How is everyones prep going?

[Louis Zaha]

Hope everyones prep is going well

I personally have not started preparing as of yet since I am awaiting the new 3rd edition of the Manhattan LSAT guides I ordered. At this point, I am in the brainstorm phase of my studies. I have been adjusting LSAT Blogs 6 month study plan and Plithypike plan to meet my needs since this will be a retake for me. Furthermore, I am also getting a private tutor as well to help me on a bi weekly basis.

My priority at this point of my prep ( which will probably start next week ) is to master the fundamentals. I feel that last time when I took the test I still struggled with some particular concepts such as diagramming formal logic, not understanding all the fallacies that testmakers will quiz us on, and how to handle some of the eccentric games.
I want to put adequate time into the "accuracy" phase and drill untimed.  For my prep, I will be using lsatqa.com to track my strengths/weaknesses and other useful metrics to help me prepare for the LSAT.

Some books I would recommend that are helping me understand some LR concepts are A Rulebook for Arguments by Anthony Weston and  Informal Logic by Doug Walton. I don't really have a background in logic or argumentation, so these books are great supplements as they provide more detail to fallacies and etc. The Manhattan and Powerscore guides are just cliff notes of these books. If you are stuck or confused with those concepts these books can help out; These book are really short too(80 pages).

Also , where are you guys studying at mostly? I have been using the libraries in my city and may start using some 24/7 cafes since I work full time currently. The libraries I usually go to aren't open that late so thats why I am contemplating switching to some cafes for my prep.

Anyways, good luck everyone and hopefully we can keep this group active as it will help us by articulating our problems/process so we can achieve our goals this fall.

[Tiffany]

Hey there!

I'm working my way through the study plan right now. I'm adjusting here and there based on my schedule- some days I can get more than assigned done, others I can't get it all done. My schedule changes pretty drastically between days, so I'm working around that.

That's a great website! I think I've seen it posted on r/LSAT before, but I had forgotten all about it. Should be useful for tracking progress, like you said.

I've been thinking about purchasing one of those books. I did take a Language and Logic class freshman year, but a refresher would definitely be a good idea, that course was incredibly tough. Would you recommend one over the other, or do you think they are different enough to read both?

I've been studying at home and in a cafe on campus. Once I get more into PTing, I think I might move to our main campus library. It's usually just loud enough there to practicing concentrating with distractions, but not so loud I can't focus at all.

We should definitely try to stay as active as possible. I know we're all busy, but everyone should feel free to put up whatever they want- an update on study progress, questions about study materials, even things on selecting schools or applications. Anything and everything law school related :)

[Cole Shooter]

I haven't been able to get much done this week, since I've been a bit preoccupied with a project for finance class. I've begun reading the intro to arguments book, and it's a nice way to begin training (I think). Going to hit LSAT a bit harder next week, hopefully. Good luck!

[Andrew]

Just got back from vacation and gave the Justification chapter in the LR Bible a once over.  Followed up with some Cambridge Weaken and Must Be True drills.  I'm aiming to get through the rest of the LR and LG Bibles within two weeks and to have another preptest by April 15.  

On whether or not to use outside books such as Weston's and Walton's, I've heard some conflicting views on the boards at TLS.  While those will give you a great understanding of the greater body of logic, LSAT logic is an interesting beast; it has roots in regular logic, but it also makes some assumptions that are not covered, and downright contradicted by a regular course in logic.  From my experience and the experience that I can gather from others, the PS Bibles and the Manhattan books will give you a fairly comprehensive framework to attack just about every question type.  

But it is interesting to talk for a minute about outside materials and considerations for a minute.  

I've found that doing Sudoku regularly (paper or phone app) has helped me with LG.  Work your way up to the hardest levels and get to the point where you do not have to write hypotheticals or alternatives down.  

I've also tried out the Lumosity free app; I'm not sure if it works, but according to their metrics I'm improving and it costs me no money and less than five minutes a couple of times a week.  

I'm also trying out learning French during my prep.  I'm not sure where it is from (and take that as you will), but a study has been released that suggests that learning a new language over the course of three months resulted in people remembering 20% more new acquaintances' names than people who did not study a new language.  I'll take that 20% bump when I'm trying to remember LG rules and RC passages.

Exercise is also crucial.  It takes your mind off of prep for a little bit, is a great stress reliever, and results in a healthier body and mind (which in turn means that you will learn better during your prep and you will be better able to handle stress on test day).  If you are a couch potato, try out the Couch to 5k program or even just walking 15 to 20 minutes a day and ramping it up from there.  

