The Official October 2015 Study Group Forum

nlee10 · Post by **nlee10** » Fri Sep 25, 2015 9:45 am

TheProdigal wrote:
RZ5646 wrote:Jesus... I'm going to ignore this thread for a while because it's bringing me down and shaking my confidence.
At least leave us with a new poll, OP.

ugg · Post by **ugg** » Fri Sep 25, 2015 9:57 am

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nlee10 · Post by **nlee10** » Fri Sep 25, 2015 10:02 am

theugg wrote:Everyone try to have a bit of fun this weekend.

Agreed. Some of you guys need to lighten up.

chalky · Post by **chalky** » Fri Sep 25, 2015 10:04 am

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RZ5646 · Post by **RZ5646** » Fri Sep 25, 2015 10:18 am

nlee10 wrote:
TheProdigal wrote:
RZ5646 wrote:Jesus... I'm going to ignore this thread for a while because it's bringing me down and shaking my confidence.
At least leave us with a new poll, OP.

Like what?

TheProdigal · Post by **TheProdigal** » Fri Sep 25, 2015 10:20 am

RZ5646 wrote:
nlee10 wrote:
TheProdigal wrote:
RZ5646 wrote:Jesus... I'm going to ignore this thread for a while because it's bringing me down and shaking my confidence.
At least leave us with a new poll, OP.
Like what?

1) Who should OP Waiters'?
2) First drink after LSAT?
3) How many PTs have you done for October?
4) How far from your testing center do you live?

ugg · Post by **ugg** » Fri Sep 25, 2015 10:22 am

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mist4bison · Post by **mist4bison** » Fri Sep 25, 2015 10:27 am

theugg wrote:How about a fun poll? Nothing too serious. Or competitive.

I agree.
"How done are you with this test?" (simply so "White girl done" can be an option)
"Drink of choice after the test?"
"What are you doing the day after the test?" (crying, sleeping, doing all the shit I've put off for months, dealing with a hangover, etc.)
"What are you doing to celebrate?" (starting my apps, drinking myself into oblivion, etc.)
Who OPs Waiters is also good.

numb3r4 · Post by **numb3r4** » Fri Sep 25, 2015 10:56 am

Almost time for a PT! I said screw the Keurig today and got Starbucks. It's going to be a good day!

flash21 · Post by **flash21** » Fri Sep 25, 2015 11:04 am

all the PT's in the 70's I've bombed games

just got - 9 on games on pt 73 .. , last pt was -12 , pt before that was -7

I drill games SO MUCH this is insane.. LG is so hit and miss for me

anyway,

160 on pt 73

-6 rc
- 5 lr
- 9 lg
- 7 lr

mist4bison · Post by **mist4bison** » Fri Sep 25, 2015 11:12 am

flash21 wrote:all the PT's in the 70's I've bombed games

just got - 9 on games on pt 73 .. , last pt was -12 , pt before that was -7

I drill games SO MUCH this is insane.. LG is so hit and miss for me

anyway,

160 on pt 73

-6 rc
- 5 lr
- 9 lg
- 7 lr

Kind of agree with games. Got -5 on 70, -0 on 71, -3 on 74. And all of those I spent the full amount of time on, whereas in the drills, 50s, and 60s I would get -0/1 in 25 mins. Going to look at 7sage for all of the explanations, even the ones I didn't miss. Hopefully that'll help a bit. Also drilling grouping and misc.

ugg · Post by **ugg** » Fri Sep 25, 2015 11:13 am

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flash21 · Post by **flash21** » Fri Sep 25, 2015 11:14 am

I'm not sure why but I feel like when I drill games it doesn't do anything any more. I do good in drilling.. then games on tests I'm just like LOL where did the time go?

xz01 · Post by **xz01** » Fri Sep 25, 2015 11:16 am

redfred22 wrote:
appind wrote:i got the beta blocker 20 mg med from the doctor. anxiety during last test cost me a lot on some sections so i am thinking for trying this but not sure how it may affect the sharpness. anyone take this?

Mint-Berry_Crunch wrote:165 on PT73.
Not even sure what my name is anymore.
-8 on RC
-4 on LR1
-4 on games
-3 on LR2
Worst part is that I thought I did well. Looking back I just didn't do any of my methods.
are you sure you are not burning out? you may have been doing too many pts. i feel burnt out for a full week after doing a pt.
This is what I'm wondering about myself - the burnout. My PT average, which are PTs not in the high 60s/low 70s, is around 168/169 with a few 170+s. Now that it's closer to game day and I'm looking at the newer ones, I'm intimidated. But I'm wondering if part of it could just be that I'm so done with this test and all of the stress associated with it. I've been studying for a long time, and while I haven't studied the intense 6+ hours a day every day for the past few months, I'm just so done with this test. And it's so discouraging and frustrating that I've made SOOO much progress but that now the newer tests are giving me pause. I'm wondering if giving myself more than a day or two of rest and NOTHING LSAT before Saturday would be beneficial.

I honestly think that a lot of it has to do with hearing/reading/expecting that the newer tests are harder and different, but there are still some clear changes. Of course, the newer tests have scales that are consistently larger than their earlier PT counterparts (for instance, a lot of the 40s to 50s are -9, -10 and the more recents are -12, -13, one -14, etc. Surely these newer sections and questions were tested as experimental sections/questions during other PTs, so the scale will be pretty indicative of that performance. As with the other poster, I'm wishing I had started looking at the newer ones sooner. These next couple days will be some intense review of the tougher questions, reading manhattan, LSAT hacks, etc.

