RC Problem Sets - Should we be marking up the the preptests?

Sheri123

Hi everyone, Just curious how everyone is doing the problem sets. I am reluctant to actually mark up the preptests used for the problem sets as I don't want to ruin them to use as preptests. How are you guys doing this? I can see that it is slowing me down by not writing on them (taking notes & marking the premise and conclusion) because I find myself having to go back and re-read and trying to memorize more instead. How are you guys doing this? Are you making notes on a separate piece of paper or something?

nicole.hopkins

@Sheri123 said:
I am reluctant to actually mark up the preptests used for the problem sets as I don't want to ruin them to use as preptests.

I have exactly the answer you're looking for.



Seriously—for the first 9 months or so of my prep, it was just me, my 10 Actuals, and my pink eraser. I took and retook tests, took and retook drills, etc.

Furthermore, I generally recommend taking PT's you want as actual tests before you drill from them. Nothing is less helpful early in prep than inflated scores, and drilling before PT'ing a test will inflate your score.

Sheri123

Thanks Nicole, I agree I don't want inflated scores when I do practice tests. Did you do the problem sets that JY uses in the RC section? If so did you just eliminate all of those practice test sections from your actual pool of practice tests or the whole exams? If so just from the RC section alone it would eliminate about 14 possible exams or sections of exams to use when I start doing timed full practice tests.

nicole.hopkins

@Sheri123 said:
If so did you just eliminate all of those practice test sections from your actual pool of practice tests or the whole exams?

Correct—however, if I could do it all over again, I would at least take those tests as timed sections to get in the extra timed skills training. So if I were you, I would take all of the sections of PT's used for drilling as timed sections before you drill from them. But just drilling/not taking as PT's is totally fine as well—it's just that once you basically run out of PT's like I did, you kinda wish you could get some of them back.

Sheri123

Thanks Nicole, so just do more timed practice tests before completing the Syllabus, or would you recommend, skipping the problem sets in the syllabus and coming back to them after completing everything & taking the timed practice tests that have those sections in them?

tanes256

Forget that eraser! If I'm retaking I'll just go thru and circle all the answers so I don't know which one I initially selected. Or if I crossed out AC I'll just go through and cross them all out. When I'm doing my retake my new answers will usually be to the left of the letter. I'll just mark with a "." if I intend to come back to that AC and I'll cross out AC that I've eliminated. Those usually end up looking like "x" on the retake because I've already marked them all out in one direction on the first take. I've reused tests about 3-4 times this way. It may seem confusing but it works for me. I could always see my previous answers when trying to erase. Guess I write too hard??

inactive

@tanes256 So you're saying your old work will still be on the page? I think that's a bit distracting. It's human nature to look at your old work and say "that was right!" and just choose it even if it wasn't, which is why @nicole.hopkins recommended erasing old work. (If I'm mistaken then just disregard)

tanes256

Yeah my old work is still on the page. I get what Nicole is saying that's why I circle and slash through as much as possible to disguise the old AC on the initial tests. It's just a lot easier than erasing because I can still see the previous answers. This is normally only in LR section for me. The other two sections just require new copies. I'll pull these out on my lunch break or something and drill. So depending on that day all AC will be marked in some way to disguise my initial answer. If I circled the answer then I'll circle all answers now. If I used slashes I'll write a slash through each answer choice now. I won't be tempted by my previous AC Becsuse it's been hidden. It's def not as complicated as it sounds. @"Dillon A. Wright"

LeoA1994

@Sheri123 said:
Thanks Nicole, so just do more timed practice tests before completing the Syllabus, or would you recommend, skipping the problem sets in the syllabus and coming back to them after completing everything & taking the timed practice tests that have those sections in them?

This is kind of what I'm wondering too - I just started the curriculum, should we go through it all first before starting to go through problem sets/drilling/PT?

Chrissy

I don't know if this will help. But I continue to make photocopies. I have a binder. It has one clean version on the PT so I will also have one then I makes copies of the test when I time, when I BR, and when I review sections. I put those versions in the binder behind the clean version and then I make note to see which one I always get wrong and which one I improved on.

tanes256

That's what I do as well @christina.davidesko. All of my slashes, circles, etc. on PT were before I purchased a laser printer. Best thing since White Rain LOL

Sheri123

Thanks for the tips, but I guess now I'm just trying to make sure I have new tests that I haven't worked on before so I can get an accurate PT score to know how much further I need to come on improving my score. I'm thinking the only way of doing this is to hold off on any 7Sage section that requires use of the LSAT tests for example the problem sets. Is this what you guys would recommend?

