LSAT PT log: 100 days to 180 | 3/18: 178 Forum

[Sloth Hero]

Hello TLS,

As of the beginning of this log, there are exactly 100 days (14 weeks)to prepare for the LSAT. I will exhaust test materials if I complete 4 tests per week.

Projected GPA: 3.75, DM: Philosophy/Economics

Top 3 Schools: NYU, Columbia, Chicago.
For these schools, I break 80% at: 171, 174, 177 (respectively), and 90% at: 172, 177, 178.

Prep so far: LRB/LGB

Study plan: 1 test+review per day Thurs-Sunday. During the week, I'll retake difficult/old sections (time-dependent). I am using material from tests 1-9 for the experimental section.

**From 3/4 onward: Added "Time leftover" to the individual posts**

Log!
Date----Test-------LR1-------LR2-------LG-------RC-------Total---Scaled Score---NYU/Col/Chi/Harv/Yale/Stan(Admission %'s)
3/3|---#10----------2----------4----------0---------6---------12---------169---|----25%/18%/30%/1%/7%/2%
3/4|---#11----------4----------4----------0---------3---------11---------170---|----54%/37%/46%/0%/3%/3%
3/5|---#12----------2----------1----------0---------2---------5-----------176--|----94%/87%/73%/57%/12%/3%
3/6|---#13----------0----------3----------0---------2---------5-----------178--|----100%/95%/73%/70%/7%/10%
3/7|---#14----------2----------0----------1---------1---------4-----------177--|----96%/90%/70%/61%/5%/4%
3/16---#16----------3----------2----------0---------5---------10----------173--|----92%/62%/80%/18%/0%/0% (REALLY HUNGOVER)
3/18---#18----------3----------0----------0---------2---------5-----------178--|----100%/95%/73%/70%/7%/10%

[Sloth Hero]

Exam 11 taken today:

RC improved dramatically, LR's went down. LG remains EZ.

Leftover Time:
LR1: 9:12
LR2: 8:13
RC: 6:21
LG: 3:12

[Clearly]

That's all well and good, but what was the score?
And there is no such thing as time left over.

[Sloth Hero]

That's all well and good, but what was the score?
And there is no such thing as time left over.

Score is on log (first post).

Time leftover refers to the point at which I am 'content' with all my answers, I how much time I have left to review the particularly tricky ones

[941law]

personally rooting against you.

[Sloth Hero]

personally rooting against you.

Competition is a better motivator anyways.

I don't use TLS as a support group. <3

Bring it on, qt

[NoleMatt]

This is interesting, thanks for taking the time to update.

Can I ask how you pre-prepped, that is, how you got comfortable enough with the material to start taking timed PT's? For examle, did you just go through the bibles or what?

[cocoabutta32]

Based on how quickly you completed the sections and how many you got wrong, you should definitely slow down. If you finish a section with 7+ minutes left, I think you should basically never get more than 1 wrong. Focus on accuracy and I think you're on your way to a very good score.

[TunnelVision]

Just curious, are you reading all of the answer choices for LR or are you simply picking the answer you think is right and then moving on? I just took 10 and 11 these past couple of days too, but broken up into timed sections. 26 mins for those LR is insanely fast, especially given the length of some of those stims.

[Sloth Hero]

This is interesting, thanks for taking the time to update.

Can I ask how you pre-prepped, that is, how you got comfortable enough with the material to start taking timed PT's? For examle, did you just go through the bibles or what?

I just read through the bibles and took two untimed really old PTs.

Based on how quickly you completed the sections and how many you got wrong, you should definitely slow down. If you finish a section with 7+ minutes left, I think you should basically never get more than 1 wrong. Focus on accuracy and I think you're on your way to a very good score.

I'm generally really good at identifying the questions that are going to be problematic, i.e., the ones I put a little star next to generally are the ones I end up getting wrong. I just need to figure out exactly /what/ to do with my extra time, because I generally just end up re-justifying my original answer choice :/

Just curious, are you reading all of the answer choices for LR or are you simply picking the answer you think is right and then moving on? I just took 10 and 11 these past couple of days too, but broken up into timed sections. 26 mins for those LR is insanely fast, especially given the length of some of those stims.

For LR I always all of the answer choices. The only exception is if the question is obviously technical, e.g., formal logic. Then after I find the correct answer I skim the other choices. I never lose points on these.

Towards the end of the second LR section, yeah, there were some pretty large parallel reasoning stims.

I am a very fast/comfortable reader, lol. I read a ton (about a book a day).

[180asBreath]

Haha, love the gimmick with your corresponding chances at the top schools; tons better than mine.

[jigglebottom]

Haha, love the gimmick with your corresponding chances at the top schools; tons better than mine.

you are referring to your tebow gimmick im assuming?

[noleknight16]

Haha, love the gimmick with your corresponding chances at the top schools; tons better than mine.

you are referring to your tebow gimmick im assuming?

BOOM

[Sloth Hero]

Haha, love the gimmick with your corresponding chances at the top schools; tons better than mine.

you are referring to your tebow gimmick im assuming?

