February 2013 LSAT Study Group

[Instinctive]

Today's a mistake reviewing day...it really is amazing how much some drilling can improve something like Assumption questions.

Over the last 4 PTs (and even since my first), I have gone from Weaken, Flaw, Assumption, Justify, and Parallel issues to just having the occasional Flaw and Parallel issue (this week's drilling, of course...) with a random lapse on an assumption or a tough weaken thrown in.

My LR scores have gone from being -3 to -5 per section to being -0 to -3 per section. HUGE difference.



Advising everyone to make sure you look at your mistakes and find the pattern(s).

[Jcastro1]

I've got 9 PTs I want to do between now and Feb 07 (PT 60-68). Do you guys think this is too much?

edit: fuck it, gonna do em. I want a 175+.

[gobosox]

Took PT 56 yesterday. Woof.

LG: -5 (Don't know what happened, that never happens to me)
LR: -2/-3
RC: -3

87/100, 168. Worst score I've gotten in a while. Just got absolutely killed on LG as I screwed up 2 games somehow... Going to have to really pick it up tomorrow. 2 weeks to go...

[natashka85]

I've got 9 PTs I want to do between now and Feb 07 (PT 60-68). Do you guys think this is too much?

edit: fuck it, gonna do em. I want a 175+.

It's the quality and not the quantity

[ws81086n]

PT 43 Sections 1 and 4, both LR: -1 combined.

Really pumped about this. I've gone 2 or 3 combined on LR a few times before, but never 1 or 0. To boot, I felt better than I ever have on PR questions. 175 is in sight .

[gobosox]

I've got 9 PTs I want to do between now and Feb 07 (PT 60-68). Do you guys think this is too much?

edit: fuck it, gonna do em. I want a 175+.

It's the quality and not the quantity

But they aren't mutually exclusive.

[overperformer]

pt 61

83/101

165

been pretty steady here for about a week, no gains. scored 154 in october, so should have a good jump

consistently perfect on LG's, -4 to -5 on LR, and just bombing RC

the problem is time, I went -8 on this RC, despite getting the first 10 correct, and only missing 2 in the first 3 passages, yepp missed the last 6 due time, put DDDDDD and got nothing. thanks powerscore for the tip!

in hindsight, given the last passage had 8 question, and the first had 5, i should have attached it first. probably gain 1-3 credited answers that way

i finish LG with 5-10 mins to spare, LR with 2 minutes to spare

its really gona come down to increasing my reading speed

i feel like ive maxed out my gains in LR and LG

[natashka85]

Did some drilling of parallel flaw questions,they drive me crazy,i think i found one of my weakest parts,missed 4 in 40,this is serious and needs to be fixed.

[griffin.811]

@overperformer

If you find it difficult to improve reading speed in such a short time, might be helpful (similarly to what you said) to allocate your time across 3 passages, and guess on the passage that has the fewest questions. I'd guess the same letter, and pray that I got 2 right.

If your accuracy is good, which I imagine it is based on your post, you may be able to get down to -4/-3.

[gobosox]

pt 61

83/101

165

been pretty steady here for about a week, no gains. scored 154 in october, so should have a good jump

consistently perfect on LG's, -4 to -5 on LR, and just bombing RC

the problem is time, I went -8 on this RC, despite getting the first 10 correct, and only missing 2 in the first 3 passages, yepp missed the last 6 due time, put DDDDDD and got nothing. thanks powerscore for the tip!

in hindsight, given the last passage had 8 question, and the first had 5, i should have attached it first. probably gain 1-3 credited answers that way

i finish LG with 5-10 mins to spare, LR with 2 minutes to spare

its really gona come down to increasing my reading speed

i feel like ive maxed out my gains in LR and LG

I've had lots of problems with RC but this seems to be easily fixable-- just requires you to pace yourself. Try being strict with pacing and not spending as much time on each question. I went from -7s to -3/4s now (still really bad, but improving...)

[ws81086n]

PT 41 LG: -4

Not the greatest score, but it was a pretty hard section which included a 7 question circular table game, so I'm pretty contented. It certainly feels great to have LG under control at last.

[Jcastro1]

Did a PT in a Starbucks today. Most frustrating experience ever. I distinctly recall every detail of the guy chattering on about his first date last week while I was trying to focus on Chicano theatre movements and Valdez (tough passage IMO).


LR1 -2
LG -0
LR2 -1
RC -4

92/99, 174

Seems like RC is standing between me and a 175+.

[gobosox]

Did a PT in a Starbucks today. Most frustrating experience ever. I distinctly recall every detail of the guy chattering on about his first date last week while I was trying to focus on Chicano theatre movements and Valdez (tough passage IMO).


LR1 -2
LG -0
LR2 -1
RC -4

92/99, 174

Seems like RC is standing between me and a 175+.

Did that the other day (while hungover) and got a 168... It's quite hard to concentrate-- you wouldn't believe how much it impacts things. My last 2 scores below 170 have been in public places like that.

[gobosox]

Took PT 57 today (along with 2 experimentals from PT 32). I am BACK from my abysmal 168 last time:

96/101, 176.

Experimentals:
-5 RC (abysmal)
-2 LR

PT 57:
-0 LG
-0 RC (Why the discrepancy? I'll take it though! Thought it was an easy RC)
-5 LR (combined)

Dinosaurs was quite tough but nailed it in the LG. 6 Section PTs are kinda a bitch too. Gonna drill for a couple more hours now... Greattttttt...

