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After taking a practice test, I typically feel completely normal, as if nothing has happened.

With one major exception - anytime I take a test with two RC sections, my brain feels like it's bleeding. RC is also my worst section. So, for the rest of my practice tests would it be well advised to always have RC be an experimental section? I really would rather avoid doing 6 section tests....

How many tests are you taking total and what is the duration of your study plan? Also, when you say RC is your worst section, how far off are you from your goals in the other sections?

I take 3 a week; I was planning on taking 7-8 more before the test. In LR, I get from 0 to 4 wrong, and games 0 to 3....however, the last few tests I have been getting 0-1s on those sections (don't want to jinx anything lol).

A perfect example of a typical test for me was the last one I took:

170
LR 1 - 24/25
LR 2 - 24/25
AR - 23/23
RC - 19/27

RamTitan wrote:I take 3 a week; I was planning on taking 7-8 more before the test. In LR, I get from 0 to 4 wrong, and games 0 to 3....however, the last few tests I have been getting 0-1s on those sections (don't want to jinx anything lol).

A perfect example of a typical test for me was the last one I took:

170
LR 1 - 24/25
LR 2 - 24/25
AR - 23/23
RC - 19/27

Those are great section scores. With those results and your time frame, it would seem reasonable to me to only be swapping in RC as your experimental. It's odds-off that the 2xRC scenario happens on test day, but you get the extra practice with you worst section too. Have you tried to create the absolute worst case scenario where you get 2 RC section and they are back to back at the beginning? If so, does it have an effect on your average in the other sections?

RamTitan wrote:After taking a practice test, I typically feel completely normal, as if nothing has happened.

With one major exception - anytime I take a test with two RC sections, my brain feels like it's bleeding. RC is also my worst section. So, for the rest of my practice tests would it be well advised to always have RC be an experimental section? I really would rather avoid doing 6 section tests....

I had a similar dilemma to you as I was prepping. RC was definitely my worst section, and it tired me out more so than the others. I dealt with this by doing extra RC sections in the last few weeks leading up to the test. On days when I wasn't PTing, I would take 2 RC sections and review them, in addition to reviewing my preptest from the day before. Even on days when did take a preptest, I would sometimes take an extra RC section later on, if I had the time. So basically, I did a TON of RC sections.

It wasn't fun, but after a week or so, I started to notice that the passages felt a lot shorter and more manageable. I started to see the structural similarities between passages, and was finally able to predict where passages might go. It also gave me a chance to really refine and practice my approach to reading the passages, which I'm convinced is the most important thing for doing well on this section.

sharkweek wrote:

RamTitan wrote:I take 3 a week; I was planning on taking 7-8 more before the test. In LR, I get from 0 to 4 wrong, and games 0 to 3....however, the last few tests I have been getting 0-1s on those sections (don't want to jinx anything lol).

A perfect example of a typical test for me was the last one I took:

170
LR 1 - 24/25
LR 2 - 24/25
AR - 23/23
RC - 19/27

Those are great section scores. With those results and your time frame, it would seem reasonable to me to only be swapping in RC as your experimental. It's odds-off that the 2xRC scenario happens on test day, but you get the extra practice with you worst section too. Have you tried to create the absolute worst case scenario where you get 2 RC section and they are back to back at the beginning? If so, does it have an effect on your average in the other sections?

I have not, but it looks like I'll be doing that tomorrow haha.

Blueprint Mithun wrote:

RamTitan wrote:After taking a practice test, I typically feel completely normal, as if nothing has happened.

With one major exception - anytime I take a test with two RC sections, my brain feels like it's bleeding. RC is also my worst section. So, for the rest of my practice tests would it be well advised to always have RC be an experimental section? I really would rather avoid doing 6 section tests....

I had a similar dilemma to you as I was prepping. RC was definitely my worst section, and it tired me out more so than the others. I dealt with this by doing extra RC sections in the last few weeks leading up to the test. On days when I wasn't PTing, I would take 2 RC sections and review them, in addition to reviewing my preptest from the day before. Even on days when did take a preptest, I would sometimes take an extra RC section later on, if I had the time. So basically, I did a TON of RC sections.

It wasn't fun, but after a week or so, I started to notice that the passages felt a lot shorter and more manageable. I started to see the structural similarities between passages, and was finally able to predict where passages might go. It also gave me a chance to really refine and practice my approach to reading the passages, which I'm convinced is the most important thing for doing well on this section.

Awesome advice; I'm definitely going to start doing this.

One more question for you kind folks - is taking 3 practice tests a week too much? I've noticed by the 3rd test of the week I am super burnt out and have a much harder time focusing. I'm thinking about knocking it down to 2 tests a week (so 6 more versus doing 8 more as I was only going to do 2 during the week before regardless). Keep in mind that I've already taken over 40 practice tests.

RamTitan wrote:One more question for you kind folks - is taking 3 practice tests a week too much? I've noticed by the 3rd test of the week I am super burnt out and have a much harder time focusing. I'm thinking about knocking it down to 2 tests a week (so 6 more versus doing 8 more as I was only going to do 2 during the week before regardless). Keep in mind that I've already taken over 40 practice tests.

Yea man, I think you're fine at 3 PT's a week. That's what I'm doing right now and it's manageable. As long as you organize your time properly and get in a solid blind review of each test, then you should be good. I struggle to believe that the 3 additional hours required to administer yourself an extra test (and the 3 hour required to BR it afterwards) are going to make or break your mental health. 6 hours isn't going to drive you over the cliff. You're in the homestretch brother...harden the fuck up.