BOOM

LOL

and I go to FSU SO EVEN BETTER

[180asBreath]

Haha, love the gimmick with your corresponding chances at the top schools; tons better than mine.

you are referring to your tebow gimmick im assuming?

You assume I have a Tebow gimmick because I have a picture of Tebow as my avatar?

[travman90]

OP, judging by your records it seems your issue isn't speed its accuracy, which means timed tests are not going to help you. You have to actually slow down and pick apart questions and figure out which ones are giving you trouble and how to correct yourself on them based upon the type of questions you're struggling with. Once you've mastered all the available types of questions, work on doing full timed tests, because then you'll have accurracy down and you can work on time. But you'll never get anywhere going from time to accurracy, it has to be the other way around.

At least that's the approach I took and I did well enough.

edit: and i did it without tebow gimmicks lol

[jigglebottom]

Haha, love the gimmick with your corresponding chances at the top schools; tons better than mine.

you are referring to your tebow gimmick im assuming?

You assume I have a Tebow gimmick because I have a picture of Tebow as my avatar?

I didn't assume you had a gimmick you said have a gimmick : "Haha, love the gimmick with your corresponding chances at the top schools; tons better than mine"

Tebow was an assumption.

[180asBreath]

Haha, love the gimmick with your corresponding chances at the top schools; tons better than mine.

you are referring to your tebow gimmick im assuming?

You assume I have a Tebow gimmick because I have a picture of Tebow as my avatar?

I didn't assume you had a gimmick you said have a gimmick : "Haha, love the gimmick with your corresponding chances at the top schools; tons better than mine"

Tebow was an assumption.

I didn't say you assumed I have A gimmick, I said you assumed I have a TEBOW gimmick.

So, a more succinct response would have read: "Yes" (assuming the Tebow assumption was, in fact, due to my avatar; an assumption I must make, since you did not answer my question - opting to, instead, misinterpret what I posted and attempt to clarify something that was already clear [i.e. that I had admitted to having a gimmick]).

[jigglebottom]

Re this: You assume I have a Tebow gimmick because I have a picture of Tebow as my avatar?

You're right. A more appropriate response would have been, "Yes." Regardless, you still technically admitted to having a gimmick...so is it the Tebow avatar?

[180asBreath]

I don't dispute saying I have a gimmick (I was referring to my thread title "10 Weeks to a 180").

Sorry for derail, OP, I was just confused as to why it was being laughed at.

[Sloth Hero]

You know you're on an LSAT forum when... ^^^

<3 <3 <3

Also, I'm lord of gimmicks.

[Sloth Hero]

I don't dispute saying I have a gimmick (I was referring to my thread title "10 Weeks to a 180").

Sorry for derail, OP, I was just confused as to why it was being laughed at.

Oh, and I'm from FSU so can we make our little logs sportly and competitive?

Mostly in jest, though, because IDRC about the Seminoles. Never been to a game, and I wear UF shirts to troll my 'colleagues'.

[Sloth Hero]

Wow. Fucking Massive improvement today: 176!

3 Major Changes since yesterday that might account for this:

1. Instead of counting-down, I used a stopwatch counting up, and hid the watch from me. I didn't stop the watch until I was 100% satisfied with my answers. I ended around the 33 minute mark for all sections, except LG where I ended like 5 minutes early. Counting up has allowed me to work at a more natural pace. I think the stigma of 'countdown' was causing me to rush, even though I had a ton of time leftover on previous tests anyways.

2. For RC, I tried visualizing a response to the answer prior to reading the responses. Also, I was more thorough about referencing the text, as opposed to my general "Oh yeah I remember" strategy. This lead to me, I believe, getting tricked less often by sneaky wording.

3. When I go back to difficult LR problems, I now try to re-work the entire problem, and think the entire thing out from scratch again. This seems to help me uncover gaps in my prior reasoning.

Oh, and Dave Hall gets credit for these recommendations.

[pizzabrosauce]

1. Instead of counting-down, I used a stopwatch counting up, and hid the watch from me. I didn't stop the watch until I was 100% satisfied with my answers. I ended around the 33 minute mark for all sections, except LG where I ended like 5 minutes early. Counting up has allowed me to work at a more natural pace. I think the stigma of 'countdown' was causing me to rush, even though I had a ton of time leftover on previous tests anyways.

Hmm.. never thought of it like that, but I like the idea. I think starting from 11:25 always messed up my pacing with the extra brain-math, and towards the end, I'd panic a bit with the countdown.

[Sloth Hero]

3/6

Another test, nothing particularly interesting given that I didn't get much wrong.

Basically me: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HgzGwKwL ... ure=relmfu

But I jest. My main issue with LR was parallel reasoning (-2), and RC I messed up some main point stuff.

Timing remained fine, like 10 mins 'leftover' for each LR section. Frankly, I think my problem is that I just get bored with some of these parallel reasoning questions. w/e just gotta suck it up and do it.