Aesis' December 2010 Retake Study Progress Forum

[aesis]

35 PT Average: 173.45, hit 180 on #35, #58
Actual score on Oct 2010: 166

I had a horrible case of nerves and drank too much water the night before. I went to the restroom three times before going into the room, and then during rules I needed to pee again. I held it for 3 sections. But I was rattled for the entire test. This will not happen again.

December Plan:
Week 1 and 2
- Section practice from Next 10s:
DAY 1 -- RC/LR/LG
DAY 2 -- LR/LG
Repeat
- Reading Economist every non-RC day
- SuperPrep C, Weekend 1
- June 07, Thursday W2
- PT 53, Sunday W2

Week 3-6 (PT-Review/Drill-Review/Drill)
I will use PTs 53-61, but since I'm doing a 3-Day PT cycle that means 9 PTs. I could go in chronological order. I'm not sure. I appreciate any feedback on this. Experimentals will come from 42-51, from older to most recent.

3-Day cycle
Day 1 - PT
Day 2 - RC, LG
Day 3 - LR, LG
- 33 Minute sections
- Reading Economist every non-RC day
- Take at least one Proctored PT via Kaplan/BP
- Take PTs in cafes or libraries as much as possible

I'm hoping that by doing this I can maximize my effectiveness in December. I also need to overcome stress so I was thinking about taking beta blockers, but I dunno. I'm coming at this with a vengeance. Please feel free to follow and add any suggestions.

I'm shooting to 180 every PT in sections, of course that probably won't happen, but because I'm familiar with ALL the material I should be aiming for -0ing everything.

Week 1 and Week 2
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Week 3-6
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Notes:
- Some of the full PT days don't have experimentals listed because I'll be using Kaplan Endurance for those days, and the book provides a blind experimental, so I don't need to pick one out myself.
- Later in the schedule, I drop the LR section from the RC/LR/LG cycle in order to review the previous day's PT. Every PT except one or two will have an experimental LR. Clearly RC is taking a backseat, but I'll be ready for it.

[Hedwig]

Just wanted to stop by and say good luck and you will kill the December LSAT.

[aesis]

Just one question:
I already have a solid foundation, but would 2-day cycles be better?

[aesis]

Just wanted to stop by and say good luck and you will kill the December LSAT.

You're the sweetest. Thanks and CONGRATS! :DDD

[luckyme]

Just one question:
I already have a solid foundation, but would 2-day cycles be better?

Also retaking, pt'd high 170s scored 166. I didn't take a prep course, so I was doing a PT every other day for several weeks before the test, sometimes 2 a day. For the retake I plan on 3 day cycles, tests 45-60. 2 days seems a little intense if you feel confident in your skills and are just looking to maintain/make minor improvements.

[SupraVln180]

I'm in the same boat aesis, PTing 166-170 and ended up with a 163. Nerves just got to me. Have you been studying since the October test? I haven't dont anything LSAT related in this past month and I feel like it will be hard for me to get back in this mindset. Do you guys think I should just do 2 PTs a week til December or what?

[naptime10]

LSDAS GPA: 3.84
35 PT Average: 173.45, hit 180 on #35, #58
Actual score on Oct 2010: 166
Shooting for HYSCCNBP-V-G-LA-SC-T

I had a horrible case of nerves and drank too much water the night before. I went to the restroom three times before going into the room, and then during rules I needed to pee again. I held it for 3 sections. But I was rattled for the entire test. This will not happen again.

December Plan:
Week 1 and 2
- Section practice from Next 10s
- LG Drills from Kaplan Mastery, and leftover copies from my October Pithypike
- Reading Economist everyday
- SuperPrep C, Weekend 1
- PT 45 or something, Weekend 2

Week 3-6 (PT-Review/Drill-Review/Drill)
I will use PTs 46-61, but since I'm doing a 3-Day PT cycle that means 9-10 PTs. I could go in chronological order. I'm not sure. I appreciate any feedback on this. Any unused full PTs from this pool will be used for section practice between full PTs.

3-Day cycle
Day 1 - PT
Day 2 - Review/Sections/LG drills
Day 3 - Sections/LG drills
- 33 Minute sections
- Reading Economist everyday
- Take at least one Proctored PT via Kaplan/BP

I'm hoping that by doing this I can maximize my effectiveness in December. I also need to overcome stress so I was thinking about taking beta blockers, but I dunno. I'm coming at this with a vengeance. Please feel free to follow and add any suggestions.