Nutrition is even more critical than exercise.  I know we're all young adults here and I feel like I'm sounding like my Mom at this point, but your brain can't make the new neural pathways and myelin sheaths without some serious brain food.  We're talking whole grains, nuts (walnuts, pecans, brazil nuts, cashews, hazelnuts, etc.), beans (red, kidney, black, adzuki, garbanzo), lean meats, green leafy veggies (kale, collard greens, swiss chard, spinach), and fruit.  Larabars are an excellent study food when you're in a pinch and they can become your best friend.  We have a lot of time here so if you don't believe me, take a month or two and eat a really clean diet (you may feel like crap for a week or two but that's just all of the junk leaving your body) and experiment with it.  Also see how taking your multivitamin impacts how you feel and how you perform on PTs

Finally, don't take any of my advice blindly without trying it out for yourself first.  See how you do on a section before changing up how you eat and then after you make some changes.  See how you do with and without caffeine, with varying levels of sodium intake, varying levels of sleep, different amounts of clothing and room temperatures, and different levels of hunger and thirst.  Once you're up to speed, take a practice test or two in different places with varying noise levels.  Hell, I've even heard of people trying out having a beer or two before a preptest and they found out that they actually did better.  There is a pretty entertaining thread on TLS about what kind of pencil is best for the LSAT.  The moral of the story is that you should figure out what the optimum controllable conditions are and to have them every time you sit down to do a section, do a preptest, or whatever.  Use those same pencils, erasers, and analog watch and be prepared for a wide range of noise levels.  It may sound silly now, but your competition is paying attention to this level of detail and if you don't, you're leaving points on the table.  

[Louis Zaha]

hmm Interesting

How is the Cambridge LR Bundle? I am contemplating purchasing it. Does it come wtih explanations or is it just the answer keys?

Any tips for RC? I need to improve on it. I will probably employ a private tutor to help me with LR since it may be difficult for me to handle solo, although I do plan on making improvements by myself in that section.

[Andrew]

This is my first time using the LR Bundle and I feel that it is a powerful tool.  It is nice to have 36 or 37 preptests worth of material to just dive into.  Spending a lot of quality time dissecting both correct and incorrect answers is where you are going to make gains.  It is slow and methodical work, but it is the best way to improve.

RC is a tricky section for most people and, unfortunately, it is widely agreed that it is the hardest section to make improvements on (that is not to say that improvement is impossible!).  RC is still my least consistent section, sometimes I go -0 or -1, and other times I go -4 or -5, although I have been better at it recently.  With that being said, I think that the most critical component of doing well on an RC section is to have an attack mindset going into the section, read the passages like the author is trying to screw you over.  However, do not get caught up in detail; keep track of structure and instead of trying to memorize minutia, have a sense of where those details are located in the passage so that you can return to them just to double check when the question pertaining to that detail comes up.  

I've also heard a lot about the debate between whether or not to make notes/marks on the passage as you are reading along.  I've tried both, and I have found that for me, the best thing is to mark it sparingly.  I'll put a "1, 2, 3" if the author is numbering something, or I'll put a "/" when there is a major break in reasoning, or a single word next to a paragraph to remind me what is being said in a passage.  Other than that, I leave it alone as it tends to distract me both when I'm doing my initial reading of the passage and when I go back to try and figure out what I have marked.  

In terms of a plan of attack, I would say get your hands on every RC section that you can.  Start with the older ones and really try to understand why the correct answers are correct.  As you gain confidence and familiarity with the section, you can start timing yourself and going under that sort of stress.  However, don't do all of them, as you will want to leave at least the last 20 most recent tests as full length tests.  Also, it is pretty universally recognized that RC has become much harder over the years, so while any RC is better than no RC, put more stock into PT 50 and beyond.  

I'm also trying out reading material that is even more dense than what you will encounter on the LSAT as a sort of workout for my brain (think Nietzsche, Wealth of Nations, etc).  That way, when I get to the real LSAT, that Native Americans passage will look like a joke.

If reading speed is an issue for you, try out http://www.spreeder.com.  You can get articles from various places and slowly ramp up the speed and the number of words that are shown on the screen at a given time.  However, I would not place too much stock into becoming an insanely fast reader.  While it helps, you are also expected to have a very accurate command of what you have just read and I feel that it is better to read something thoroughly once at a reasonably quick pace than to speed read something, just to have to go back and re-read it because you didn't retain anything.

On the tutor issue, I would be tread carefully.  Before deciding whether or not to spend that kind of money, and we're talking $50+ an hour for anyone worth their salt and many of them require deposits or a bundle of hours purchased, I would get the Bibles and the Manhattan books and really go through them.  I'm working my way through the LG and LR Bibles for the third time each and I still pick things up each time I read them.  I haven't cracked the Manhattan books sitting on my shelf yet, but I've heard good things.  If I were you, I would go through those books a few times and if you are still having problems, I would consider getting a tutor.  You're spending the money on the Bibles anyway, and the Manhattan triple bundle is on Amazon for like 60 bucks.

