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Just started studying this week. Got a 143 on my diagnostic, and have been going over my study plan this week. I consider myself a reasonably intelligent person, but this is genuinely convincing me I am dumb. I have been doing very bad with reading comprehension with the timer and just in general getting a lot of questions wrong. Anyone else have a rough period when they started and does it get any easier?
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6 comments
a 143 as a diagnostic is NOT BAD. It will improve, don't waste your time taking PTs for the next few months, just lock in on foundations and youll see bump in your scores in no time
It gets so much easier. The LSAT is unlike anything you have done before. Conditional statements, parallel questions, main point; these are all brand new skills that you have to learn. As somebody who scored 145 on there first diagnostic and now got a 161 on my first sitting, my biggest advice is respect the test. Treat it as a brand new subject, follow the core curriculum, take prep tests once a week to see where you are consistently weak, and FORGET ABOUT YOUR SCORE. The time to worry about your score is when you feel you are fully prepared, then you can worry. But it would be like trying to score 100 three pointers in a row before even learning how to shoot a basic jumpshot. Over time, it becomes much easier if you study properly
Hey, that's totally normal. The best way I can describe this test is that it's weird, and it follows its own set of rules that you'll have to learn overtime that applies to no other real test, which makes it even harder. Keep at the practice and try and test out the curriculum, it'll get easier with time.
If you were really dumb, you would probably not be dissuaded by your result. With effective practice, it does get easier. RC especially can be strange because it's a different way of reading. For example, for me personally, I thought I did a fair bit of reading. I realized that most of my reading was really "skimming" to find the answer to something. I had to learn how to read slowly and for "structure" vs. for information. It took a lot of practice, but I have gone from -6 RC to consistently -0. It can be done!
Yes to the rough period. I don't think that this test is measuring how intelligent one is, but rather how well one can follow the rules of the LSAT. It's a learnable test, so I don't think that it makes you dumb for struggling with the material. It's an entirely new way of thinking, especially from colloquial English. You have to accept that the wrong answers may sound right, and that the right answers may sound wrong. The LSAT will always have one correct answer, and you have to use what they give you -- no matter your background, your intelligence, or your education -- to find it.
It does get easier, but I have my bad days too! A 143 diagnostic is great, but diagnostics also doesn't measure your intelligence or how well you will do on the LSAT. You're only a week in, I promise you that things will get better!
a good strategy I've read online from many sources, is to focus on accuracy first, and the speed will come, which is somewhat true. Try some untimed drills, because then if you get something wrong, you know that its an actual conceptual idea that your not grasping rather than just a timing issue. I do this for my weaknesses until I start getting them consistently right and then I start doing timed.