December 2013 LSAT Study Group Forum

[alpha kenny body]

Just received the Newest Ten Preptests with Comparative Passages in the mail from Amazon. It's getting real as fuck. I am starting fully timed preptests next week. We're getting close as hell. Almost too close.

[riku33090]

Just finished the Necessary Assumption Drill Lv1 Difficulty questions, got 68/78. Most mistakes are due to not being careful but good thing i was able to correct my mistakes.

68/78 - that's awesome!

Are these the Cambridge drills?

I need to work on SA/NA questions.

Yea they are 68/78 is bad considering they are just lv1 difficulty questions

[HeavenBeyond]

Just finished the Necessary Assumption Drill Lv1 Difficulty questions, got 68/78. Most mistakes are due to not being careful but good thing i was able to correct my mistakes.

68/78 - that's awesome!

Are these the Cambridge drills?

I need to work on SA/NA questions.

Yea they are 68/78 is bad considering they are just lv1 difficulty questions

It's a start though

[vicpin5190]

Just scored my first perfect score in logic games. PT 53. Did the first 2 in 10 minutes, #3 in 8:30 and the last in 6. Seems like it was a very easy section, but it's good confirmation that my base is solid here. Gonna move on to some more LSAT trainer and then drill.

[dasani13]

Here's the link Brian was talking about:

http://www.manhattanlsat.com/zen-and-the-art.cfm

[HeavenBeyond]

Here's the link Brian was talking about:

http://www.manhattanlsat.com/zen-and-the-art.cfm

Thanks for posting this up!

[tanes25]

I just started RC and I already have a headache. I'm not even sure what can be done to improve on the section. I know how to read, duh! Lol But no really. I guess you have to be more conscious of referential phrases, switch in viewpoints, keeping track of which viewpoint belongs to who, determining each persons conclusion/MP, etc. Time is definitely going to be an issue for me I can already see it. To those who have been taking PT have you been finishing the entire RC section?

I'm not finishing on time yet but I drilled RC for the past 2 days (a total of 18 passages) and I have already seen improvement.

Oh wow! That's encourgaing!

[cookiecrisp]

Just finished the Necessary Assumption Drill Lv1 Difficulty questions, got 68/78. Most mistakes are due to not being careful but good thing i was able to correct my mistakes.

What book is this from?

[vicpin5190]

Just finished the Necessary Assumption Drill Lv1 Difficulty questions, got 68/78. Most mistakes are due to not being careful but good thing i was able to correct my mistakes.

What book is this from?

Cambridge LSAT. Essentially they take all the specific problem types from PT 1 thru 38 and compile them in order of difficulty. Pretty nifty if you have a specific problem type that is bother you

Still going through the LSAT trainer on my end. Reading the question first seems to help some, but i'm definitely looking at improving my phrasing of the flaw. I did Chapter 20's problem set (which was PT30) and came away with all correct which was nice, so thats an improvement from last time I did PT30 problems.

Game plan tonight (need to keep myself accountable):

More Trainer Chapters
Drill Principle questions difficulty level 2/3
Timed RC section

Time to start getting super serial.

[canuckofchicago]

Hey ManoftheHour.

I am almost in the same boat, but I am prepping for the third time. Many of past follies are similar to yours, plus I am taking a course from Manhatthan to supplement my learnings from their books.

My question is how are you getting a large quanitity of practice questions of the same type (ie. Assumption), because I want to follow your example and just drill and drill.

Any answers or advice would be awesome.

Thanks,
Richard

PTing 168-171 right now. Although, I'm taking a step back to drill questions by type.

Some of my past LSAT follies include:

-Not drilling. I literally didn't know what drilling was until one month before my 3rd LSAT. By then it was too late.
-Not always doing an experimental section when PTing. Stamina was definitely an issue.


Now that I'm actually reading Manhattan one chapter at a time and drilling 200 problems of the same type that correspond to the chapter, I am actually learning the strategies for the first time. Going to be doing that for this entire month until I finish both Manhattan LG/LR books and the Cambridge series.

After that, it's 3 months of PTs and RC.

I hope no one makes the same mistakes as I did. Not going to lie. I felt really confident about the last exam only to find out that I sucked. I finally reviewed my exam and discovered that I made a bunch of dumb LR errors on (such as on the sufficient/necessary assumption questions). I read all fast, understood the stimulus, read the stem, then forgot about the stem (and thus forgot what exactly I was looking for) because I already "had an answer in mind" and then chose a necessary assumption correct answer for a sufficient assumption question (and vice versa). Dumb dumb errors. Got too cocky and lost my focus.

After rereading Manhattan and doing 300+ questions on just those types, I don't think I'll ever miss another one again.

