December LSAT Study Diary (formerly October) Forum

[AverageTutoring]

My Sept 2009 LSAT score doesnt exactly make me an authority to give out LSAT prep advice, but Ill do so anyway. Refrain from doing 5 sections. Its worthless in my opinion. I know people say that it builds up your stamina/endurance, but I dont agree. I think doing 4 sections back to back to back to back with no breaks in between sections, other than a few seconds to catch your breath, is much more helpful. We get a break after section 3 on the actual LSAT and then come back to do 2 sections. Even with the 3 at the beginning, youre still doing one less section than you would normally do by doing 4 at a time. Also, that 15 minute break is incredibly helpful and theres no doubt that you go back into the testing room with a second wind.

I also find doing 5 sections to be a distraction. You know which section is "experimental" so you might not try hard enough. You might also rush through it in an effort to tabulate your results from the previous 4 "scored" sections.

Just my opinion. Whatever works for anyone is is fine.

Endurence is not the only reason to use five sections. The break fucks with your head and it's good to simualte that environment.

[gdane]

My Sept 2009 LSAT score doesnt exactly make me an authority to give out LSAT prep advice, but Ill do so anyway. Refrain from doing 5 sections. Its worthless in my opinion. I know people say that it builds up your stamina/endurance, but I dont agree. I think doing 4 sections back to back to back to back with no breaks in between sections, other than a few seconds to catch your breath, is much more helpful. We get a break after section 3 on the actual LSAT and then come back to do 2 sections. Even with the 3 at the beginning, youre still doing one less section than you would normally do by doing 4 at a time. Also, that 15 minute break is incredibly helpful and theres no doubt that you go back into the testing room with a second wind.

I also find doing 5 sections to be a distraction. You know which section is "experimental" so you might not try hard enough. You might also rush through it in an effort to tabulate your results from the previous 4 "scored" sections.

Just my opinion. Whatever works for anyone is is fine.

Endurence is not the only reason to use five sections. The break fucks with your head and it's good to simualte that environment.

Fair enough, but most people on here do a 5th section because they believe it will help them with stamina/endurance.

[Anaconda]

PT 42

Just took PT 42.

Some thoughts:
-I felt GREAT today. Woke up really early, felt energetic had a light breakfast (granola bars, crackers) and a coffee.

-I probably destroyed LG, but looking back I forgot to try one problem. Grrrr. I should get a -1 or -2, did pretty well here and it helped I finished the first two games in 10 minutes.
-On LR1 I finished about 4 minutes early (keeping in mind I circled instead of using the bubble sheet). Felt REALLY confident on this section.
-RC was hard. Found it a little hard to get through some of them. Lots of guesses were educated guesses as alot of them weren't "obvious" answers.
-LR2 was kind of tricky, especially towards the end. I finished the first 19 questions in 20 minutes! I literally had 16 minutes for the last few, and I basically took my sweet time to finish. I could have easily have finished 6 minutes early had I wanted to.
-Lots of LR answers popped out, especially necessary assumption questions. Lots of questions towards the end seemed easy, which is a great sign.

Also, this was a 4 section test (not enough time on school days to do 5 sections).

Also, I couldn't resist peeking at some the answers since I felt so good taking this (exception being RC). Let's just say based on the answers I checked, I'd be SHOCKED if this wasn't A) My best LR score yet and B) My best overall score yet. I think this one might be a 165+ especially with the decent curve. I think I might have hit this one out of the park. It's amazing what feeling good physically and mentally can do.

Really excited to retake this later tonight and grade it.

[Gemini]

PT 42

Just took PT 42.

Some thoughts:
-I felt GREAT today. Woke up really early, felt energetic had a light breakfast (granola bars, crackers) and a coffee.

-I probably destroyed LG, but looking back I forgot to try one problem. Grrrr. I should get a -1 or -2, did pretty well here and it helped I finished the first two games in 10 minutes.
-On LR1 I finished about 4 minutes early (keeping in mind I circled instead of using the bubble sheet). Felt REALLY confident on this section.
-RC was hard. Found it a little hard to get through some of them. Lots of guesses were educated guesses as alot of them weren't "obvious" answers.
-LR2 was kind of tricky, especially towards the end. I finished the first 19 questions in 20 minutes! I literally had 16 minutes for the last few, and I basically took my sweet time to finish. I could have easily have finished 6 minutes early had I wanted to.
-Lots of LR answers popped out, especially necessary assumption questions. Lots of questions towards the end seemed easy, which is a great sign.

