The Official February 2015 Study Group Forum

[brusselsprouts]

I found that moving through LR at a fairly brisk pace (i.e.: first 20 in 20 min) helped me keep focus and get a good groove going.

Also, are you getting stuck on seemingly tricky questions? For a while, those buggers just crushed my motivation and focus for the entire section--I'd just be sitting there spinning my wheels for what felt like ages and STILL felt unsure about the question. This in turn made me EXTREMELY unconfident any time I saw them. I think what did it for me was just taking a more positive mindset and being confident.

I'm still super rusty b/c of break, but another big thing that helped was developing a really simple, intuitive process and being comfortable with conditional + formal logic. Like, I'd just read the question and I wouldn't have to think about what steps I'd have to take--I'd just read q-stem to know if I should expect premise+conclusion+flaw, or if it was conditional or formal logic, just note in my head necessary, sufficient, and whatever part of it was noteworthy (there was a pattern to these kinds of questions, and you could almost 100% pre-phrase exactly which part of it was going to be in the right answer). I know Powerscore, Manhattan, and BP recommend a lot of diagramming, but I found diagramming in LR a waste of time and just made me break focus. Hope this helps.

Edit: a word

Thank you-- I think pacing will help me gain confidence a lot, but I feel so shitty going into it that I'm convinced if I give myself more time I'll do better. I haven't done enough timed to compare, though. The ones I'm getting stuck on are typically the most challenging ones..but I do miss mediums and every once in a while an easy question. I know my mindset is so important in how I perform, so I probably just need to say some LR affirmations and buckle down

How have you been studying LR? It will help us to give advice or describe what has and what has not worked for us.

I started my BP movie course mid November. They review LR every lesson, so I've been practicing every day since then, but to varying degrees. I'm planning to start drilling my weakest question types (flaw, necessary assumptions, must be false) and doing timed sections separately from the BP lesson plan since that's winding down for me now.


Thanks for everyone's advice! Hopefully what will work for me is a change in attitude regarding the questions and timed practice.

For what it's worth, for my RC I tag and mark up the passage like crazy. Underling author's attitude, box names and sometime's years or places, marking examples, hypotheses, conclusions, diagramming causal relationships when they come up. I modified the BP method to what works best for me at this point. I spend 3-4 minutes reading and then a few seconds anticipating MP, purpose, and author's attitude if author is present. I usually breeze through the questions in about 3 minutes and check any challenging questions over again. I've read a lot on TLS saying that marking the passage is a huge waste of time, but it certainly works for me

[Smallville]

I've been putting off looking at how many weeks are left, I don't know if it's 7 or 6 but I'm just imagining that it's somewhere around 12 weeks left.

Me too. Being on vacation also doesn't help at all. I'm thinking of taking a PT now just to see how bad my score is and hopefully that'll motivate me to use the last month or so efficiently.

lol I'm thinking its time for bed :/ #whycantIhavethewholeweekofftillafternewyers #verylonghashtags

[Smallville]

I found that moving through LR at a fairly brisk pace (i.e.: first 20 in 20 min) helped me keep focus and get a good groove going.

Also, are you getting stuck on seemingly tricky questions? For a while, those buggers just crushed my motivation and focus for the entire section--I'd just be sitting there spinning my wheels for what felt like ages and STILL felt unsure about the question. This in turn made me EXTREMELY unconfident any time I saw them. I think what did it for me was just taking a more positive mindset and being confident.

I'm still super rusty b/c of break, but another big thing that helped was developing a really simple, intuitive process and being comfortable with conditional + formal logic. Like, I'd just read the question and I wouldn't have to think about what steps I'd have to take--I'd just read q-stem to know if I should expect premise+conclusion+flaw, or if it was conditional or formal logic, just note in my head necessary, sufficient, and whatever part of it was noteworthy (there was a pattern to these kinds of questions, and you could almost 100% pre-phrase exactly which part of it was going to be in the right answer). I know Powerscore, Manhattan, and BP recommend a lot of diagramming, but I found diagramming in LR a waste of time and just made me break focus. Hope this helps.

Edit: a word

Thank you-- I think pacing will help me gain confidence a lot, but I feel so shitty going into it that I'm convinced if I give myself more time I'll do better. I haven't done enough timed to compare, though. The ones I'm getting stuck on are typically the most challenging ones..but I do miss mediums and every once in a while an easy question. I know my mindset is so important in how I perform, so I probably just need to say some LR affirmations and buckle down

How have you been studying LR? It will help us to give advice or describe what has and what has not worked for us.

I started my BP movie course mid November. They review LR every lesson, so I've been practicing every day since then, but to varying degrees. I'm planning to start drilling my weakest question types (flaw, necessary assumptions, must be false) and doing timed sections separately from the BP lesson plan since that's winding down for me now.


Thanks for everyone's advice! Hopefully what will work for me is a change in attitude regarding the questions and timed practice.