Took me three exams to learn but I am thankful enough for how things turned out in my life this past year to allow me to take one more shot at LSAT glory.

Any other retakers in here? If so, what'd you guys learn from the past exams?

[Hotguy]

^Cambridge or PS packets?

[cookiecrisp]

Question for all ya'll. Like anyone with good sense on TLS, I'm trying to break the 170 barrier on test day.

Two weeks ago I took my first diagnostic and scored a 159. I'm taking my first timed 5 section exam, probably PT 62, on Saturday. My plan is to do 5 section timed tests of all the most recent exams every saturday from now till the week before test day.

My question is at what point of me not hitting that number (170+) in timed PTs is it evident I won't be ready to do so on test day? I ask because I WILL NOT be able to take in February as I will be in Malaysia which does not administer the Feb. test. I'd have to wait until June, making a lot of my current prep worthless (unless I start to hit that number). Now it should be stated I am doing work, getting through the bibles, and drilling. I also am feeling more and more confident with my performance. I'm now hitting only -3 or -4 on LG, mostly reading mistakes, and -3 or -2 on LR compared to a lot more before.

[Hotguy]

Question for all ya'll. Like anyone with good sense on TLS, I'm trying to break the 170 barrier on test day.

Two weeks ago I took my first diagnostic and scored a 159. I'm taking my first timed 5 section exam, probably PT 62, on Saturday. My plan is to do 5 section timed tests of all the most recent exams every saturday from now till the week before test day.

My question is at what point of me not hitting that number (170+) in timed PTs is it evident I won't be ready to do so on test day? I ask because I WILL NOT be able to take in February as I will be in Malaysia which does not administer the Feb. test. I'd have to wait until June, making a lot of my current prep worthless (unless I start to hit that number). Now it should be stated I am doing work, getting through the bibles, and drilling. I also am feeling more and more confident with my performance. I'm now hitting only -3 or -4 on LG, mostly reading mistakes, and -3 or -2 on LR compared to a lot more before.

Test day... You can never know unless you're scoring like 150, it ain't happening. You should be seeing a good sample around 2 weeks prior to the test tho

[cookiecrisp]

Question for all ya'll. Like anyone with good sense on TLS, I'm trying to break the 170 barrier on test day.

Two weeks ago I took my first diagnostic and scored a 159. I'm taking my first timed 5 section exam, probably PT 62, on Saturday. My plan is to do 5 section timed tests of all the most recent exams every saturday from now till the week before test day.

My question is at what point of me not hitting that number (170+) in timed PTs is it evident I won't be ready to do so on test day? I ask because I WILL NOT be able to take in February as I will be in Malaysia which does not administer the Feb. test. I'd have to wait until June, making a lot of my current prep worthless (unless I start to hit that number). Now it should be stated I am doing work, getting through the bibles, and drilling. I also am feeling more and more confident with my performance. I'm now hitting only -3 or -4 on LG, mostly reading mistakes, and -3 or -2 on LR compared to a lot more before.

Test day... You can never know unless you're scoring like 150, it ain't happening. You should be seeing a good sample around 2 weeks prior to the test tho

Do you think it will hurt me that much if I take it, don't score where I want, and re up and retake in June after prepping from like March? I don't have great memory when it comes to these questions so honestly I forget a lot of the material.

[jk148706]

Question for all ya'll. Like anyone with good sense on TLS, I'm trying to break the 170 barrier on test day.

Two weeks ago I took my first diagnostic and scored a 159. I'm taking my first timed 5 section exam, probably PT 62, on Saturday. My plan is to do 5 section timed tests of all the most recent exams every saturday from now till the week before test day.

My question is at what point of me not hitting that number (170+) in timed PTs is it evident I won't be ready to do so on test day? I ask because I WILL NOT be able to take in February as I will be in Malaysia which does not administer the Feb. test. I'd have to wait until June, making a lot of my current prep worthless (unless I start to hit that number). Now it should be stated I am doing work, getting through the bibles, and drilling. I also am feeling more and more confident with my performance. I'm now hitting only -3 or -4 on LG, mostly reading mistakes, and -3 or -2 on LR compared to a lot more before.

Test day... You can never know unless you're scoring like 150, it ain't happening. You should be seeing a good sample around 2 weeks prior to the test tho

Do you think it will hurt me that much if I take it, don't score where I want, and re up and retake in June after prepping from like March? I don't have great memory when it comes to these questions so honestly I forget a lot of the material.

If you want to hit 170, you need to do a lot more than one PT per week. Most people here do at least 3-4 per week, and some posters do a PT every day (with extensive review).

[cookiecrisp]

Question for all ya'll. Like anyone with good sense on TLS, I'm trying to break the 170 barrier on test day.

