June 2011 Study Group Forum

[northwood]

Parallel Flaw is a tricky devil:
For me i used a 2 pronged approach. First I read the stim to see what type of flaw question it was- Then I went to the answer choices and if it didnt match the type of flaw question - i crossed it out. Then I went back and figured out the pattern in the question stimulus- then double checked it to the answer choices and crossed off more. You will get down to 1 or 2 remaining, and if you have to, double check the strength of langauge and go with that. I only attempted to answer these types of questions if I had time remaining and all of the other questions were answered and double checked ( if i wanted to go back)

[minnbills]

EPIPHANY ALERT!
Today I thought that maybe it slowed me down and started practicing LR without "voicing." I've never really "voiced" when I read so I don't know why I started doing it. I've read long books for leisure all my life and of course I don't mouth 500 page books. I practiced it while drilling to make sure I wasn't losing any comprehension, and then tried a 35 minute LR section. Not only did I only miss 1 of 26 questions, but I finished the section with 10 minutes to spare. I couldn't believe it when I checked my watch.

Hm, I often try to slow down and place an emphasis on each word I read to try and grind it in. Maybe I should not doing that? Congrats on the nice score, though I have a hard time believing you've scored -10 on any recent LR section lol given the recent posts I've seen.

Hahaha I guess this is one time where my splitter-habits come in handy...I'm the type who has to push myself just to do the 3 PTs/week I'm doing now, so 'taking a few days off' is like a get out of jail free card for me

But yeah at this point, we have a week...tell yourself that the best thing you can do to help yourself isn't to try and 'learn' more, that's not happening in 7 days. The best help you can get is good sleep, relaxation, confidence...all the little mental things that can trip you up on the day of the test.

Yeah, I'm at the point where I know I can handle any problem. My vice is that I tend to think of PTs more as a gauge of where I am than as a purely educational tool. If I screw one up I think the sky is falling etc etc but if I do well I start imagining myself at Penn or Uchi lol.

[iphone7]

So I took the weekend off and I'm back to where I want to be.

PT 59
LG -1
LR -3
LR -3
RC -3

Raw -10
Scaled 173

I know from looking at the sheet as I was grading it that I changed 3 answers in LR from TCR. That's frustrating, but overall I'm happy with this performance.

Do you guys have rules for when you change answers or is it just when you feel you need to?

[pkpop]

Ok, I think I am going to be done with TLS for the next week or two. I just want to thank everyone who participated in the group. I'd call it a success regardless of the score outcomes...it was nice to have the room and this thread to call "LSAT central" for the last few months. It's been a solid process, and I think everyone will agree with me when I say that we have pretty much seen everything the test has to offer. PT 63 will have its own unique quirks but it won't be any different than the rest. Just believe in those abilities that you have worked on so hard and you won't be disappointed. Just remember to breathe and don't the let panic of those who just started studying last week affect you.

My PT 63 predictions:
(Overall)
-10 curve.
-The EXP will be an extra RC (at least for me it will)

edit: I'll keep the rest to myself. It doesn't really matter what is on the test. We're gonna kill it anyways.

Good luck everyone!

[maxpower430]

So I took the weekend off and I'm back to where I want to be.

PT 59
LG -1
LR -3
LR -3
RC -3

Raw -10
Scaled 173

I know from looking at the sheet as I was grading it that I changed 3 answers in LR from TCR. That's frustrating, but overall I'm happy with this performance.

Do you guys have rules for when you change answers or is it just when you feel you need to?

i did the exact thing on that exam today, with the same raw score haha. really i think i/you just need to trust your gut. it's tough though b/c i also have successfully changed from a wrong choice to tcr, so i understand if this isn't particularly helpful but i don't know if there is a "right" answer to this. anyone else care to chime in?

also do you guys think the late 50s RCs are more difficult than early 50s? b/c i was getting -0-1s pretty consistently but i hit this wall the past couple where the passages just weren't clicking, ugh.

[Yeshia90]

Did September 2007 today. Not sure what number that is, Testmasters just gives you the date.

-0 on LG
-0 on RC
-6 on LR (-3/-3)

I'll take a 174, but that's a step back. And two of those LR mistakes were unconscionably stupid, with 2 more I shouldn't have made. But I'm real glad to be putting my RC troubles in the rearview.