JessicaMarshall

@Sheri123 I have another tip/trick for you to think about trying so you can preserve PTs and problem sets for more practice. Buy a pack of 3-M transparency film, its the stuff teachers used to use for the old-school overhead projectors before every classroom came equipped with a laptop hookup and movie screen. The only downside is that you might not be able to write on them with pencil BUT I know Post-Its makes transparent sticky notes in different sizes and some are almost the same size as 8.5x11 printer paper. Those aren't glossy and you can write on them with anything! (They're also great for taking notes/highlighting textbooks for classes and you can get a lot more money when you sell the book back at the end of the semester) P.S. props to you for thinking ahead, preserving PTs didn't cross my mind until 2 weeks before D-Day and by then I was pretty much done haha

nicole.hopkins

@Sheri123 said:
just do more timed practice tests

No.

Only the sections drill material is taken from. Just like, take that section as a timed section (35 minutes). Just a suggestion. But extra timed practice never hurt anyone.

nicole.hopkins

@LeoA1994 said:
problem sets/drilling/PT

These are different things.

Do NOT take PT's 36-75 until you have finished the curriculum.

For drilling, yeah, like, do 4 RC passages in 35 minutes or whatever. You're incorporating timed practice into your drilling. Problem sets are the same thing as drills as far as I'm concerned.

nicole.hopkins

@tanes256 said:
If I'm retaking I'll just go thru and circle all the answers so I don't know which one I initially selected.

@tanes256 said:
It's def not as complicated as it sounds.

... Sure ...

You do you, I guess.

nicole.hopkins

@Sheri123 said:
I'm just trying to make sure I have new tests that I haven't worked on before so I can get an accurate PT score to know how much further I need to come on improving my score

7sage doesn't use 36-75 for drilling. I really wouldn't worry about needing to take more tests than 36-75.

Sheri123

Thanks Nicole, I was trying to understand what the difference is between drilling and problem sets. I noticed in the game sections JY seems to be using some of the earlier games that I haven't purchased, so I'm thinking going through that section (unless that changes) should be fine. I haven't used 19-28 except for the RC problem sets & the same with 29-38, I think I still have most of the 50s, and 60s. Holding onto the 70s I have until the last couple of weeks before the LSAT. Since some the 20s & 30s are kind of wasted as I started going the problem sets first I might start pulling those apart to start using them as part of my experimental 5th section. I wish the Syllabus here on 7Sage was organized a little differently so that I could have completed those PTs before getting to the sections of the problem sets including those parts of the PTs. I didn't realize it in time.

nicole.hopkins

@tanes256 Will you post a pic of one of these tests in which you've used this method for "3-4" retakes? Just curious how this looks having retaken it so many times with no erasing.

nicole.hopkins

@Sheri123 said:
I might start pulling those apart to start using them as part of my experimental 5th section

Sure!

@Sheri123 said:
I wish the Syllabus here on 7Sage was organized a little differently so that I could have completed those PTs before getting to the sections of the problem sets including those parts of the PTs. I didn't realize it in time.

You haven't missed out on anything. I'm talking about a pie-in-the-sky ideal situation. I didn't do what I'm recommending and I've done just fine. Don't stress. There are many ways to skin a cat annoy @"Dillon A. Wright" master the LSAT.

Sheri123

Thanks everyone those are great tips & Nicole it's great to know that 36-75 should be safe without having to skip around the syllabus guess I will go back and do my BR on the RC section now then from the problem sets. Also can someone please explain the difference between drilling and doing the problem sets. I'm not sure if I have actually done what you consider drilling yet? I've worked through the syllabus to the end of RC just have to do my BR on that section.

LeoA1994

@nicole.hopkins said:
For drilling, yeah, like, do 4 RC passages in 35 minutes or whatever. You're incorporating timed practice into your drilling. Problem sets are the same thing as drills as far as I'm concerned.