Also, this was a 4 section test (not enough time on school days to do 5 sections).

Also, I couldn't resist peeking at some the answers since I felt so good taking this (exception being RC). Let's just say based on the answers I checked, I'd be SHOCKED if this wasn't A) My best LR score yet and B) My best overall score yet. I think this one might be a 165+ especially with the decent curve. I think I might have hit this one out of the park. It's amazing what feeling good physically and mentally can do.

Really excited to retake this later tonight and grade it.

[gdane]

Anaconda, could you please explain to me why you dont just grade the test after you take it? Im not sure I understand your pattern. You take a timed test, dont grade it and then take the same test untimed later on in the day?

Thanks!

[Gemini]

Anaconda, could you please explain to me why you dont just grade the test after you take it? Im not sure I understand your pattern. You take a timed test, dont grade it and then take the same test untimed later on in the day?

Thanks!

He's doing the famed SOS method. I do it, too.

Basically, you go through the test timed, then without looking at the answers, you go back and do it again, this time taking your time. I think it shows your potential in how you can score. You get a question right that you got wrong timed; you learn from those mistakes and learn how to do them faster; you start recognizing patterns; you get more use out of each test. And you REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW the questions that you got wrong TWICE.

I'm a big fan of this method and I believe it has helped my score move into the 170's, where I have never been before prior to the method. It would be a logical fallacy for my to say its the ONLY cause. There may be something else at play, too. But I do feel this method has helped me.

[gdane]

Anaconda, could you please explain to me why you dont just grade the test after you take it? Im not sure I understand your pattern. You take a timed test, dont grade it and then take the same test untimed later on in the day?

Thanks!

He's doing the famed SOS method. I do it, too.

Basically, you go through the test timed, then without looking at the answers, you go back and do it again, this time taking your time. I think it shows your potential in how you can score. You get a question right that you got wrong timed; you learn from those mistakes and learn how to do them faster; you start recognizing patterns; you get more use out of each test. And you REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW the questions that you got wrong TWICE.

I'm a big fan of this method and I believe it has helped my score move into the 170's, where I have never been before prior to the method. It would be a logical fallacy for my to say its the ONLY cause. There may be something else at play, too. But I do feel this method has helped me.

It sounds cute, but F that! I personally dont have the willpower to take a test and then refrain from checking my answers. For me personally this would be a waste of time because all I'd want to do is check my answers, not retake the same test.

If it works, thats all good. Anaconda seems to be benefiting from this method and so did you Gem.

[Anaconda]

Anaconda, could you please explain to me why you dont just grade the test after you take it? Im not sure I understand your pattern. You take a timed test, dont grade it and then take the same test untimed later on in the day?

Thanks!

He's doing the famed SOS method. I do it, too.

Basically, you go through the test timed, then without looking at the answers, you go back and do it again, this time taking your time. I think it shows your potential in how you can score. You get a question right that you got wrong timed; you learn from those mistakes and learn how to do them faster; you start recognizing patterns; you get more use out of each test. And you REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW the questions that you got wrong TWICE.

I'm a big fan of this method and I believe it has helped my score move into the 170's, where I have never been before prior to the method. It would be a logical fallacy for my to say its the ONLY cause. There may be something else at play, too. But I do feel this method has helped me.

It sounds cute, but F that! I personally dont have the willpower to take a test and then refrain from checking my answers. For me personally this would be a waste of time because all I'd want to do is check my answers, not retake the same test.

If it works, thats all good. Anaconda seems to be benefiting from this method and so did you Gem.

Haha, it seriously takes A LOT of willpower to resist. I definitely cheated by looking up some answers today, but I try to refrain from actually cheating and looking at the answers. It's definitely more tempting to grade if you think you did poorly on the PT.

I feel like the benefit of blindly retaking the PT is worth it though, even though I haven't seen much improvement yet (maybe because I haven't been strict enough).