I'm shooting for 180.

im going to copy you if this is ok...

[naptime10]

I'm in the same boat aesis, PTing 166-170 and ended up with a 163. Nerves just got to me. Have you been studying since the October test? I haven't dont anything LSAT related in this past month and I feel like it will be hard for me to get back in this mindset. Do you guys think I should just do 2 PTs a week til December or what?

same situation as you my friend. i took a break (much needed). bombed the crap out of oct while pting in the mid 160s. what are you going to do? i think im going to follow aesis's plan kinda change it a little to my needs.

[aesis]

Go ahead, copy it, haha. Does anyone else have a 6 week retake schedule?

My PT off day would typically look like:
1 LR section
1 RC section
1 LG section OR 3 games, 3 repeat games

But since I've done all the games, it doesn't really matter. Maybe just 4 games, like a normal section. I think it's better to mix it up if you're trying to simulate an actual LG section. If you include review and scoring, that is around 2 hours of prep everyday, plus rereading LGB+LRB and Economist, which may be an extra 30 minutes. Shouldn't be too bad.

[incompetentia]

You 180'd 58. Just do some upkeep with intense mindset prep like 1-2 weeks before and you'll kill 62.
Good luxe!

[Hedwig]

Since you mention nerves as being a big problem, here is what I did to try to make the nerves less... not sure if any of it will apply to you, BUT who knows, maybe it'll help.

Wear lucky/happy clothing. I wore a sweatshirt I got on a trip to California over a concert t-shirt for one of my favorite bands. I SHOULD have worn my Keds even though it was rainy. Eh.

Go to bed at nine for 2 weeks beforehand. This way your sleep routine is normal and not weird on the night of the test.

On the morning of, do a couple questions or whatever but also read a chapter of your favorite book.

Associate routines with your test - for example, cool mint chocolate Cliff bars taste like LSAT to me (I honestly wrote "LSAT bars" by accident when I first wrote that sentence), mostly because I ate them during practice breaks as well as the real thing. Helps to have that routine/association going on.

Keep your stress levels low the entire week beforehand. I practiced subsistence schoolwork for that week and I'm glad I did. Again, read your favorite books or watch your favorite shows or play your fave video game or something.

Hope something there might help.

[luckyme]

Associate routines with your test - for example, cool mint chocolate Cliff bars taste like LSAT to me (I honestly wrote "LSAT bars" by accident when I first wrote that sentence), mostly because I ate them during practice breaks as well as the real thing. Helps to have that routine/association going on.

Keep your stress levels low the entire week beforehand. I practiced subsistence schoolwork for that week and I'm glad I did. Again, read your favorite books or watch your favorite shows or play your fave video game or something.

Hope something there might help.

cool mint chocolate > all other flavors

[SupraVln180]

this time around I have to become more systematic in my approach to LR, so nerves can't affect me. I have a very systematic approach to LG and RC (-1 and -4 on October respectively) but LR I went -7 on each section. I feel like it was because I couldn't develop a system and I just got nervous and made stupid mistakes. Does anyone have a good system for attacking LR and if so could they enlighten me?

[typ3]

On LR I always find the conclusion and Mark it with < > brackets.

I don't know why, I've just done this since the beginning. Then on assumption / strengthen / weaken questions I treat it like a word find and look at the conclusion and compare it to the premises to see if they made a large jump in the reasoning or wording.

Also, you might be missing questions because of pacing.

What helped me was dividing the test into 3 separate sections of thinking

Questions 1-7 & 23-25 are the easiest on the test, I try to bank time on these questions, finishing them in 30-45 seconds.

Questions 8-14 are medium questions. and I try to finish these in 1 minute each.

Questions 15-22 are the hardest on each LR section and often I will need more than 1:20 to finish them. But because I banked time on the early questions I can spend much more dissecting the questions and making sure I am not picking trap answers.

I normally finish my sections in 30 minutes which allows me enough time to go back to difficult questions I cut bait on or questions I felt uneasy about.

[kiniru]

For LR, I'd focus on reading carefully the questions/answers making sure you get all the details. I know you're under a time constraint but I think making mistakes by reading too quickly is really easy and super frustrating, especially if you look back and you know the right answer.

I don't know how the PS books work but have you been checking the LR problems you get wrong to see if there's any specific type that you get wrong? Like I reminded myself for main conclusion/conclusion most supported by above that I should be skeptical of the answers.

