The Official February 2015 Study Group Forum

[PeanutsNJam]

Worrying about the experimental just fucks with you. Take the test as if all 5 sections are graded seriously, and if you want a 180, you'd best damn well get every question right. When you do 5 section PTs, the section you did the best on was your experimental.

[ilikebaseball]

Tellin you, nothing helped my RC timing more than setting my watch to 25 and completed 3 passages by then. That's the most innovative I've gotten...unfortunately

and dont worry about the exp. it'll be your 2nd or 3rd section, but if you get them all right that's irrelevant!

[Big Red]

I remember I had a really easy LG right before the break in Sept, and I came back and got the real LG which was substantially harder. It threw me a bit and I lost some focus in the last 2 sections which might have cost me a couple of points.

I think the lesson is to wipe a section as soon as you take it - definitely don't spend the entire break thinking about what score you might get

[NL2424]

..

[Dr. Nefario]

I love experimental reading. LR is my dreads experimental. LG I'm okay with but my sept experimental was LG and it was so much easier than the real LG so it threw me off.

ETA: I've never struggled with finishing RC in time. I always have give min to review answers.

[nlee10]

I love experimental reading. LR is my dreads experimental. LG I'm okay with but my sept experimental was LG and it was so much easier than the real LG so it threw me off.

ETA: I've never struggled with finishing RC in time. I always have give min to review answers.

Jealous.

[Smallville]

Whatever. I hate RC.

in 18 days!

Why do I have this uneasy feeling that I'm going to get RC as my exp?

Why do I have this uneasy feeling that I'm going to get RC as my exp?

Should not matter, nlee. You'll have mastery of every section come February. No exp. section should faze you.

[Shakawkaw]

Very substantive poast, Clark Kent. *heart eyes emoji*

[ilikebaseball]

I hope I have LG as my exp. It'll sorta get me warmed up. I don't feel like its as beneficial for the other two, but its always nice to get warmed up to thinking that fast for LG. Plus, I find LG to be the least mentally taxing of the 3.

[Smallville]

Very substantive poast, Clark Kent. *heart eyes emoji*

<3

I hope I have LG as my exp. It'll sorta get me warmed up. I don't feel like its as beneficial for the other two, but its always nice to get warmed up to thinking that fast for LG. Plus, I find LG to be the least mentally taxing of the 3.

assuming it is before everything and not after

[ilikebaseball]

Very substantive poast, Clark Kent. *heart eyes emoji*

<3

I hope I have LG as my exp. It'll sorta get me warmed up. I don't feel like its as beneficial for the other two, but its always nice to get warmed up to thinking that fast for LG. Plus, I find LG to be the least mentally taxing of the 3.

assuming it is before everything and not after

That would most likely be the case, lol. Usually exp is 2 or 3 and the real one is 4 or 5. That's how its been in both of my real tests and in all of the 5 section PTs I have bought its similar

[leslieknope]

I had an LG experimental, which was third, with the real LG being the first section. I was so sad when I found out the experimental one was real because I'm almost sure I went -0 on it, whereas the real LG was... the opposite of that. I think all the wondering about which one was the real one and which one the experimental definitely threw me off after the break, too, which is why thinking about what's the experimental and what isn't is a terrible idea.

To PT or not to PT today... it's been a week since my last one but I'm still not done with Manhattan LR. No time to PT tomorrow, so if it's not today it'll be Thursday. Choices.

[Smallville]

.......

ur 'tar... bleh

I had an LG experimental, which was third, with the real LG being the first section. I was so sad when I found out the experimental one was real because I'm almost sure I went -0 on it, whereas the real LG was... the opposite of that. I think all the wondering about which one was the real one and which one the experimental definitely threw me off after the break, too, which is why thinking about what's the experimental and what isn't is a terrible idea.

To PT or not to PT today... it's been a week since my last one but I'm still not done with Manhattan LR. No time to PT tomorrow, so if it's not today it'll be Thursday. Choices.

Are you drilling as you're reading? do you feel like it is really helping you this late in the game?

[NL2424]

..

[m27]

When I took the September and December 14 exams, both of my section 3s were the experimental (both RC, of course). Weird. But from what I've seen, most if not all of the time the experimental section is given within the first 3 sections. Interestingly, I discovered that the third section of the September exam (RC), compared to my first section of RC, was the experimental because it had a completely foreign question type. It was like "Where in the passage can this be inferred? / (a) paragraph 1 (b) paragraph 2 (c) paragraph 3, etc." At that point I slacked off a little :

I'm praying for a LG experimental in February, since I think it's the easiest and less-draining section. An exp. LR would be grueling.