[pkrtbx]

Parallel Flaw is a tricky devil:
For me i used a 2 pronged approach. First I read the stim to see what type of flaw question it was- Then I went to the answer choices and if it didnt match the type of flaw question - i crossed it out. Then I went back and figured out the pattern in the question stimulus- then double checked it to the answer choices and crossed off more. You will get down to 1 or 2 remaining, and if you have to, double check the strength of langauge and go with that. I only attempted to answer these types of questions if I had time remaining and all of the other questions were answered and double checked ( if i wanted to go back)

Thanks, I tried this approach today and it seems to have worked. I am beating myself up over RC inferences now though. If it's not one, it's the other...

PT 50

LGe -3
RC -3
LR1 -0
LG -2
LR2 -1

Raw 94 Scaled 175

I should be happy with this but I desperately want 176-178 so it is all the more frustrating.

[jim-green]

Warning: resentful and self-pitying rant follows.
Fellow June 2011ers, last year up until the week before the LSAT I was doing fine with the PTs. Not very high compared to you guys, but around my expectations. Then, with 7 days to go I took PT60 and scored 10 points below my PT average. It was because of the RC section. Somehow I just could not finish and left many undone as well as incorrect. I lost my confidence totally and bombed the LSAT.

Today, it's again 7-8 days to go before the LSAT and I have been doing my PTs until yesterday. Today, I sat down with PT60 and was sure I would race through the RC this time. I have done this PT before, right? But the SAME thing happened I don't know what it is about the RC in PT60. At the end of the 35 min, I had read and answered the 3 passages and finished reading passage 4 when the 35 min ended. The last passage (australian law) just took too much time to read. Again. It could be because this is the 5th section (after adding an exp section) - tiredness. But I have done 5 section PTs before having RC as sec 5, and completed them. I have never run out of time on RC. I scored 7 below my PT avg today.

I am seriously thinking of being absent on Monday June 6. I can't afford another bad LSAT score. Any thoughts or suggestions. I really studied hard and practiced this time as last time. Should I just lose hope and not take the test? Serious responses only, please. Really feeling bad and hopeless.

[mickeyD]

jim, I literally just finished PT60 a minute ago and ran out of time as well. I think that section is designed to screw you up. The 8 question Mexican Theater passage and the Australian Contingency Fee passage are both legitimate 10-12 minute passages. I think most testers, you and I included, go at our typical pace on passages 1 and 2 not realizing what's ahead, and therefore run out of time.

PT60
LR1: -3
LG: 0
LR2: -2
RC: -1
Raw: -6
Scaled: 175

Tried my new approach with LR, aka no "voicing." Didn't improve my score but I finished with 7-10 minutes to spare on both LR sections. At the worst, I've eliminated the stress of finishing on time. I changed from TCR to wrong answers a few times though, so I need to make sure I'm not screwing myself over during that extra time. I need to work on my comprehension while reading this way though, for some reason I read the conclusion of Q1 to be the exact opposite of what it was.

Got away from my strategy in games. I've always focused on making inferences first, but I jumped too quickly to the questions and as a result went at a snail's pace on the easy Game 3. Same faulty approach on Game 4 had me barely making the buzzer on a section which I normally should finish with time to spare.

RC was a bitch, had 30 secs to answer the last 3 questions but miraculously went 2/3. Mexican theater passage was annoying with its hard questions.

Happy with this score, I'll feel better if I can maintain my LR scores over my final 2 PTs this week.

[soj]

I think that section is designed to screw you up.

This. I think I got -5 in RC on that one, with all five of my mistakes coming in the last two passages that I had to rush. You and one other poster corroborated this when I posted about it. So for what it's worth, most people agree it's a tough RC. 54, 59, and 60 are probably the hardest of the recent RC sections by far.

Don't let one PT stress you out too much; it won't do you any good.

I decided doing 320 questions in one day was too much. (Duh.) I'm going to do all of the ~80 most recently listed questions, and do only the ones I got wrong again (~10) of the earlier ones, which I've already gone over at least once.