You basically get double the practice and double the review, which is really nice.

[Sandro]

im going to try this method on some of my PTs in the future.

[Anaconda]

PT 42 Results

LG: -3
LR: -6
RC: -4 (WTF? Thought I did terribly on it)
LR: -1 (WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! My best LR section before this was a -4!)

Raw: 87
Score: 168 (Holy cow!)

Here's the kicker: On the -6 LR section I got 5 out of the first 11 questions wrong. Yup....

[Sh@keNb@ke]

PT 42 Results

LG: -3
LR: -6
RC: -4 (WTF? Thought I did terribly on it)
LR: -1 (WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! My best LR section before this was a -4!)

Raw: 87
Score: 168 (Holy cow!)

Here's the kicker: On the -6 LR section I got 5 out of the first 11 questions wrong. Yup....

Wow congrats. And it was just the other week you were thinking about throwing in the towel. Keep up the good work!

[Gemini]

Big congratulations to you!

You kept it up and it earned you an excellent score! Yayy!

[gdane]

That's great. Youve made me super excited to take my second PT tomorrow! Well, I was already excited, but more so now. I want to hit 160+.

Getting 5 of the first 11 questions wrong sucks. Was it carelessness? Were the questions difficult? Were you too cocky ie: chose an answer without looking at the other choices?

Still, this is great!

[yzero1]

PT 42 Results

LG: -3
LR: -6
RC: -4 (WTF? Thought I did terribly on it)
LR: -1 (WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! My best LR section before this was a -4!)

Raw: 87
Score: 168 (Holy cow!)

Here's the kicker: On the -6 LR section I got 5 out of the first 11 questions wrong. Yup....

Nice.. LR breakthrough

[Anaconda]

That's great. Youve made me super excited to take my second PT tomorrow! Well, I was already excited, but more so now. I want to hit 160+.

Getting 5 of the first 11 questions wrong sucks. Was it carelessness? Were the questions difficult? Were you too cocky ie: chose an answer without looking at the other choices?

Still, this is great!

When I redid the questions I got -2 instead of -5 on that subset. One of them that I got wrong both times was super easy and was definitely carelessness on my part. Some were tricky though.

It's just hilarious I aced all the tough questions at the end. Almost all of the last 15 were 3/4 star questions, and I had "easy" written down on the side of a lot of them.

This again works to prove my theory that I need to warmup before doing LR. I did do like 5 questions before the test, but that might have not been enough. 10-12 might be the sweet spot.

[GoldenGloves]

PT 42 Results

LG: -3
LR: -6
RC: -4 (WTF? Thought I did terribly on it)
LR: -1 (WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! My best LR section before this was a -4!)

Raw: 87
Score: 168 (Holy cow!)

Here's the kicker: On the -6 LR section I got 5 out of the first 11 questions wrong. Yup....

This is so awesome. Congrats to you.

[Anaconda]

Is it normal that I just jumped over 10 points in terms of raw score just like that? I was averaging about a 74 raw and this was an 86.

[gdane]

Is it normal that I just jumped over 10 points in terms of raw score just like that? I was averaging about a 74 raw and this was an 86.

Dont look at it that way. Look at it as "I got it! I CAN do this".

But to answer your question, it happens. Some tests just click for you. Just remain confident and replicate these results consistently.

[Gemini]

Is it normal that I just jumped over 10 points in terms of raw score just like that? I was averaging about a 74 raw and this was an 86.

Yes, I jumped from 163 to 169. Rather suddenly. It was nice.

[Anaconda]

Is it normal that I just jumped over 10 points in terms of raw score just like that? I was averaging about a 74 raw and this was an 86.

Yes, I jumped from 163 to 169. Rather suddenly. It was nice.

It was just so unexpected. Only thing though is I did much better than normal on RC, but at least I know what I'm capable of.

[pattymac]

Good work Anaconda!

I didn't realize SOS was the proper name for that method...I've been doing it for a week now. What I do is go take the test timed, mark it (but dont look at the answers, just my raw and scaled score) and go back and redo the test that night in a loud area (like Starbucks) untimed. Usually I don't take longer than 35 minutes a section (other than games) and I try to keep it as realistic as possible...like I won't write out every hypo for each answer in games because I know I won't have that much time on the test.

