Self-paced
I've been studying for several months, and my scores have been consistent in the high 160s for the past month. However, in the past 2 weeks I have been scoring in the 150s and cannot seem to figure questions out. I am taking the LSAT in August but with this dip in scores, I am concerned I won't be able to be ready to go. Has this happened to anyone? Any tips to get out of this slump?
2
2 comments
Hello!
A lot of test-takers agree that LSAT progress is rarely linear; it is much more like a staircase. For a long time, you might feel like you aren't improving at all, which leads to doubting your methods. However, once the concepts click, you will experience a sudden jump up to the next step.
That being said, I assume you're solving PTs in an incremental order (starting from PT 101, 102, 103...); more recent PTs do tend to contain more challenging questions, so you might be showing a worse result than before due to the difficulty increase.
Lastly, the feeling of slump itself is likely to make you feel more discouraged. In my case too, when I felt like I was showing no improvement at all (or getting worse), I lost motivation and studying felt meaningless. That puts you into a vicious emotional cycle, making you feel unmotivated while solving PTs, naturally having an unsatisfying result, and so on. Therefore, I know it isn't easy, but I highly recommend changing your view towards your PT results. See your wrong answers as gold; they are opportunities to fix your mistakes and refine your method. If you had seen that exact question on the real exam, you would have lost the point, so how wonderful is it to catch it in practice instead? In short, view your full PTs not as a prediction of your real exam but as a chance to figure out what you need to study. Changing your mentality like that may help you with getting out of the vicious emotional cycle, which may even help you overcome your slump period.
I hope this helps, and best of luck!
This happened to me a few times over the course of studying. Usually, it was because I was burnt out without realizing it. Other times, I was just overthinking and had convinced myself the test is more complicated than it actually is.
Either way, it can be helpful to do a few things:
First, I would give yourself a few days off without thinking about the test. Don’t feel guilty about not studying since rest can be more helpful than extra reps when you’re feeling burnt out.
Second, when you get back to studying I recommend doing a few easier difficulty questions from the types that you usually struggle with. This can help reorient you and see some success early on.
Lastly, go back through earlier tests in the high 160s and recent tests where you didn’t do as well and see where the differences are. You may notice a difference in RC or LR. Or it could be the harder difficulty questions that started to slip. It could even be that certain question types that you struggle with weren’t popping up in the earlier tests but started to in the recent ones. Identifying the issue will help you address it properly!
Best of luck!