The Official June 2014 Study Group Forum

[Bosh]

Checking In! I took December last Saturday and know that I fell 5-8 points shy of my goal of a 170, and thus, my MVP aspirations. I decided to retake June, but I'm running on limited material. I have PT 66-70 fresh, and the LR and RC from PT 35-50 fresh, so that would be a reasonably accurate score predictor. I'm going to use the Trainer and the Manhattan series to prepare, and I'm going to start as soon as my finals end, which is on Thursday, as I am in UG. Best of Luck to all the June takers/retakers!

Hi All Star, how about you take everything again. I know you said you exhausted your material. Same with me, but i realize that it doesn't really hurt if you redo everything all over. It actually reinforces what you're learning. Best of Luck to us all this June. BTW are you a junior or senior in college. (not like it matters)

[suitsfan]

I'm currently using the LSAT blog's 7 month study plan along with the powerscore books. I also have the MLSAT books but have not started them and I am looking into the LSAT trainer, 7Sage and Cambridge. I'm getting confused on how to integrate all these different sources into a comprehensive study plan. Any suggestions?

[10052014]

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[dardardelight]

good luck, jaylawyer! I feel like taking a short hiatus from tls will do some good; I'm probably going to do the same (eventually)

side note: I just enrolled in jy ping's 7sage course and it's been great so far. I'm going to try and finishthe Trainer, even though I have yet to begin the thick book, by mid-January (when the spring semester starts), and then move on to studying 7sage/MLSAT/drilling cambridge LR all in tandem. Hopefully I'll have all my "studying" done by April, and have a full 2 months to devote to taking & reviewing full practice tests.

Here's to the beginning of a long journey! Best of luck to us all : )

[O Captain My Captain]

Officially checking into the madness.

I've purchased the Bibles, Manhattan, the LSAT Trainer, Cambridge packets, and I have the complete 7Sage course. I also bought a two year subscription to Economist. I get a magazine every week for the next two years. It was like $300, but well worth it in my opinion.

I'll be a regular around this thread. Happy studying!

[viviana7211]

Hi guys, I am getting ready to start studying in January. I am a little lost. I dont know where to start or how to make a studying schedule? Do I go book by book? or combine?
Any help is appreciated!
Thank you!

[Tyr]

Hi guys, I am getting ready to start studying in January. I am a little lost. I dont know where to start or how to make a studying schedule? Do I go book by book? or combine?
Any help is appreciated!
Thank you!

Are you 100% new to the LSAT, or have you done some studying in the past? There are a number of comprehensive study plans that are available in this forum such as PithyPike's guide, TLS1776, or NoodleyOne's guides, but they all boil down to the same thing...lots of time, consistency in preparation, and drill drill drill.

I'd suggest starting out with one book. Choose a company that you like (MLSAT or The LSAT Trainer) and stick with that book. If you find you are not getting enough out of that particular book, then use a second book as a supplemental resource. For example, you use The LSAT Trainer as your primary and you just finished a section on Reading Comprehension. You still aren't clear on the concepts, so you go over to MLSAT's Reading Comprehension book to tie-up the loose ends.

Additionally, purchase the Cambridge bundles that give you LSAT exams 1-38 (Questions by Type), and 39-70 as full-length exams. You will use these for your vast amounts of drilling and Practice Testing. After you finish a section on a type of question or group of questions, then drill those questions repeatedly. You want to be sure you also get familiar with doing a lot of a variety question types, so do more than only question by type practice.

[Louis1127]

After waiting a long time, I am officially checking in. I am excited to go down this road with all of you. My materials are:

PS LGB
LSAT Trainer
Manhattan LG
Manhattan LR
PS LRB
Manhattan RC
Cambridge bundles by type for PTs 1-38
Full length PTs from 42-70 (or whatever the numbers are, some are unavailable, you know what I mean)

My plan is to be intense but not rush. If I am not ready by June, I'll take it in Oct, or Dec, or whenever I'm ready. But at the same time, I'm not going to go through these books 80 pages at a time. Rather, I am going to try and internalize the concepts, no matter how long it takes.

In drilling and PTing, my focus will be on review. I will use a version of the blind review with a focus on why each answer is correct or incorrect so that I hopefully learn. If review takes 8 hours, then review takes 8 hours- so what.

For the record, I took June 2007 as a diag and got around a 148. Silver lining: it was a totally cold diag and I felt like in all sections except RC I had literally no idea what I was doing. I think I may have even given up on the games section (took this about a year ago).

I quit my job at school to study for this test. I will have ample time to adequately prepare. This is the time. This is our summer football practice. This is when we put the inglorious, brutal work in so that we are able to hoist the trophy at the end of the season.

Let's go, friends.

[Straw_Mandible]

^ Great post. Welcome to the party!

So, friends: I was drilling RC last night while slowly finishing a bottle of red wine. I was scoring substantially better toward the bottom of the bottle than I did at the top. Did I make a profound breakthrough somewhere around glass #5, or should I consider drinking the morning of the LSAT? Discuss.

