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zacharysizemore786

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LSAT · PT79.S4.Q22 - after a hepadnavirus inserts itself

zacharysizemore786

Monday, Nov 28 2016

My reasoning for believing that C would strengthen it is because if the insertion occurs at a random spot when a species initially receives it, and the two birds have it in the exact same spot, it strengthens the arguments that the virus was contracted 25 million years ago by an ancestor.

Think about it: If the HV is always in the same spot, who cares if the birds have it in the exact same spot? Everyone would have it in the exact same spot. If it were in the same spot, the two birds could have got it at any time after diverging from their ancestor. This element of randomness makes that highly unlikely.

General · LOR-how much time should we give?

zacharysizemore786

Saturday, Nov 26 2016

1. My general rule is to give them 1 1/2 to 2 months after my initial asking of them without ever asking them about it further. Professors usually have a lot on their plates, especially since many serve as several different things within their university.

2. I usually ask a little more professors than I need to exactly for this reason. If I need two, I ask three. This way if one is flakey it won't hurt you, and if you DO get three and can submit three letters to a school than the more the merrier!

3. Is the professor you have taken familiar with the way law school admissions are done? I actually had a rec tell me to ask her for one "when I am applying" and I informed her that the LSAC can save her letter and I can use it either this cycle or next depending on when I ultimately apply. After laying my plan out for her, she was more than happy to write one sooner rather than later. You might want to try explaining this to her if it is an issue for her.

My advice: If you really want to stick with her ask an additional professor in case she flakes. Personally she sounds like she might be a little more trouble than she is worth, and in your situation I(personally) would look for another person to write it. If you are/were an involved student you should have no shortage of viable professors.

LSAT · Question stem misleads about type of question? [Throws up hands, gives up]

zacharysizemore786

Friday, Nov 25 2016

You still need to read the question stem to know exactly what you are meant to do; and the question stem indicates perfectly what type of question it is. The point isn't that the question stem tricks you or doesn't reveal the question type. The point is that the phrasing of the question stem, while similar to MSS, is indeed astrengthening question due to the way the sentence reads.

In short, JY's point isn't that the stem completely hides the nature of the question; his point is that some people might be tripped up by the wording. A person with fully developed reading comprehension won't be confused by the sentence; his warning would apply more to people who might read too fast or who still have a little bit to go in that area.

I wouldn't give this a huge amount of thought; if the sentence trips you up now just continue to develop your reading comprehension skill as well as your familiarity with the LSAT question types and soon enough these kind of questions will be no issue! I hope I covered all of the bases and I hope you understand what I mean.

General · Do you get nervous when you put 3 of the same letter in a row?

zacharysizemore786

Friday, Nov 25 2016

@.rizeq lol

@

Yes!!!

I was just talking about this on Discord! I did a section the other day with two blocks like this; one where 5 of 6(or 6 of 7?) in a row had the same answer, and another where 4 of 5 in a row had the same answer. It definitely worries/shocks me, but I would never change an answer because of it. It is all mind games.

LSAT · PT72.S4.G1 - a radio station airs hourly news updates

zacharysizemore786

Saturday, Nov 19 2016

@ Yes, as I indicated, the fact that (B) is correct for Q1

implies

T—W.

No, it simply implies that this is a possibility. The fact that it is possible in one scenario does not mean it is always the case. We can only conclude that it is possible that T-W, not that it is required.

LSAT · PT72.S4.G1 - a radio station airs hourly news updates

zacharysizemore786

Saturday, Nov 19 2016

This actually doesn't require you to assume these; the other four answer choices are incorrect on their own.

A violates that N is the longest

C violates that S is the shortest

D violates I...W(I is longer than W)

E violates that each segment needs a Local Interest report(The second segment only has General Interest)

With these four eliminated, B HAS to be correct.

Edit: I decided this wasn't a complete enough explanation since it didn't cover 5 and 6.

