Prep Journal for 10/10 Test Forum

[DreamShake]

Going to chronicle my progress through PT's 50-60 leading up to the October LSAT. Hopefully this'll help motivate me to stick with the PT's...aiming for 1 test every other day until a week before the real thing. Tests are a little out of order...

9/10--PT 51
-11 / 170
-2/-3/-4/-2
-6 LR, -3 RC, -2 LG
Really disturbing all around...guess I shouldn't have been surprised, considering how little I slept. Positive=at least I can hit 170 while semi-comatose. And surely I'll be better off than semi-comatose during the real thing...

9/14--PT 52
-1/180
0/0/0/1
That's more like it! RC #14 threw me off, but was really happy to hit -0 on the games. Come a long way from the "Please, let me just get 18/24!" days. 180 is such a purdy number

PT 50 tomorrow...

[DreamShake]

9/16--PrepTest 50
-7/173
-1 LR, -1 RC, -5 LG

Was definitely bummed out by the LG results...I realized almost immediately it was a games section I had already done (maybe in LGB?) and got a little sloppy. Finished with ~7 minutes to spare, but I made a bunch of careless mistakes that took a grand total of about 2 minutes to identify/fix. Would've hit 180 for the second test in a row if not for the overconfidence

No clue why the other two questions I missed were wrong...

PT 53 for Saturday...think I'll spend tomorrow refining my Why Mich or starting the Penn essays...


Edit: Figured out the LR question. The argument can be reduced to "X is common to all, so all have a common factor that produces X." This obviously overlooks the fact that several different things could all produce X. (A) targets that inference, albeit somewhat indirectly. Really roundabout CR, although how bad the other A/C's were should've tipped me off. Lesson learned: review the answers that seem blatantly wrong if the other ones don't actually seem correct.

[DreamShake]

9/18--PT 53
-1/180
-0 LR, -0 LG, -1 RC.
The only missed question owed to my stupidly not referring back to the correct passage mentioned in the question. The rest is all gravy, though! Glad to be cutting down on silly mistakes. I stopped making notes as I read the RC passages, which seemed to increase my efficiency without hurting my accuracy...I think I'm going to go back to this technique. Annotating really hasn't helped me focus like I had hoped it would. I'm going to start moving my testing times up earlier (been testing at ~11am).

Next up, PT 54 on Monday!

[fosterp]

Two 180s in a row impressive. How many PTs/what kind of score trend did you experience prior to those?

[DreamShake]

-About 15-20 PT's overall (~10 prior to the 12/09 LSAT and about 7 since then)
-Prior to the 12/09 LSAT, my PT's were generally around 170-175. I scored only a 169 on the real thing, though, so I took a few months off and got back to it during August. I did the LGB (twice) and pretty much every LG section available. My scores since then, to the best of my recollection: 178--169 (not enough sleep)-->170 (same problem)-->180-->173 (got sloppy on the LG b/c I realized I'd seen it before)-->180.

My main problems were the logic games and careless LR mistakes, so the LGB helped cure most of my LSAT ills...I really, really wish I had found out about it prior to my first test. I think avoiding careless mistakes boils down mostly to how awake I am/getting enough sleep/eating a decent breakfast.

[DreamShake]

9/20--PT 54
95/101=175
-2 RC, -1 LR, -1 LG, -2 LR.

Bummed about making stupid mistakes, and somewhat angry at the testmakers for being idiots. I think I might take a few days off or something...I felt anxious/annoyed, rushed through, and finished every section 8-10 minutes early, which resulted in a bunch of dumb mistakes. RC & LG mistakes were obvious; so were a couple of the LR. Questions 13-14 on section 2 of the LR were bullshit, though--question 13 misidentifies the "apparent conflict" and question 14 provides two answers that should both be acceptable. I understand the underlying logic, but so much ambiguity should not be allowed on a test that frequently relies on absolute precision...

I am happy, though, that a technique from PT50 came in handy and helped me get a LR question. The trend in the 50's thus far seems to be to write off 2 LR questions as honest mistakes and to avoid silly mistakes on the other 98-99 questions. Really, it seems to be the dumb stuff that dictates my score. Hopefully more PT's will help me get in the testmakers' heads for the inevitable 2 difficult questions. PT 55 on Wednesday...I'm gonna own that shit as vindication for this test