Hi! So I've been studying for months and made consistent improvement, and now all the sudden I'm doing worse than I ever have. I would rather not being doing poorly (duh) but I'm not sure why I have backpedaled so much! I'm taking the Spetember test, and need to get over this hump. Anyone go through something similar/have any tips?
2
6 comments
Hi! I usually don't post on these forums, but when this started happening to me I SCOURED reddit looking for people with similar experiences. After studying for months, I randomly started performing worse than I ever had before—even worse than my diagnostic! After talking to some other LSAT-studying friends, I realized that this happens to everyone (it's just that no one really talks about it). I had been studying for at least 30 minutes a day for months, so I forced myself to take a few days off before August. I kept scoring lower than normal for maybe one or two days after, but I pushed through and eventually got back on course. Have faith in yourself, and trust that what you have learned will stick. This is just a stumbling block! I ended up scoring around my average PT on the August test.
@lmo2142 omg yes i’m scoring worse than my diagnostic it’s driving me nuts! I’m hoping it’s just some anxiety that I’ll push thru by my test. Thank you for sharing!!
Take a break for one day to reset and refresh your brain!
You might benefit from looking back at your PT score graph and identifying the root causes of your bad scores. When you got the first one, were you particularly stressed, tired, or anxious that day? it's possible that getting one bad score is allowing you to get in your head and feel defeated, which is affecting your practice going forward and lowering your scores generally. It might help to practice moving slowly, saying some affirmations before you test, and assuring yourself that you likely didn't forget the logic—you're getting in your own head.
This happened to me literally within the last few weeks, and I feel like it only started getting better in the last week. I scored my highest PT ever and then immediately dropped like 8 points on the next one and hovered closer to there for the next few. Naturally, I was pretty upset about this since I'd been putting in a lot of time studying and couldn't understand how I could go backwards so dramatically. It took a few weeks to break out of it, but I just really tried to maintain confidence that if I could get that highest score once, I could do it again. I also did take a couple of days off from studying, as I was feeling burnt out between studying and work, and then felt better coming back. Just make sure you are not losing confidence - you have to go into every PT and drill thinking that it could be your best one yet.
You could also try shaking things up a bit. I was studying in the evening after work, but have switched to studying in the mornings before work to shake off the 'funk' a bit. That also seems to have helped, just switching routine a little.
We've all been there. Keep pushing through and don't convince yourself that you need to change something. If your range is 162-170 and you hit three straight 163s, you're not receding, those are all within range.