[Paul-pms]

Hey Guys, 

The message below was sent on april first. I may have accidently replied to 1 person so here it is again from a week ago. Furthermore, I'd like to ask, does anyone read the question stem before doing the LR problem or do you read the LR stimulus before going to the question? 1st last I did stimulus, 2nd lsat I read the question stem first. Did better on the second test but it could be a combination of a different factor. Does anyone else read the question stem first, tried it, or advise against?:

Message from April 1st:

"@andrew - very interesting stuff. I've been keeping to a healthy diet months prior to my feb lsat, while exercising ~3 times a week. Generally lifting but not completely ignoring cardio. As for the multivitamin, I've started to take one-a-day 2 months ago and believe(at least hope) that its doing some good for me. 

As for my lsat prep, I haven't REALLY started yet. Just got back from a 10-day vacation yesterday so I've been running errands, detoxing from all the fun =D, and contemplating how I should devise a plan for my lsat. As Louis suggested, I am going to be giving the 6 month guide a shot, along with a few tweaks. I've tried the pithypike guide and thought it was decent, so I'll be incorporating some of that into it. Also, for RC, i'm re-reading the manhattan RC book in order to gain some tips that I may have forgotten. Another RC strategy i wish to use is Voyager's RC Strategy. He narrows it down to an LG approach. People rave about it. I hear it takes some time to develop a strong foundation for it, but once done, its really helpful.

@Louis, RC is the bane of my lsat. I'd love for any pointers on it and discuss my weaknesses/strategy for it.

As for LR, I'll be sticking to the Manhattan book, which I have yet to use before(although I've succesfully utilized their online forum discussions found here for previous tests: LSAT Questions & Explanations | Your LSAT Forum Questions Answered | Manhattan LSAT Prep). Also, I will be re reading the powerscore bibles. Standard as usual, I'll be going Assumptions or Justifications >> do loads of problems for just those questions >> move onto a new question type >> do loads of problems for that >> etc.

For LG, because I feel that it is my strongest section, I believe simply practicing LG by types and narrowing in on weakness will be sufficient for me. The questions that I struggle on are those "If this rule were to be taken out, what other rule could replace it without affecting the other rules within the game etc"

*****For those of you that would like all the prep tests, please let me know and I'll share my google drive with you. For some reason, it won't share to the group/people are having trouble accessing it. I also have almost ALL the kaplan explanation for those(besides PT66-68). I also have the Powerscore LG and LR bibles on a pdf. Just holler and I can share those files over to you right away. 

Thanks for everyone's input here! I really hope to kill the lsats in october(for the last time ughh). If you want to invite me to a gchat/hangout, i'm more than willing to. Also, my skype is "hailpms" if you'd like to skype instead of ghangout.

Good luck to everyone!"

[Andrew]

Hey guys, I haven't heard anything from anyone so I thought I would check in and see how everyone is doing and to provide an update on me.  

I took PT 43 this past Saturday (4/13) and I saw a pretty good bump after running through the LG and LR Bibles.  I could have definitely scored higher, but I had some major distraction during the last section (RC).  

After that PT, I jumped into the Manhattan LG and LR books, and I have to say that I really enjoy them up to this point.  I'm about 1/3 through the LR and 1/4 of the way through the LG and I feel that they fill in a number of the gaps left by the PowerScore books and, as a result, I think that I have a much more thorough understanding of the question types.  I especially feel that Manhattan does a great job on the Flaw and Assumption families, they provide an awesome survey of common flaw types and some of the verbiage used in those question types.  I plan on getting through the rest of the books before next Saturday for another PT.  After that PT, I will probably re-read the Manhattan books for two weeks just to soak it all in.

At the conclusion of the second reading of the Manhattan books, I will begin my cycle of heavy drilling with the Cambridge packets supplemented with re-readings of the PowerScore and Manhattan sections as necessary.  

Hope all is well with everyone else and happy studying!

-Andrew

[Louis Zaha]

im doing pretty good

I have solidifyed my LG pretty well averaging typically -2 per timed section. I just did a lot of drilling and really took my time with the material. Also, diagramming my thought process on word for certain problematic games really helped me out. I was able to see what each rule was implying and able to see the game from a high level.

This week I start LR so I am brushing up on some logical fallacies at this moment.

How long do u guys spend every day studying? i usually spend 4-5 hours but can't spend anymore as my productivity declines. I go to the library and spend that time block studying but when I get home ( after the gym ) im just real tired and read/youtube.

