Isabel March > Recent Status Updates

So I took the Nov LSAT and got a 153! That’s right at the 50th percentile. So it’s a great starting score, but needs to be higher for my applications to have more of an edge to them. So here we go again with more studies in time for the Jan test…

Forgot to update this yesterday!

Only one more chapter to go! Today I learned how to deal with parallel reasoning, principle conform, and parallel flaw questions. I also made flashcards for them. I’m feeling pretty good about most of this book! I’m so ready to be done with it though (hopefully tomorrow)!

Ch 10 done! I’m about to make flashcards. Tomorrow I’ll read chapter 11.

Did more of chapter 10, this is a long one! I’m gonna finish it and do flash cards tomorrow I’m so tired goodnight

I finished chapter 9! It was about the rest of the “powerful” questions and answers. Now I’m going to make flashcards and study them before moving on to chapter 10.

I read half of chapter 9 today. I was hoping to do it all, but these damn chapters take so long I spent over 3 hours doing half of one. It’s so info and practice dense, but that’s good! Anyway, today I looked at powerful vs provable questions and found how to try and find the best answer choice. Also, how to eliminate the worst ones!

Finished chapter 8! I find that learning how to “make a mission” for questions was so helpful, and learning how DAPP and CLIR match up together, then correspond to SW SCCR. (Sorry to any of my friends reading this and being confused it’s just notes for me to remember where things are in the book hehe) Using acronyms helps me a lot!

I did most of chapter 8, this one is so long. The way it took me over 4 hours to do 17 pages because of how dense they are and the amount of work that you have to do outside the book too… ughhh I WILL PERSIST (but damn this is exhausting)! I did lots of drills and worked on the “CLIR” way of looking at questions.

I had dance club for 4 hours today and had to do hw for my African dance class so I did less here than I wanted, but that’s ok because I can do extra tomorrow! I did about 1/3 of chapter 8, learning about the “CLIR” and getting deeper into designing specific types of loopholes for specific types of questions.

I finished ch 7 and made flashcards of all 16 classic flaws. I then studied them and took the end of chapter quiz. This one went pretty well for me! I’m gonna need to study at a fast pace now bc my test date is approaching fast :| but it’s ok!!

Forgot to update this yesterday, I did 1/2 of chapter 7. It’s about the classic flaws seen in arguments and key patterns of (flawed) reasoning to look out for. It’s helpful and I love that there’s real LSAT examples!

I did chapter 6, finally a short one! I learned about causal reasoning and got strong reminders that correlation ≠ causation! I learned about how to attack these vulnerable causal arguments made by the LSAT people by using the three omitted options. I also learned the 4 possible explanations for when event A and event B are correlated.

I finished chapter 5 and did the quiz at the end. I only missed part of one question, yay!
I think before moving on to chapter 6, I’ll make some flashcards and do some more basic translation drills.

Did a big drill on diagramming all diff kinds of conditionals. I did pretty good and made notes of the sections I was weaker on to re visit!
Also started ch 5: about assumptions. I learned about necessary and sufficient assumptions and how to create the assumption chain.

I learned about lots of conditional statements. I also learned how to figure out their contrapositives and how to diagram them. I’m a bit overwhelmed, but I’m gonna make flash cards so I’ll get it eventually! I just need practice.

This chapter was much better than the last one. However, it still has that sensationalist written by a journalist feel. It’s missing the social scientist commentary it needs (and I have tried to fill in with my notes) to be actually impactful.

This chapter was a little better than the last one, but I still am not a fan of his writing. The data provided by social scientists and details about their studies was so interesting, but then this author who’s just a journalist tries to add a bunch of commentary that’s mostly pointless and rambling.

I did the basic translation drills.

Today I read chapter 3. Tomorrow I’m gonna do the drills after it (basic translation drills) and work on chapter 4.
- Today I learned about: the “power players”, determining levels of certainty, certainty premises and conclusions, possibility premises and conclusions, equivalences, and negations. I also did the chapter breather.

Chapter 2 was about arguments and inferences. I made a quizlet for some vocab and things to memorize, and I’ll be adding to it as the book goes on!

I’m reading this for class. I honestly thought it would be more interesting and well written. It has good points, but there’s too many tangents to get there. Lots about the authors personal life where I frankly do not care. Also, the author’s constant “tricking” the reader is greatly reducing my trust in them at all.

This already seems so helpful and I love the author’s style of writing! It’s a great combo of explanation, examples, and practice so I can put everything together. She also is very real and encouraging. So glad this little nerd lady wrote this 🙏