For what it's worth, for my RC I tag and mark up the passage like crazy. Underling author's attitude, box names and sometime's years or places, marking examples, hypotheses, conclusions, diagramming causal relationships when they come up. I modified the BP method to what works best for me at this point. I spend 3-4 minutes reading and then a few seconds anticipating MP, purpose, and author's attitude if author is present. I usually breeze through the questions in about 3 minutes and check any challenging questions over again. I've read a lot on TLS saying that marking the passage is a huge waste of time, but it certainly works for me

too lazy to get rid of irrelevant text lol but yeah if it works for you thats what matters, RC is terrible and a problem for so many people and its just about figuring out the best way to that individual person approach a passage.. Ive started going a bit slower reading so that I can retain more and get through the questions faster which I feel is working (though nowhere near where I want to be YET) keep pushing and you'll get comfortable with LR, just gotta have that moment where it just clicks and you suddenly don't mind it anymore

[Big Red]

lots of good stuff

I always find it funny how we talk about "taking a few seconds" to think about things like MP and structure in LR and RC, and to a lesser extent taking time to "digest" rules in LG. It's absolutely true and happens, just funny that this period of 2-3 breaths is considered essential to our LStrAT, because we've micromanaged to that point

LStrAT TM*

[NL2424]

..

[nlee10]

PS- what's ETA

edited to add.

ETA: When you want edit a post and usually want to add something.

[Big Red]

PS- what's ETA

edited to add.

ETA: When you want edit a post and usually want to add something.

It's actually quite a bit like PS

[Smallville]

PS- what's ETA

edited to add.

ETA: When you want edit a post and usually want to add something.

allows you to clarify something or add something you forgot without double/triple... posting

almost commented on scholarly's post about not including it... guess I shoulda

[brusselsprouts]

lots of good stuff

I always find it funny how we talk about "taking a few seconds" to think about things like MP and structure in LR and RC, and to a lesser extent taking time to "digest" rules in LG. It's absolutely true and happens, just funny that this period of 2-3 breaths is considered essential to our LStrAT, because we've micromanaged to that point

LStrAT TM*

I see an LSAT prep company in your future

[JackelJ]

How have you been studying LR? It will help us to give advice or describe what has and what has not worked for us.

I started my BP movie course mid November. They review LR every lesson, so I've been practicing every day since then, but to varying degrees. I'm planning to start drilling my weakest question types (flaw, necessary assumptions, must be false) and doing timed sections separately from the BP lesson plan since that's winding down for me now.

I think BP does a good job explaining each individual type of LR section, and that is valuable but I saw improvements when I took it a step further. What I did when I was drilling is I would basically pick apart the arguments and make sure I knew what each part did, what the conclusion was, any assumptions, any flaws, how it could be strengthened/weakened, etc. I would do this for all different types of questions when I drilled, instead of just circling the answer and moving on. Obviously I do not do this for every single question that I drill now because that would take forever. However once I did it often enough it just became a habit and as I read the LR stimuli, my head naturally started to do all those things very quickly. Because all that happens kind of naturally now, I usually grasp the argument very well after the first read and I'm able to pick the answer/eliminate all the rest quickly no matter the type of question. I never really worked on timing alone, that just happened as I was able to answer questions more quickly. Hope this helps, this is what worked for me and how I've gotten better at LR.

lol I'm thinking its time for bed :/ #whycantIhavethewholeweekofftillafternewyers #verylonghashtags

I should've gone to bed, my PT did not go very well haha. I hate RC so much.
I don't envy you, but at least you have a short week right?

[nlee10]

I think BP does a good job explaining each individual type of LR section, and that is valuable but I saw improvements when I took it a step further. What I did when I was drilling is I would basically pick apart the arguments and make sure I knew what each part did, what the conclusion was, any assumptions, any flaws, how it could be strengthened/weakened, etc. I would do this for all different types of questions when I drilled, instead of just circling the answer and moving on. Obviously I do not do this for every single question that I drill now because that would take forever. However once I did it often enough it just became a habit and as I read the LR stimuli, my head naturally started to do all those things very quickly. Because all that happens kind of naturally now, I usually grasp the argument very well after the first read and I'm able to pick the answer/eliminate all the rest quickly no matter the type of question. I never really worked on timing alone, that just happened as I was able to answer questions more quickly. Hope this helps, this is what worked for me and how I've gotten better at LR.

+1 I think that BP does a good job at teaching you the basics to score at least a 160+. You just have to take an extra step further by more drilling, PT'ing, reviewing to of course go for that 170.

Brussels, how far along are you on the curriculum? I definitely recommend finishing at least 3-4 weeks before test day so that you can really work on timing. I finished my class the first week of Dec in hopes of the Dec 6th LSAT and ultimately postponed because I wasn't able to properly master timing. It's taking at least an extra 3+ weeks for everything to click into place but it's so worth it.

[gamerish]

Post removed...

[peetesLA]

peetestLA - I think if you are already dropping 174 after a 3 month hiatus and just a 6 week initial prep, then hell yeah, I'd give it a shot. It seems you will have to invest very little time into prep, and its worth just a take and to see what happens. Since your score is already so high and the effort wont be as significant, I think this is one of the few times I can say that even if you arent completley sold on law school/law career you can decide if its something you can mull over after a take since you are already at a high score. With a score like that I imagine you can get very decent money at some good schools. Good Luck man, I seriouslly wish you the best. Ignore Scholarly - knew he was a troll, didnt realize he went full dbag in his character.

