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December 2011 LSAT Study Group

Posted: Thu Aug 04, 2011 12:40 am
by Olive
I know it is early for some people, but I will have a strange schedule this fall and so have begun preparing for the December LSAT a bit early.

I'm retaking the test. I'll be doing timed sections and full tests starting with the late 20s and 30s this month.

Hopefully we can help each other out here in the months to come.

Good luck!

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UPDATE

While we can still use this thread to post our progress and help each other out, Noah at Manhattan LSAT was kind enough to let us start a December study group - feel free to join, it is completely free. As groups are set-up, we'll post the meeting schedules here.

Here is the study schedule for the group: Study Schedule for December group

If you'd like to join the December Study Group, follow these directions:

1. Follow this link to create a profile: https://www.manhattanlsat.com/createaccount.cfm
2. E-mail Manhattan LSAT Noah (noah@manhattanlsat.com). He'll send you the link to the room and give you access to some online resources.



Location of the newest LSAT exams as PDFs:
http://lsatblog.blogspot.com/2011/03/ls ... nload.html

Dave Hall Thread:
http://top-law-schools.com/forums/viewt ... 6&t=161914

Re: December 2011 LSAT

Posted: Sun Aug 07, 2011 11:57 pm
by Olive
*Though I haven't seen them in a while, I've gone through all the material before save everything after the December 2009 test so these are all re-takes for me.


PT 30
LG -4 (7, 21, 22, 23)
LR -3 (21, 23, 24)
RC -2 (20, 25)
LR -0

92/174

I'm not fast enough on the LGs and missed three due to time. #20 in the RC was tricky, I thought. In the first LR I was really sleepy and had to rushed for time at the end where I made all the mistakes.

Pattern LRs slow me down a lot, and I have some trouble with them. Also, I need to drill more of the RC "description of the organization of the passage" type questions because I struggle with them.



PT 34
RC -1 (12)
LR -4 (13, 19, 24, 25)
LR -2 (17, 23)
LG -5 (4, 6, 21, 23)

89/171

Again, I was not fast enough on the LG. I was disappointed with the first game because I spent too much time on the diagram and still made an error in it which caused me to miss questions. I missed 21 and 23 on time.

I also struggled a lot with the last game, particularly how to handle all the inferences efficiently.

Re: December 2011 LSAT

Posted: Mon Aug 08, 2011 12:08 pm
by DC_Patent_Law
I'm no guru at this but I'd try taking one of the later tests (e.g. PT 55) to gauge how you do in the newer LSATs. I was surprised by my score drop in LR. This may not happen to you but it might be good to get a metric that is closer to the current trend of tests. /2cents

Re: December 2011 LSAT

Posted: Mon Aug 08, 2011 3:01 pm
by Olive
DC_Patent_Law wrote:I'm no guru at this but I'd try taking one of the later tests (e.g. PT 55) to gauge how you do in the newer LSATs. I was surprised by my score drop in LR. This may not happen to you but it might be good to get a metric that is closer to the current trend of tests. /2cents
Thanks, that's good advice as the last time I was preparing I noticed the newer tests were a bit different (I though the RC got harder for one thing). I sat for the October 2009 and December 2009 test, and I have seen all the tests before both of those. Since I have such little new material (7 PTs), I am thinking of only using one "new" test per month until November. Then I'll still have four new PTs to work with in November but hopefully be able to gauge my progress a bit as I go along.

Re: December 2011 LSAT

Posted: Fri Aug 12, 2011 1:19 pm
by Olive
PT 32

LR -4 (8, 17, 20, 23)
RC -0
LG -7 (16, 19-24)
LR -1 (20)

-1 for #22 removed from scoring = 88


I was short on time for the first LR and the LG. A lot of careless reading mistakes in the first LR.

I didn't distribute my time efficiently LG and paid the price. I was quite distracted while taking that section (dog was scared of the storm and kept trying to jump on my lap, phone rang several times, doorbell), but the real problem is that I am still too slow with LGs. Game three was difficult for me and took a lot of time. I had no time left to do the last game.

I changed my answer to 20 in the last LR at the last second after deliberating over it for a long time. It's a tricky question, but I understand why B is correct now as opposed to E due to the "some train".

Re: December 2011 LSAT

Posted: Fri Aug 12, 2011 11:02 pm
by soj
I would rename this the December 2011 Study Group. ~Embrace the tradition~

Best of luck in your prep!

Re: December 2011 LSAT Study Group

Posted: Sat Aug 13, 2011 1:19 pm
by Olive
soj wrote:I would rename this the December 2011 Study Group. ~Embrace the tradition~

Best of luck in your prep!
Thanks, good luck to you as well.

