December 2011 LSAT Study Group Forum

[xChiTowNx]

I was doing some drilling and came across this problem that I was wondering if you could help me with:

X some Y
All Y --> Z

------------
C: Some W are Z

I was working through this problem using the Pscore "Some" train and had to fill in the missing premise.
TCR was All X's are W's, but I picked all W are X's

When I diagrammed it, I looked like: X<--s-->Y-->Z

If I put in W-->X, wouldn't it look like this: W-->X<--s-->Y-->Z, and following the some train, it would allow us to conclude W some Z?

I diagrammed it using TCR, and understand it has to do with the reversibility of X some Y.
Is it because X-->W places X as the sufficient condition, thus the proper diagram is X-->W<--s-->Y-->Z?

thanks

[barneytrouble]

I was doing some drilling and came across this problem that I was wondering if you could help me with:

X some Y
All Y --> Z

------------
C: Some W are Z

I was working through this problem using the Pscore "Some" train and had to fill in the missing premise.
TCR was All X's are W's, but I picked all W are X's

When I diagrammed it, I looked like: X<--s-->Y-->Z

If I put in W-->X, wouldn't it look like this: W-->X<--s-->Y-->Z, and following the some train, it would allow us to conclude W some Z?

I diagrammed it using TCR, and understand it has to do with the reversibility of X some Y.
Is it because X-->W places X as the sufficient condition, thus the proper diagram is X-->W<--s-->Y-->Z?

thanks

This is one thing I hate about the abstracting of Formal Logic stuff... Just put it in real words and it gets pretty simple if you ask me:

If some X are Y, then perhaps some X are not Y (I like to denote is as X1=Y, X2=not Y, this helps reinforce that there could be 2 distinct groups of X)
If all W are X, we do not know if they are part of X1 or X2.. All the W's being in X2 would prevent us from yielding "Some W are Z"

But if All X are W, the groups do not matter. You then get "some W are Y"

I try to think of these in terms of Venn Diagrams to help remember which group can and can't encompass which others.

[xChiTowNx]

Sweet. That made much more sense than when it was explained by my instructor last night! Thanks!

[xChiTowNx]

In terms of suff/nec, how helpful is it to consider the 'nec' as a prerequisite condition?

For example, let's say a statement says: A requires C, would we diagram it as A-->C

versus

A is REQUIRED by C, so we would diagram it as C-->A

[Olive]

PT 51 LR 3 Q18

I would really appreciate it if someone explain why A is wrong.

[GoldenGloves]

Hey folks, I'm in for December now. Decided to cancel my score from October since I knew I didn't reach my potential. I started Dave Hall's online course this past week & it's spectacular shit.

[Eichörnchen]

Hey folks, I'm in for December now. Decided to cancel my score from October since I knew I didn't reach my potential. I started Dave Hall's online course this past week & it's spectacular shit.

Hey buddy! Let's do this thang.

[GoldenGloves]

Hey folks, I'm in for December now. Decided to cancel my score from October since I knew I didn't reach my potential. I started Dave Hall's online course this past week & it's spectacular shit.

Hey buddy! Let's do this thang.

Oh shit. Eich is in the building?

[Eichörnchen]

Hey folks, I'm in for December now. Decided to cancel my score from October since I knew I didn't reach my potential. I started Dave Hall's online course this past week & it's spectacular shit.

Hey buddy! Let's do this thang.

Oh shit. Eich is in the building?

Ohhhyea. I think you had taken your TLS leave by the time I announced my existential crisis. tl; dr - I'm going to explore some of our fair world and sate my wanderlust for a year before applying to law school. It begins in spring, so I figured I may as well take this winter.

[barneytrouble]

Quiet in here...

[xChiTowNx]

I guess that must be the sound of drilling...

that, or errbuddy' working on their apps...

[Olive]

I've been drilling RC and I've taken a lot of great advice from the Dave Hall thread, but I am still finding that I am not fast enough to feel comfortable with RC and miss questions due to time.

Does anyone have tips for pattern recognition to get faster? That has helped me tremendously in LR, but I am not sure how to develop this with RC. I also notice that the answer questions are more difficult in the newer tests. It would be helpful to anticipate the answers like I do in LR, but I can't find a way to get to that point with RC.

Also - I'd appreciate any help with this:

PT 51 LR 3 Q18

I would really appreciate it if someone explain why A is wrong.

[barneytrouble]

that is like the ONE pt that I don't have. What is the Q? PM if you like.

Things are finally coming together for me with RC... Not sure what part of the pattern recognition you need help with though, I think it works a lot like LR. Most answers are either too narrow or too broad. What I found most helpful that I wasn't doing before is crossing out an answer choice as soon as I realize it is incorrect (and to start, doing untimed sections where you circle the word in the answer that makes it incorrect, or if it is not just 1 word then a quick note to the side).

Really all I did was read the Dave Hall thing and then go through a bunch of RC passages. I think I did around 15 a day for 5 days. My "prephrasing/anticipating an answer" ability is still not great but I fly through each AC and usually know immediately which are wrong. The only time wasters are EXCEPT Qs. At this point my avg passage time is down to like 7 minutes, so hopefully on the next PT I take I will end up with 5-7 minutes extra at the end to doublecheck the ones I am unsure about.

[Maye]

Are you guys a little burned out? I spent most of yesterday in the library and have been trying and trying to do a couple of sections today but I can't seem to focus at all. I've eliminated all distractions, I have headphones in with classical music (my usual studying music), my post-it motivational notes are around, and still I just find myself rereading the same sentence over and over. Any tips on staying focused? I don't really want to take time off studying as I just came off a three day break (yikes!).