Don't know if any of this helps, but anyway good luck in Dec!

[lparker]

Only 1,500 (ish) more views until you're equal with the "Hey eit" thread. Adding one more view... You're welcome. =)

Good Luck!

[fosterp]

For LR, I'd focus on reading carefully the questions/answers making sure you get all the details. I know you're under a time constraint but I think making mistakes by reading too quickly is really easy and super frustrating, especially if you look back and you know the right answer.

I don't know how the PS books work but have you been checking the LR problems you get wrong to see if there's any specific type that you get wrong? Like I reminded myself for main conclusion/conclusion most supported by above that I should be skeptical of the answers.

Don't know if any of this helps, but anyway good luck in Dec!

Reading all of the answer choices is a waste of time early on if you already know the answer. Assuming you aren't a person that falls for the "shell game" answers all the time, if you are confident in the answer pick it and move on. Especially on the first 10, where the best time is to be made for the later questions.

Of course, if you aren't sure or working on the tough part of the section, checking the other answers to make sure one isn't "better" is still a good idea.

[aesis]

For RC, my strategy is to read every answer choice, which is time consuming, but that just means I have to read the passage faster and with enough comprehension to get the main point and structure. RC has been a struggle to get extra time, so I need to work on this.

The goal for the next six weeks is speed. I barely finished every section in October due to nerves, and never had a chance to check my answers, which is really unusual. And the whole pee thing. Anyway. I came away from October thinking -- if only I had practiced with 30 minute sections to compensate for nerves. That's the goal by Week 6.

Thanks for the tips everyone. I'm thinking about buying a Stanford sweater to wear on test day. Also seriously considering betablockers, even though that may seem extreme. I just don't want to take chances. I'll also pick up novels (probably Star Wars, or the Millennium series) to keep my brain going instead of watching Mad Men all the time (it's over now so oh well). 35 minutes of The Economist every day, or maybe every day I don't do an RC section.

I spent last night planning the entire six weeks' material. In a nutshell, it's

Non-PT days:
LG sections #21-#51 (every day)
RC sections #36-#51 (every other day)
LR sections #36-#51 (every day, then every other day starting Week 3)
2-day pattern: [RC/LR/LG], [LR/LG]

PTs (11 total):
SuperPrep C
June07
53-61

I'm using PDFs and printing from work to mitigate my costs. Kekeke.
---------------------------

Day 1 is:
1 RC #36
1 LR #36
1 LG #21
35 min Economist (maybe)

Will try to update daily. Using blink's spreadsheet

[aesis]

Off to an okay start, slightly disappointing. Started off with 33 minute sections right off the bat.

#36 LR 1 - 24/26: 4, 21
Can't believe I missed Q4.
#36 RC - 25/26: 15
Can't believe I missed this MP question either.
#21 LG - 24/24 +10:00

Familiarity with the questions is an issue, but I'm methodically going through the answer choices and stimuli as if they were new. To miss any of these questions is understandable, but slightly disappointing. Finishing faster was easier too. Wonder how this will fly when I take a full PT.

Day 1 done.

[aesis]

#36 LR2 - 25/26: 13
Stupid mistake -- didn't read the stem, picked a different flaw that the stem didn't even ask for, though it was a flaw nonetheless.
#22 LG - 24/24 -- solid.

PT36 almost complete, section-wise, but I won't be doing its LG section for several weeks. Total tally so far is -4. If I ace 36's LG then that's a 178. Good start.

Need to review the #36 RC really methodically, in-depth, hoping to catch nuances in my approach, things that make me go faster or avoid frustrating questions that waste time. I believe it's just a matter of reading quickly and efficiently. In the end, I think consistency is all in how you take in the information.

Perhaps if you act like you're learning things as you take the test your brain can comprehend better instead of run through the text, not understanding anything like when I used to when I had read academic articles hurriedly.

38 days.
If anyone's interested here's my 2 week schedule until 11/14.
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[3|ink]

GL in December. I may join the December crew if I can find out how to get a school to sponsor me. My score was just barely above the median of my goal school, and my GPA is well below.

[gmenfan]

I also took the October exam w/ some a speed bump (jitters/frustrations from the 1st section messed me up) and recently decided to take it again in December. The real exam showed me that my RC strategy/pacing was entirely messed up, and I randomly decided to go through this book from HS, "Grammar Smart". I don't know why but a refresher on grammar rules/functions sort of cleared up some difficulties I had with reading through the tougher passages. My range before the exam was around -1 to -6, and I recently took two timed sections with more consistent results (-1/-0). Maybe it'll help you too?

