The Official December 2015 Study Group Forum

chalky · Post by **chalky** » Sat Oct 03, 2015 8:19 pm

Post removed...

nerdylsat · Post by **nerdylsat** » Sat Oct 03, 2015 8:21 pm

Took PT 68 today cuz I withdrew from October because I'm doing so shitty.

Got a 160; good thing I withdrew.

The question still remains as to how the hell I'm going to get to 169+ in 2 months. FML.

kylemolodets · Post by **kylemolodets** » Sat Oct 03, 2015 8:46 pm

nerdylsat wrote:Took PT 68 today cuz I withdrew from October because I'm doing so shitty.

Got a 160; good thing I withdrew.

The question still remains as to how the hell I'm going to get to 169+ in 2 months. FML.

Don't worry I'm looking for a 6+ point jump too..

Also, OP better get back before Patriot goes rogue with a new thread

PatriotP74 · Post by **PatriotP74** » Sat Oct 03, 2015 10:17 pm

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seashell.economy · Post by **seashell.economy** » Sat Oct 03, 2015 10:23 pm

Phoenix97 wrote:
PatriotP74 wrote:Is OP even around?

WE NEED POLLS
Indeed.

Let Jesus take the wheel.

appind · Post by **appind** » Sat Oct 03, 2015 10:54 pm

ftge232 wrote:So - how do I improve that RC score? Read more? Any way I can make a more deliberate effort?

i feel like reading more may not be the best way. i read a lot and was scoring -0/-2 rarely -3 on the old RC but tanked on the new rc. in a somewhat similar boat as without fresh tests, it seems very hard to improve in the new RC.

the only reason i couldn't take today was because of the difficulty of new RC sections.

CoolerThanCooley · Post by **CoolerThanCooley** » Sun Oct 04, 2015 10:35 am

appind wrote:
ftge232 wrote:So - how do I improve that RC score? Read more? Any way I can make a more deliberate effort?
i feel like reading more may not be the best way. i read a lot and was scoring -0/-2 rarely -3 on the old RC but tanked on the new rc. in a somewhat similar boat as without fresh tests, it seems very hard to improve in the new RC.

the only reason i couldn't take today was because of the difficulty of new RC sections.

The science passage was honestly nightmarish for me. I generally haven't had the best of luck with science passages, but this was just... wow.

nerdylsat · Post by **nerdylsat** » Sun Oct 04, 2015 12:17 pm

kylemolodets wrote:
nerdylsat wrote:Took PT 68 today cuz I withdrew from October because I'm doing so shitty.

Got a 160; good thing I withdrew.

The question still remains as to how the hell I'm going to get to 169+ in 2 months. FML.
Don't worry I'm looking for a 6+ point jump too..

Also, OP better get back before Patriot goes rogue with a new thread

The good news is when I went back to review all the answers I got wrong, I corrected all of them except 1 without having looked at the answers. Obviously this easier with only 4 answer choices left, but its still a good confidence booster.

Most of them were quite evident to me, especially in RC. I feel as though I just need to read and understand faster to have more time and make less stupid mistakes just because I have to rush through things.

appind · Post by **appind** » Sun Oct 04, 2015 12:29 pm

when does pt-76 become available for sale/download? planning when to take it for prep.

jmark1 · Post by **jmark1** » Sun Oct 04, 2015 4:25 pm

Late to the party, but I'm in.

appind · Post by **appind** » Sun Oct 04, 2015 5:24 pm

Petrichor wrote:
appind wrote:
Petrichor wrote:
appind wrote:
ftge232 wrote:Took about 70 practice tests, averaged around 176... i'd be lucky if I scored a 175 today. very lucky

had a streak from 30-50 where I was getting great scores - are these known to be easier?

what do y'all suggest for someone who's done all of the PT's to do at this point? don't wanna overkill and repeat the last few months between now and december... i botched the reading today, and I don't think I wanna go over the earlier reading passages again. the questions changed so much after ~PT 50.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated
Yes for the bolded. No matter what people say my scores are much higher on older tests than on recent ones, esp on RC
completely agree, had a stretch in the 40s where RC was automatics -1 or -2 at worst, recent RC is more difficult but I think the LG makes up for it.
I miss -2 at most in the old RC but 70s rc I go -6/-9. LG may be slightly difficult in older tests than newer but I score the same in it
can't say this for certain but i think the newer RCs are disproportionately more difficult, again this is purely personal experience but i tend to do no worse than -4 on RCs but the more recent ways (minus june test) is more like -5 while LG is consistent between -2 or 0 for me

the questions are clearly more difficult in the newer RC. the analogies questions where one has to pick the answer choice that has a relationship most similar to the relationship between two different viewpoints in the passage, these questions take time even if you understand the main point of the passage. then there are passages where a main idea is very understated and somewhat hidden. there is at least one such passage in every recent RC.

SirArthurDayne · Post by **SirArthurDayne** » Sun Oct 04, 2015 6:39 pm

Post removed.

ngogirl12 · Post by **ngogirl12** » Sun Oct 04, 2015 7:29 pm

SirArthurDayne wrote:As someone who took the October test, let me just recommend this: dont wait till the last week to take the latest PTs. PT 70-75 are overall harder. Get used to the way the test is being given nowadays before the week of the test.