Looking at Question 5, we can see once again that the answer itself is correct without this assumption. If I were the last report of the first segment, W could not be in the first segment since I must be longer than W. Similarly, I must be longer than S since S is ALWAYS the shortest. Since I is the last(shortest) of the first segment, the second segment must be W and S.

So now lets look at the first segment. We have I as last, and two blank spaces left. Well, since N is ALWAYS the longest, It must be N-T-I. As you can see, we arrive at this answer not because of the assumption that T-I, it is simply a product of the existing restrictions.

Now, question 6. The only reason T - I is the case here is because the game dictated this.

So can we have I-T? Yes. Consider:

1: NWS

2: IT

Unless I am wrong, this is a valid answer. As you can see, T - I is not a must be true.

General · PT 79

zacharysizemore786

Thursday, Nov 17 2016

@.rizeq Also someone on here had an issue about it saying it will be delivered in 1 to 2 months lol but they ended up getting it within the week.

I can confirm that the date it claims you will get it is not always representative of the actual date. When I ordered PT79 the estimated date was nearly a week after I actually got it. I think they are inflating dates just on the off chance that something does cause a delay(like high demand due to it just being released).

General · How often do you actually diagram per LR section?

zacharysizemore786

Tuesday, Nov 15 2016

@ For LG, actually reading choices help me bc I found sometimes I miss a sub-game board and miss some inferences and sometimes I even mis-represent rules. But maybe this may be an indicator I'm not mature on LG?

My personal opinion on this: Finding out you are misrepresenting rules mid-game is a clear indication you haven't matured, as you put it, in LG. It is good that you have been saved by skimming at certain times, but that is a pretty shaky/risky plan. Don't beat yourself up over it, but definitely try to improve on this. Practice LG and Lawgic until you can confidently represent rules and diagram effectively. The other things, such as inferences and sub-game boards, will also come along with mastery.

@ For RC, the answer choices become so long on modern LSAT so I tend to skip once I see a word that feels not right...such as "disaprovement" when the question asks about author's attitude but in the passsage they actually approve it...especially on those long AC (4-5 sentences) I just don't want to read all of them...no enough time if I do so. I was not sure this is OK or I should skim even if I don't have time..

So you are asking me if it is okay to skip these choices? If you are confident an answer is wrong, and it turns out you are right in practice, then I say yes. I bail when it becomes clear to me a choice is wrong, I don't wait. However, if when you do this that answer choice turns out to be correct that is an issue. If that happens, you need to work on your evaluation of the language of the passage and text. Some AC that are wrong may not be so obvious, but if a question has 2-3 blatantly wrong choices it is nice to not waste time on them.

General · How often do you actually diagram per LR section?

zacharysizemore786

Tuesday, Nov 15 2016

In LG conventional wisdom seems to indicate that if an answer choice is correct then you should move on and only ensure that the others are wrong with extra time. In many of JY's explanation videos you will hear him say things like "And since this is the right answer you just move on" or "If this were an actual test you would move on, but since this is practice lets check the others...".

If I am wrong, someone PLEASE correct me, but everything I've seen seems to indicate that wrong choices should only be proofed with extra time.

Keep in mind though that with some question types, such as "Complete and Accurate List" questions it might be best to read all answers because if A, B, C and D can fit into a slot an answer choice of "A, B, and C" is wrong. LG to me is the most unique in regards to your question because it is the section with the most "obvious" correctness to the answers. All questions in all sections have only one right answer, but LG is a bit more mathematical to me; if you completely understand the fundamentals and the game you should have full confidence in your answers.

As for RC, yes there are times I move on because of a word. One good example would be "Which describes the function of X paragraph". If the paragraph doesn't list anything, and one answer choice begins "It lists..." why continue with it? Sure, if you get stuck you might want to revisit it, but to me a red flag like that indicates to just move on and see what else is there first.

