JUNE 2013 Study Group / Study Partner Thread Forum

[Dr. Dre]

ay yo manofthehour:

[melmoththewanderer]

manofthehour

didn't you say you improved substantially in LG after Manhattan LG?

Yeah. I went from -8 to -11 (got -9 on a real LSAT) to -0 to -4. I'm still not great at them. Most TLSers consistently get -0. Games are the reason why my last 10 exams look like this: 167, 170, 165, 174, 168, 170, etc.

ManoftheHour for stained glass windows, there are a few things that might help:

You have one window with green and purple, which means everything else is a not both (if green, no purple or if purple, no green)

You also know then green-purple window will have no yellow.

The other two windows have to have either purple or orange.

And since every color has to be in at least one window, there is a window with yellow and purple glass.

[sublime]

..

[SteelPenguin]

About to do 67's LG for the first time since Oct - Zones, we meet again This time, though, I'm ready for you.

I don't get why it was so hard on test day, because in reality it's not such a hard game

I am a retaker and my first test was that one and I can't tell you for sure. I have not looked at it since yet. IIRC it was later in the test and when I first read the set up I kind of just stopped and said "what. the. fuck." They seriously could not come up with another word for zones? It was just out of left field and while people expect it now, that actual test day we had no idea it was coming and had to figure it out in under 10 min.

Fwiw I went -8 on LG and still ended up with a 166. If I can fix LG I should be able to top 170.

The first time I took this I went -2 on that game, but I couldn't draw a real diagram for it and didn't have a complete understanding of the game. I was able to work out most of the problems, but there were 2-3 questions that you couldn't get the answer for without a full understanding of the game. For people shooting for a -0 in LG, this was a very difficult LG section.

[Daily_Double]

The issue with zones, and I'll concede that it's not one of the most difficult games, is that the language in the stimulus is relatively ambiguous in relation to the interaction between zones and subzones, or at least confusing. Until I skimmed the questions, I really didn't inderstand the game at all. But once I did, I saw that it was simply an undefined grouping game.

[Typhoon24]

Do you think stained glass game is harder than zones?

I thought zones was around 2 to 3 times harder than stained glass

[RhymesLikeDimes]

*gets caught in House marathon*



*wants to be a doctor again*

[okaygo]

*gets caught in House marathon*



*wants to be a doctor again*

Same. But I'm watching Greys Anatomy.

[melmoththewanderer]

I agree. Zones was tough, but given enough time its doable. It's a grouping game with distribution rules.

[CardozoLaw09]

The issue with zones, and I'll concede that it's not one of the most difficult games, is that the language in the stimulus is relatively ambiguous in relation to the interaction between zones and subzones, or at least confusing. Until I skimmed the questions, I really didn't inderstand the game at all. But once I did, I saw that it was simply an undefined grouping game.

Agreed 100%

[sublime]

..

[Daily_Double]

I agree. Zones was tough, but given enough time its doable. It's a grouping game with distribution rules.

True, but keep in mind that on here, anyone who takes that PT knows what is coming. On actual test day I was shell shocked by it. It wasn't like anything I had prepared for, and it threw me off.

Valid point. I'm sure most people were. At issue here is what one can do to overcome a game when one hits a wall, as did many when they faces zones and dinosaurs. While I can't be sure since June will be my first and last time, hopefully, though October wouldn't really affect me, I would think that one must, when stuck, check out the questions and answers, and look at the big picture of the game: What's going on here? Is the game assigning X's to Y, and there's two types of X's? Or are we ordering X's? Or both? I do a similar process I LR, though if I stuck I LR I don't look at the answers until I see the big picture. By doing this, I always know that, at the very least, I knew what the question was asking, thus, if I made an error, it was one related to the answer choices, which rarely happens in LR and LG because I prephrasing most of my answers. I recommend the thought process.

[patfeeney]

PT 60
Sec 1 LR: -3
Ex. (PT 28, Sec 3): -3
Sec 2 LG: -6
Sec 3 LR: -5
Sec 4 RC: -7

My worst test in over a month, so I'm considering waiting until October. I'm wondering if anyone thinks that's reasonable.

[wtrc]

Anybody else spending today and the next week looking exclusively at essay prompts???


...but actually, has anyone glanced at that at all? Haven't looked at it once since my test in June 2011.

[TheMostDangerousLG]

Anybody else spending today and the next week looking exclusively at essay prompts???


...but actually, has anyone glanced at that at all? Haven't looked at it once since my test in June 2011.

Lol, nope. The only one I've ever looked at was when I took the test in February. And I half-assed that (finished in ten minutes, then doodled on my scratch sheet for a while, then went back to the answer sheet and ended it with a joke, on the assumption that literally no one was ever going to read it.. then stared into space for another fifteen minutes). I don't think I'll be looking at another one until PT 69.

[melmoththewanderer]

I agree. Zones was tough, but given enough time its doable. It's a grouping game with distribution rules.

