September 2014 Retakers Forum

[Hands]

Hey, I'm not well acquainted with this site, but I was wondering if any of you have any last-minute suggestions as to how to better perform on the logic games.

As of right now, I'm testing at about a 167, which is happily 6 points above my diagnostic, but am lucky to get more than 15 right on the logic games (but am in the 90% range on the other three sections). So if I can even get to the 20/25 range, I'll be around a 170, which is my target.

Some Logic Games that I've had an especially rough time getting past:

December 2001 - Game 3 (seats on a bus)
June 2001 - Game 4 (doctors in Randsborough and Souderton)
October 2000 - Game 4 (cats/dogs in a pet shop)

I will, of course, browse the site to find posted explanations on these particular games, but I was including them more in case someone had some insight as to which type of games I am struggling with and what methods work best at attacking them. Any help or insight, even if general, would be much appreciated.

Welcome! Have you seen the 7sage videos for these games?

Thanks for replying.

Yes, I have. But I don't seem to get as much from the videos, or perhaps I'm scared to adopt some of his ways of solving/methods of representation because I've repeated the Powerscore methods so many times (which haven't really helped me with either accuracy or speed, sadly).

[Learn_Live_Hope]

Hey, I'm not well acquainted with this site, but I was wondering if any of you have any last-minute suggestions as to how to better perform on the logic games.

As of right now, I'm testing at about a 167, which is happily 6 points above my diagnostic, but am lucky to get more than 15 right on the logic games (but am in the 90% range on the other three sections). So if I can even get to the 20/25 range, I'll be around a 170, which is my target.

Some Logic Games that I've had an especially rough time getting past:

December 2001 - Game 3 (seats on a bus)
June 2001 - Game 4 (doctors in Randsborough and Souderton)
October 2000 - Game 4 (cats/dogs in a pet shop)

I will, of course, browse the site to find posted explanations on these particular games, but I was including them more in case someone had some insight as to which type of games I am struggling with and what methods work best at attacking them. Any help or insight, even if general, would be much appreciated.

Welcome! Have you seen the 7sage videos for these games?

Thanks for replying.

Yes, I have. But I don't seem to get as much from the videos, or perhaps I'm scared to adopt some of his ways of solving/methods of representation because I've repeated the Powerscore methods so many times (which haven't really helped me with either accuracy or speed, sadly).

with the exception of grouping his methods are the same as powerscores…aren't they?

[Hands]

Hey, I'm not well acquainted with this site, but I was wondering if any of you have any last-minute suggestions as to how to better perform on the logic games.

As of right now, I'm testing at about a 167, which is happily 6 points above my diagnostic, but am lucky to get more than 15 right on the logic games (but am in the 90% range on the other three sections). So if I can even get to the 20/25 range, I'll be around a 170, which is my target.

Some Logic Games that I've had an especially rough time getting past:

December 2001 - Game 3 (seats on a bus)
June 2001 - Game 4 (doctors in Randsborough and Souderton)
October 2000 - Game 4 (cats/dogs in a pet shop)

I will, of course, browse the site to find posted explanations on these particular games, but I was including them more in case someone had some insight as to which type of games I am struggling with and what methods work best at attacking them. Any help or insight, even if general, would be much appreciated.

Welcome! Have you seen the 7sage videos for these games?

Thanks for replying.

Yes, I have. But I don't seem to get as much from the videos, or perhaps I'm scared to adopt some of his ways of solving/methods of representation because I've repeated the Powerscore methods so many times (which haven't really helped me with either accuracy or speed, sadly).

with the exception of grouping his methods are the same as powerscores…aren't they?

Actually, I visited his video on the December 2001 game and it was very helpful. But his representations are pretty different and, particular to the June 01 game, he employs an in/out strategy in grouping games...which is what I'm assuming you were meaning anyways.

[Yeezus]

I just took PT 72, looking at it for the first time since sitting for it in June. I never reviewed what I got wrong after getting my results in July, so I figured it'd be almost as good as a fresh test.

Breakdown:

RC: -3 (-6 in June)
LR: -5 (-8 in June)
LG: -2 (-4 in June)
Score: 172 (166 in June)

I'm not sure if I should be happy or disappointed. 172 is definitely an improvement over 166, but I expected to do better since my PT average is 176.

[umichan]

I just took PT 72, looking at it for the first time since sitting for it in June. I never reviewed what I got wrong after getting my results in July, so I figured it'd be almost as good as a fresh test.