General · How often do you actually diagram per LR section?

zacharysizemore786

Tuesday, Nov 15 2016

In regards to reading every answer choice: I would say I read every answer choice 85-90% of the time. I do this because I want to make sure any correct option I did pick was not wrong due to me overlooking something. However, there are exceptions:

1. I have "guessed" the answer. This is common in MBT and Assumption questions. Sometimes I will give the others a cursory glance, but if I can guess the answer I am usually comfortable moving on.

2. In Parallel Reasoning/Parallel Flaw questions, I usually read all of the answers but bail the instant it gets wrong. I consider PR questions very straight forward; the correct answer will always be a complete mirror. If the stimulus says something like "A is B and B is C..." the moment an answer starts "X isn't Y" I feel comfortable stopping there. This is especially good because answer choices in these questions are all the size of a single stimulus.

My honest answer though is that you should ideally get to a point where you feel so confident you do not need to read the other choices.

General · [Ended] OUR 50* Point Increase Story | Tuesday, November 15 | 8pm EST

zacharysizemore786

Saturday, Nov 12 2016

Will there be anyway to watch this after the fact? I'll be busy during that time but really want to see/hear this!

General

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Monday, Oct 10 2016

zacharysizemore786

How much should I distract myself when taking PTs?

Recently I have been using the 7Sage app for proctoring my PTs and would like to know what some people consider the best method of using the distraction/background noise feature?

I am probably just overthinking this, but I keep it anywhere from 2-4 on each and I am wondering if I should go higher or lower? I don't have experience with taking an actual LSAT, but even those levels almost seem comical to me in terms of how much noise is constantly going on, especially since it is right next to me. Should I keep it at these levels and move it further away? Should I turn it up? I would love to use this feature effectively but sometimes it feels silly. Additionally, would it benefit me to take a few in pretty much complete silence? I am worried that if I train myself to be used to all of the noise then I will feel thrown off if everything is silent on test day.

Thanks everyone, and thanks to 7Sage for the app!

General · How often do you actually diagram per LR section?

zacharysizemore786

Thursday, Nov 10 2016

I very rarely diagram in LR; the only question types I really use it on are MBT and parallel reasoning, but for PR it is only if I have trouble immediately finding the correct answer.

Admissions · What is the best way to start off a Personal Statement?

zacharysizemore786

Thursday, Dec 08 2016

@ also should it be double spaced?

I am not who you asked, but the best answer to this would be to read the directions of each school you are applying. Some schools are pretty specific and others will let you decide. As a general rule many will probably prefer double-spaced, but you should always check what the school says about it.

General · Did you use all of the space in the writing section? For recent dec 3 test.

zacharysizemore786

Thursday, Dec 08 2016

I didn't use all of the space; it is much better to write clearly and concisely than to fill a page. If you have said all you need to say anything extra is just wasting words. Also keep in mind that because people have very different spacing/lettering "my" page and "your" page are most likely not the same thing. I wouldn't stress over this.

General · Waiting...waiting. What do you guys do while waiting for December results?

zacharysizemore786

Thursday, Dec 08 2016

I've been filling time with:

1. Schoolwork. It is my senior year so I've been nicely busy with tons of end of semester papers and tests. These coming two weeks I have 3 papers and 2 finals so...yeah.

2. Work. I work the weekends so that occupies about half of 3 days right there.

3. Exercise. I like to exercise 3-5 days a week. It helps me relieve stress and improves my mood(not only because of the immediate effects but because I like being in shape)

4. Any leisure I couldn't do before. Just like @ I am a fan of video games and have been taking a week to indulge myself HEAVILY.

General · December 1993 LSAT

zacharysizemore786

Tuesday, Nov 08 2016

Many past LSATs weren't released. These days things are a bit more standard as June, September/October, and December are always released and February always isn't(I believe).

While I am not sure if there was a specific system then, it seems several years only three tests were released. You will see that on years like 1993 where December wasn't released February was released, so you still have 3 from that year to review.

