Admin's note: Thread hijacking! I'm turning this thread into the Official Dec. LSAT Discussion. Here's some ground rules, taken from my usual sticky:

We know that everyone will be excited to discuss what was on the December '15 LSAT, but mentioning specifics about the test (e.g., "Question 4 was odd" or "I got B for question 6" or "the 3rd LG was sequencing") can get both us and you in a lot of trouble with LSAC.

Saying that the test was hard/easy without going into detail is okay, but anything more specific is not okay. LSAC monitors this forum.

One exception is you can say which section was the experimental. For example, the LG with "flowers" was experimental. That's okay.

TL;DR: PLEASE don't talk specifics about December's LSAT!

Have fun discussing!

So far we've found out:

Real RC - 27 Questions:

– Gender Studies/Women in Rome

– Black National Theater

– Corporate Crime/Punishment

– Lamarack Theory

Real LG - 23 Questions:

– Concerts

– Pottery

– Office

– Committees

Real LR - 25 & 26 Questions:

– Waste Management

– Dolphins/Elephants

– Amber

– Ships in the Ocean

– Lemurs

– Psychic Girl

– Honeybees

– Vaccine X

– Gold Mines

---------------------------------

@dj768083724's original post:

Going to go with LR with question about elephant seals and dolphins experimental.

(Read Dillon's post and think this should be ok to say, sorry in advance if it is not)

Just sat to write the Dec. I did a look back at october LR's section to compare. In October, only 1 argument part-role question and 0 main point questions. December several of both. Anyone else notice that?

Is it possible for the LSAT to have trends where exams are specifically designed to have harder LR or RC and then easier LG or vice versa at particular times? If that's something that is often done is there a way we can get a sense of what the trend will be like or when they might choose to calibrate it a certain way? I feel like there are definite trends among the different months the exams are released on. I'd imagine they'd have to take into account whether students might be improving on LG for example so they balance it out by giving harder LG while minimizing the other sections.

Hi everyone!

PT. 60 & 61 are on the schedule for next week, but would anyone like to add PT. 76 for Friday?

On Saturday, I had my worst, worst case scenario happen... I have epilepsy and I had a full-blown seizure the day of the exam. Since I live across the street from my testing site, I dragged myself out of bed and showed up to the exam but ultimately decided that I wasn't going in the mental state to take an exam and that it would be unethical to screw up everyone else's testing experience should I have another seizure. I talked it over with the proctor and it was decided I should take an absence instead of a cancellation so it wouldn't count towards my 3 takes in 2 years. I still plan to apply to law school this year, though. Will an addendum be sufficient to explain the absence? I'm in the process of obtaining official documentation from my neurologist and I have an LSAT score from October that is alright, but was trying to raise a few more points? I worry that they will think that if I'll have a seizure on such a big day like the LSAT that it could happen again. Super bummed because this is my first one since high school.

hahahahahaha

*cries*

I wrote the LSAT today and definitely did not score anywhere close to where I had been scoring on my preptests...so it looks like I will be re-writing sometime in 2016 (probably June). I only self-studied for 1 month for my LSAT today so I was thinking of taking a 7Sage course in preparation of my next test. Any recommendations on which 7Sage course to sign up for and how much time I should give myself to properly prepare for the next time? I was scoring 169 - 171 during my self study but I will be amazed if I cracked 160 today on the real thing.

Proctor: any questions before we start?

Rando: may I grab a sip of water from my bottle really quick?

Proctor: yes.

Rando: [sips water].

Proctor: anyone else?

Rando: can I grab a sip of water during the test?

Proctor: no.

Rando: during the 5 minute breaks, may I grab a sip of water or eat a handful of nuts?

Proctor: yes.

Me: this dude is going to be sorely disappointed when there are no 5 minute breaks.

End result: Rando drinks water during test at the end of each section after time is called and is not reprimanded for it.

[Facepalm]

Jesus Christ, I am usually good at LG but the third game totally threw my off and I was literally blank for 3 mintues and had to jump to G4. Thank god there are only 5 questions!

I've heard arguments for both. I'm naturally inclined to read the argument before the question stem but I wrote the 12/5 LSAT today and probably got one of my worst scores ever. Since I will probably be re-writing, I'm looking at switching up my strategy for a better performance on the next go 'round.

