Day 1
Day off
Day 2
I’m going to pause my drilling and read the chapters 8 and 9. Chapter 8 is a long chapter on conditional reasoning and it looks like it can help me a lot. I’m also going to review relevant PowerScore materials.
PowerScore: A principle is a broad rule that specifies what actions or judgments are correct in certain situations.
MLSAT:
How to interpret “except perhaps” statements:
- 1. Identify the normal state of affairs
2. Identify the intruder
3. Think: If the intruder does not intrude, we must get the normal state
4. Write your conditional statement accordingly (no intruder -> normal state)
PT15 – S2 – Q18 I would have had a really hard time with this question before I learned how to use the conditional link strategy. Mastering conditional logic is going to be key for high level LR questions.
Finished chapter 8. I will likely need to review this chapter a few times, there’s a lot of good stuff here.
Started chapter 9.
I don’t feel like 11 minutes to do the last 8 questions is realistic. There’s so much text in the questions and answers that it takes almost that long just to read all the stimuli and answer choices. It’ll take more time to analyze everything.
Finished chapter 9. Going to top this study session off with some LGs.
PT19 – G4 Very simple game
PT37 – G3 Misread rule #2 at first, otherwise very straight forward
PT38 – G3 Straight forward games
Day 3 + 4
Days off.
Day 5
21/25 level 4 principle (identify) questions.
Started principle (apply) questions.
6/8 level 2 questions. I need to make sure to read question stems carefully, they ask very specific things sometimes.
4/4 level 3 questions. For some reason, PT33 – S1 – Q16 was incredibly satisfying to do. It’s such a great demonstration of what this question type can be. The strategies I learned in the conditional logic chapter helped me a lot here. I think that chapter is a must read for anyone prepping for the LSAT unless you’ve had exposure to conditional logic already.
6/8 level 4 questions. I felt really confident moving through these questions so it was a little surprising to see I got 2 questions wrong. I over abbreviated the conditional rules in one question and I misread on of the answer choices in the other. Despite the results, I’m very confident with this question type and I think this will be one of my strengths on test day.
LG questions.
PT4 – G2 A bit slow in recognizing some inferences but questions went smoothly
PT5 – G2 Still a bit slow, but still accurate
PT5 – G3 Getting faster. The questions feel easier.
PT9 – G1 Getting better.
Day 6
Started reading chapter 10.
Identify the disagreement questions:
- 1. Don’t infer
2. Identify the overlap
3. Anticipate the point of disagreement (likely the premise or conclusion)
PT32 – S4 – Q12 I’m really curious why the subject of art repeatedly appears on the LSAT. It doesn’t seem to have all that much to do with law school. I feel like at least one of the test makers must be an art connoisseur.
Finished with chapter 10. I feel pretty comfortable with argument structure questions.
Day 7
Started method (argument) questions
10/10 level 2 questions
I just reviewed chapter 9 and was disappointed to see that many of the questions were taken from modern LSATs. I think MLSAT should give a warning before using questions like these so we don’t accidentally spoil tests we want to use as practice tests.
14/17 level 3 questions.
Final thoughts
A few unexpected events popped up this week that were distracting in terms of both the time and the emotional energy needed to address them. Optimistically, I will only need to take a day or two off next week from my LSAT studies to finish addressing these issues. Realistically, things will probably drag into at least the beginning of May.
This week is pretty "bleh". I can't fully describe how I feel about everything that's happened and everything that will happen, I'm just... in a daze at the moment. Oh well.