[Paul-pms]

@Andrew - I couldn't agree with you more about the manhattan LR book(haven't gotten a chance to buy LG). I'm about 1/3 way through and must say it does a very good job narrowing in on the core that PS doesn't emphasize enough. I like how they pick apart the ASMP & FLAW family and HIGHLY recommend this to anyone else studying. The book would have seemed a lot different if it were my first time taking the lsats, but at this point, It's very easy to follow and understand.

Do you drill after each question type  after it is discussed in the manhattan LR book? Or are you simply running through the book and doing tests?

@Louis - Great to hear about your LG progress.  I've been doing about 4-5 hrs when i'm feeling it and way less than that if i'm slacking/feeling lazy. However,  for 2-3 months before my first and second try, I was able to study for like ~7-9 hrs a day with a lunch/dinner break. I just made sure not to eat massive quantities so I could avoid food coma. Regarding your tiredness after the gym, I feel you man. After the gym/dinner, i just want to chill out and have a beer/wine. I've been struggling to find time in the weekend to study... Shame on me. I guess it doesn't help that my gf is on her summer break atm.

[Louis Zaha]

Do any of you take any days off? I usually take a day or two off a week. I feel sorta guilty though when I take these days off in fear that I will regret it in the future ( later on in my prep ). What do you think?

[Paul-pms]

Unfortunately, I have been. But to me, it doesn't seem like a huge hindrance. Although that doesn't mean that i should take studying lightly. Being the 3rd time around, things are going more smoothly, which is why I don't feel as desparate at the moment. I wouldn't feel guilty if you skipped a day or two/week as long as you're putting in good hours throughout the entire week. If you're missing 1-2 days every week, I would try and raise your weekly hours of studying from 4-5 to possibly 6-8 per day. I believe 1-2 day breaks can be beneficial by allowing the material so soak in. The test is ~5+ months away. You should enjoy your life even while studying for the lsats. I'd say as it gets to 3 months before the test, I'll REALLY be buckling down to hopefully ~40 hrs/week (granted I don't have a job).

[Andrew]

@ Paul - I've been holding off on the Cambridge Drilling as I've decided to save that material for after my next PT (I want at least one more logged into LSATQA just so I have a fuller picture of my weaknesses).  I just do the short sections of questions that they provide with each chapter. 

@ Louis - Lately I've been varying between 1-3 hours every day with a free day thrown in here and there, maybe two or thee days over two weeks.  I agree with Paul though, when I was first studying I could study during the entire hour and a half commute on the bus both ways, do some during downtime at work, and then come home and knock out a few hours, maybe 7-9 hours a day total.  However, when you've been at it for a while and have the vast majority of the material down (at least I hope that I do by now), you have a much better idea of what you need to work on and how to best accomplish that.  

I know that I've said it before, but as long as you are using your time wisely, I wouldn't fret too much over the number of hours.  Sure, you need to get through learning the ropes at the start and that is where you can spend the crazy amount of time studying, but I've also found that going through the books multiple times at different stages in my studying process has been a definite bonus.  For example, there was a section in the Manhattan LR book on "only" statements that absolutely blew my mind and cast a different light on what I had been taught and what I had internalized, like paradigm shifting shit, man.  I don't think that I would have had that realization if I hadn't gone through the PowerScore books at least 7 or 8 times combined and I wasn't taking my time with the Manhattan LR book.  

Besides, everything that I've read (coming from Manhattan and PowerScore) says that you should start gearing up your heavy PT cycle (like 2+ tests a week with a lot of drilling based on your weaknesses) 3-4 months before your test date, so I don't want to absolutely hate the material before I get into that phase of my study.  

Anyway, long story short, as long as you are getting quality time in, don't stress out too much about hours or days off as long as you don't get lazy about it.  

[Louis Zaha]

Anyone here been drilling the Cambridge packets? Do you go by difficulty or just try to finish the entire packet then repeat? The reason I am asking is because these packets are huge(LR) compared to the LG Cambridge ones. I was able to finish the latter fairly quick but these LR packets are really long and its taking me almost two weeks to finish them.

Also do you guys time yourself when drilling or just drill untimed?

Hope everything is going well

[Andrew]

Nobody has really checked in lately, so I thought that I would see how everyone else is doing and to provide an update on my progress.

After I completed my initial restart by going over PowerScore and Manhattan materials, as well as taking a few PTs, I jumped into my cycle of heavy drilling.  I've been using the Cambridge LR and LG packets along with some spare RC sections that I have lying around and I have to say, the Cambridge packets are worth their weight in gold.

I've completed the Weaken and Strengthen packets, along with a majority of the Necessary Assumptions packet, and these things are worth the investment of time.  

I also signed up for the October test, so just a heads up that registration is now open.

Happy studying!

-Andrew