I've just erased 125 pages of pencil marks.
250 pages to go.
I'm going to need more drinks and more rerun television for this...
Wednesday, March 29, 2006
Thursday, March 23, 2006
Study Tip
Before doing your pencil work in the study books you're using, (for example, The PowerScore LSAT Logic Games Bible) make copies of the pages which have actual test material on them. You don't need to copy the explanations and drills, that'd be the whole book! Just copy the 1 sheet practice exams for personal use before you start marking them up (there are about 21 practices in the Games Bible).
That way you can mark it all up to hell in the book as you're learning the game strategies; then later on in your study cycle when you come back to review these practice tests, you'll have fresh copies to work from that are unbiased from the remnants of your previous scratchings. This goes without saying, but let's say it anyway because I'm a dork: You can staple the sheets together and drop them in your bag so you'll have a little something to work on whenever you have extra waiting time while you're out and about. Of course I've yet to actually do this, but there may be some time in the foreseeable future when I'm waiting at a lunch counter and feel the need to drill my brain with the LSAT. It could happen. (This is also a good strategy when it comes to taking the full length practice LSATS: make copies first, then keep a personal scrapbook of the questions that you typically have problems with so you can work them over again.)
If you do enough practices and tests in the interim--unless you have a photographic memory--its doubtful that you'll still have the answers memorized from these early practice tests by the time you come back to them. But with repeated use of these and all the other practices you feel you can do, you WILL start to recognize the patterns of the question types. The makers of the LSAT only have so many types of tricks that they can throw at you, so they just keep using them in different ways. AND that my friend, is the key! Recognize all the tricks in their bag and you can ace the LSAT!
That way you can mark it all up to hell in the book as you're learning the game strategies; then later on in your study cycle when you come back to review these practice tests, you'll have fresh copies to work from that are unbiased from the remnants of your previous scratchings. This goes without saying, but let's say it anyway because I'm a dork: You can staple the sheets together and drop them in your bag so you'll have a little something to work on whenever you have extra waiting time while you're out and about. Of course I've yet to actually do this, but there may be some time in the foreseeable future when I'm waiting at a lunch counter and feel the need to drill my brain with the LSAT. It could happen. (This is also a good strategy when it comes to taking the full length practice LSATS: make copies first, then keep a personal scrapbook of the questions that you typically have problems with so you can work them over again.)
If you do enough practices and tests in the interim--unless you have a photographic memory--its doubtful that you'll still have the answers memorized from these early practice tests by the time you come back to them. But with repeated use of these and all the other practices you feel you can do, you WILL start to recognize the patterns of the question types. The makers of the LSAT only have so many types of tricks that they can throw at you, so they just keep using them in different ways. AND that my friend, is the key! Recognize all the tricks in their bag and you can ace the LSAT!
Monday, March 20, 2006
Playing (Mind) Games
I've always been good at Games. Even when I took my first diagnostic tests cold, I noticed that I scored pretty well on the Games section of the LSAT. I'm happy to report now that with my investment in the Logic Games Bible, I've gotten even better at 'em.
Yeah, that's right, games will bow down to me; I own diagramming; diagramming is my bitc--uh, what?
So yeah, this is good news. Still, it is somewhat surprising to the inner core of me, since all my life (up until the end of college/grad school) I was a language arts type of girl. Standardized tests of yore always scored me in the 99th percentile in reading comprehension, etc. However, I can credit my M.S. program for helping me to develop the analytical side of my brain, and thank goodness for it!
When it comes to the left and right sides of the brain, it turns out that bridging the gap is just a matter of learning to think about things in a different way. Even if you've gone most of your life living mostly in one hemisphere or the other, skipping over to the other side isn't as hard as you'd think it would be, if you put your mind to it (arrgh:P).
Once you train your brain to work on the other side of the fence for a change, you learn that there are less differences and more similarities afterall. Think about it, both halves make up YOUR brain, so any way you go about it, you're going to find a way to relate. I guess I'm just saying that you shouldn't let preconceived notions about what you thought were your particular strengths prevent you from branching out into new directions.
Whether you think you can, or you think you can't; either way you're right.
Games - Check!
Logical Reasoning - Check!
Reading Comprehension - Check!
This LSAT is mine.
Plus, the June test is being administered at Noon, so there's no pesky need to retrain my brain into functioning at some godforsaken early hour.
Mine!
Yeah, that's right, games will bow down to me; I own diagramming; diagramming is my bitc--uh, what?
So yeah, this is good news. Still, it is somewhat surprising to the inner core of me, since all my life (up until the end of college/grad school) I was a language arts type of girl. Standardized tests of yore always scored me in the 99th percentile in reading comprehension, etc. However, I can credit my M.S. program for helping me to develop the analytical side of my brain, and thank goodness for it!
When it comes to the left and right sides of the brain, it turns out that bridging the gap is just a matter of learning to think about things in a different way. Even if you've gone most of your life living mostly in one hemisphere or the other, skipping over to the other side isn't as hard as you'd think it would be, if you put your mind to it (arrgh:P).
Once you train your brain to work on the other side of the fence for a change, you learn that there are less differences and more similarities afterall. Think about it, both halves make up YOUR brain, so any way you go about it, you're going to find a way to relate. I guess I'm just saying that you shouldn't let preconceived notions about what you thought were your particular strengths prevent you from branching out into new directions.
Whether you think you can, or you think you can't; either way you're right.
Games - Check!
Logical Reasoning - Check!
Reading Comprehension - Check!
This LSAT is mine.
Plus, the June test is being administered at Noon, so there's no pesky need to retrain my brain into functioning at some godforsaken early hour.
Mine!
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