[maxpower430]

Warning: resentful and self-pitying rant follows.
Fellow June 2011ers, last year up until the week before the LSAT I was doing fine with the PTs. Not very high compared to you guys, but around my expectations. Then, with 7 days to go I took PT60 and scored 10 points below my PT average. It was because of the RC section. Somehow I just could not finish and left many undone as well as incorrect. I lost my confidence totally and bombed the LSAT.

Today, it's again 7-8 days to go before the LSAT and I have been doing my PTs until yesterday. Today, I sat down with PT60 and was sure I would race through the RC this time. I have done this PT before, right? But the SAME thing happened I don't know what it is about the RC in PT60. At the end of the 35 min, I had read and answered the 3 passages and finished reading passage 4 when the 35 min ended. The last passage (australian law) just took too much time to read. Again. It could be because this is the 5th section (after adding an exp section) - tiredness. But I have done 5 section PTs before having RC as sec 5, and completed them. I have never run out of time on RC. I scored 7 below my PT avg today.

I am seriously thinking of being absent on Monday June 6. I can't afford another bad LSAT score. Any thoughts or suggestions. I really studied hard and practiced this time as last time. Should I just lose hope and not take the test? Serious responses only, please. Really feeling bad and hopeless.

honestly dude, sometimes passages/sections of certain tests just have your number, and i think pt 60 is in your head a little. you knew how difficult it was and were expecting a tough rc, and that's what you got. i think you just need to brush it off, everyone has bad sections here and there and all you can do is learn from them and know that you've worked hard and are capable of getting the score you want. it's one of the thing that blows about the lsat, the highs never compare with the lows. i.e. you know what you're capable of so when you get there it's nbd but falling short sucks. i've had a few section let-downs the past few weeks and it's frustrating, since i think everyone would like to be at the top of their game come test day. unfortunately, we can only keep plugging along and learning from our mistakes. i keep telling myself when i get discouraged that i've already improved leaps and bounds from where i started, and know that i'm capable of a great score come test day, and it would be a shame to throw away all my hard work b/c what is in the end a meaningless pt shattered my confidence. so i'd just take a deep breath, try and figure out where things went wrong, and move on. hth.

[crumpetsandtea]

...I am seriously thinking of being absent on Monday June 6. I can't afford another bad LSAT score. Any thoughts or suggestions. I really studied hard and practiced this time as last time. Should I just lose hope and not take the test? Serious responses only, please. Really feeling bad and hopeless.

First off - BIG HUG <3 <3 <3. I think we have all had these freakout moments where we feel like we're not going to be ready for June.

But like I've said to other people before ITT, don't let this get to you. MANY people experience score drops the week before the test, and IMO it's primarily due to nerves. I have a friend who took PT 60 a week before and scored 21 points below what he ended up getting on his actual test. Twenty-one points. But guess what? He did awesome on the day of (let's just say his is the score we all dream we can get XD).

So don't let one test get to you. It might be nerves, it might just be a hard RC passage, but in the end, it shouldn't have anything to do with how you perform on test day. We have all been preparing for a long, long time for this, so don't let one bad PT throw you off track. A lot of test-taking is mental preparation, IMO...just like how sometimes when we PT and we feel like we're doing awesomely, our score actually goes up because we're not constantly second-guessing or hyperventilating.

TL;DR - It's one test, and a tough one at that. Don't let it mess with your brain. You've GOT THIS. You've worked your ass off and you have the knowledge you need to ace this test, you just need to apply it on test day. <3 <3 <3

[soj]

I have a friend who took PT 60 a week before and scored 21 points below what he ended up getting on his actual test. Twenty-one points.

Oh yeah, that's right. IBIncompetentia. What was it, 159 on 60, and then 180 on 61? What a clutch performance.

[maxpower430]

I have a friend who took PT 60 a week before and scored 21 points below what he ended up getting on his actual test. Twenty-one points.

Oh yeah, that's right. IBIncompetentia. What was it, 159 on 60, and then 180 on 61? What a clutch performance.

wow that is ridiculous, stories like that (and this http://lsatblog.blogspot.com/2011/02/ls ... diary.html) keep me going haha.

could anyone give me a quick hand with pt 59, s3 q11? i can see why the wrong answers are wrong, but i'm still struggling to see why B is the TCR. the best i can see is that b/c for reasons outside their control, the bookstores might be forced to stock cd-rom books (i.e. environmental sanctions on paper etc), and thus b strengthens it by assuring us that that will not be the case? thanks guys. also i had to laugh at how outdated even a recent test can feel, not that they could have been expected to predict e-books or anything, but still.