[youtube]unkIVvjZc9Y[/youtube]

ponderingmeerkat wrote:

RamTitan wrote:One more question for you kind folks - is taking 3 practice tests a week too much? I've noticed by the 3rd test of the week I am super burnt out and have a much harder time focusing. I'm thinking about knocking it down to 2 tests a week (so 6 more versus doing 8 more as I was only going to do 2 during the week before regardless). Keep in mind that I've already taken over 40 practice tests.

Yea man, I think you're fine at 3 PT's a week. That's what I'm doing right now and it's manageable. As long as you organize your time properly and get in a solid blind review of each test, then you should be good. I struggle to believe that the 3 additional hours required to administer yourself an extra test (and the 3 hour required to BR it afterwards) are going to make or break your mental health. 6 hours isn't going to drive you over the cliff. You're in the homestretch brother...harden the fuck up.

[youtube]unkIVvjZc9Y[/youtube]

Yeah, you're right. And I would probably study for that amount of time on that day anyways, so I should take a test.

I did my "worst nightmare" scenario today; first two sections were RC. Man oh man, I was so burnt out afterwards.

My strategy for the next 3 weeks will be BRing the RC sections on the day I took the test, and then doing a fresh RC section the next day when I'm BRing the other parts of my test. So, that's 27 RC sections before June 6th. We'll see how this works out.....I switched it up and didn't annotate at all today.

RamTitan wrote:I did my "worst nightmare" scenario today; first two sections were RC. Man oh man, I was so burnt out afterwards.

My strategy for the next 3 weeks will be BRing the RC sections on the day I took the test, and then doing a fresh RC section the next day when I'm BRing the other parts of my test. So, that's 27 RC sections before June 6th. We'll see how this works out.....I switched it up and didn't annotate at all today.

Did you find that you saved more time by not annotating at all?

TheMikey wrote:

RamTitan wrote:I did my "worst nightmare" scenario today; first two sections were RC. Man oh man, I was so burnt out afterwards.

My strategy for the next 3 weeks will be BRing the RC sections on the day I took the test, and then doing a fresh RC section the next day when I'm BRing the other parts of my test. So, that's 27 RC sections before June 6th. We'll see how this works out.....I switched it up and didn't annotate at all today.

Did you find that you saved more time by not annotating at all?

Not at all actually. And I had done both of these RC sections before as well. Maybe it's because this was my first time doing it, but I felt less focused when reading the passages.

Have you heard of edging?

somethingElse wrote:Have you heard of edging?

I have not; what is that?

somethingElse wrote:Have you heard of edging?

ponderingmeerkat wrote:

somethingElse wrote:Have you heard of edging?

Google isn't being kind to me....what is it?

RamTitan wrote:

ponderingmeerkat wrote:

somethingElse wrote:Have you heard of edging?

Google isn't being kind to me....what is it?

I'm quite curious myself o.o

I did two RC sections in a row today, and it felt a lot better, and I'm already noticing common trends in passage structure (also got a 24/27 and a 25/26)

I guess with the LSAT, it's all about cramming it down your throat until you see the patterns

ponderingmeerkat wrote:

somethingElse wrote:Have you heard of edging?

I'm still curious af to know what "edging" is lmao

If it were me I would do two 6-section PTs a week rather than 3x 5sections. Doing 6 section PTs sucks, and then you get used to it, and it's fine. My brain got to a point where I could basically be fatigued/super hungry/etc and I could basically autopilot the 6th section and do just as well if not better on it than the earlier ones.

Really helped me. But, you know, erryone's different and what not.

ETA: I would do my first experimental as the first section so it was sort of my "warm up" and didn't count towards my PT score. And then throw the second experimental in there somewhere later.

.

pretzeltime wrote:If it were me I would do two 6-section PTs a week rather than 3x 5sections. Doing 6 section PTs sucks, and then you get used to it, and it's fine. My brain got to a point where I could basically be fatigued/super hungry/etc and I could basically autopilot the 6th section and do just as well if not better on it than the earlier ones.

Really helped me. But, you know, erryone's different and what not.

ETA: I would do my first experimental as the first section so it was sort of my "warm up" and didn't count towards my PT score. And then throw the second experimental in there somewhere later.

ETA: I get it, so you do 6 section PTs and put 2 experimentals as your first and sixth section? Is that what edging is?

TheMikey wrote:

pretzeltime wrote:If it were me I would do two 6-section PTs a week rather than 3x 5sections. Doing 6 section PTs sucks, and then you get used to it, and it's fine. My brain got to a point where I could basically be fatigued/super hungry/etc and I could basically autopilot the 6th section and do just as well if not better on it than the earlier ones.

Really helped me. But, you know, erryone's different and what not.

ETA: I would do my first experimental as the first section so it was sort of my "warm up" and didn't count towards my PT score. And then throw the second experimental in there somewhere later.

So edging is basically just doing 6 section PTs to build up endurance for just having to do 5 sections?

Babe, google

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orgasm_control

pretzeltime wrote:

TheMikey wrote:

pretzeltime wrote:If it were me I would do two 6-section PTs a week rather than 3x 5sections. Doing 6 section PTs sucks, and then you get used to it, and it's fine. My brain got to a point where I could basically be fatigued/super hungry/etc and I could basically autopilot the 6th section and do just as well if not better on it than the earlier ones.

Really helped me. But, you know, erryone's different and what not.

ETA: I would do my first experimental as the first section so it was sort of my "warm up" and didn't count towards my PT score. And then throw the second experimental in there somewhere later.

So edging is basically just doing 6 section PTs to build up endurance for just having to do 5 sections?

Babe, google

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orgasm_control

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOH. OK. lol best advice I've gotten on here