I was thinking of hitting the 70s at the end of October/early November when I have completed my drilling, do you think that is a good time frame or would you say go for it now?

venusinfurs16 · Post by **venusinfurs16** » Sun Oct 04, 2015 7:29 pm

SirArthurDayne wrote:As someone who took the October test, let me just recommend this: dont wait till the last week to take the latest PTs. PT 70-75 are overall harder. Get used to the way the test is being given nowadays before the week of the test.

This. And checking in for December.

SirArthurDayne · Post by **SirArthurDayne** » Sun Oct 04, 2015 7:30 pm

Post removed.

beantheshadow · Post by **beantheshadow** » Sun Oct 04, 2015 7:56 pm

Just did my first batch of RC lessons from the trainer this weekend along with the recommended drills. I didn't fair so well.

RC from PT 52: ~10
RC from PT 53: ~9
RC from PT 54: ~6

I guess that's improvement right. Also I have been extremely confident about my LG section (I've been going ~1 or ~0 on my last five PTS) and then I got to the mastery lesson of the Trainer and the mannequin game humbled me!

How the hell am I supposed to prepare for those type of games that throw you for a loop and want you to find those subtle inferences? I understand it's all about being flexible and keeping your wits but those type of games (I'm looking at you JUNE 2014!) just seem so much harder to spot the key components than others. Any advice?

Will be taking PT 63 tomorrow morning with an extra RC section. Also this will be the first week I am taking two PTs a week, I'm excited!

I am determined to improve and determined to improve my RC section!

appind · Post by **appind** » Sun Oct 04, 2015 8:07 pm

SirArthurDayne wrote:dont wait till the last week to take the latest PTs. PT 70-75 are overall harder.

PatriotP74 · Post by **PatriotP74** » Sun Oct 04, 2015 9:59 pm

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gulagorkestar · Post by **gulagorkestar** » Sun Oct 04, 2015 11:42 pm

PatriotP74 wrote:Just officially registered for the December LSAT.

Bye bye $175

Welcome to the club!

ngogirl12 · Post by **ngogirl12** » Mon Oct 05, 2015 1:12 am

SirArthurDayne wrote:
ngogirl12 wrote:
SirArthurDayne wrote:As someone who took the October test, let me just recommend this: dont wait till the last week to take the latest PTs. PT 70-75 are overall harder. Get used to the way the test is being given nowadays before the week of the test.
I was thinking of hitting the 70s at the end of October/early November when I have completed my drilling, do you think that is a good time frame or would you say go for it now?
I think a month ahead is good. Or you could go ahead and take one of those tests now and save the rest for then.

Thanks! Will do.

ngogirl12 · Post by **ngogirl12** » Mon Oct 05, 2015 1:26 am

beantheshadow wrote:
That's awesome! I really like the sound of the cutting-out-the-wrong-LR-questions method. Tell me how that works out! I swear I am wasting so much paper at work. Lol I do most of my drilling un-timed and all PTs timed. So far I like the Trainer RC method (but I haven't drilled enough to start seeing gains in it).

I know right!? So, I bought a new notebook, color coded it (purple for writing out/paraphrasing the relevant premises and conclusion and also noting what I am looking for before hitting the answer choices) I tried the hot pink pen but it got too confusing when I was reviewing. I used blue ink to write out each answer choice. It takes a bit of time and makes my drilling longer, but it is totally worth it! I found after I had pasted and written out a few strengthening questions, I started getting better in my next batch. The other day out of 27 problems, I went -3 which made me very happy.

Today I finished the Strengthening set, moved on to MBT which I hope to drill tomorrow. That said, I have been focusing only on LR and not on RC and LG. I am going to do a RC and LG section from a test now to make sure I get some practice before I PT tomorrow. My PT book of 60-9 comes later this week with a standard casio men's watch I ordered on Amazon, so I'm excited and nervous at the same time about that.

Also, I tried JY from 7Sage's method of circling all the incorrect answers and then doing a box for the correct answer (for the strengthen EXCEPT questions). I initially thought it was weird and did not go with the methodology, but in my drilling I thought hey, why not? and just went for it.. Well, I can say in my experience it TOTALLY works. I got every single EXCEPT question (except for 1 out of maybe 10 EXCEPT questions) correct. So, I thought I would throw that out there!!

AfrocentricAsian · Post by **AfrocentricAsian** » Mon Oct 05, 2015 10:10 am

How much do you all drill before taking a preptest? I've done about 70 logical reasoning MBT questions, probably going to go over to reading comp and a few logic games before I take test 39

AlexandraHope · Post by **AlexandraHope** » Mon Oct 05, 2015 12:30 pm

Taking this week off before I start prepping for the December LSAT ( I need to order the trainer and I need to mentally reevaluate my life). I'm going to try to average in 15 hours a week and I'm following the LSAT Trainer's 8 week study schedule

appind · Post by **appind** » Mon Oct 05, 2015 12:34 pm

8 weeks to go!

ltowns1 · Post by **ltowns1** » Mon Oct 05, 2015 1:48 pm

It might be time to change the OP