JUNE 2013 Study Group / Study Partner Thread Forum

[Ixiion]

Checking in. And freaking out. Just finally finished finals, so digging in to LSAT prep as much as possible after work.

I haven't done a proper PT in many months. Any suggestions for a particularly hard one to start out with?

[Daily_Double]

Checking in. And freaking out. Just finally finished finals, so digging in to LSAT prep as much as possible after work.

I haven't done a proper PT in many months. Any suggestions for a particularly hard one to start out with?

62 and 68 are probably the toughest in the sixties. But they're still not too bad. From what I remember 66 is the easiest in the sixties. But this is all my opinion, we could have different strengths/weaknesses

[Ixiion]

62 and 68 are probably the toughest in the sixties. But they're still not too bad. From what I remember 66 is the easiest in the sixties. But this is all my opinion, we could have different strengths/weaknesses

Awesome, thanks. Just looked back on my spreadsheet - 62 was the last one I did, and I scored 3 points lower on it than my average at the time. I think I'll do 68 first, since I've never seen it, then go back and re-do 62.

ETA: Random comment because I feel like sharing: I'm taking it in UVA, since all testing centers in my area (NY) were full. I'm so freaked about taking it in a state and place I've never been to. Woooo.

[lawschoolplease1]

62 was ROUGHHHHH
the LR wasn't bad. but the RC.... mannnnnn
games was the usual.

[wtrc]

62 and 68 are probably the toughest in the sixties. But they're still not too bad. From what I remember 66 is the easiest in the sixties. But this is all my opinion, we could have different strengths/weaknesses

Awesome, thanks. Just looked back on my spreadsheet - 62 was the last one I did, and I scored 3 points lower on it than my average at the time. I think I'll do 68 first, since I've never seen it, then go back and re-do 62.

ETA: Random comment because I feel like sharing: I'm taking it in UVA, since all testing centers in my area (NY) were full. I'm so freaked about taking it in a state and place I've never been to. Woooo.

Wait, you're taking the test in central Virginia because NY was full. I don't get it. There was nothing closer than... like... a 7 hour drive?

[wtrc]

62 was ROUGHHHHH
the LR wasn't bad. but the RC.... mannnnnn
games was the usual.

Taking that one tomorrow. Thanks for the heads up you two.

[Ixiion]

Wait, you're taking the test in central Virginia because NY was full. I don't get it. There was nothing closer than... like... a 7 hour drive?

I checked CT, that was full too. Everything else was too far of a drive, so I'm flying to VA. The benefit of Virginia is that my mother lives there & teaches at UVA, so no hotel costs.

[wtrc]

Wait, you're taking the test in central Virginia because NY was full. I don't get it. There was nothing closer than... like... a 7 hour drive?

I checked CT, that was full too. Everything else was too far of a drive, so I'm flying to VA. The benefit of Virginia is that my mother lives there & teaches at UVA, so no hotel costs.

Makes sense now

[Ixiion]

62 and 68 are probably the toughest in the sixties. But they're still not too bad. From what I remember 66 is the easiest in the sixties. But this is all my opinion, we could have different strengths/weaknesses

Just did 68, got a 172.

For my first full PT since like Sept/Oct, it's not bad. But I'm super annoyed with myself. I double-guessed myself & erased 2 correct answers and put the wrong ones in LR & RC. Even worse, got a pretty easy question wrong because I apparently skipped 2 words in the first sentence when reading (sec2,q14). Ugh. Hate when I do that.

Though.. I used to ace LGs and get 0/-1, but on this one I ended up going -3, with all 3 on the very last game.

[Daily_Double]

Though.. I used to ace LGs and get 0/-1, but on this one I ended up going -3, with all 3 on the very last game.

62 was the first time in a long while I made errors in LG. Don't sweat it. When I reviewed, I noticed that I got hung up and lost some time on game three, and wasted time on game four, which lead to errors in the last game. What I took away from it was to never let my pencil stop moving in such an open ended game.

