Discussions

LSAT

New post

208 posts in the last 30 days

For games, I have just recently started to reach the harder games in the curriculum and have only practiced maybe less than 10 games. But I noticed that for some of the harder games, I have no clue how to setup the diagram. Is this ability to recognize how to diagram a game come after going through a good number of games and explanations or am I missing something? ​I feel like I am wasting games by watching the explanations.

Thank you in advance!

2

Hey everyone,

There have been some really helpful posts on here and I'm looking for some advice on my personal situation. Longer post, so I appreciate anyone who has input!

I've been waitlisted from a bunch of T14 schools this cycle after applying with a very high 160s score from more than a year ago. I sort of winged it studying on my own for that first take and I know I can score higher. In that round of studying, I used most of the PTs in the 50s as well as some scattered tests in the 60s, 70s, and PT 87 because I didn't really understand the whole idea that recent tests are more important.

I figured the best way to improve my application while on the waitlist, or help with reapplying next cycle, was to retake, so I started studying again in February aiming for a retake in either April or June. I'm registered for April, but it's coming up on the date change deadline and I need to make a decision.

Right now, my average over my last 10 Preptests (five tests across the 50s, 60s, and 70s and 80-84) is just above 173. I still have 85, 86, 88, 89, May 2020 clean. RC had been my weakest section last time around, but practicing the memory method with lots of drilling I'm consistently down to 1-3 incorrect per section. For LR I'm at a solid 0-1 incorrect. The problem is that all of a sudden, on some of the most recent tests, I'm missing a full logic game and that's taking a big bite out of my practice test scores as well as that 10 test average - i.e. a 166 on #81 and a 169 on #83 where I completely balked on one game each. I sort of panicked in both of those cases when I was obviously missing an inference, but was able to fix everything on Blind Review relatively quickly. Still, those tests are so recent that I'm worried I could screw up a LG section on the actual test and mess up my overall score if I retake in April.

I'm taking this week to go back over Grouping Games (these seem to be part of the problem) and drilling harder problem sets along with as many Miscellaneous Games as I can find. I've also foolproofed all of the games sections I've taken since February. I'm thinking about taking PT 85 and 86 before the 27th (date change deadline) to make a final decision on April.

Alternatively, I could switch to June and really spend a lot of time on LG in April and May, finish all of PTs 60-80, and then come back to those last five recent tests. I am worried a June score won't be as helpful with the waitlist this cycle, but it will still be useful if I end up reapplying. Of course, I also want to avoid getting a lower or comparable score on the April test.

Any thoughts on April vs. June and what to prioritize for either one?

0

This is very specific, but I've noticed a pattern in my LR performance where I tend to get questions that involve the following two topics/construction wrong, or at least I find them more challenging:

(1) Questions that have to do with studies, usually in the social sciences and sometimes the biological sciences. For example, an experiment having to do with the learning patterns of babies in different settings, or some study having to do with some substance and its effect on cholesterol. This usually comes in the form of Weaken/Strengthen questions.

(2) Questions that describe the behaviour of some kind of animal, like some bird and its habitat or some predator vs. its prey. This usually comes in the form of Resolve the Paradox/Reconcile & Explain questions.

I don't remember specific questions, but I'm sure those of us who have done enough LR have all seen questions like these.

Does anyone have very specific topical weaknesses like these? I'm not quite sure how to get better at LR questions with these topics. I don't think it's an issue of the question type, but the topic.

Does anyone know any good outside material for a layman to get better at these topics? For example, I know J.Y. talks a lot about control groups/how to run an experiment but I seem to have knowledge missing in this area. I'm not necessarily looking for specific materials, which would be good too, but I'd really like some advice as to what to look up/Google to study some background knowledge for these topics.

Thanks!

0

Would someone be able to help me out with this one? I didn't trust the correct AC from the beginning because I thought it was too much of a sufficient assumption. I know something can be both sufficient and necessary but this question just really got me.

Thanks in advance!

1

Hello guys,

I have a quick question for y'all concerning two answer choices in this question. I believe it is critical to understand why answers are wrong — especially for "weaken except" questions. In this situation, while I got the right answer, I'm still left to wonder how and why answer choices B and E weaken the argument.