[Jcastro1]

^ nice!

[overperformer]

pt 61

83/101

165

been pretty steady here for about a week, no gains. scored 154 in october, so should have a good jump

consistently perfect on LG's, -4 to -5 on LR, and just bombing RC

the problem is time, I went -8 on this RC, despite getting the first 10 correct, and only missing 2 in the first 3 passages, yepp missed the last 6 due time, put DDDDDD and got nothing. thanks powerscore for the tip!

in hindsight, given the last passage had 8 question, and the first had 5, i should have attached it first. probably gain 1-3 credited answers that way

i finish LG with 5-10 mins to spare, LR with 2 minutes to spare

its really gona come down to increasing my reading speed

i feel like ive maxed out my gains in LR and LG

I've had lots of problems with RC but this seems to be easily fixable-- just requires you to pace yourself. Try being strict with pacing and not spending as much time on each question. I went from -7s to -3/4s now (still really bad, but improving...)

i'll give it a try. less than 2 weeks to go. going to experiment with a few different strategies. gotta pick one and commit to it

im extremely consistent with LG and LR. for RC, ive had flashes of brilliance, and moments of stupidity. my goal is to miss one question per passage, so i'd be content with -3/-4

[overperformer]

@overperformer

If you find it difficult to improve reading speed in such a short time, might be helpful (similarly to what you said) to allocate your time across 3 passages, and guess on the passage that has the fewest questions. I'd guess the same letter, and pray that I got 2 right.

If your accuracy is good, which I imagine it is based on your post, you may be able to get down to -4/-3.

i've considered it. idk i can't bring myself to basically surrender up to 5 points without a fight. 5 points is huge

[gobosox]

Took PT 57 today (along with 2 experimentals from PT 32). I am BACK from my abysmal 168 last time:

96/101, 176.

Experimentals:
-5 RC (abysmal)
-2 LR

PT 57:
-0 LG
-0 RC (Why the discrepancy? I'll take it though! Thought it was an easy RC)
-5 LR (combined)

Dinosaurs was quite tough but nailed it in the LG. 6 Section PTs are kinda a bitch too. Gonna drill for a couple more hours now... Greattttttt...

Just reviewed my test-- almost every wrong answer (save 2 that stumped me) were from mis-reading the question. Anyone have any good tips on outlining for LR? I never mark up the prompt, but I'm thinking of starting to bracket conclusions or if they reference roles of sentences, doing the same there.

[IvoryTie]

I've been PTing after work (work 8-5) and I feel like its depressing my scores. I've been stuck in the 162 - 164 range.

But every time I practice individual sections in the morning I'm nailing -2 and -3 pretty consistently... I better do well today.

[ws81086n]

Took PT 57 today (along with 2 experimentals from PT 32). I am BACK from my abysmal 168 last time:

96/101, 176.

Experimentals:
-5 RC (abysmal)
-2 LR

PT 57:
-0 LG
-0 RC (Why the discrepancy? I'll take it though! Thought it was an easy RC)
-5 LR (combined)

Dinosaurs was quite tough but nailed it in the LG. 6 Section PTs are kinda a bitch too. Gonna drill for a couple more hours now... Greattttttt...

Just reviewed my test-- almost every wrong answer (save 2 that stumped me) were from mis-reading the question. Anyone have any good tips on outlining for LR? I never mark up the prompt, but I'm thinking of starting to bracket conclusions or if they reference roles of sentences, doing the same there.

On role questions I always bracket the sentence that the question is asking about. You definitely should do that, it helps out for sure.

[overperformer]

pt 46 rc

pretty easy RC, actually finished with 90 seconds to spare!

-3 overall

and all 3 misses, i wasnt stumped, just careless

still 1 question was removed from scoring, and every question in the 2nd passage was short, as were the answer choices.

in modern tests, i find the questions to be much much much much longer and wordier

but i spent down time today at work reading some terribly dense magazine, scientific american, or something like that. i honestly felt like i was reading never ending lsat passages, check it out guys. i love cars and they made an article about increasing a cars speed sooooo effing boring

[ws81086n]

PT 46's RC is actually pretty difficult, so if you did well on it and don't feel like it was an aberration, you're in good shape. For the past few weeks, with the exception of one section, I've been -1 or -0 on every single RC I've taken, and I was -2 on PT 46 RC a week or so prior to making that breakthrough.

[dusters]

I only have 2 recent PTs left so over the weekend I did two that I also took in September. Not sure how much that affects things as I did remember a few details of some of the questions but didn't remember any key inferences or answers. Scored a 167 on Friday and a 172 today. Completely demolished LR today, only getting one question wrong in the two sections combined. This Saturday I'm planning on going to the testing center and retaking my October test.

[dusters]

I've got 9 PTs I want to do between now and Feb 07 (PT 60-68). Do you guys think this is too much?

edit: fuck it, gonna do em. I want a 175+.

Just be careful for burnout. If you start dropping or feeling tired I would consider stopping for a few days.

[overperformer]

PT 46's RC is actually pretty difficult, so if you did well on it and don't feel like it was an aberration, you're in good shape. For the past few weeks, with the exception of one section, I've been -1 or -0 on every single RC I've taken, and I was -2 on PT 46 RC a week or so prior to making that breakthrough.

awesome! thanks for the confidence boost. i greatly enjoyed the 1st passage about economics (im a business major!). it gave me momentum