[mvonh001]

I sat down to take PT 56 Today, finished the LG section, was disappointed in my efforts, then went on to LR1 and wasn't feeling it. I had a headache the entire morning and before taking PT56 I drilled PT 53 LR2 (which i did abysmal on, i dont know why, but i attribute it to my headache and not focusing). Therefore, I have decided to take tomorrow off from my scheduled drilling and to just sit down and finish PT 56 untimed, no pressure, and review it. I don't want to burn out when I have so much more time to go.

Usually I'm part of the "burn out is bullshit" camp, but after yesterday feeling similar to today, albeit I did much better on yesterdays LR sections (PT52), I have come to the conclusion that I do not know whether burn out is real or not, but I do know that I need to take a break from the intense 4 hour + days ive been putting in.

Any advice/insight would be great.

[Ixiion]

I sat down to take PT 56 Today, finished the LG section, was disappointed in my efforts, then went on to LR1 and wasn't feeling it. I had a headache the entire morning and before taking PT56 I drilled PT 53 LR2 (which i did abysmal on, i dont know why, but i attribute it to my headache and not focusing). Therefore, I have decided to take tomorrow off from my scheduled drilling and to just sit down and finish PT 56 untimed, no pressure, and review it. I don't want to burn out when I have so much more time to go.

Usually I'm part of the "burn out is bullshit" camp, but after yesterday feeling similar to today, albeit I did much better on yesterdays LR sections (PT52), I have come to the conclusion that I do not know whether burn out is real or not, but I do know that I need to take a break from the intense 4 hour + days ive been putting in.

Any advice/insight would be great.

I'm not sure whether burnouts are real or not, but headaches definitely are. And staring at the same thing, reading what seems to be the same exact crap, over and over again, can contribute to headaches. So, definitely, take a short break. Take the night off, have a drink, watch a hockey or baseball game. Get to the point where you're back to smiling and not wanting to stab your eyes out with this increasingly-annoying #2 pencil. Then when you wake up in the morning, don't rush it, relax, grab a cup of coffee, chill out on the back porch/balcony/whatevs and then slowly take your next PT.

^ That's what I do (and did, for months) when I started to get LSAT headaches and it helped, but maybe that's just me. Good luck.

[mvonh001]

I sat down to take PT 56 Today, finished the LG section, was disappointed in my efforts, then went on to LR1 and wasn't feeling it. I had a headache the entire morning and before taking PT56 I drilled PT 53 LR2 (which i did abysmal on, i dont know why, but i attribute it to my headache and not focusing). Therefore, I have decided to take tomorrow off from my scheduled drilling and to just sit down and finish PT 56 untimed, no pressure, and review it. I don't want to burn out when I have so much more time to go.

Usually I'm part of the "burn out is bullshit" camp, but after yesterday feeling similar to today, albeit I did much better on yesterdays LR sections (PT52), I have come to the conclusion that I do not know whether burn out is real or not, but I do know that I need to take a break from the intense 4 hour + days ive been putting in.

Any advice/insight would be great.

I'm not sure whether burnouts are real or not, but headaches definitely are. And staring at the same thing, reading what seems to be the same exact crap, over and over again, can contribute to headaches. So, definitely, take a short break. Take the night off, have a drink, watch a hockey or baseball game. Get to the point where you're back to smiling and not wanting to stab your eyes out with this increasingly-annoying #2 pencil. Then when you wake up in the morning, don't rush it, relax, grab a cup of coffee, chill out on the back porch/balcony/whatevs and then slowly take your next PT.

^ That's what I do (and did, for months) when I started to get LSAT headaches and it helped, but maybe that's just me. Good luck.

Thanks... LSAT headaches sounds much better than Burnouts - to me at least.

[Ixiion]

Thanks... LSAT headaches sounds much better than Burnouts - to me at least.

Agreed. And even if burnout is real, doing what I just said once in a while will help keep it at bay, too.

[SteelPenguin]

I retook LG PT31 today and realized it wasn't too difficult. I let myself get hung up on a simple inference I should have made on game 2 the first time, and I didn't pay attention to the order of events in game 4. I retook it today and finished in 25 minutes.

[Otunga]

Close to confirmation that I need to delay until October:

PT 68

RC: -5
LR: -10
LG: -3

Score: 165

So that's four straight tests that have been in the 165-168 range over the last two weeks ( with no inprovement anywhere). It's clear that I need to get better at LR - just can't stand the damn section lately. I haven't been able to do better than -8 combined on it on the most recent tests.