[crumpetsandtea]

I have a friend who took PT 60 a week before and scored 21 points below what he ended up getting on his actual test. Twenty-one points.

Oh yeah, that's right. IBIncompetentia. What was it, 159 on 60, and then 180 on 61? What a clutch performance.

Hahah yeah..he's going to get mad at me for bringing it up again, but seriously, super impressive amirite?

On another note, PT 62 today -
RC -3
LR1 -3
LG -0
LR2 -0
Raw: 96 // Scaled: 177

so happy to see a -0 on LR again, I've been a little worried. Though the past 3 tests I've gone -1, -2, -3 on RC....this better not be a slow drop into a -6 on the day of

[lakers3peat]

i officially despise the following games:

pt54 game 4: contract bids with the highest/lowest

PT55 game 2: sessions at a conference


I have done both of these like 3-4 times and everytime I do them, I cannot for the life of me grasp what is going on

That is all.



If june 2011 has a cou;le super werid rules I am going to get screwed

[wtrc]

I really wish I had found this thread before we were 6/7 days out.

Anyway, I've improved a good amount on PT's, but still run out of time on the final LG and sometimes the final RC. Otherwise pretty accurate (about 2-3 wrong on each LR; 1-3 wrong on the LG I actually complete), for scores in the mid-upper 160 range. Do you guys think it would make sense to miss this LSAT and wait until October? Can timing be improved that much?

[lakers3peat]

yeah man, maybe you should. honestly, if you aren't being able to finish all 4 LG or all 4 RC, especially with LG, you should be getting all of them right on the 3 that you do do.

[handlesthetruth]

Anyone else agree that, relative to the PTs in the 40s, in the 50s/60s PTs:

The LR is easier
The LG are either the same (or maybe a tiny bit harder..i thought the LGs of the 40s were cake)
The RC is way harder

Just wondering

Best of luck to all!

[rubydandun]

WHOA. Just took PT54 and got OWNED.

RC: -6 (got last 4 wrong - just ran out of time)...damn it, and i was so accurate up until the last passage

LR1: -7 (Worst LR section ever...no idea how this happened)

LG: -5. Last game with the bus stops destroyed me, got to it with 6 minutes left and even got the elimination question wrong

LR2: -1.

-19, 162. DAMN IT. What a confidence killer, just what I needed the week before the test. I really need to address this whole phenomenon of getting destroyed on the first LR and doing phenomenally better on the 2nd, it really makes no sense.

[wtrc]

WHOA. Just took PT54 and got OWNED.

RC: -6 (got last 4 wrong - just ran out of time)...damn it, and i was so accurate up until the last passage

LR1: -7 (Worst LR section ever...no idea how this happened)

LG: -5. Last game with the bus stops destroyed me, got to it with 6 minutes left and even got the elimination question wrong

LR2: -1.

-19, 162. DAMN IT. What a confidence killer, just what I needed the week before the test. I really need to address this whole phenomenon of getting destroyed on the first LR and doing phenomenally better on the 2nd, it really makes no sense.

Yeah, my LG is varying wildly the past few days... really not what I needed a week out

[pkrtbx]

Yeah, my LG is varying wildly the past few days... really not what I needed a week out

+1

Since I had already gone over some of PT 58 in tutoring, I did 2 sections last night and 2 this morning. I could not concentrate at all and my LG performance was pretty average for me but felt terrible during the section, I was not confident at all.

LR1 -3
RC -3
LG -2
LR2 -0

Raw 93 Scaled 172

Time to do a real one today and get that confidence back up.

[coldshoulder]

Doing PT 59 today, looks like its a rough one according to you guys.

[crumpetsandtea]

Doing PT 59 today, looks like its a rough one according to you guys.

Let us know how it goes! I've been using it for exp sections. I'm sure you'll 179/180 it though XD

[wtrc]

Thoughts on PT 60/61? Hard/easy? Frustrating? Getting to the final few full PT!!!