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kmedelson968

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General · Is burn out real? What do you do to stay happy?

kmedelson968

Tuesday, Oct 21 2014

While I was studying for the test, I had a nearly 10 point drop in practice test scores over 2 or 3 tests. I was despondent, and since my mind was exhausted and also running really fast, I was convinced I was just not working hard enough. My girlfriend saw through it luckily (the lsat can really make you lose perspective!), demanded I take a day off, and basically instructed me to complete an itinerary of things I really like (music and cooking related, in my case, but whatever makes you happy and relaxed). The day after I came back to the test and was back up 10 points again. Also - vigorous exercise and good sleep are crucial. Take care of yourself - makes a huge difference on test day too!

ON THE OTHER HAND: The LSAT requires an enormous amount of mental control even on a good day - not to get disappointed by a hard question, to stay focused when it is going well, etc. So stay methodical and confident. The good rest supports this, but there are moments where you should say to yourself, no matter how you feel "now I am going to read this and retain it, process it logically, and it will work." Good luck!

General

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Saturday, Sep 27 2014

kmedelson968

Cancelling Score - experimental section?

Question for those of you out there who have experience on these things, or just good advice. I took the October LSAT today in Munich - it went as well as it possibly could have. However: I did significantly worse on the fifth section - the second set of logic games - than I usually do, or than I did on the first section of games. Not sure if it was the experimental section. If not, I would certainly not cancel the score, but I guessed on... 4 or 5 questions at the end of it. Two or three of those were informed, partial eliminations, two or three certainly blind guesses. I got a 165 on the June LSAT, and my last PT was a 174. I am worried that if this was not the experimental section, it will bring my score back down into the 160s - was really hoping to stay over 170. Any sound advice would be much appreciated. That said, the rest of the test went really well, and if even two or three of those guesses worked out, the impact on the score would not be so dramatic. Any thoughts?

Most important: best of luck to you all taking it today and loads of good wishes and sympathy!

LSAT · Improving Logic Games Score

kmedelson968

Thursday, Sep 11 2014

Try approaching your setup and improving your understanding of the game rather than the speed of the whole game, setup and questions combined. Take some tough games and diagram them, and explain to yourself at every step (in writing if need be - sometimes this helps me to avoid taking mental shortcuts) exactly why you're making the choices you are, what the inferences are, why this works, and that does not. And do it multiple times, writing out all possible scenarios - for a given question, write out the incorrect ones too and show yourself why they're incorrect. Try approaching the questions with these detailed, carefully thought out diagrams. In a lot of cases - even really tough games - you can just tick them off since you'll now be able to navigate the game really well in your head (or refer quickly to a completely accurate diagram). Of course, you don't have time to do all of this in a section of a test, but it improved my ability to make accurate inferences quickly by a lot. It also helped me a lot to trust my instincts, identify situations in which it would be useful to write out sub game boards, and make inferences that get re-used in multiple games. It turns out that a lot of the games (I think) that initially present the greatest difficulties are not so bad when you take them apart and figure out how they work. Hope this helps, good luck, and try the method on the hardest, strangest, most visually cumbersome games you can. With enough practice you can make even the harder games much more transparent. Even a few hours of this will go a long way.

LSAT · about prephrasing an answer before looking through the AC

kmedelson968

Tuesday, Sep 02 2014

I found this strategy very helpful, if a little time consuming: While drilling LR questions where prephrasing is relevant, write down exactly what you think the answer should be before you look at the answer choices. Then write down the actual correct answer next to your own articulation of the answer. Generate a number of these, and compare your answers with the test's answers. Some will match nearly verbatim. These aren't the questions to worry about. Where this actually helps is seeing how the answer choices can identify the same thing you did in different language - the ways in which this happens are repetitive, and you can learn what to look for and identify blind spots. Even if you don't come up with a list of common ways that the test shifts things around, you'll be getting attuned to the subtleties of the test and see them more clearly when doing these sorts of problems in the future. Hope this is helpful.

General · Strategies for 20 points Improvement from 150s to 170s?

kmedelson968

Friday, Jun 06 2014

cshunger - try underlining or marking the margins around areas of the passage that typically end up in the questions. For example - the passage mentions that something has three main characteristics or "has certain elements of ________." You definitely want to know what those are, and if you don't remember, be able to find them within a few seconds when you are working on a question. Analyze the types of questions that appear, which in reading comprehension are really limited. You'll know what you need to be reading for. Knowing what the questions will be about will guide your attention when you're reading the passage. This will also save you a lot of time on the questions.

General · Strategies for 20 points Improvement from 150s to 170s?

kmedelson968

Thursday, Jun 05 2014

Also have a look at the New York Review of Books (nybooks.com). It contains in depth book reviews covering literature and every area of academia, and also has original articles on politics, art, history, and scientific debates/research. Never thought of it before, but it is pretty much exactly at the level of The Economist and standard RC passages. The wide range might also be good for getting used to the different subjects.

General · Practicing speed for logic Games

kmedelson968

Saturday, May 31 2014

Agreed - It also helped a lot to review all of the foundational lessons on logic and each type of game.

General · Practicing speed for logic Games

kmedelson968

Saturday, May 31 2014

I was having the same issue. This worked really well for me: take some games, and instead of doing the whole games under timed conditions, drill the setups - diagramming and making inferences. Do it in the most detailed way you can. Draw out all of the possible setups based on the rules. Once you're done, test your knowledge on the questions. I found that with that sort of understanding, it was possible in most games, to my surprise, to just tick off the questions quickly and accurately. My ability make and read diagrams improved a lot. I would repeat this over and over again, write out commentary on each rule and inference, and then make notes again on how the questions drew on different rules and inferences. Articulate to yourself why the correct answers are correct, why the incorrect ones are incorrect. What I realized was that I had been just pushing forward on doing timed sections without understanding the games any better. I thought I knew them really well, since I could drill them successfully most of the time. This method helped me actually learn more about the games, and under timed conditions do them much more accurately and with less stress. Go for the difficult games that would scare you if you found them on a practice test.

I also started skipping one game mid-section if necessary. I might finish the first two in fifteen minutes, and then get stuck on a tough one for 13 or 14 minutes - I would not only do poorly on the game, I would not have enough time to finish the last one and be frustrated knowing that with just two more minutes I could've done it well. Switching up the approach and then coming back to a tough game with 10 or so minutes was really helpful. If I get to the setup and realize I'm not thinking about it clearly or having trouble seeing what's going on, I move on. Usually when I come back its way less complicated than I thought and I make it through just fine.

Between these two methods I went from a typical range of between -8 and -10 to between -4 and -1. Good luck!

I would add: don't get bogged down in excessive diagramming when you're doing timed sections. Doing this should improve your understanding of the games and facility with rules and inferences. It doesn't mean you have to spend tons of time on the setup - it should just make that process more reliable and clear.