Two weeks ago I took my first diagnostic and scored a 159. I'm taking my first timed 5 section exam, probably PT 62, on Saturday. My plan is to do 5 section timed tests of all the most recent exams every saturday from now till the week before test day.

My question is at what point of me not hitting that number (170+) in timed PTs is it evident I won't be ready to do so on test day? I ask because I WILL NOT be able to take in February as I will be in Malaysia which does not administer the Feb. test. I'd have to wait until June, making a lot of my current prep worthless (unless I start to hit that number). Now it should be stated I am doing work, getting through the bibles, and drilling. I also am feeling more and more confident with my performance. I'm now hitting only -3 or -4 on LG, mostly reading mistakes, and -3 or -2 on LR compared to a lot more before.

Test day... You can never know unless you're scoring like 150, it ain't happening. You should be seeing a good sample around 2 weeks prior to the test tho

Do you think it will hurt me that much if I take it, don't score where I want, and re up and retake in June after prepping from like March? I don't have great memory when it comes to these questions so honestly I forget a lot of the material.

If you want to hit 170, you need to do a lot more than one PT per week. Most people here do at least 3-4 per week, and some posters do a PT every day (with extensive review).

Ok should I also do timed PTs on Sundays and every other Friday? I work full time it is kind of daunting.

[Hotguy]

Some do everyday, some don't. It all comes down to quality and improvement not just quantity. One can improve without needing to take pt every two days. It just depends on you.

[jk148706]

Some do everyday, some don't. It all comes down to quality and improvement not just quantity. One can improve without needing to take pt every two days. It just depends on you.

Quality> Quantity is definitely true. But I've never heard of someone going from a 159 to 170 after taking just five or six PTs. Maybe it's possible, but I think your odds of scoring higher are better if you expose yourself to the test more.

[cookiecrisp]

Question on PT 20, section 4 question 10.

Narrowed it down to A and C.

Why not A?

[Hotguy]

Some do everyday, some don't. It all comes down to quality and improvement not just quantity. One can improve without needing to take pt every two days. It just depends on you.

Quality> Quantity is definitely true. But I've never heard of someone going from a 159 to 170 after taking just five or six PTs. Maybe it's possible, but I think your odds of scoring higher are better if you expose yourself to the test more.

I definitely agree with you. And I think the more you expose yourself to the test the better. That said, I do know a guy that started from 152 in two months to 172 in 5 pts, each with an increasing score irl.

[Hotguy]

Question on PT 20, section 4 question 10.

Narrowed it down to A and C.

Why not A?

Eating. Will check in a bit.

[062914123]

.

[vicpin5190]

Some do everyday, some don't. It all comes down to quality and improvement not just quantity. One can improve without needing to take pt every two days. It just depends on you.

Quality> Quantity is definitely true. But I've never heard of someone going from a 159 to 170 after taking just five or six PTs. Maybe it's possible, but I think your odds of scoring higher are better if you expose yourself to the test more.

I definitely agree with you. And I think the more you expose yourself to the test the better. That said, I do know a guy that started from 152 in two months to 172 in 5 pts, each with an increasing score irl.

i went from 157 (diag) to 170/171 within 5 PTs when i was doing blueprint.

however, to get from 170 to 175+, i did ~20 PTs. it's "easy" to improve when you're still learning the fundamentals, and you should be seeing your score increase in leaps and bounds, but when you really want to refine your strategies and push that extra couple of points, every single fraction of a point is equivalent to long, long hours of work. i'd say the amount of work i put in jumping from 157 to 170 is the same amount of work i did to get from 170 to 172, and then 172 to 173, etc. if an upper 170s score is what you want, i'd suggest plenty of PTs. i do 3/week and work full time, 9 to 5:30. it's hard, but doable.

i started at 148 myself, scoring 13 or so off on each section basically. Now about less than 2 months of prepping in i've gotten my LGs down to -0/-1 on average, and the other sections are improving a lot but i'm trying to break through that next wall for LR/RC. I'm still not at the 170-175 range I'm hoping to be at quite yet, but I am seeing that exposure to questions has enabled me to get better at tackling similar questions/question types. With 2 more months i'm feeling better about hitting my goal but it definitely has taken way more than a few PTs to get there. I'm going to start doing extensive PTing come october, but its good to have a month or two to lay down the foundations first.

[Hotguy]

Bee is a good example/model/motivation for some of you. She works full-time and still has the time to do lots of prep. It can be done.

[Hotguy]

Question on PT 20, section 4 question 10.

Narrowed it down to A and C.

Why not A?

Think to yourself what we know about the quality of the copy?Nothing.