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thomasfaichele448

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General · Retake study advice over next month?

thomasfaichele448

Wednesday, Aug 05 2020

@thomasfaichele448 said:

I have been drilling the early games (PT 1-15) and have found this super helpful. Some of them are WEIRD games. I feel like if you can handle the earlier games in a timed setting, it makes it easier when you get thrown a weird one on test day.

Great idea and can second that some of them are strange. I've been doing the same thing. I've actually been going a step further and making "synthetic" games of 3+ star difficulty games. Figured that if I can trudge trough those I can trudge through whatever mud I get in on test day.

General · Retake study advice over next month?

thomasfaichele448

Tuesday, Aug 04 2020

@singh7deepika632 said:

It sounds like you can definitely reach your upper threshold! Don't be discouraged. How have your habits outside of studying looked like? I found myself missing a lot of questions just because I was stressed I had one month left until my exam. I went from scoring -1 or -2 on LR to -6 because I was panicked. In the pressure of the real exam it's easy for all our hard-fought habits to fly out the window and disregard the process we've drilled so often.

Once I starting adopting habits outside of studying to relax me and increase my focus, I've returned to my usual scores. For me, deleting my social media apps and turning my phone off for almost the entire day have increased my attention span for "boring" RC passages. I also adopted meditation and hiking without music. If I can get myself in the zone in activities outside of studying, it makes it easier for me to become deeply immersed within the actual test itself--regardless of conditions like noise distractions, or nerves from testing.

Maybe try reflecting on what you're doing outside of studying? I only say this because it sounds like you have a good grasp on the content, and at this point it's more a psychological game.

Let me know if this helps!

I think this nails a big part of it. The last few weeks I may have leaned too much into the LSAT. I think the last few weeks of checking out from it and now forcing prep into much more tightly defined time buckets with a lot more structure and good outside pressure will pay off. I have always found that I get the most done when different commitments run up against each other. Hoping it is the same thing here! Very helpful, thank you. (I love the turning the phone off idea)

General

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Monday, Aug 03 2020

thomasfaichele448

Retake study advice over next month?

Hi, any advice on how to best prepare for a retake at the end of August? I think I can do better than my July Flex score which was sub-165. I have done LSAT trainer, skimmed Loophole, and did most of the CC over the last 3 months. I also took PTs 73-89, C2, 61, and 50 (20 PTs) as part of my July prep. My 20 PT avg was 170. My most recent 10 PT avg was 172. Most recent 5 was 174. I diagnosed my July results as caused by a combo of 1) semi-external-being-at-home-factors which I plan to mitigate next time plus 2) nerves plus 3) a tough games section (cabinets...) which sort of mentally rocked me ( I may have gotten more than 5 wrong in LG) having gotten used to the -0/-1 LG feeling plus 4) just not my day.

I plan to drill a hard game problem sets daily (3 star plus games) and drill LR & RC sections. Any other "canonical" advice for re-take refinements for test takers who are pretty close to their ceiling but failed to execute on try 1?

Any advice on which remaining PTs to use as full PTs? I was probably going to only do 71 and 72 (whose games I have unfortunately already seen) in the last ten days or so.

Also, this is just me looking for encouragement/needing gas-up but my PTs do indicate I can do better on this thing, right? sigh... Good luck to everyone prepping for this thing. The highs and lows! Onwards!

Thank you!

LSAT · Flaw Questions: Sufficiency/Necessary distinction issues

thomasfaichele448

Wednesday, Jun 24 2020

@thomasfaichele448 said:

@wraith985-4026 @doneill3389668 I am not aware of a single question where the concept of "confusing necessary for sufficient" is conflated in a way to trick us into choosing "confusing sufficient for necessary" in an answer choice or vice versa.

The only thing that I believe comes close to what OP is asking from my reading is PT 51 Section 1 Question 20, where the question gives us:

A---->B

then concludes B

On the basis of A

Answer choice (B) fits this pattern: the denial of the sufficient bringing about the denial of the necessary, but answer choice (E) provides us with:

A--->B

In front of us we have a B

Therefore in front of us we have an A

This is a question (the only one to my knowledge but I could be wrong) where the distinction makes a difference. I did a write up on this question on the comment section found here awhile back:

https://classic.7sage.com/lsat_explanations/lsat-51-section-1-question-20/

I should also note here as a tutor and soon-to-be 1L that we have a few small caveats in how the LSAT describes/the vocabulary around the the suff/necess flaw that we should be aware of:

-The first comes from PT 75 Section 1 Question 12 where answer choice (B) looks like it is describing a flaw but is actually describing the function of a valid contrapositive! Which isn't really even the flaw here for this tough question.

