canadian law schools - I come here because you guys have a higher standard and make me push myself)

Congrats, BDeans!! And that experimental RC is great- if that was real RC you'd be at like 174 now!

[CardozoLaw09]

Just broke the 170 mark on my 4th PT.

Diagnostic 157, next month Super Prep A 169, mid-March Super Prep B 167, and today PT 45 171

Experimental RC (PT 23): -0
LR1: -3
RC: -3
LG: -0
LR: -5

88/99 --> 171

Excited because this is actually my first PT in my PT cycle of doing it every 4th day, so this is a great way to start.
(PS: I'm ecstatic about the 171 because I'm essentially applying to only Canadian law schools - I come here because you guys have a higher standard and make me push myself)

Congrats my Canadian friend! Good work dude

[mvonh001]

I love lsatqa as well. But it doesnt help me for the skills and drill ssection, the drills part never works idk why. Anyway I drilled Sufficient assumption today and the first half of strengthen and got -0 for sufficient assumption and -3 on strengthen...

[abc2013]

Joining too! Just signed up for the test! Currently working full time and hoping to put in 300h in the next couple of months. Good luck everyone!!

[A → B ⊨ ¬B → ¬A]

weathercoins, what's up with your moniker?

[052220151]

weathercoins, what's up with your moniker?

Cheah Brah? What gives?

[wtrc]

weathercoins, what's up with your moniker?

Cheah Brah? What gives?

Y'all caught me. I anonymized it a bit more- I've been using "weathercoins" since I was a little kid on the internetz and now that law school application processes will be here in a few months, I wanted to be anonymous from a Google search. Paranoia ftw.

Gave me away. Now if law school admins turn to page 127 of this thread... anonymity lost.

[objection_your_honor]

Did the LG sections from PTs 39, 41, 50, 40, 51, 53. I have 67, 66, 52 sitting in front of me. Decided to really hammer LG this week because I've been missing a few on recent PTs.

EDIT: I've seen all of those before. Went sub-20:00 on a couple.

[rebexness]

Went -0 Timed on my first LG section ever, feeling pretty good considering my first LSAT I got 8 right on the LG :p

[SwindlersList]

Went -0 Timed on my first LG section ever, feeling pretty good considering my first LSAT I got 8 right on the LG :p

Thats an awesome improvement, congratulations.

[052220151]

Just put down the studying for booze. See you guys Sunday.

[homie1515]

Just put down the studying for booze. See you guys Sunday.

Enjoy your days off...

[lsatkid007]

LSATkid: start with test 19 and work your way down doing 4-6 passages a day. Allow 8:45 per passage and review the incorrect answers after each one. Once you are comfortable with this (you'll start to feel like you have control over the passage. You'll have time to refer back to the passage for certain questions, start holding the passage structure better etc...) move to 2 passages in 17min, then do an entire section in 35min. Thats what I've done maybe the last 3-4 weeks.

Don't over do it by trying to bang out as many passages as you can in one day. you really do need to space them out so you can let the review from each day settle with you before tackling more passages. You run the risk of running out of passages otherwise.

Lately I've been trying to treat RC like LG's, by this I mean trying to develop a repeatable process. We know more often than not they will give us a main point, and a "what is the function of this para" Fine, write the main idea/function after each parag. You'll develop this with time. 1-2 sentences in short hand (forces you to pinpoint the main idea and move on). Sentence may say "Auth supp stance of asian law reformers->Expands on support of last sect. parag 1." For detail questions you'll develop a memory for where things are discussed, but in the begining rely on those sentences to guide you.

Lastly, keep in mind the author's take on things. Get a feel for is he/she pos, neg, or neutral. Look for words that define the degree of these. "Could/May be helpful.."--> Author seems optimistic, but with reservation etc... Oh and anticipate. after something like "...could be helpful." You should expect to see a transition word like "But" followed by support for the other side of the argument which may be the author's stance. Also pay attention to the first paragraph. If it says "In her book xyz, Maria details the importance of sustaining both political and economic prowess in country M..." you should be looking for a paragraph on each in the coming lines. This should be followed by a question asking what is the purpose of paragr. 3. You should immediately be thinking "it expands on an idea presented in the first paragrapgh." Also the final paragraph of a passage like this may explain which of the 2 the author thinks is most prevalent, so pay attention!

RC is tough, just be patient. Also this isn't original, a lot of it I got from things I've read, mixed with personal experience.

@AB-->BA 2 reasons: 1. $ and 2. numbers get really tiring after a while (not that law wouldn't, but at least you should be able to retire early if you do things correctly.)