What's your approach?

How many law schools will you apply to?

Hey, so according to most literature out there it appears that the "scale" or "curve" is predetermined based on prior test experimental sections. If that's the case, what explanation is there for the generally more "forgiving" December curve. In 4 of the past 6 December tests, you could get -14 and still get a 170

http://lsatblog.blogspot.com/2010/02/lsat-curve-test-equating-at-lsac.html

So I sat the Dec. exam today going in very confident. I've been PTing in the 168-172 range for the past 5 PTs. First 3 section went by amazing, felt like those times I scored 170+. Then the LG came and I just panicked on G3. Sunk too much time so I skipped to G4 but the damage was done, my mental state was gone. Ended up guessing on 8 questions total in the LG games. I'm guessing I'll end up in the 160-163 range. Terrible. Was going to submit my applications by the end of the year but looks like I'm going to have to wait till Feb.

Any tips, to prevent future incidents like this? I'm just going to go and drill the hell out LG for the next 9 weeks.

I got this question correct (D was the flaw I anticipated), but during the exam and BR, I couldn't come up with a reason to eliminate E. According to the video explanation, E is explicitly supported in the passage, but I'm just not seeing it. Here is the video: http://classic.7sage.com/lsat_explanations/lsat-63-section-3-question-02/

Almost everyone I know hopes to make a living as painter, musician, etc. if they currently work as dishwashers or store clerks. Therefore, almost all want to be artists, even though they might have to work other jobs to make money.

What I am looking for: Big sample flaw here. The sample the author uses is not varied enough and extremely limited: the people the author knows that are dishwashers or store-clerks. The author uses that as evidence to make a conclusion about "almost all" people in general.

Answer A: The argument isn't circular.

Answer B: The argument sort of makes a part to whole flaw, but it isn't as extreme as this answer choice. The argument never talks about what is true of EACH person (we only have "almost all" relationships) and even then, the evidence is only about people the author knows, not everyone in the country.

Answer C: Is the view widely held? We don't know.

Answer D: This is exactly what I anticipated, so I picked it over E.

Answer E: I read this, and got held up for second. Doesn't the argument do this? The conclusion is about "wanting to be an artists" while the premise is about "making a living as a painter, musician, or poet." Sure, there is an assumption that painters, musicians, or poets are types of artists, but that seems like an OK trivial assumption to me. If those people are not artists, the who are artists? I think the crux of eliminating it is that you don't "need" to make a distinction, but why not? Isn't there a pretty sizable difference between "wanting" to be something (like being a perpetually lazy college kid that doesn't have to wake up until 1:00) vs. making a "living" doing that? I don't see how it's OK for the argument to equivocate on these ideas.

The answers to questions on the 'question bank' don't have explanations. How can I get explanations to the questions?

I just finished the 12/5 test. I don't know whether I should cancel my score.

I have two major concerns that persuade me to cancel my score:

1. I did not do well on this test at all. This is my first time taking LSAT, except for pretests. But I am sure I could do way better than this if give me more time to practice.

2. The proctors told me they had to report me because I was rewriting my name on the bubble sheet after the first 5 sections were done. I explained to them that my name was slightly erased by my hand when I filled out the bubbles, so I had to rewrite them just to be safe. They said they would send a note to LSAC and let them know I was rewriting my name instead of making marks on questions. So, they let me sign my name on the surface of the booklet, and I did. I don't know how much negative influence will this cause. I felt very upset about it.

Also, I am struggling not cancel the score, because this is the last chance for me to apply 2016 fall admission. I don't really want to take a gap year. But I do want to attend a really good law school.

So, right now, I am struggling! Really confused.

Please give me some suggestions. Also please let me know if you have any similar experiences and how you handled it! If you have any ideas about what to do during the gap year, let me know!!!!

P.S: I am an international student. I don't know how much difference will this make. So let me know if you have any ideas.

i accidentally let my course run up -- i bought it back in the summer and re-upped it a few months ago.. and i thought i was still in but i just went to re-up it again and now it's saying i have to buy the course all over again :(

anyone know a way around this? i really don't want to let go of my 7sage family because i'm taking again in feb but i guess if i have to buy the course again i will because it's too valuable not to! i just wish if i was going to spend that money again i would have re-upped to a better course.

any suggestions!?!?