Breakdown:

RC: -3 (-6 in June)
LR: -5 (-8 in June)
LG: -2 (-4 in June)
Score: 172 (166 in June)

I'm not sure if I should be happy or disappointed. 172 is definitely an improvement over 166, but I expected to do better since my PT average is 176.

Exactly the same here. I took it couple weeks ago and got a 173. I got a miserable 162 in June.

[Yeezus]

Anyone else starting to feel nervous for no reason?

[fra]

Anyone else starting to feel nervous for no reason?

Not a retaker, but I prefer this thread to the other September thread- hope you guys don't mind!

I made a spreadsheet that tells me where I should apply based on LSAT score (it color codes which schools are safeties, reaches, and in between) and I keep changing the lsat scores to see how my school prospects change. Freaks me out how much one point difference changes my prospects. So yes, feeling a little nervous.

[Smallville]

Anyone else starting to feel nervous for no reason?

Not a retaker, but I prefer this thread to the other September thread- hope you guys don't mind!

I made a spreadsheet that tells me where I should apply based on LSAT score (it color codes which schools are safeties, reaches, and in between) and I keep changing the lsat scores to see how my school prospects change. Freaks me out how much one point difference changes my prospects. So yes, feeling a little nervous.

I wouldnt say there isn't a reason lol

[DetroitRed]

I just took PT 72. Holy shit that was a hard exam. I generally never second guess myself in LR, nor do I generally miss more than one LR question total. Not so much with 72.

Somehow I still scored my PT average, but I'm not sure how this exam can have a less generous curve than 71, which I found substantially easier.

[Yeezus]

I just took PT 72. Holy shit that was a hard exam. I generally never second guess myself in LR, nor do I generally miss more than one LR question total. Not so much with 72.

Somehow I still scored my PT average, but I'm not sure how this exam can have a less generous curve than 71, which I found substantially easier.

I'm with you on the LR. It seemed to be harder than usual for me. The RC I felt was average, and the LG was slightly more difficult than usual, mainly bc of that weird game at the end.

[DetroitRed]

Yeah the RC was easy and pretty interesting, IMO. At least there were no passages about artist X from under-represented group Y. (I zone out so hard on those.) Games were very simple except the weirdness of game 1 and the difficulty/weirdness of game 4. Even so, I only went -2 in the section.

LR was just strange. Like I almost always pre-phrase and never have to go through process of elimination. Blueprint seemed to think that the LR on 71 was harder, but I just don't see it.

[Yeezus]

One week to go... Let's get it

[dontdoitkid]

One week to go... Let's get it

Only reason why I'm on TLS at almost 8pm on a Saturday haha

[umichan]

One week to go... Let's get it

Only reason why I'm on TLS at almost 8pm on a Saturday haha

Me too! Though we are three hours behind

[Yeezus]

Finally took PT 69, which was one of the few PTs that I haven't seen already.

Breakdown:

LR: -3 (I really need to read more carefully)
LG: -1
RC: -4
Exp LR: -1

173

[LawBron James]

Question for retakers who took the June test and have retaken it as a PT this time:

How did you do on it compared to your other PT's?

I haven't gotten lower than a 176 on a PT this time around, and I took PT 72 today and got a 169, exactly the same result as I got on test day (leading up to that test my PT average was around the same as it is now). I guess it could be a good thing, because I think it shows that this test really was particularly hard for me for whatever reason, and it wasn't nerves that got to me on test day. On the other hand, this test could indicate a trend that is happening with these tests, and the next test is going to be just as hard for me as this last one was.

I really don't know what to make of this, but I did find it really interesting.

[mickey_mouse]

Question for retakers who took the June test and have retaken it as a PT this time:

How did you do on it compared to your other PT's?

I haven't gotten lower than a 176 on a PT this time around, and I took PT 72 today and got a 169, exactly the same result as I got on test day (leading up to that test my PT average was around the same as it is now). I guess it could be a good thing, because I think it shows that this test really was particularly hard for me for whatever reason, and it wasn't nerves that got to me on test day. On the other hand, this test could indicate a trend that is happening with these tests, and the next test is going to be just as hard for me as this last one was.

I really don't know what to make of this, but I did find it really interesting.

Same story, different test for me. I took PT 70 (Oct '13) as my real test and just did it as a PT a few days ago. I've been PTing pretty consistently in the 173 range but got a 168 on this one, just a couple above what I got when I took it for real. 173 to 168 is a little less of an outlier than yours, but still interesting. I was trying to explain it the way you did too; some tests (passages, games, etc) just don't "fit your eye" as well perhaps.