Re: December 2011 LSAT Study Group

Posted: Sun Aug 14, 2011 11:11 pm
by Miali1020
In for December, cheers....

Re: December 2011 LSAT Study Group

Posted: Mon Aug 15, 2011 3:08 pm
by LSAT Blog
Olive wrote:PT 34...
I also struggled a lot with the last game, particularly how to handle all the inferences efficiently.
Create 2 big conditional chains, connecting new rules and contrapositives in the appropriate place as you go, and recognize that the negation of one clinic is the other (so, for example, NOT-Nr means Ns).

I'll try not to give *everything* away, but I will give you the following:

Ls -> Nr -> Or -> Js -> Kr -> Ps -> Lr
Ls -> Pr -> Ks -> Jr -> Os -> Ns -> Lr

(I'd normally draw only one Ls and only one Lr and have 2 arrows coming from Ls and 2 arrows going to Lr, but there's no easy way to type it.)

Hope this helps!

Re: December 2011 LSAT Study Group

Posted: Tue Aug 16, 2011 1:29 pm
by MConchis
Bought LG and LR bibles last week and started studying. I've mostly just been taking tests, though. I'm lazy about drills and the bibles are somewhat basic.

PT 7 (untimed, took about 40 minutes per section)

LR1 -2 (16, 19)
LR2 -5 (6, 19, 20, 23, 25)
RC -1 (14)
LG -2 (5, 16)

91/174

PT 28 (LR1 was 38min, the rest 35)

LR1 -5 (18, 22, 23, 24, 25)
LR2 -2 (15, 21)
RC -5 (15, 19, 20, 21, 22)
LG -1 (20)

88/170

PT 19 (just finished, all sections at or under 35 min)

LG1 -0
LG2 -2 (21, 23)
LG -0
RC -6 :| (8, 14, 20, 24, 26, 27)

93/173


RC is still the most troublesome. It looks like I've been getting stressed toward the end of sections and missing strings of questions. Pleased overall, though.

Re: December 2011 LSAT Study Group

Posted: Wed Aug 17, 2011 2:39 pm
by Olive
LSAT Blog wrote:
Olive wrote:PT 34...
I also struggled a lot with the last game, particularly how to handle all the inferences efficiently.
Create 2 big conditional chains, connecting new rules and contrapositives in the appropriate place as you go, and recognize that the negation of one clinic is the other (so, for example, NOT-Nr means Ns).

I'll try not to give *everything* away, but I will give you the following:

Ls -> Nr -> Or -> Js -> Kr -> Ps -> Lr
Ls -> Pr -> Ks -> Jr -> Os -> Ns -> Lr

(I'd normally draw only one Ls and only one Lr and have 2 arrows coming from Ls and 2 arrows going to Lr, but there's no easy way to type it.)

Hope this helps!
Thanks, this did help. I made chains but they were not as complete as the ones you posted. I appreciate the tip.

Re: December 2011 LSAT Study Group

Posted: Wed Aug 17, 2011 11:46 pm
by barneytrouble
In on this. Acquainted myself with the bibles and starting the kaplan mastery before I get going on later PTs.

Re: December 2011 LSAT Study Group

Posted: Thu Aug 18, 2011 12:19 pm
by Olive
Good luck, guys.

I've updated the original post with some links if anyone would like to join the study group that Manhattan LSAT is willing to set up for us. Like I said, I'll still be using this thread to discuss progress and questions, but if you would like to join the study group (similar to the one the October group has set up), then please follow the links posted.

Re: December 2011 LSAT Study Group

Posted: Thu Aug 18, 2011 2:40 pm
by man_utd_4l
Hey all,

I am in for taking my first LSAT in December. I've been preparing throughout the summer and plan on really hitting the drills and PTs over the next couple of months. I look forward to interacting with all of you, and will certainly be utilizing both this thread and the Manhattan Study Group.

Re: December 2011 LSAT Study Group

Posted: Fri Aug 19, 2011 4:09 pm
by Olive
I took this last week:

PT 33

LR -2 (21 misbubble, 23)
RC -3 (4, 24, 25)
LR -0
LG - 6 (2, 8 misbubble, 16, 17, 18, 19 misbubble)

90/172

I used an old marked up test and circled all the answer choices so I could reuse the test without knowing what the answers were and used a little dot to indicate what answer choice I was picking. This was a bad way of doing that because I misbubbled 3 times.