Two questions:

Would you suggest I purchase the LG, LR & RC bundle packs for tests 1-38 from CambridgeLSAT so I can begin incorporating problem sets/drilling into my studying?

Are there problem sets in the actual curriculum that we can download to also use for drilling, so far I'm not far into it (just enrolled yesterday) and haven't seen any


Thanks.

nicole.hopkins

@LeoA1994 said:
Are there problem sets in the actual curriculum that we can download to also use for drilling, so far I'm not far into it (just enrolled yesterday) and haven't seen any

There are. You're just not to that point in the curriculum yet. You can't miss em!

@LeoA1994 said:
Would you suggest I purchase the LG, LR & RC bundle packs for tests 1-38 from CambridgeLSAT

I'm not personally a fan of these as they're EXTREMELY expensive. I advocate purchasing the 10 Actual books and a nice eraser because I finance this whole LSAT study process myself. But if you've got money to burn, by all means, spend it on whatever your heart desires. Cambridge packets are FAR from necessary and, as I said, I personally have no reason to recommend them.

My preferred method of finding the Q's I used to drill/PS was to get a nice stack of post-its and mark in my 10 Actuals book the Q's for that assignment/set of PS's. I did that for about 7-9 months of study. And I even re-used the Post-its. I went through Mike Kim's drilling schedules for 2 versions of his 16-week study schedules (that's a damn lot of Q's, at least as many as 7sage U+).

And don't forget to take your diagnostic

nicole.hopkins

@LeoA1994 said:
Are there problem sets in the actual curriculum that we can download to also use for drilling, so far I'm not far into it (just enrolled yesterday) and haven't seen any

Check out your question table under Resources. Probably not for downloading but at least for on-screen access.

And, again, 10 Actuals books are your friend.

LeoA1994

@nicole.hopkins said:
My preferred method of finding the Q's I used to drill/PS was to get a nice stack of post-its and mark in my 10 Actuals book the Q's for that assignment/set of PS's.

Can you expand on this? Are you saying you would post a sticky on whatever pages in your books had questions of the same type and then would go back to work through them once you've accumulated multiple questions?

harrismegan

I have a question with respect to improving RC ability.....
At this point, before the December exam, I was thinking of doing 1 timed, 4 passage RC section a day with a BR. In the BR, really identifying where the right answer was in the passage and what tripped me up about picking the incorrect answer. Not only that, but going over the passage to look at the structure/similarities with other passages.

Is this a good strategy? I once read someone write that they just did drilling of RC passages over and over again.

inactive

@nicole.hopkins said:
skin a cat annoy @"Dillon A. Wright"

the strike made it look like "skin a eat annoy Dillon A. Wright" and I was just sitting there like... I am probably not tasty.

nicole.hopkins

@"Dillon A. Wright" said:
the strike made it look like "skin a eat annoy Dillon A. Wright" and I was just sitting there like... I am probably not tasty.

LOL LOL

DumbHollywoodActor

@harrismegan said:
At this point, before the December exam, I was thinking of doing 1 timed, 4 passage RC section a day with a BR. In the BR, really identifying where the right answer was in the passage and what tripped me up about picking the incorrect answer. Not only that, but going over the passage to look at the structure/similarities with other passages.

This seems like a good plan to try. Might I also advise a nice 15-minute guided meditation before each timed section to get centered. I have found that my biggest problem is that my mind is so worried about the next thing I’m about to read that I’m not really present to what I’m actually reading in the moment.

LeoA1994

Does anyone mind answering my question in this thread:

http://7sage.com/discussion/#/discussion/4650/question-regarding-memory-method

It went unnoticed and I'd like to fully understand the technique

tanes256

@nicole.hopkins msg your email address. I don't know how to upload a pic o here.

inactive

@tanes256 said:
msg your email address. I don't know how to upload a pic o here

http://imgur.com

Copy the link to the image after to here.

tanes256

Here you go @nicole.hopkins. These were probably first taken over a year ago. Each has been taken 3x as indicated by the"_", "/", or "O". Sometimes I might even use an "." Thanks @"Dillon A. Wright".

http://imgur.com/a/iDKub

Pacifico

Y'all are crazy... PDFs FTW!