Thanks!

Admin note: https://classic.7sage.com/lsat_explanations/lsat-28-section-1-question-23/

0

One of my biggest areas of weakness is the A/B Reading Passage. I know JY recommends starting with Passage A and answering every relevant question before moving to Passage B. Is this the best approach? I would love suggestions on approaching this section.

1

Has anyone else found their RC score dropped after they started taking online PTs? I started with physical LSATs, but switched to taking them online to simulate the flex layout. I feel like RC is much more difficult without being able to track viewpoints, tone, arguments, and main points directly on paper. Any advice for annotating on the digital LSAT?

1

I have had 7Sagers reach out regarding LG and many of them are at the -4/-5 range. A common thing I am seeing is that they are not BRing like they were in the beginning. BRing take on another role in LG once we have been doing it for a while. Yes when you are many PTs in and you can do sequencing games in BR at 100% accuracy what's the point of spending the extra time? The extra time put in is to help you speed up and make inferences even faster and thus allowing more time on harder games. Treat the simple games like you would the more difficult because you can get faster and maybe you can shave 10 seconds then 30 then 40 seconds off the easy games by seeing them and working them over to get everything out of them. Maybe this comes from knowing pressure points better and being able to cross out answer before even trying them. Or just setting up 1 master game board and because you are so proficient at the game now you would not need to draw another game board and you can see the answers "in your mind's eye" and if there is time after completing the section you can do double check. Just because we can complete the easy games at the time recommended does not mean we should ease up on the intensity of the game. If it is a simple sequencing and all the rules make one chain and it only has 5 questions I can do it between 3-3:30 with 100% and this allows me to gain 1 full minute or more to work on the harder games to come, and sometimes the extra seconds and minutes we bank on the easy is the difference between -0 and -3. This is because the set up normally takes X amount of time regardless of the number of questions. For example you are in the last game and there are 6 questions left and you have ten minutes. Set up takes 4 minutes because its a hard game and you did a partial split, now there is only 6 minutes for 6 questions, not a bad scenario, until there is not a single question that gives you an extra rule to work with now those extra 2 minutes would allow you to get to the last 2ish questions.

I realize that is an extreme example but I hear it all the time, "if I only had 2 more minutes." Plus having extra time going into games allows us to relax and not make mistakes because of our test day anxiety and feeling rushed.

3
User Avatar
•

Saturday, Mar 13, 2021

royalj08801

"Usually"

Hello all, I'm having trouble with the word usually in LR questions. Can anyone point me to the section that covers this term, if any?

Thanks

#help

0

Any advice on what era to focus in on? I feel like they're running out of undisclosed sections from the more recent testing dates, but I could definitely be wrong ¯_(ツ)_/¯

2

I'd be interested to hear what people received on the Feb LSAT FLEX compared to practice tests. My last 2 practice tests were 164/165. I just got my actual test score and it was 157. I guess some of that could be nerves, but it is significantly lower than I anticipated. I signed up for score preview and I had already decided to wait to apply next year, so I have time to retest. Still, I'm (not pleasantly) surprised. Will we get to see how we performed section by section, or just the final score?

1

Im really curious as to know which logic games cause the most difficulty for other people?

I think in/out games, and sequencing-conditional games are the hardest for me. They are hard are take the longest, and when the target time is achieved.

0

I'm sure this has been covered before so I apologize in advance for the redundancy...but I'm having serious second thoughts about writing April 2021 and was hoping to get some good advice:

I've been studying curriculum for about 4mo, and within the last month and a half moved to practice exams. I can grasp the concepts in theory but when it comes to practice I miss the execution. As a result my scores are wildly all over the place, ranging from 162 to my raw score of 147. I'm a bit dejected by the trend in my scores and the general anxiety I'm feeling ahead of April isn't helping my confidence much more.

I'm at a point where I'm weighing the cost/benefits of the uncertainty going into April vs. delaying the inevitable in hope of a consistent score. I'm planning on applying next cycle for what its worth.

Would appreciate any perspective on this, thanks! -A

0

Confirm action

Are you sure?