Thanks griffin

[wtrc]

Just not feeling LG today. I have been doing pretty well on LG's in PT's lately, so I haven't really drilled in a few weeks. Brought some today to warm up before LR... And some advanced grouping is just taking me way too long per game, and not fully accurate either. Hoping I'm just not feeling it today (I am sitting by a window at a cafe in downtown DC... Spring is beautifully distracting today...) , but going to need to go through manhattan LG again. Glad we have a few months to go, this is frustrating.

[itachiuchiha]

holy gosh guys! I am stoked.

I started off with a 147 diagnostic back a couple months back, after months of work and after gaining familiarity with the test I finally broke a 160 on preptest 39

my final score was
LG +20
LR +17
RC +17
LR +19

I ended with a 161

I don't know if preptest 39 is considered to be an easy test or not or if this is an anomaly , but I finally broke my first 160 after repeatedly scoring from 154-157

[lsatkid007]

Hey guys
on pt39 sec1 lg2 #6 it says "max number of session attended by at least one cap employee". Doesn't that mean how may times one employee can be attending?

thanks

[MKX]

Other than a diagnostic I took in the beginning of my sophomore year, this was my first timed section. I will be starting to take timed PT's this week. I'm aiming to get 2-5 at least a week.

I did a timed solo section today. Reading Comp. June 2008 LSAT (It is in the Powerscore Bible). I must say the time was not a factor at all. I had about 12-13 minutes left going into my last passage. But wow did my brain give up on me on that last one. I had 2 questions left with 2 minutes left and I couldn't even figure out what the question wanted so I ended up guessing on 1 of them and by the time I figured out I had no idea what was going on I had about 10 seconds so I guessed on the last one.

Now questions 1 through 19 (the first 3 passages) I got 6 wrong. 2 of them were just silly mistakes I made because I was rushing as I thought there was no way I'd finish. When I reached that last passage I was just done mentally though. My mind started to wander and I couldn't focus on the passage or the questions. I got 6 out of the last 8 questions wrong.

So in the end a +15 on the RC. Pretty disappointed to be honest. I hope with practice, my brain will be able to handle 5 passages. Maybe I was just hungry because my mind started to wander about food lol. I was really pleased when I was checking my answers for the first 3 passages and I felt they were actually pretty easy. I need to work on my notations though because I could of avoided 2-3 wrong answers if I was a little more in depth.

I hope this is a step in the right direction though. When I took my diagnostic this was by far my worst section. I had about a 5 question increase on my score compared to that. It could of been much better if I didn't lose my mind on the last section. Anyways hope all is going good for you guys. Just thought I would share my story.

[bdeans91]

Do any of you guys do short-timed PTs, where you only give yourself 32 minutes or so per section?

I'm planning on doing this for about 5 of the 20+ PTs I'm going to take, and for another 2 maybe doing 6 sections (2 experimentals).

Thoughts?

[wtrc]

Hey guys
on pt39 sec1 lg2 #6 it says "max number of session attended by at least one cap employee". Doesn't that mean how may times one employee can be attending?

thanks

I don't have 39 in front of me, but based on what you said (and assuming there are multiple different sessions) it seems like it would be the maximum number of sessions that could have at least one cap employee at it. For example, if there are 5 possible sessions, is it possible that a different cap employee could be at each at the same time? Or only 4? Etc.

[wtrc]

Do any of you guys do short-timed PTs, where you only give yourself 32 minutes or so per section?

I'm planning on doing this for about 5 of the 20+ PTs I'm going to take, and for another 2 maybe doing 6 sections (2 experimentals).

Thoughts?

If you can do 32 minute sections successfully, that's amazing! Make sure not to compromise accuracy too much though- you might want to try 33 or 34 minute sections instead.

How is your timing now? Are you able to finish each section in time (35 min)?

[bdeans91]

Do any of you guys do short-timed PTs, where you only give yourself 32 minutes or so per section?

I'm planning on doing this for about 5 of the 20+ PTs I'm going to take, and for another 2 maybe doing 6 sections (2 experimentals).

Thoughts?

If you can do 32 minute sections successfully, that's amazing! Make sure not to compromise accuracy too much though- you might want to try 33 or 34 minute sections instead.

How is your timing now? Are you able to finish each section in time (35 min)?

Yes. I got a 171 yesterday and finished with a minute to spare on every section aside from RC.

I will go for 34 minutes and 33 minutes over time, maybe not timing it as such but just aiming to finish faster?

I guess I am wondering whether it is better for me to time it 33-34 minutes, or just aim to finish with 'x' minutes left - so that if I can't finish in time, I still get to see my accuracy.