-The LSAT can really hide the Suff/Necess flaw well: please see PT 22 Section 2 Question 25. Here we might be focused on the survey/sample and be diverted from the core flaw.

-If you ever encounter a flaw question where the logic presented looks valid: ie they did an operation with a conditional statement in a way that the logic allows us, then look to the concepts/words for what we could call a "detail creep."

Hope this helps

David

Very helpful and great examples.

LSAT

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Wednesday, Jun 24 2020

thomasfaichele448

Flaw Questions: Sufficiency/Necessary distinction issues

In questions where it is appears that there is a Sufficiency/Necessary issue, are there examples of questions where the SA/NA answer is a trap? I find myself spending way too much time trying to decipher if the stimulus is mistaking sufficiency for necessity or mistaking necessity for sufficiency even when there is only one Answer Choice involving SA/NA.

Does anyone have an example where the distinction matters? My gut tells me to recognize the cookie cutters where you can find them and move on.

For example in PT 80 - Sec 4 - Q16, I knew B was right but for some reason was thinking the order of SA/NA in AC B matters (even though it does not) which made me think that maybe there was a sneaky trap (though I knew there really wasn't).

I go -1 or -2 on LR so don't think this really a foundations issue, more of a confidence thing. Thanks for any thoughts!

General · How do you withdraw from this weekend's test?

thomasfaichele448

Sunday, Jun 14 2020

Nevemind! They replied promptly to my email.

From LSAC:

Also, if you have already registered with Proctor U for a date and time for the June flex, you must login to your ProctorU account and cancel with them as well.

General

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Sunday, Jun 14 2020

thomasfaichele448

How do you withdraw from this weekend's test?

I decided to withdraw from this weekend's administration. On the status page on LSAC's website I do not see any option to withdraw. I gave them a call but they are not open until Wednesday. I sent an email and also submitted a message on their contact us page. Is there anything else to do in order to avoid an absent marking for the exam? Did I misinterpret the withdraw deadline? Is n't it at midnight tonight?

Thank you for any insights!

General

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Friday, Jun 12 2020

thomasfaichele448

Monday LSAT vs pushing past low 170s

Hi - I know this is a nice problem to have but I am looking for advice on if it makes sense to move from June to July LSAT. I am registered for both but hope to take once with highest score possible. My study schedule and overview of PTs are below. I am feeling a bit exhausted but also have always had a shoot your shot mentality and would not hate being done with LSAT on Monday.

My question is how much can I expect to improve if I take a few days to decompress this weekend and then refine with PTs 79-84 doing 1-2 a week for next few weeks? This would probably involve me taking LSAT time down from 80% of time to 30-50%. Would it be typical (expected?) for a test taker with below level of scores to move up to more consistent high 170s? Or does the below pattern indicate an end to realistic improvement. Thank you and good luck to everyone jamming on this stuff.

Overview of studies:

I moved through LSAT trainer in about 1 month while picking and choosing core curriculum lessons as I felt it was needed. I started PT'ing at the the start of June scoring:

April 15 - May 31: LSAT trainer and core curriculum

June onward PT and blindreview:

76 - 169 (173)

77 - 168 (171)

78 - 173 (174)

79-83: saved

84 - 171 (171)

85 - 168 (172)

86 - 169 (170)

87 - 171 (172)

88 - 169 (176)

89 - 173 (173)

I can go -0 in an given section but tend to have one section always go -3 to -5... Timing is improving especially on LR (maybe 5 minutes at end and getting better). RC is always tighter for time. LG has most variability.

General

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Thursday, Jun 04 2020

thomasfaichele448

LSAT Flex / Lawhub RC format on bigger monitor?

Does anyone have screenshots or can they describe how RC section on Lawhub (or ideally LSAT flex) looks on a larger monitor? This is a minor concern but I am studying on a 14 inch laptop and find the scrolling on RC passages makes it slightlly harder to retain the structure. I am wondering if on a larger monitor you can see the entire passage without having to scroll.

Thanks for any info!