Plan for today: Chipotle, LR + RC sections for dayz

[Rigo]

[peppermint]

.

[Shakawkaw]

When I took the September and December 14 exams, both of my section 3s were the experimental (both RC, of course). Weird. But from what I've seen, most if not all of the time the experimental section is given within the first 3 sections. Interestingly, I discovered that the third section of the September exam (RC), compared to my first section of RC, was the experimental because it had a completely foreign question type. It was like "Where in the passage can this be inferred? / (a) paragraph 1 (b) paragraph 2 (c) paragraph 3, etc." At that point I slacked off a little :

I'm praying for a LG experimental in February, since I think it's the easiest and less-draining section. An exp. LR would be grueling.

Plan for today: Chipotle, LR + RC sections for dayz

Omg, you are also a fellow 3rd timer? *heart eyes emoji*

Also zacbro, cutting corners is not a good idea...Take the 5 sections. Stop slacking off. Sleep can wait. And your body will get used to missing the extra 35 minutes. You'll be waking up at around 6am for test day anyway. This is coming from personal experience where I gave myself shortcuts for Sept. thinking the extra 35 minutes wouldn't matter performance wise. Nope. Test day came and it was a marathon. My brain was exhausted by the middle of section 3.

On the weekends, instead of doing a writing sample, you're better off not doing that and doing an extra section or just using that 35 minutes towards BR.

[leslieknope]

Are you drilling as you're reading? do you feel like it is really helping you this late in the game?

Yeah, drilling as I'm reading and doing RC and LG drilling when I'm done with LR for the day. I really feel like it's helping, since I never read it before my first take and I've definitely noticed things wrong with my approach. But I really should go back to PTing, since all the tweaking in the world isn't going to help if I can't, you know, apply it under timed conditions.

To PT or not to PT today... it's been a week since my last one but I'm still not done with Manhattan LR. No time to PT tomorrow, so if it's not today it'll be Thursday. Choices.

If you PT today, you can reward yourself with the new episode of the Flash tonight

Incredibly valid point!

[Dr. Nefario]

To PT or not to PT today... it's been a week since my last one but I'm still not done with Manhattan LR. No time to PT tomorrow, so if it's not today it'll be Thursday. Choices.

If you PT today, you can reward yourself with the new episode of the Flash tonight

S'excited for the flash

[peppermint]

.

[peppermint]

.

[Rigo]

[Smallville]

To PT or not to PT today... it's been a week since my last one but I'm still not done with Manhattan LR. No time to PT tomorrow, so if it's not today it'll be Thursday. Choices.

If you PT today, you can reward yourself with the new episode of the Flash tonight

S'excited for the flash

eh more excited for Arrow... Flash is good but hasnt grabbed my attention enough to be excited for it to be back

Rigo, you got a new tar! I almost didn't recognize you, haha. I was about to welcome the newbie & then I looked closer & was like... wait, that's not a newbie, that's Rigo

Yeah I need to settle on something different than this garbage. I'll probably circle back to caterpillar.
This retake is giving me a quarter-LSATLIFE crisis.

[JazzyMac]

Just sending a last shout out. I've decided to push my February LSAT testing to June.

Also, a quick story that may be of some help/inspiration/humor to you all.

I purchased all of my study material in January/February 2014. Yes, almost a year ago.

I began studying January 2015. Yes, almost a year later. I did peruse through about 11 Chapters of the LSAT Trainer throughout 2014, but never really sat down and concentrated.

In January, when I had the excellent-est idea to cram for the February test, I got to about Chapter 14 of the Trainer before just deciding to open the Powerscore LSAT Games Bible. I was getting too psyched out during my study sessions, and the Trainer wasn't moving fast enough for me. Didn't the Trainer KNOW I was testing in 31 DAYS????!!!!

I began reading through the Bible and seeing similar concepts (translated differently) that I saw in the Trainer. Still spazzing, I let distractions get to me and started Googling, "Ace the LSAT in 30 days" and other similar search criterion. One of the links bounced me to 7Sage and the LSAT Blog (I'd visited both previously). This is how desperate I was. I was waking up in the middle of the night saying to myself, "Why are you sleeping? You need to study!" Don't be this guy------------>me.

I finally had a small breakthrough. I was able to ace quite a few of the games. Only thing is, it was taking me 15 minutes or more to complete just one game. This is when I realized that even *I* could do well in this test. After finally cracking open the books and concentrating, I've come to terms with how learnable this test is...and now it's a competition against myself to get the highest score possible. That's when I decided to postpone the date.

Best of luck to you all testing in February.