The Official February 2015 Study Group Forum

[Shakawkaw]

Sfogs: think of the LOLSAT as a one night stand. Wear your sexiest lingerie and rock PT74.5's world.

I love this idea. It's my birthday next weekend, so I feel like giving good LSAT would be the perfect belated present to myself come March.

Insert joke about not choking.

You are my favorite human ITT. I love everything about that post.

[sfoglia]

(Even though he was the one being condescending to everyone who is retaking and/or sitting out the cycle.)

I'd do plenty of nasty things for a Hami, and waiting out a cycle is probably the least of them.

[NL2424]

..

[Rigo]

[Dr. Nefario]

In other news, the NHL all-star game is gonna be sick. hopefully

The NHL all star game, along with the Pro Bowl and the NBA all star game, has never been worth watching. I'm glad none of the Wings are participating.

Its just fun to watch. Especially when they used to mic up the goalies. Turco mic'd during the game may be the greatest thing ever.

[sfoglia]

it cant be your birthday weekend, its mine? How does that work?

We are Aquarians born within a few days (or maybe on the same day) as each other? Meant to be.

You are my favorite human ITT. I love everything about that post.

I just like you a lot and I'm very excited for us to grab a drink after I finish the test! We'll have to compare schedules soon.

[JackelJ]

so, what did everyone do today to study? I haven't done anything so make me feel guilty haha. maybe it'll motivate me to drill

[ilikebaseball]

it cant be your birthday weekend, its mine? How does that work?

We are Aquarians born within a few days (or maybe on the same day) as each other? Meant to be.

...february.......

[Dr. Nefario]

You are my favorite human ITT. I love everything about that post.

I just like you a lot and I'm very excited for us to grab a drink after I finish the test! We'll have to compare schedules soon.

http://youtu.be/Ngccj6Rt4tc

[Rigo]

[leslieknope]

so, what did everyone do today to study? I haven't done anything so make me feel guilty haha. maybe it'll motivate me to drill

BR'd half of yesterday's PT. I keep BRing like half a section and then getting up to do other things because BRing is as boring as it is useful. Planning on finishing this and then drilling RC, reviewing LR, and drilling LR (AMBITION. I will probably do one of these). Motivation is hard.

[nlee10]

so, what did everyone do today to study? I haven't done anything so make me feel guilty haha. maybe it'll motivate me to drill

Not much at all. Reviewed some LR for like an hour using Velocity in the morning and just got back from church...Meeting up with family to eat some more today. I like to think Sundays as a rest day from everything, including the gym. Will be back at it tomorrow morning.

[CambrianExplosives]

Okay, does anyone have any advice on RC? I'm good with getting the main points/purpose of the sections and reading the author's tone, but for some reason I mess up a lot more than I should on the "what would the author most likely agree on?" questions. I think I'm missing subtle clues on these passages, but right now I'm only squeezing in with a minute or so to go by the end of a section and can't slow down my reading unless I make it up somewhere else.

[Dr. Nefario]

I'd do plenty for your score rigo.

[CambrianExplosives]

so, what did everyone do today to study? I haven't done anything so make me feel guilty haha. maybe it'll motivate me to drill

2 RC sections from older PTs. Not a ton, honestly so far, but I might try some more after dinner tonight. RC is making me pull my hair out though.

[Shakawkaw]

Baseball - what did I just watch?

Also, Jackel <3

[ilikebaseball]

[Rigo]

[Rigo]

[Shakawkaw]

[leslieknope]

Okay, does anyone have any advice on RC? I'm good with getting the main points/purpose of the sections and reading the author's tone, but for some reason I mess up a lot more than I should on the "what would the author most likely agree on?" questions. I think I'm missing subtle clues on these passages, but right now I'm only squeezing in with a minute or so to go by the end of a section and can't slow down my reading unless I make it up somewhere else.

Disclaimer: RC is my worst section. But what's helped me a lot is actively looking for words where the author may be revealing his opinion and putting a star directly on them, then noting in my head what he's thinking. For example when a passage says "Some critics say that this author discounts narrative experiences of blah blah blah. Unfortunately, these critics fail to take into account blah blah blah." When you see that "unfortunately," there's basically no reason for it to be there aside from the author stating his opinion that the critics are dumb. I've also found that using the same approach as I do for sufficient assumption questions where I can't pick an AC- inserting the AC into the argument and seeing if it works are not- works sometimes for this too. For example, if an AC is like "the author is distrusting of the new research." I'll try out a statement like "the research is not trustworthy" in the relevant part of the passage and see if it works.

[CambrianExplosives]

Okay, does anyone have any advice on RC? I'm good with getting the main points/purpose of the sections and reading the author's tone, but for some reason I mess up a lot more than I should on the "what would the author most likely agree on?" questions. I think I'm missing subtle clues on these passages, but right now I'm only squeezing in with a minute or so to go by the end of a section and can't slow down my reading unless I make it up somewhere else.

Well a lot of these types of questions are actually directly tied to the main point usually.
Sometimes they involve inferences made from sub-points and can be a bit trickier, but maybe you aren't fully grasping the main point if you're missing these.
Generally the main point is a proxy for the author's point of view. There are definitely subtle cues within the passage to look for though. Normally there's one sentence that really tips you off to the author's point of view. Maybe you're missing that.
Sorry if this was vague and unhelpful. RC is tough to coach on.

I tend to miss the sentences more often than the main point, but I don't know how to improve on keeping those sentences in my head. For example, I was just doing a section where the answer seemed perfectly reasonable, and even seemed to be supported in a paragraph, but was wrong. When I looked for why it was wrong it seems like there was one sentence that should have tipped me off, even though its not mentioned anywhere else.

And, yeah, RC is a pain to learn and I have no doubt its just as hard to teach. So far the Manhattan book for it hasn't gotten me a lot, even though their LR one was great.

[JackelJ]

Also, Jackel <3

<3 I'm happy you're retaking it in June and not Feb for selfish reasons

[CambrianExplosives]

Okay, does anyone have any advice on RC? I'm good with getting the main points/purpose of the sections and reading the author's tone, but for some reason I mess up a lot more than I should on the "what would the author most likely agree on?" questions. I think I'm missing subtle clues on these passages, but right now I'm only squeezing in with a minute or so to go by the end of a section and can't slow down my reading unless I make it up somewhere else.

Disclaimer: RC is my worst section. But what's helped me a lot is actively looking for words where the author may be revealing his opinion and putting a star directly on them, then noting in my head what he's thinking. For example when a passage says "Some critics say that this author discounts narrative experiences of blah blah blah. Unfortunately, these critics fail to take into account blah blah blah." When you see that "unfortunately," there's basically no reason for it to be there aside from the author stating his opinion that the critics are dumb. I've also found that using the same approach as I do for sufficient assumption questions where I can't pick an AC- inserting the AC into the argument and seeing if it works are not- works sometimes for this too. For example, if an AC is like "the author is distrusting of the new research." I'll try out a statement like "the research is not trustworthy" in the relevant part of the passage and see if it works.

Are you able to translate that into figuring out what they would most likely agree with though? It seems like usually I can pinpoint their feelings about a group or subject ("What's the author's attitude towards...") by doing this, but when it then asks me to infer on another subject I screw up without something in the passage to anchor my answer.

I used to have trouble with the attitude questions as well so it probably is related to that problem to some extent. I'll definitely try and keep an eye towards those types of wording though.

[Rigo]