Recycling Forum

[MyNameIsntJames]

As we all study our poor little brains out for the LSAT, how much does recycling actually hurt you? I just took a LR section where I vaguely remembered the questions and got a 23/25 timed, but I felt like it wasn't legit somehow. But I also don't want to just use up a never before seen LR section to disprove myself. Even though the questions seemed familiar, I didn't remember any answers and still felt myself working out the problems logically in my head, crossing out answer choices and re reading the question sometimes to catch modifiers. However, I don't know if my subconscious was still there remembering me working the problem out before and allowing me to figure it out quicker.

Opinions? Do you ever recycle and if so how long before you do?

[Deardevil]

I think this is more likely with LR, and maybe even RC, than LG.

In LG, recycling doesn't negatively affect things. I don't remember most, if not all, of the answers.
That way, I can still spend a decent amount of time setting up and going through each as if it were my first time.

LR, however... For one PT, I've gotten a pretty nasty score,
but, after reading the explanations, I immediately went back to those sections; ended up getting 100%.
I figure it does somewhat carry over, but the important thing to note is that you shouldn't just remember ACs;
you're still spending time working out why things are correct and incorrect as you normally would.
If anything, experiment with this and put off repeating the test for a while,
then get back to it another time to see if you get the same score when you don't remember anything whatsoever; maybe two weeks.

[mwells56]

I think this is more likely with LR, and maybe even RC, than LG.

In LG, recycling doesn't negatively affect things. I don't remember most, if not all, of the answers.
That way, I can still spend a decent amount of time setting up and going through each as if it were my first time.

LR, however... For one PT, I've gotten a pretty nasty score,
but, after reading the explanations, I immediately went back to those sections; ended up getting 100%.
I figure it does somewhat carry over, but the important thing to note is that you shouldn't just remember ACs;
you're still spending time working out why things are correct and incorrect as you normally would.
If anything, experiment with this and put off repeating the test for a while,
then get back to it another time to see if you get the same score when you don't remember anything whatsoever; maybe two weeks.

Are you making photocopies of each test? I feel like I want to do this but don't want to 1) spend my time on that and 2) dump a large chunk of my allotted printing budget at school lol

[RamTitan]

I think this is more likely with LR, and maybe even RC, than LG.

In LG, recycling doesn't negatively affect things. I don't remember most, if not all, of the answers.
That way, I can still spend a decent amount of time setting up and going through each as if it were my first time.

LR, however... For one PT, I've gotten a pretty nasty score,
but, after reading the explanations, I immediately went back to those sections; ended up getting 100%.
I figure it does somewhat carry over, but the important thing to note is that you shouldn't just remember ACs;
you're still spending time working out why things are correct and incorrect as you normally would.
If anything, experiment with this and put off repeating the test for a while,
then get back to it another time to see if you get the same score when you don't remember anything whatsoever; maybe two weeks.

Are you making photocopies of each test? I feel like I want to do this but don't want to 1) spend my time on that and 2) dump a large chunk of my allotted printing budget at school lol

Maybe photocopy games, but I always just did diagrams on a scratch piece of paper so I wouldn't mess up the original.

If you want long enough with LR, it won't impact your sections. RC can be a problem, but even then it's helpful to do a section 4 or 5x; it wasn't until I saw a lot of a few passages that I understood the structure of all RC passages are pretty much the same.

[Deardevil]

Are you making photocopies of each test? I feel like I want to do this but don't want to 1) spend my time on that and 2) dump a large chunk of my allotted printing budget at school lol

What else do you print? My budget was only $30 per semester, but that was enough for 500 sheets.
If you don't hand in 20-page essays every other week, use the opportunity to photocopy at least some sections you plan on revisiting.
It's not absolutely necessary, but may be helpful in the long run. Don't be lazy now.

[mwells56]

Are you making photocopies of each test? I feel like I want to do this but don't want to 1) spend my time on that and 2) dump a large chunk of my allotted printing budget at school lol

What else do you print? My budget was only $30 per semester, but that was enough for 500 sheets.
If you don't hand in 20-page essays every other week, use the opportunity to photocopy at least some sections you plan on revisiting.
It's not absolutely necessary, but may be helpful in the long run. Don't be lazy now.

Last semester I took a philosophy class that had us print out every single reading we did throughout the semester (probably fell somewhere between 40-90 pages a week) and that class almost singlehandedly depleted my budget, so I guess I'm a little paranoid right now haha.

edit: Are you only photocopying full-length tests or are you also photocopying drills?

[Deardevil]

Last semester I took a philosophy class that had us print out every single reading we did throughout the semester (probably fell somewhere between 40-90 pages a week) and that class almost singlehandedly depleted my budget, so I guess I'm a little paranoid right now haha.

edit: Are you only photocopying full-length tests or are you also photocopying drills?

Ah, makes sense. I've never had a class that required extensive printing, so most of that printing money went to waste.

The only test I've printed out is the June 2007 one that LSAC has for free.
As you say, I can't fathom going through that process again and again haha.
If you're still weak at drilling, I would suggest photocopying those sections.
As an alternative, you can always erase and start anew;
I do this a bit, but that also takes some effort, so pick your poison.

[mwells56]

Last semester I took a philosophy class that had us print out every single reading we did throughout the semester (probably fell somewhere between 40-90 pages a week) and that class almost singlehandedly depleted my budget, so I guess I'm a little paranoid right now haha.

edit: Are you only photocopying full-length tests or are you also photocopying drills?

Ah, makes sense. I've never had a class that required extensive printing, so most of that printing money went to waste.

The only test I've printed out is the June 2007 one that LSAC has for free.
As you say, I can't fathom going through that process again and again haha.
If you're still weak at drilling, I would suggest photocopying those sections.
As an alternative, you can always erase and start anew;
I do this a bit, but that also takes some effort, so pick your poison.

Gracias. I'll probably just go with erasing, at least with the drills. I bought the powerscore game type training books so i'll probably have more drills than i need anyways

[SunDevil14]

As we all study our poor little brains out for the LSAT, how much does recycling actually hurt you? I just took a LR section where I vaguely remembered the questions and got a 23/25 timed, but I felt like it wasn't legit somehow. But I also don't want to just use up a never before seen LR section to disprove myself. Even though the questions seemed familiar, I didn't remember any answers and still felt myself working out the problems logically in my head, crossing out answer choices and re reading the question sometimes to catch modifiers. However, I don't know if my subconscious was still there remembering me working the problem out before and allowing me to figure it out quicker.

Opinions? Do you ever recycle and if so how long before you do?

I believe that if anything recycling helps the most with timing. Presumably if you did a decent job reviewing the question, and the thought process behind it, it is likely you would get a similar question correct. I believe where it comes into play is that you arrive at the correct answer quicker and thus can spend more time on difficult questions. Maybe you would get less familiar difficult questions right without the additional time, perhaps not.

As pointed out in this thread, recycling likely has the largest effect on LR. Honestly I believe that one should recycle LG quite often especially if one has a great degree of difficulty the first time around. My prep material suggests at least 10 period before recycling. I find that recommendation to be spot on. If you are especially concerned wait 2 weeks.

[MyNameIsntJames]

Thank you for the advice all. I know for that particular section it had to have been at least a few months since I had taken it, so perhaps memory did not artificially boost the score although it may have boosted the time.