True, but keep in mind that on here, anyone who takes that PT knows what is coming. On actual test day I was shell shocked by it. It wasn't like anything I had prepared for, and it threw me off.

Valid point. I'm sure most people were. At issue here is what one can do to overcome a game when one hits a wall, as did many when they faces zones and dinosaurs. While I can't be sure since June will be my first and last time, hopefully, though October wouldn't really affect me, I would think that one must, when stuck, check out the questions and answers, and look at the big picture of the game: What's going on here? Is the game assigning X's to Y, and there's two types of X's? Or are we ordering X's? Or both? I do a similar process I LR, though if I stuck I LR I don't look at the answers until I see the big picture. By doing this, I always know that, at the very least, I knew what the question was asking, thus, if I made an error, it was one related to the answer choices, which rarely happens in LR and LG because I prephrasing most of my answers. I recommend the thought process.

I completely agree with this. Though the term big picture gets thrown around here so often that it could mean anything. I like the term process better, but I think its similar to what Daily_Double is getting at.

You have to know what your task is, and how to use the tools you've cultivated to accomplish your task. For Zones, if it didn't register as a grouping game that's tough.

[Daily_Double]

Anybody else spending today and the next week looking exclusively at essay prompts???


...but actually, has anyone glanced at that at all? Haven't looked at it once since my test in June 2011.

I might look over a couple on Sunday, the 9th, but I've always been a good writer, unless I'm typing on my phone, which has been the case recently since my laptop is under a pile of boxes somewhere. I wouldn't worry about it.

[SteelPenguin]

Anybody else spending today and the next week looking exclusively at essay prompts???


...but actually, has anyone glanced at that at all? Haven't looked at it once since my test in June 2011.

I looked at 1 before my Dec LSAT, and then for the Dec LSAT I did spend time on it. I wasn't very happy with it, but I don't think anyone was able to read my handwriting anyway. All the school's probably got out of it is that I did spend some time writing things down, but I don't have legible handwriting.

[sublime]

..

[AT9]

Took PT 68 today....165, my second 165 in a row (though my raw was 3 higher this time)

-5 RC
-4 RC (old section from the 30's)
-4 LR
-5 LR
-4 LG

At least I'm consistent if nothing else. Did anyone find the economics passage in RC to be hard? Normally I'm great with economics/political economy, but I read through this passage and just didn't get it. I tried the first two questions and decided to move on to the next passage - I had to guess the other 6(?) questions on that passage. It's amazing I did as well as -5 given the trip-up in the first section.

I felt really good on LG and decent on LR, so I was a little disappointed to walk away with a 165.

Anyone else feeling an odd mix of terror and (positive) excitement for next Monday?

I took this test today too and got the same score, but I made a -10 (WTF) on the LG section. What made those last two games OK for you? I had a major time getting the diagrams down

Hmm, did you happen to just space on one of the rules or something?

My goal on LG is to go 100% on three of the games and guess the rest if need be. I'm just not quite fast enough to do well on 4 full games in 35 minutes. I found the first game to be really easy, so that only took up about 5 minutes of my time, then I skipped to the fourth game because it had 7 questions. I actually found that game pretty easy to diagram, but some of the questions were difficult/time-consuming. I think the time I had to spare helped me get through that section with confidence. For the diagram, I just listed the numbers 1-7, made a few not-blocks, and got to work.

Game two was also fairly easy for me, and with game three I was able to get the first two/three and guess the other three or four.

You must have kicked ass on LR and CR.

Just curious, how long have you been studying? Long enough to know that you're scoring around your potential?

I think so. When I was studying for February, I knew I wasn't scoring up to my potential (between 158-160), so I postponed until now.

My last four full PT's in test-like conditions have been:

164
167
165
165

I feel like I'm much closer to my potential right now. Given my busy full-time job, wife, and other commitments, the mid/upper 160's reflects my potential pretty well. I think my "true" potential (full time studying) is in the low 170's, but I don't and won't have that luxury. I'm hoping I can pull off a 167/168 on the real deal.

[wtrc]

Just made conversation with someone else studying for this at a coffee shop. He had a Barron's book. Anyway, he's been studying for over a month, so he's "as ready as he can be."

...sometimes I forget that there exist LSAT takers outside of TLS.

[TheMostDangerousLG]

Just made conversation with someone else studying for this at a coffee shop. He had a Barron's book. Anyway, he's been studying for over a month, so he's "as ready as he can be."

...sometimes I forget that there exist LSAT takers outside of TLS.

[CardozoLaw09]

I think I'd dish out 50 bucks for a fresh PT #retakerproblems

[okaygo]

Just made conversation with someone else studying for this at a coffee shop. He had a Barron's book. Anyway, he's been studying for over a month, so he's "as ready as he can be."

...sometimes I forget that there exist LSAT takers outside of TLS.

hahahaha

[TheMostDangerousLG]

I think I'd dish out 50 bucks for a fresh PT #retakerproblems

+1