Thanks everybody - I appreciate this and all the other feedback from my post last night, even from the kid who is pretending to be mean. For now I'm just gonna give this LSAT a run and see what happens. I just bought every LG from test 1-60 - I'm gonna drill all those and read the PowerScore LG Bible again.

I have one question: what does it mean when you call someone a "splitter?"

[03152016]

a splitter is someone with a high lsat score and a low gpa
generally someone with above a 75th percentile lsat and a below 25th percentile gpa for a given school

[flawyers]

Well, I think the main thing is figuring out the assumption/hole as you read (whats wrong with it? what assumptions have they made?)- thats what all those questions (flaw, necessary/sufficient, weaken, strengthen) boil down to.

All these types of questions have assumptions, and that is what you are concerned with. Making the assumption is the flaw, bringing about and exposing the assumption (saying that it is in fact the case that the assumption is true) is strengthening, saying the assumption is not true/wrong is weakening, etc. So I think at a point when you are reading a stimulus and think about the hole (the assumption they made) you almost naturally think about whats wrong with it - how you can weaken/strengthen it.

Yeaaaahh, looking back at what I just wrote, this probably didnt make any sense. Its 3am, I should probably go to sleep now.

[03152016]

beat you to the punch rigo

what are you doing up so late
or are you a west coaster

[gamerish]

Post removed...

[03152016]

i'm a night owl by nature

i'm a 1L, on weekdays i usually have to be up at like 7:30

but once break started i immediately reverted to staying up until dawn and waking up in the afternoon

[gamerish]

Post removed...

[Smallville]

lol I'm thinking its time for bed :/ #whycantIhavethewholeweekofftillafternewyers #verylonghashtags

I should've gone to bed, my PT did not go very well haha. I hate RC so much.
I don't envy you, but at least you have a short week right?

eh half day wed and full friday so slightly short

[brusselsprouts]

I think BP does a good job explaining each individual type of LR section, and that is valuable but I saw improvements when I took it a step further. What I did when I was drilling is I would basically pick apart the arguments and make sure I knew what each part did, what the conclusion was, any assumptions, any flaws, how it could be strengthened/weakened, etc. I would do this for all different types of questions when I drilled, instead of just circling the answer and moving on. Obviously I do not do this for every single question that I drill now because that would take forever. However once I did it often enough it just became a habit and as I read the LR stimuli, my head naturally started to do all those things very quickly. Because all that happens kind of naturally now, I usually grasp the argument very well after the first read and I'm able to pick the answer/eliminate all the rest quickly no matter the type of question. I never really worked on timing alone, that just happened as I was able to answer questions more quickly. Hope this helps, this is what worked for me and how I've gotten better at LR.

+1 I think that BP does a good job at teaching you the basics to score at least a 160+. You just have to take an extra step further by more drilling, PT'ing, reviewing to of course go for that 170.

Brussels, how far along are you on the curriculum? I definitely recommend finishing at least 3-4 weeks before test day so that you can really work on timing. I finished my class the first week of Dec in hopes of the Dec 6th LSAT and ultimately postponed because I wasn't able to properly master timing. It's taking at least an extra 3+ weeks for everything to click into place but it's so worth it.

Jackel and Nlee thank you for this advice! It's so helpful that you both are familiar with BP. I'm going to try your technique today and see how that helps. I'm sure if nothing elses reviewing arguments and flaws in practice will be a huge help.
Nlee- I just finished lesson 12. On my schedule it separates the last lessons with PTs. Would you suggest finishing up the lessons asap then PTing and drilling, or sticking to their schedule and adding in extra drilling (/PTs)?

[JackelJ]

So you thought of how every single argument you came across could be flawed, strengthened, weakened, what assumptions were necessary/sufficient, etc even if the question wasn't asking for it (for example, you'd consider what could strengthen an argument and what flaws were present when the question was just asking you to weaken it?) when drilling?

Yes. Obviously, not all of the things are relevant for each question (like usually MBT questions don't have flaws), but its just the thinking in depth that helped me. This only took another minute or two per question as I drilled. Basically I just tried to get a firm grasp on analyzing arguments so when I get to challenging questions at the end of sections I get the answer much easier.

[NL2424]

..

[Smallville]

Just did the first LR from PT 35! -2 timed and -1 BR. I must say question 23 is my least favorite LSAT question yet and after BRing it for about 15 minutes by itself I still didn't understand it. I got it wrong, but the worst part is the correct answer was an answer I eliminated quickly, and the two answers I was stuck between were both wrong. BUT OTHER THAN THIS DEMON SEED QUESTION, pretty pleased with the results Okay... onto the 2nd LR section... let's hope for similar or better results...

PS: The demon question had to do with statisticians claims, correctness of beliefs, and survival if anyone remembers it...

dang thats awesome, GJ, -2 timed is pretty sweet, in good shape if you can reproduce that regularly in LR sections

[NL2424]

..