Especially the case if G4 stole a couple questions from you on PT 72.

[LawBron James]

Question for retakers who took the June test and have retaken it as a PT this time:

How did you do on it compared to your other PT's?

I haven't gotten lower than a 176 on a PT this time around, and I took PT 72 today and got a 169, exactly the same result as I got on test day (leading up to that test my PT average was around the same as it is now). I guess it could be a good thing, because I think it shows that this test really was particularly hard for me for whatever reason, and it wasn't nerves that got to me on test day. On the other hand, this test could indicate a trend that is happening with these tests, and the next test is going to be just as hard for me as this last one was.

I really don't know what to make of this, but I did find it really interesting.

Same story, different test for me. I took PT 70 (Oct '13) as my real test and just did it as a PT a few days ago. I've been PTing pretty consistently in the 173 range but got a 168 on this one, just a couple above what I got when I took it for real. 173 to 168 is a little less of an outlier than yours, but still interesting. I was trying to explain it the way you did too; some tests (passages, games, etc) just don't "fit your eye" as well perhaps.

Especially the case if G4 stole a couple questions from you on PT 72.

Yeah, that is interesting then. The crazy part is that I only got -1 on LG, what killed me was the third RC passage and LR1. I hope we're both right and those specific tests were just difficult for us. It does worry me a tiny bit though with less than a week to go.

[dasani13]

Question for retakers who took the June test and have retaken it as a PT this time:

How did you do on it compared to your other PT's?

I haven't gotten lower than a 176 on a PT this time around, and I took PT 72 today and got a 169, exactly the same result as I got on test day (leading up to that test my PT average was around the same as it is now). I guess it could be a good thing, because I think it shows that this test really was particularly hard for me for whatever reason, and it wasn't nerves that got to me on test day. On the other hand, this test could indicate a trend that is happening with these tests, and the next test is going to be just as hard for me as this last one was.

I really don't know what to make of this, but I did find it really interesting.

I regret re-taking 72 as a PT!

[Yeezus]

Question for retakers who took the June test and have retaken it as a PT this time:

How did you do on it compared to your other PT's?

I haven't gotten lower than a 176 on a PT this time around, and I took PT 72 today and got a 169, exactly the same result as I got on test day (leading up to that test my PT average was around the same as it is now). I guess it could be a good thing, because I think it shows that this test really was particularly hard for me for whatever reason, and it wasn't nerves that got to me on test day. On the other hand, this test could indicate a trend that is happening with these tests, and the next test is going to be just as hard for me as this last one was.

I really don't know what to make of this, but I did find it really interesting.

I got a 172, up from a 166 in June. This test was a bit hard. The LR was definitely on the harder side to me.

[LawBron James]

Yeah, I thought the LR was difficult as well. Is a 172 in line with your other PT's?

[Yeezus]

Yeah, I thought the LR was difficult as well. Is a 172 in line with your other PT's?

No, it was lower than average. I've been averaging 175-176 on my PTs.

[lurj]

Question for retakers who took the June test and have retaken it as a PT this time:

How did you do on it compared to your other PT's?

I haven't gotten lower than a 176 on a PT this time around, and I took PT 72 today and got a 169, exactly the same result as I got on test day (leading up to that test my PT average was around the same as it is now). I guess it could be a good thing, because I think it shows that this test really was particularly hard for me for whatever reason, and it wasn't nerves that got to me on test day. On the other hand, this test could indicate a trend that is happening with these tests, and the next test is going to be just as hard for me as this last one was.

I really don't know what to make of this, but I did find it really interesting.

Just did the same thing today. Although my pt average has improved into the mid 170's, my score on pt 72 was only one point above my june for real take (168). One one hand it feels like confirmation that that test really played to my weaknesses. On the other hand it makes me feel like I haven't improved as much as I thought.


Nothing really to say about the LG section. The game at the end is weird as hell and cost me -1. Everything else went fine.

The really weird thing about this test is that the first lr is very difficult imo. Usually I can get through the first 20 in around 20 minutes, but I found myself barely getting through 15 in something like 18 minutes in this section. I found the mid range questions (15-20) a lot more difficult than they have been on previous tests.

[Yeezus]

How is everyone spending their last week of prep?

[dasani13]

How is everyone spending their last week of prep?

reviewing recent PTs tomorrow (nothing too crazy), retaking PT 71 Wednesday as a confidence booster and for stamina, Thursday and Friday off.