[aesis]

GL in December. I may join the December crew if I can find out how to get a school to sponsor me. My score was just barely above the median of my goal school, and my GPA is well below.

Thanks man, and good luck. Make your softs solid and I think you'll be okay, nothing much more you can do other than take that 4th LSAT and/or make your essays as strong as possible. Effing October ...

I also took the October exam w/ some a speed bump (jitters/frustrations from the 1st section messed me up) and recently decided to take it again in December. The real exam showed me that my RC strategy/pacing was entirely messed up, and I randomly decided to go through this book from HS, "Grammar Smart". I don't know why but a refresher on grammar rules/functions sort of cleared up some difficulties I had with reading through the tougher passages. My range before the exam was around -1 to -6, and I recently took two timed sections with more consistent results (-1/-0). Maybe it'll help you too?

A grammar book? Sounds interesting, but I think I'll stick with figuring out why the answers are wrong and why answers are right, and subconsciously attuning myself to this kind of writing by reading more than I usually do. Thank you though.

Day 3:

I got home from work, was pretty tired. Decided to take a half hour nap after I unwound for a bit. The nap ended up being 3.5 hours long. I guess I was pretty tired. Had to skip my LR section today, so it gets booted to tomorrow.

#37 RC 25/26: Q23
I'm not too surprised I got this one wrong. It's not tricky or anything, but I thought my selected answer was reasonable. It ended up being too much of a stretch -- hate that.
#23 LG 24/24
Barely finished this section though. The pattern game at the end was a little iffy, but I think the Interview/Hiring game was more time-consuming for a Game 2 especially.

A good day, nonetheless. Hard to stay motivated when you're re-prepping, so this thread definitely helps.

[kpuc]

Good luck with your progress.

I got a 170 on the Oct LSAT and am going to retake, since I was getting 173-175 on my last 5 PTs (except for one LG mindfreeze on PT 60).

I'm doing 2 LR sections a day and an LG section of PTs 32-38, then PT'ing 39-43 and the with the SuperPreps. I'll also re-do the LRs and LGs of PTs 50-60 in the last 2 weeks before the test. I'll do an RC now and then to keep sharp, but I was able to get -0 on the Oct LSAT RC with 2 hours of sleep, so I'm going to focus more on getting my LRs and LGs tight.

I was worried about a lack of study materials, but I really don't remember most of the questions and answers that I did on PTs in September. I usually only remember the really difficult ones that stuck in my head, and that's maybe 1-2 per LR section. Even then, I don't quite remember what the answer was, and I have to end up being careful anyway since I don't want to hastily put down what I wrongly perceived to be the right answer.

[aesis]

Good luck with your progress.

I got a 170 on the Oct LSAT and am going to retake, since I was getting 173-175 on my last 5 PTs (except for one LG mindfreeze on PT 60).

I'm doing 2 LR sections a day and an LG section of PTs 32-38, then PT'ing 39-43 and the with the SuperPreps. I'll also re-do the LRs and LGs of PTs 50-60 in the last 2 weeks before the test. I'll do an RC now and then to keep sharp, but I was able to get -0 on the Oct LSAT RC with 2 hours of sleep, so I'm going to focus more on getting my LRs and LGs tight.

I was worried about a lack of study materials, but I really don't remember most of the questions and answers that I did on PTs in September. I usually only remember the really difficult ones that stuck in my head, and that's maybe 1-2 per LR section. Even then, I don't quite remember what the answer was, and I have to end up being careful anyway since I don't want to hastily put down what I wrongly perceived to be the right answer.

Sounds good, though I'd caution about taking RC for granted? Just my opinion.

So for the next week or so you'll be doing 3 sections a day, followed by straight PTs and review for the next three or four weeks, while doing and re-doing the LRs and LGs of PTs 50-60 (61)? Sounds good, but I'd be more comfortable doing full PTs of 50/53-61. To each his own, though.

I like the idea of redoing the LG sections from the most recent PTs. I didn't do that last time, didn't make copies. I'll probably be drilling those in addition to the 30s LG sections in the last two weeks so I can be more confident in LG leading up to the test. LG is a necessary cushion for a 175+.

Good luck in December! The December thread is so boring right now...