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I know I've reached out to a few of you over the last few months as I've been struggling in my prep (thank you to those of you who replied with great advice), but I seem to have hit a wall and could use any advice I can get. Sorry in advance, it's a bit of a long post!
I started my LSAT journey in Feb 2017, where I took a diagnostic test a scored a 140. Over the next 10 months I used Powerscore but I didn't really see any improvements and joined the 7Sage community in March 2018. I've been studying full-time since November 2018
Since then, I took about 3 days off and started again, doing retakes and practice tests and drilling sections. I identified my weak areas as being in LR where I needed to really engage with the stimulus and and in RC where I had to make sure I was taking in what was being said (Because in untimed practice I was fine, it was in a timed situation where nothing I was reading seemed to be retaining) and I did drills and figured out strategies to improve. I also read Ellen Cassidy's book and the LSAT trainer because I know these target weak areas such as mine. I'm hesitant to take any more PT's because I don't just want to burn through them.
I've done my best to focus on the learning and inculcating good habits, rather than chasing the score, but I am still stuck on a 158 and my BR is still a168. My aim is to get to a 170+ and I am registered for the June and July exam. I have already put over a year's solid work into this and I don't want to just give up because I know people score 170+ all the time. I know my diagnostic is much lower that the average (that I have seen) and I've realized I take much longer than most people to understand things - but I don't think of myself as dumb or anything, I just have not been able to get my learning to where it needs to be to get my dream score.
Clearly I'm doing something wrong, I'm just not sure what. Any advice on how to proceed would be greatly appreciated :)
A
Paragraph 1: Relation
Paragraph 2: Evidence
Paragraph 3: Execption
MP: Usually more agricultural dependence, more decays
Tone: Scientific
B
Paragraph 1: Population that HG to DA
Paragraph 2: Decay may be from increased carbs or alterations in tooth wear
Paragraph 3: Diet
Paragraph 4: Do not conform to generalization
MP: Do not conform to generalization
Tone: Scientific
Viewpoints: Slight surprise
Low Resolution:
Paragraph 1: Issue/-CMMI1+2
Paragraph 2: -CMMI3/+CMMI1
Paragraph 3: -CMMI4/+CMMI2+3, Ex
Paragraph 4: +CMMI4
MP: CMMI have a legitimate place in courtrooms
Tone: For use of CMMI in court
Viewpoints: Some opponents of the general use of CMMI, AP, Some lawyers
Low Resolution:
Paragraph 1: M1 - radiocarbon dating
Paragraph 2: M2 - lichenometry
Paragraph 3: Evaluation = M2 is better than M1 (AP)
MP: lichenometry is better than radiocarbon dating
Tone: Pro lichenometry
Viewpoints: AP
Resolution:
Paragraph 1: Report/What is said
Paragraph 2: Specifics of what it said/Aim/Conditions
Paragraph 3: AP does not like it 1
Paragraph 4: AP does not like it /reasons hold for all clients
MP: These fees have issues associated with them
Tone: Not liking it
Viewpoints: AP
I totally get you! I could not figure out q15 at all and I felt like I missed something super obvious as well, but it's a hard question
Resolution:
Paragraph 1: Start of C political activism/Grape boycott/theatre
Paragraph 2: Inspo for valdez/how acto worked/aim/effect
Paragraph 3: No tonly valdex/acto collective effort = valdex + carpas
MP: Teatro Campnes was part of Chicano political activism as led by Valdez, but was a collective effort
Tone: Not only valdez effort
Viewpoints: Valdez, AP, Yolanda
A
Paragraph 1: Aristotle finding/Von Frisch pattern/specific mechanism?
Paragraph 2: Wenner and Esch sounds/Many scientists thought bees had no hearing/Wenner said the smell
Paragraph 3: Gould said not smell/Kirchner and Michelsen said sounds
MP: Bees communicate through sound to other bees to tell them about a good food source
Tone: For the sound of bees
Viewpoints: Many as said above, AP
B
Paragraph 1: All animals communicate/some symbolically/Seyfarth et. al. Vervet study
Paragraph 2: Von Frisch - bees dance/Wenner - smell, but not so
Paragraph 3: Do not follow ANY information, Gould
MP: Some animals communicate symbolically
Tone: Neutral
Viewpoints: Many as said above and AP
Low Resolution:
Paragraph 1: What is SS/NU - no SS 1
Paragraph 2: NU - no SS 2-4/NU suggestion
Paragraph 3: Opponents of NU/AP defends NU against their opponents
MP: NU does not like SS and believes development should be done based on early 20th c urban neighborhoods
Tone: Side of NU
Viewpoints:NU, Opponents of NU and AP
I'm not sure if this is the correct way of thinking, but if we have already figured out the contrapositive of the second principle (I'm ignoring the first principle as it is much easier) - can't we just look for a conclusion that matches either - Retool/ or [legally required or long term substantial savings] instead of combing through each answer choice under timed conditions?