[UnamSanctam]

Hey folks, I'm in for December now. Decided to cancel my score from October since I knew I didn't reach my potential. I started Dave Hall's online course this past week & it's spectacular shit.

Glad I dropped by this thread. I thought you had dropped off the face of the earth.

[xChiTowNx]

1. Bring yummy nutritional lunches or spoil yourself on days with a treat when you know you'll be busting your butt on LSAT - it gives you something to look forward when you are trying to work through 100+ must be true questions or 15 RC passages.

2. Take a brief ten minute break and walk around, fresh air does wonders for me.

3. I look at a Gmail calendar I made and look over how many weeks are left - it gets me motivated, and I tell myself, "A little discomfort now will pay off in December."

4. Drink tea - it doesnt have any crazy caffeine side effects.

5. Play online flash games for ten minutes - stuff like Scrabble or Kitty Cannon. In the case of the latter, it sure gets your frustrations out!

Let me know if you need anymore ideas.

Are you guys a little burned out? I spent most of yesterday in the library and have been trying and trying to do a couple of sections today but I can't seem to focus at all. I've eliminated all distractions, I have headphones in with classical music (my usual studying music), my post-it motivational notes are around, and still I just find myself rereading the same sentence over and over. Any tips on staying focused? I don't really want to take time off studying as I just came off a three day break (yikes!).

[Olive]

that is like the ONE pt that I don't have. What is the Q? PM if you like.

Things are finally coming together for me with RC... Not sure what part of the pattern recognition you need help with though, I think it works a lot like LR. Most answers are either too narrow or too broad. What I found most helpful that I wasn't doing before is crossing out an answer choice as soon as I realize it is incorrect (and to start, doing untimed sections where you circle the word in the answer that makes it incorrect, or if it is not just 1 word then a quick note to the side).

Really all I did was read the Dave Hall thing and then go through a bunch of RC passages. I think I did around 15 a day for 5 days. My "prephrasing/anticipating an answer" ability is still not great but I fly through each AC and usually know immediately which are wrong. The only time wasters are EXCEPT Qs. At this point my avg passage time is down to like 7 minutes, so hopefully on the next PT I take I will end up with 5-7 minutes extra at the end to doublecheck the ones I am unsure about.

Thanks for the response. I guess what I am having trouble developing through drilling is sorting out a strategy for the various question types. I've tried breaking it down into general categories:

-main point questions
-inference
-author's tone
-definition of word in context
-purpose
-according to the passage
-analogy questions (these seem more prevalent in the newer PTs)

Do you have any tips for specific question types?

I've also noticed that I tend to go back to the passage a lot to check my answers. I know that it is good to check the answers, but I also know I am rereading parts too much and losing time. I feel like there is a "sweet spot" in terms or how much time to spend on the initial reading, but I can't seem to get there. Again, any tips would be appreciated!

[Olive]

Are you guys a little burned out? I spent most of yesterday in the library and have been trying and trying to do a couple of sections today but I can't seem to focus at all. I've eliminated all distractions, I have headphones in with classical music (my usual studying music), my post-it motivational notes are around, and still I just find myself rereading the same sentence over and over. Any tips on staying focused? I don't really want to take time off studying as I just came off a three day break (yikes!).

I felt that way last week. I wanted to study, but when I was studying I couldn't concentrate and wasn't motivated to really think hard. I realized I wasn't been efficient, even if I was studying for hours.

I've been planning out each hour of my afternoon study time and then interspersing it with short breaks. I have set goals for each day but it's not painful because I have 15 minutes every hour or so to reward myself.

I second the recommendation of fresh air.

7 more weeks

[Maye]

1. Bring yummy nutritional lunches or spoil yourself on days with a treat when you know you'll be busting your butt on LSAT - it gives you something to look forward when you are trying to work through 100+ must be true questions or 15 RC passages.

2. Take a brief ten minute break and walk around, fresh air does wonders for me.

3. I look at a Gmail calendar I made and look over how many weeks are left - it gets me motivated, and I tell myself, "A little discomfort now will pay off in December."

4. Drink tea - it doesnt have any crazy caffeine side effects.

5. Play online flash games for ten minutes - stuff like Scrabble or Kitty Cannon. In the case of the latter, it sure gets your frustrations out!

Let me know if you need anymore ideas.

I felt that way last week. I wanted to study, but when I was studying I couldn't concentrate and wasn't motivated to really think hard. I realized I wasn't been efficient, even if I was studying for hours.

I've been planning out each hour of my afternoon study time and then interspersing it with short breaks. I have set goals for each day but it's not painful because I have 15 minutes every hour or so to reward myself.

I second the recommendation of fresh air.

7 more weeks

Good ideas guys, thanks.

[Manhattan LSAT Noah]

Have fun tonight - strategy session 7, 8pm ET. Rahkeem's leading. Topics are closed binary grouping and analyze the argument questions.

[dasani13]

I'm having such a hard time getting back on track after canceling October!

[Manhattan LSAT Noah]

I'm having such a hard time getting back on track after canceling October!

Yeah, it's tough - sort of like when you pause during a run or hike, so hard to restart for some reason.

If you have a lot of un-done PTs, perhaps start with one of those to give yourself a kick in the butt. I also suggest you set-up a daily/weekly schedule. Going to do your 2 hours of prep on Wed. is a lot easier than PREPARING FOR THE DEC. LSAT.

Also, we need some leaders for the sessions in a few weeks. Most everyone who has led a session reported that it forced them to dig deep into the questions.

[lulzalicious]

Everyone should know that I just got a 176 on PT 58 with 2 experimental sections

[JamMasterJ]

IBshitstorm in the next few days from my october people running here

[georgia32]

IBshitstorm in the next few days from my october people running here

That could very well be me.