I've been drilling LGs for the past few days since taking this test. Game #3 took me a long time because I didn't make the right inferences. Sometimes I find it hard to decide if I've made all the right inferences when setting up the diagram and should move on or wait a few seconds longer and see if there is some other inference missing. It think this is where I am losing time. Still disappointed with this section, I need to make diagramming more efficient.

Re: December 2011 LSAT Study Group

Posted: Sat Aug 20, 2011 1:40 am
by naillsat
I'm in for the December 2011 LSAT! GLTA!

Re: December 2011 LSAT Study Group

Posted: Sat Aug 20, 2011 3:37 am
by the_pakalypse
I think I'll be switching from October to December as well. Still have plenty of prepmaterial(25 PT+ left), and I want to make sure I do a good job. Progress has been good on LR and LG(-2ish and 0ish per section), but RC has still been kind of erratic(0-4 :? )

Re: December 2011 LSAT Study Group

Posted: Sun Aug 21, 2011 11:13 pm
by barneytrouble
Took pt 35 today to gauge where I am at:
LR1: -3 (26 mins)
LR2: -5 (25 mins)
LG: -4 (34 mins)
RC: -8 (29 mins)

Raw 79, scaled 163

Not too disappointed overall considering my timing, my strategy here at the start is to be taking them as quickly as possible without doublechecking answers at the end of each section. The LG at -4 is a joke though, was at -0/1s throughout the whole prep before last time I took (Dec 09 - 164) it so gonna chalk that one up to rustiness; also got tripped up on the Car with 3 options game, was a little weird and took me too long to work through. -8 RC is unfortunately par for the course, just going to keep doing as many RCs in my spare time as possible.

Re: December 2011 LSAT Study Group

Posted: Mon Aug 22, 2011 12:36 am
by Olive
I took this Saturday. I thought the second and fourth game in this PT were pretty difficult. But in any case, I am clearly doing something wrong with LG because -8 is unacceptable and disappointing after I'd been drilling. I've gone back to the LGB and will be taking a few days off from my PT schedule to focus on LGs.

PT 31

LG -8 (9, 13-18, 23)
LR. -2 (15, 22)
LR -2 (22, 23)
RC -2 (2, 26)

87/170

Re: December 2011 LSAT Study Group

Posted: Mon Aug 22, 2011 10:51 am
by peharris
I am planning on taking in December, don't think I can catch up enough to take in October.

Question I have: What resources is everyone using to buy their PT's....LsatBlog, Cambridge, other?

Thanks, Pat

Re: December 2011 LSAT Study Group

Posted: Mon Aug 22, 2011 10:54 am
by JamMasterJ
peharris wrote:I am planning on taking in December, don't think I can catch up enough to take in October.

Question I have: What resources is everyone using to buy their PT's....LsatBlog, Cambridge, other?

Thanks, Pat
Cambridge

ETA: I love that you guys have already started this group. good luck

Re: December 2011 LSAT Study Group

Posted: Mon Aug 22, 2011 11:58 am
by barneytrouble
peharris wrote:I am planning on taking in December, don't think I can catch up enough to take in October.

Question I have: What resources is everyone using to buy their PT's....LsatBlog, Cambridge, other?

Thanks, Pat
I bought the pdf package and am just using my printer like a 2 cent... uh.

Re: December 2011 LSAT Study Group

Posted: Mon Aug 22, 2011 6:31 pm
by peharris
barneytrouble wrote:
peharris wrote:I am planning on taking in December, don't think I can catch up enough to take in October.

Question I have: What resources is everyone using to buy their PT's....LsatBlog, Cambridge, other?

Thanks, Pat
I bought the pdf package and am just using my printer like a 2 cent... uh.

Which PDF pkg?

Probably cheaper to go to Kinko's if you have a HP printer.

Thanks

Re: December 2011 LSAT Study Group

Posted: Mon Aug 22, 2011 11:39 pm
by Olive
Good luck to everyone studying.

Just to get an idea: who all is thinking of joining the study group Manhattan LSAT set up for us now or sometime in the future before the test?

What times work best for everyone?

Re: December 2011 LSAT Study Group

Posted: Tue Aug 23, 2011 3:29 pm
by man_utd_4l
Olive wrote:Good luck to everyone studying.

Just to get an idea: who all is thinking of joining the study group Manhattan LSAT set up for us now or sometime in the future before the test?

What times work best for everyone?

I'm in the central time zone, and basically any weekday after 6PM my time works best for me. My weekend availability tends to depend on whether or not I am traveling that weekend, but I'm sure that will change as we get closer to the test day.