Familiarity really, really, really helps me which kinda sucks for this type of test. The RC is a joke for me the second time around, although sometimes I get a lot of questions right the second time around and wrong the second time around too :S. I find the questions a LOT clearer the second time around, I can breeze through the mechanical questions like assumption and main point, etc... this seems to be working as I've jumped up a few points in the last 3-4 weeks. I usually don't gain more than 3-4 points from re-doing these sections so I know I'm performing near my capabilities. The time limit on the games section is keeping me out of the 160's on a regular basis :S.

[Anaconda]

PT 44

RC: -7 (damn science passage was ridiculously difficult and I bombed it! Otherwise did well on the other 3, including getting the first 13 questions right)
LR1: -3 (Nice! Finished 4.5 minutes early although I didn't bubble in the answers)
LG: -2 (2 REALLY stupid mistakes on the same game, kind of shocking)
LR2: -6 (missed three in a row towards the end -although they may have been the hardest of the bunch)

Raw: 82
Score: 164

Way down from my 168, but a 164 is a sign that I have gotten over the 160-161 hump. More importantly this is the second straight test my raw score is in the 80's - which is a great place to be. This felt like an "average" day to me. Didn't feel anywhere near as happy or energetic as when I was taking the PT that I got a 168 on. Had I minimized my errors in LG this would have been a 165-166! If I keep at it, I think a 165+ is well within my reach. Just need to cut down on mistakes, maintain my composure and work out timing and bubbling. I'm really worried I'm not taking 5 sections, but I honestly don't have the time to do them. I also take a 5 minute bathroom break in between the 2nd and 3rd sessions.

I seem to have made a very noticeable improvement in LR from my days of getting 15 to 20 wrong per test. I'd still like to get my LR average down to -8 or under per test - at least that will give me some breathing room for LG and RC.

Going to review LR2 tonight, then go over LR1 and RC tomorrow (by reviewing I mean redo and THEN review.

I'll probably take another PT on Sunday.

Some notes:
-I actually stopped before the last section to answer a phone call. This basically destroyed my concentration, and even more stupid is I went back and graded the latter parts of the previous sections to sample how I did. This was a STUPID move because I wasn't able to concentrate as well on the final section. Even worse- I stopped the last section after 17 questions because I need to go. I'm never going to do that again.
-RC was harder than I've seen in the last few PT's and the 3rd science passage was BRUTAL. Almost all my wrong answers came from that passage.
-first 3 LGs were easy (even though I got -2 on the easiest one, although I had some trouble on the last game but still aced it)
-felt very good about the first LR section. Curious to see what I got wrong.
-2nd LR was tougher. Questions towards the end were brutal and my botched handling of the last section maybe have influenced my score somewhat
-I felt tired by the end of the exam - kind of burned out. This may be because I woke up for an 8am class and ate lunch before the test - heavier breakfast than usual. Had I not had coffee earlier this morning I would have been totally screwed.
-timing doesn't seem to be hurting my score as much anymore. I should really start bubbling in my answers though - maybe I'm underestimating how long it takes?

[gdane]

Bubbling doesnt take long at all. One trick I use is to circle the answer, write the answer letter I chose next to the question and then circle it. Its probably the same as bubbling.

The most important issue when it comes to bubbling is making sure that you bubble the correct bubble. As far as the amount of time it takes to bubble, not that big of a deal.

Also, great score! Youre getting there. Youre getting hot too! Although you scored lower than your last test, youre still scoring well. You'll break through to the upper 160's soon.

[Hedwig]

I would start bubbling during practice. While it doesn't take very long, you want to get practiced as bubbling properly, and discover the bubbling practice that works for you. Like if you want to bubble after every question, every page, every two pages, etc - whichever one gives you the least amount of bubbling errors is recommended, lol.

I personally bubble after every question in LR and RC, but after every game in LG. It breaks my flow to bubble every question in LG.

So you might want to consistently do bubbling so you find your bubbling groove.

I have used the word bubbling so many times in this post that it looks incredibly weird to me now, lol.

[Gemini]

Bubble.