#help
The way I eliminated D was to say that - "less favorable position" doesn't necessarily mean that their prosperity was impacted one way or another, it requires us to make a lot of assumptions in order to get the answer to fit
Resolution:
Paragraph 1: Experiment
Paragraph 2: UG/how it often played out/Puzzling according to economics
Paragraph 3: Some theorists - prehistoric ancestors need for support of a strong group
Paragraph 4: AP - Years of living in small groups and evolution favored angry responses to low offers
MP: Response in UG to reject low offers probably stems from the evolutionary response that favored angry responses to low offers
Tone: "Compelling explanation"
Viewpoints: AP
Resolution:
Paragraph 1: Who/Characteristics/Ex
Paragraph 2: CB mentor/Led to thinking that sculptors relied only on a negative light
Paragraph 3: Returned to the US to work for BF where he started to use chrome steel
Paragraph 4: Fundamental invisibility of surface + analogy - communicated through reflections of images surrounding them
Paragraph 5: Natural evolution
MP: IN brought about the use of positive light reflections and fundamentally invisible surfaces
Tone: Likes IN
Viewpoints: AP
Low Resolution:
Paragraph 1: False impression
Paragraph 2: Reality/Skill 1
Paragraph 3: Skill 2
Paragraph 4: Counterargument and response
High Resolution:
Paragraph 1: What/Problem/ False impression 1 and 2
Paragraph 2: Reality/Example/Interpretation
Paragraph 3: Synthesis - able laws as a whole and synthesize other areas
Paragraph 4: Regionally different/Skills acquired in mastering statutes important
MP: Statutory law should be there so that there is interpretation and synthesis
Tone: Pro statutory law
Viewpoints: AP and "counter argument" people
A
Paragraph 1: Recent studies/Problems
Paragraph 2: Brute force explanation/Ex/available computers inadequate for the task
Paragraph 3: Available computers capacity increasing and the task can be shared/public participation
MP: New way of computers to compute trends via individual computers sharing the load
Tone: Not happy with old way
Viewpoints: AP
B
Paragraph 1: "Parallel"
Paragraph 2: Ex of ants
Paragraph 3: Pradigm shift from sequential to parallel
MP: Pradigm shift from sequential to parallel as exemplified in nature
Tone: Excited about new way
Viewpoints: AP
When I mapped these concepts out in lawgic, I found it much easier to eliminate. Since it's an MSS question all we have to do it take the premises offered to us and push out a truth based on some or all of them. I eliminated A because the conditional as I understood it was - Apologise sincerely --> acknowledge acted wrongfully, but A combines these concepts in an incorrect manner.
I think this question has a lot to do with being able to suppress information. So:
P1 - Medical specialist --> [let's represent the information about graduating as D]
P2 - Medical specialist (recognised) --> complete evaluation
C - So any who qualified to be a recognized Medical specialist is competent
Now, why should I believe that? Well the recognized gives us a clue as to the assumption the argument is making - that if you complete the evaluation you are components and C states that.
So when I was breaking down the argument, the conclusion - Bach is remembered not because of his high ration, but because he was a prolific composer, which we are told means he composed a lot. The reason we are given for this is that - because he composed a lot i.e was prolific, of course, his ratio would be high.
So we need to weaken the structure for this argument:
(A) Correct - This directly weakens the support that because he was prolific and so his ratio was high, he was remembered as other composers who were prolific, should have also had a high ratio and been remembered by the same logic, but that is not the case.
(B) Okay great, but irrelevant
(C) Forgotten doesn't mean not included
(D) Don't need exact because we are discussing ratios
(E) Irrelevant
So the way I did it was to suppress the argument first and map out the logical relation which is Problem disappear ---> Only if (Gov steps in) --> Raise taxes. To conclude that "this" is the referential phrase for Gov and not Problem, you need to try and just parse out the argument to understand that the necessary condition for problem disappearing is government intervention and so it makes sense that the necessary condition for government intervention is raising taxes.
I know it's very confusing, so I hope that helps even a little bit!
I'm not sure if anyone is in the same boat as me, but my rough plan has always been to get a US JD and then move to maybe Asia, Australia or London to practise law (I'm Australian by nationality). Does anyone have any insight into this process and the considerations or challenges that are associated with it?
Not sure if this helps, but from "governments should not be prevented from allocating resources to projects whose intended consequences do not directly benefit most people", I didn't see how this was the principle because the stimulus did not discuss intended consequences do not directly benefit most people, but rather it talked about unintended consequences that have had a tremendous impact on daily life. So that's how I eliminated A.
Because B doesn't adequately ID the flaw in the argument - the flaw is not "that is presumes without justification that being careful means avoidance", the flaw is that is doesn't address the central concern as AC C says.
B
High Resolution:
Paragraph 1: Expectations is a key determinant in musical emotions/About build up and release of tension
Paragraph 2: Mismacth
Paragraph 3: Familiarity and pleasure
MP: Expectation is a key determinant in musical emotions
Tone: Neutral
Viewpoints: AP
Low Resolution:
Paragraph 1: Issue/Concession/Difference 1 and 2
Paragraph 2: Concession/Different conceptions 1 and 2
Paragraph 3: Expands on conception 2 - context, implication and = should be given more weight
MP: Can see why Jewett would be aligned with domestic novelists of the previous generation, but should not be
Tone: For Jewett, but understanding
Viewpoints: AP