I just finished the 12/5 test. I don't know whether I should cancel my score.

I have two major concerns that persuade me to cancel my score:

1. I did not do well on this test at all. This is my first time taking LSAT, except for pretests. But I am sure I could do way better than this if give me more time to practice.

2. The proctors told me they had to report me because I was rewriting my name on the bubble sheet after the first 5 sections were done. I explained to them that my name was slightly erased by my hand when I filled out the bubbles, so I had to rewrite them just to be safe. They said they would send a note to LSAC and let them know I was rewriting my name instead of making marks on questions. So, they let me sign my name on the surface of the booklet, and I did. I don't know how much negative influence will this cause. I felt very upset about it.

Also, I am struggling not cancel the score, because this is the last chance for me to apply 2016 fall admission. I don't really want to take a gap year. But I do want to attend a really good law school.

So, right now, I am struggling! Really confused.

Please give me some suggestions. Also please let me know if you have any similar experiences and how you handled it! If you have any ideas about what to do during the gap year, let me know!!!!

P.S: I am an international student. I don't know how much difference will this make. So let me know if you have any ideas.

Is the Lamarck RC experimental or real?

Let's do this! Knock those questions dead and best of luck in all your guesses. :]

Ok here’s an odd question and probably not of much practical use, but I’m hoping some of you might be able to relate to this and shed some insight.

You read the stimulus. It’s a tougher question. You read it slowly once. There’s a sentence whose meaning you couldn’t fully process. You re-read it, it’s become clearer- the argument’s become clear and you’re ready to answer the question. You’re down to a couple answer choices, D and E and the more time you spend looking at it, the less clearer the right answer gets. It feels like you’re all maxed out in terms of your reasoning capacity. It’s gotten counterproductive to keep staring at the question.

You do a few other problems, and then come back to it- and the right answer jumps out at you. Not D or E. But A or B or C- the answers you had dismissed the first time around. I’m inclined to wonder why the right answer can become so clear and obvious on the second go.

Why is it that a question can seem a lot easier when you come back to it? Does your mind/brain naturally come away with a fresher perspective after a break? Is your subconscious mind doing the work for you even when you’re not consciously thinking about that very question? Maybe this is a question for a psychologist; I don’t know but I can’t help but think about it. It’s gotten me curious.

I find this tendency to be counterintuitive since one might figure the first time around you’re at an advantage as opposed to the second time when you’re having to re-process the information in the stimulus.

Thoughts?

Just curious, has anyone been able to figure out when it was administered? It has a comparative passage (which suggests it is post 55ish) and it has a substitution rule logic games question (which suggests it's post 61ish). The Superprep 11 book was published in July 2015, which is right after PT 75. So, do you think it is fair to say it is close to a 60s or 70s PT? I haven't taken it, and I'm trying to decide where to place it in my PTing.

Any strategy used to guess, say the last 5 questions? Eg. BBBBB, ABCDE, ACAAC? Any strategy that is statistically beneficial?

I'm just curious what type of prep work those of you who took the exam in October did between the October and December exams to improve your score before the retake or to better prepare in general? I'm hoping it won't come down to this, but just in case I would like to have a game plan in place to be able to make any necessary changes to my study techniques in case it is necessary to retake in February.

I know there are some of you who have also been studying for over or close to a year, for those of you who were able to make substantial improvements, what techniques did you use to get to your goal score before your retake other than the obvious (taking many PTs, and BRing)?

Also are there any other websites or forums (youtube videos) etc... you have used during your prep for the LSAT that you have found to be helpful?

Thanks in advance for any feedback or suggestions.

Hello All, I just withdrew Dec and am really hoping to make it for Feb. I realized that my level of expertize is not the same for each section. For LR and LG I am working on better timing and getting my BR closer to my timed score. On RC I am working on strategy and will later work on time. Given that I was thinking maybe to do timed sections of LG and LR for various tests and save the RC for later ? Meanwhile practice strategy on pre-36 RC passages. Or are there any other ways to address this ?