[O Captain My Captain]

Mike Ross, from Suits, takes the LSAT while high.

Do what you gotta do.

[Louis1127]

^ Great post. Welcome to the party!

So, friends: I was drilling RC last night while slowly finishing a bottle of red wine. I was scoring substantially better toward the bottom of the bottle than I did at the top. Did I make a profound breakthrough somewhere around glass #5, or should I consider drinking the morning of the LSAT? Discuss.

Lord knows that doesn't work for me lol

[10052014]

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[Gamecock15]

Hi everyone!

I'll be taking the June 2014 test. I'm not sure what country I'll be taking it in, but I'll be taking it!

I don't have any study materials (I'm waiting until I get to the states in a week to buy them), but I plan on starting over my Christmas break and then dedicating a few hours a week from there on out to studying until June.

For those of you who have started studying and will be studying over 5-6 months, how many hours per week do you spend working on the test?

I have a 3.9 GPA so my goal is a 175. Hoping that's attainable, but we shall see!

[AthenaKT]

Straw, I always find that I function better after a little wine. I used to be a professional pianist and I would always play better after a glass or two. I may need to add wine to my study plan...

[Louis1127]

Welcome Gamecock. I'm just starting studying, but I'm sure someone else will chime in that has been studying for a while.

And how is your drilling going JayLawyer? Getting alot of them right on your first shot? Are you doing them timed?

Put all my Cambridge bundles in binders yesterday. Probably won't get into the first book I'll go through, PS LGB, until next week due to family obligations today and this weekend.

[Tyr]

I have my last final on Tuesday. After that day, I will be able to kick my LSAT prep into high gear. I'm looking forward to spending a lot of time with The Trainer.

[10052014]

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[Straw_Mandible]

JL: Same here, as far as timing is concerned. Though, I'm not drilling as many questions daily as you are. The last couple weeks have been high stress/long hours at work, but my daily averages during the week have been around 10 games, 5 passages, and 30 LR questions--with review. On the weekends I do more. I've been trying to do a little bit of each section every day, so that I don't lose whatever progress I've made over the last few months. I feel most confident in LR, so I have just been drilling my weaknesses -- MBT, CBT, and MSS questions.

Recently finished with the ordering lessons in BPLG, and I'm almost done drilling Cambridge ordering games. I feel like it's going well! I've been circling the games which I need to come back and redo, and I will watch the 7sage videos and do the '10 times' strategy on the ones I have the most trouble with.

Any suggestions for amending/supplementing my current study habits?

[Straw_Mandible]

Straw, I always find that I function better after a little wine. I used to be a professional pianist and I would always play better after a glass or two. I may need to add wine to my study plan...

Athena -- I'm a pianist too! (Though certainly not a professional.) A bit of wine definitely gets the creativity flowing, I'm just very surprised to find that it also improved my RC game. I think what happened was that I felt more relaxed, and I was able to see the big picture/reasoning structure a bit more clearly. I wasn't getting bogged down in the details. Definitely a lesson to be learned there--even if it doesn't include drinking before the LSAT, lol.

[10052014]

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[Straw_Mandible]

JL: What you're doing seems solid to me. In the beginning, I was just working my way straight through the packets, from easy to hard. But now that I've been able to identify weaknesses in specific question types, I've been putting together sets of mostly L2/3/4, weighing more heavily on the difficult questions and focusing on my process and "good form" (to use Mike's language). As long as you plan on drilling all of them, I don't think it matters much what order you see them. Just be sure to keep tabs of the questions you're getting wrong to help you isolate weaknesses early on.

[Augy1]

Hey everyone! Which Cambridge Bundle would you recommend selecting? I am trying to decide between the Ultimate LSAT Prep Package and the Ultimate LSAT Prep Package Endurance Edition.

[Tyr]

Hey everyone! Which Cambridge Bundle would you recommend selecting? I am trying to decide between the Ultimate LSAT Prep Package and the Ultimate LSAT Prep Package Endurance Edition.

There may be disagreement on this one, but I don't think you need the endurance package. Just go with the Ultimate so you have 1-38 by type, and 39-70 as full length exams. That should be good. If you want 5 section exams, you can add that yourself.

[10052014]

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[Louis1127]

Hey everyone! Which Cambridge Bundle would you recommend selecting? I am trying to decide between the Ultimate LSAT Prep Package and the Ultimate LSAT Prep Package Endurance Edition.

There may be disagreement on this one, but I don't think you need the endurance package. Just go with the Ultimate so you have 1-38 by type, and 39-70 as full length exams. That should be good. If you want 5 section exams, you can add that yourself.

This is exactly what I am doing as well (or will start doing soon). I will go through books (PS, MLSAT, Trainer for different sections), drill the 1-38 bundle, then save PTs 39-70 for full-length PT to train for timing and endurance.

I have looked at this extensively on TLS and it seems like this is the TLS consensus.