One thing I've found about the newer ones is that the answers conceal the type of flaw that you're looking for. For example, some of the newer tests will have a flaw or strengthen/weaken question (which are the types that I think are much harder now) that have an answer choice that absolutely addresses the prephrase but does it in a way that makes you skip over it during the first read through the choices. I've been slowed down on several questions like those and missed some because I recognized the flaw, but the answer I was expecting wasn't there in the way that I expected it to be worded.

Anyway, I know I went a little bit off in a tangent there, but just wanted to get some stuff off my chest. Somewhat stressing that all of the months of study I've done to be down to -2 on average for LR and -0 LG and between -4 and -8 on RC is going to be all for nothing. But then again, I took December 2013 (PT71) as an actual take, and I didn't study hardly at all and only took a couple PTs from the teens and gave myself some leeway on those even. Ended up scoring in December 2013 right at what those couple of PTs had been at.

I feel you 100% on LR

This weekend, Im taking 73 and just reviewing literally every question from PT70-75 to get used to the wording of the answers...

mist4bison · Post by **mist4bison** » Fri Sep 25, 2015 11:18 am

theugg wrote:It's odd. I find LGs much easier in the 70 range tests. It's RC that's the problem.

Yeah, RC is different. A few of the passages I didn't feel I could read the structure as well as I was able to in previous ones.

Flash, do you watch 7sage explanations?

flash21 · Post by **flash21** » Fri Sep 25, 2015 11:23 am

mist4bison wrote:
theugg wrote:It's odd. I find LGs much easier in the 70 range tests. It's RC that's the problem.
Yeah, RC is different. A few of the passages I didn't feel I could read the structure as well as I was able to in previous ones.

Flash, do you watch 7sage explanations?

Yes! I always do. It's so frustrating. Even during blind review I can get them all right usually but that doesn't mean anything because it is untimed and I'm spending more time than is allotted.

I've drilled cambridge games so much and redone LG sections from pt 50- up to 70 at least 2-3x . Its actually insane. I feel like anyone reading this would be like... wtf? How could you have drilled that much and still get a -9 and a -12 on the last PT?...

LG is so awful for me.. UGH. I actually dont know what to do.. I may try to review things beyond the actual mechanics of the games themselves.. it may be that when I see new games (although they resemble old games) I am going slower for reasons I don't understand yet. or maybe I actually just suck at game and only do good at them in drilling because I have seen many of them before , lol.

joeycxxxx09 · Post by **joeycxxxx09** » Fri Sep 25, 2015 11:29 am

PT 72 was the closest thing to the June test I've taken. Ended up with a 164. -3 LG, -9 LR -9 RC. I got distracted midway through the RC and ended up missing 5 on one passage so I'm not to worried. I suggest that people take this test, those games were good practice and I expect about the same next week.

Mint-Berry_Crunch · Post by **Mint-Berry_Crunch** » Fri Sep 25, 2015 11:30 am

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nlee10 · Post by **nlee10** » Fri Sep 25, 2015 11:32 am

I feel like the newer games are more rule-driven which forces you to do more busy work. That makes you pressed for time and vulnerable to making a mistake somewhere.

flash21 · Post by **flash21** » Fri Sep 25, 2015 11:32 am

Mint-Berry_Crunch wrote:
flash21 wrote: LG is so awful for me.. UGH. I actually dont know what to do.. I may try to review things beyond the actual mechanics of the games themselves.. it may be that when I see new games (although they resemble old games) I am going slower for reasons I don't understand yet. or maybe I actually just suck at game and only do good at them in drilling because I have seen many of them before , lol.
I think this is something that plays a larger role than expected. I think once you figure out what game you're in you gotta go fast, but definitely take your time to make sure you understand exactly what's going on. Maybe you're going slow because you're cautious and afraid to make a mistake.

I find that when I'm doing newer games I get sucked into overthinking things as well.

I'm going to try to review the game section from the PT I took in about half an hour. I feel like -9 is not where I am at for my skill in games, I feel like I should be pulling -5 or -6 at the least.. I'm going to try to get back into my head during the PT and see whats going on here.

Nlee you are right.. I actually feel this way too. But what is the best way to then approach rule driven games? Or is it simply application of the rules.. I find rule driven games take me WAY longer.

ugg · Post by **ugg** » Fri Sep 25, 2015 11:32 am

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mist4bison · Post by **mist4bison** » Fri Sep 25, 2015 11:41 am

nlee10 wrote:I feel like the newer games are more rule-driven which forces you to do more busy work. That makes you pressed for time and vulnerable to making a mistake somewhere.

Agreed.

I also agree with Mint on that you get sucked in. On PT 74 I spent probably 4 mins trying to figure out one question that I swear had two correct answers (haven't reviewed it yet) and thus couldn't go back to the two I had circled. And I'd circled them because of what nlee said; they required a lot of work and I didn't feel I had that time.

Cubank · Post by **Cubank** » Fri Sep 25, 2015 11:50 am

flash21 wrote: LG is so awful for me.. UGH. I actually dont know what to do.. I may try to review things beyond the actual mechanics of the games themselves.. it may be that when I see new games (although they resemble old games) I am going slower for reasons I don't understand yet. or maybe I actually just suck at game and only do good at them in drilling because I have seen many of them before , lol.

It might be because while drilling its great to verify answer choices and go one by one. In timed sections its better to "get" the game and scan choices for the most likely ones and verify those. Like if they ask you what could be true in a scenario that locks a lot of pieces into positions you immediately look for the ones that could move around etc. Games require a bit of bravado in that you have to trust your setups to let you blow through the questions. If they don't, then you need to have the confidence to go back to the rules and see if you messed up/missed anything. I think being more confident in your games experience (of which you have a lot) will help get that section score up.

Mint-Berry_Crunch · Post by **Mint-Berry_Crunch** » Fri Sep 25, 2015 12:07 pm

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ugg · Post by **ugg** » Fri Sep 25, 2015 12:12 pm

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