General · The Wait

zacharysizemore786

Saturday, Dec 03 2016

@ I play a whole mess of genres! My current project is Final Fantasy 15; picked it up the other day and am now looking forward to sitting back and playing it! I've been waiting for this game to come out for almost 10 years; so convenient it released on LSAT week right? Now I can finally devote some serious time to it.

I'm also currently working on the new Pokemon here and there, but I mainly end up playing that on the train ride home from school.

General · I think I f***ed up and I want to cancel

zacharysizemore786

Saturday, Dec 03 2016

I hate to sound pandering, but this post and similar ones prove JY and crew are the absolute best when it comes to leaders for your LSAT prep. You guys always remind us to have fun and enjoy what we are doing.Whenever I get to talking with someone about the LSAT I inevitably tell them about JY's forum posts.

To all of my fellow December takers: take a deep breath. Just like with the prep leading up, we're all in this together!

General · The Wait

zacharysizemore786

Saturday, Dec 03 2016

I love this post! I'm personally gonna be keeping myself busy with some video games and Netflix. I've barely had time for either with the busy semester and LSAT.

General · Would reading questions first be helpful at all to grasp what the passage would be about?

zacharysizemore786

Thursday, Nov 03 2016

I have to agree with @ about the "questions first" approach to RC. It seems like you will just waste time doing this.

If you have trouble reading a passage WITHOUT all that other stuff to consider, how will this help you? In my opinion doing this would just psyche you out in general, but even if it didn't I bet the time sink would be great enough to affect your fourth passage.

If you really want to try it then please go for it, but I am skeptical. Just focus on reading the passage and answering the questions well as you study, and eventually speed will happen when you get good enough at it. You have to walk before you can run as they say.

General · Last one month before the test: How to study?

zacharysizemore786

Thursday, Nov 03 2016

Do you have any "problem areas" on your tests? If so, make sure to devote a good amount of time to focusing on those. This is especially true of Logic Games; conventional wisdom says to study LG rigorously until you can consistently get -0, or at the most -2. This is especially relevant because LG can be improved much more in a month than the others.

If there is any section you have more or less mastered, be sure to do a section or two of them a week to keep yourself fresh. Of course, I would still do PTs up until about a week before the test.

When you say "just reviewing" what do you mean? The best way to conquer this test is to actively practice, BR, and then attack your problem areas. If this is what you mean it is a good strategy.

General · Would reading questions first be helpful at all to grasp what the passage would be about?

zacharysizemore786

Wednesday, Nov 02 2016

I think for everyone it is different, but when I don't understand a sentence I usually go back and read it a little more slowly. A general rule I use for myself is that if I can't paraphrase it in my head then I didn't really "read" it and have to give it one more glance.

It also depends on the situation with this test though. There are many times the LSAT makers create deliberately complicated sentences or include overly technical information to zone you out. When dealing with these it is definitely more beneficial to not get hung up on whatever the specifics of the passage are.

So the "correct" answer for me would be that it depends on the situation. If I get tripped up with a seemingly meaningful sentence I slow down for a moment and re-read it, but if I am reading a passage with overly technical info I pretty much just skim it.

General · December Test takers - what are you all doing the day before the test???

zacharysizemore786

Thursday, Dec 01 2016

I'm getting up early, going for a run, and playing some video games(guilty pleasure). I'll probably do some logic games and reading to keep me fresh.

General · Partially correct diagram

zacharysizemore786

Tuesday, Nov 01 2016

As someone still mastering LG, there are MANY times my board does not reach JY's level. It is all a part of the learning process; JY is a vet at this and mastering the LSAT is literally part of his job.

JY's level of mastery is certainly a goal to aspire to, but don't be too hard on yourself for not being at his level just yet. Just take comfort in the fact that many, many LSAT takers have gone through the same process.

General · The proctor is not working properly after the iOS updates

zacharysizemore786

Tuesday, Nov 01 2016

What exactly isn't working for you? Will the 7Sage app not open at all? I have an up-to-date iPhone 7 and the app has been working great for me. Is the app fully updated?