Self-study
As you guys may know, the February scores came out today, and I'm at a bit of a loss. This was my second time testing and I was riding a really good streak of 170+'s on PTs going into this test, but I got quite a bit worse than that. I can't really pinpoint what went wrong with this test, its maybe a combination between bad luck, or being distracted by people in the test room, or I'm just not as good as I think I should be.
Between the classic 7sage and the new one I've been studying for over a year now, and gone through 5000+ questions, and at this point I've pretty much run out of fresh content to drill or PT with. I'm thinking about signing up for April, but I'm really not sure what I can do to prepare at this point :(
Any advice would be appreciated! Feel free to share your thoughts if you're also disappointed by your feb scores.
Edit: Thanks for all the advice about taking PT's in public to get used to more noise! Alternatively, I could consider switching to taking it online, what has deterred me from that before is just fear of technical difficulties. How's everyone's experience with online test taking?
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7 comments
When you're out of fresh material, one thing you can do is go back to tests you took a long time ago and do them with a piece of paper hiding the answers. Write on a separate sheet of paper the answer that you'd predict and your explanation as to why, or if you can't predict, what your understanding of what the question is asking is.
Test day stress can definitely lead to an underperformance. Usually there's also some crutch or stress-reliever you accidentally worked into your practice test regimen. Anything you do to artificially lower your stress while PTing (taking longer breaks, checking answers as you go, not being strict with timing, etc.) can inflate your score and hide some issues you need to address.
Hi! I can definitely relate to being upset with the score you received. I'm going to echo some of the other commenters here and say that taking a couple of PTs in public would likely help. Give yourself a break, allow yourself to be upset, and remember that this is not a defining feature of your life. Dust yourself off and give yourself some time to acclimate to not being alone when you're testing! I know you've got this :)
If you're worried ab being distracted at the testing center, go to the public library and do some sections on one of the computers there. Get used to testing w/ people walking behind you and using a clunky computer like they have at Prometric.
Seems like the variable for you is testing among others? Maybe you should go to a coffee shop or other busy place with lots of stimuli and do some PTs. Train yourself to get good in any conditions and the test room will feel like nothing.
@gurbytown Yeah thats definitely a good point. I've done timed sections in my office with noise in the background and did mostly fine, I guess I should try doing full PT's with more noise too.
On the test thinking back I was probably extra rattled in the first 15 minutes by the noise on S1 and maybe S2. Obviously I'm not sure since I don't know which parts I bombed, its totally possible I actually did fine in the opening but just choked in the harder sections. But thanks so much for your input!
I feel this!!! I’ve been averaging in the high 160s for the last several months… my Feb score is the worst score i’ve gotten on any exam (including november 2025 official take) since october. I’m so discouraged. I’ve decided to take a small break and try for the June or August exam, and really try to make the test second nature. You may also want to consider pushing back your exam date, unless you want to make the 2026 law school cycle! (so sorry to hear about your experience as well. ugh!)
@SCasey_ Thats a good decision on your part, good things can come from taking a break! I was plateauing in the 60s last year, then I took a break for a few months and when I came back I was able to break 170s, though I suppose given the results today I didn't go as far as I thought I did ¯\_(ツ)_/¯. I am trying to apply for the 2027 cycle so timeline wise its not the end of the world yet, but this test is definitely taking a toll on my mental and I'd really like to get it over with. Best of luck to you!