I can't see taking the June test unless MLSAT LR magically gets me to -4 when it gets here within the next couple days. I'll continue drilling LG to try and get that 0. While my LG isn't getting better on paper, my technique and set ups are. So I think that soon enough the silly mistakes will go away and with practice, I'll get the 0. I set up everything properly and was going through today's LG smoothly and mechanically.

As for RC, my floor has seemingly become -5. MLSAT RC has helped. And I think within the next three weeks, I could get my floor down to -3, with some -1s and 2s tossed in. It's stupid LR that I don't anticipate sufficient improvement in by test day.

[wtrc]

62 had a -14 curve?! Did not realize we had anything close to that in a recent PT.

[Dr. Dre]

Otunga: Manhattan LR will deliver.

[Otunga]

Well, within just 2 days of going through MLSAT RC, my RC range became -3 to -5. I'm confident that will decrease further. In any case, hope I respond to MLSAT LR just the same.

[lawschoolplease1]

quiccccck q- are you guys scoring consistently at this point?


speaking of which, @otunga, maybe you should take another PT to see if your score was an outlier.

[Otunga]

I don't think it qualifies as one. Granted, each section was at the lower end of my averages. But even so, I'm looking at a 167 or 168 with a couple more points, and those are the exact scores I got on the three tests before the 165.

[AT9]

Took PT 66 today - 5 sections, in a fairly busy library, and started pretty much the same time as the test start time.

Scored 167.

-5 CR
-2 LR
-3 LR
-6 LG

The problem is that I ran out of time on CR - I had to guess the last three questions and got them wrong. Had the same problem on LG. Was only able to guess the last game, and got all 5 wrong. On the plus side, half of the questions I missed were simply guesses and I was still able to manage a 167 (goal is 170). The obvious downside is that I had to guess on 8 questions to begin with. Two questions for you all:

1. Any good way to improve raw speed on CR and LG other than just drilling them in the last three weeks?

2. I have to drive about an hour to my test center. I'm driving over on Memorial Day to find the campus and building, etc. Has anyone had experience with a long-ish drive? Is it best to drive yourself, have someone else drive, etc.?

[Daily_Double]

I don't have any tips in terms of speed, except to keep moving your pencil in LG if you get stuck mentally. And I drive about eight hours every holiday to go home from my undergrad. I recommend listening to sports radio, it's relaxing and keeps my mind off of how much I hate most other drivers, every small traffic inconvienence, and the inevitable speeding tickets.

[AT9]

I don't have any tips in terms of speed, except to keep moving your pencil in LG if you get stuck mentally. And I drive about eight hours every holiday to go home from my undergrad. I recommend listening to sports radio, it's relaxing and keeps my mind off of how much I hate most other drivers, every small traffic inconvienence, and the inevitable speeding tickets.

Thanks! I have a general hatred for all other drivers as well. The alternative is to have my wife drive so I can relax, except that it would probably stress me out even more.

[Otunga]

Took PT 66 today - 5 sections, in a fairly busy library, and started pretty much the same time as the test start time.

Scored 167.

-5 CR
-2 LR
-3 LR
-6 LG

The problem is that I ran out of time on CR - I had to guess the last three questions and got them wrong. Had the same problem on LG. Was only able to guess the last game, and got all 5 wrong. On the plus side, half of the questions I missed were simply guesses and I was still able to manage a 167 (goal is 170). The obvious downside is that I had to guess on 8 questions to begin with. Two questions for you all:

1. Any good way to improve raw speed on CR and LG other than just drilling them in the last three weeks?

2. I have to drive about an hour to my test center. I'm driving over on Memorial Day to find the campus and building, etc. Has anyone had experience with a long-ish drive? Is it best to drive yourself, have someone else drive, etc.?

We seem to be in very similar spots. What was your diag and how long have you been prepping? I also have issues with timing in RC and LG (more so on RC). Like you, I got -5 on RC today and had to outright guess at 3 of them on my last passage, which were all wrong. I haven't had much trouble with LR timing, but appropriately enough, that's also my weakest section.