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This is insanely frustrating as I know I know the material and understand the content. I do a section, get 12 WRONG WHICH IS CRAZY then realize my mistakes during Blind Review. My best LR section has been a -5 so far, and seeing a -12 after making so much progress is genuinely draining. I don't know if I need to practice more under time pressure/testing simulations or I need to look away from LR for a little bit. Please help :(
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I have been studying consistently for almost over 8 months and I have been dedicating hours a day with one to two rest days a week. I am in a weird place because when I take a practice test on law hub, and I check my answers after each question still in a timed setting, I score 12 points higher than when I take a practice test normally, still with timed conditions, without being able to check my answer after each question. I experimented this way to be able to see if this was a mental thing, and I think it is.
As someone here mentioned it as well. I am trying to be as calm and relaxed as possible before a practice test and understand that it's not that big of a deal and I have practiced for this. However, recently i have been getting the same score over and over, and I feel stuck. I have taken the LSAt twice already; there was not much improvement between both but massive improvement on my timed sections. I understand the material like never before and see patterns in the questions and recognize them. The only thing is when it comes to the practice tests themselves, I see issues. Any advice besides boosting confidence and bettering my mentality for this test?
I'm the exact same way. My first PT was 146 and I kept retaking PT hoping I'd improve...but didn't. Then I moved to doing untimed sections and was getting around -7 questions wrong. With blind review, I find that I understand the questions I got wrong and why. So that's what led me to start doing timed sections, but not looking or even thinking about the clock. I am not going to do another PT until I feel confident that I am improving on the timed sections. I don't want to run out of practice tests; yet I still want to mimick what test day will feel like.
Hope this helps and know you're not alone on the struggle bus!
Same! But this last PT, I told myself to just forget about the time and really focus on comprehending and answering the questions. Turns out that I was able to get through 3 passages and since the last one was a comparative, I was able to guess and got a few correct. Doing this gave me a 5 point bump. Hope this helps!
Not sure this will be of help as I know its easier said than done, especially in timed situations, but I've noticed in myself that my mindset really affects my PT scores. If I go in panicky/stressed (e.g. drank an energy drink beforehand and was worried about other life stuff) I tend to get impatient with answers, not read as carefully/skimming or start picking answers based on my instinct rather than real evaluation and knowing I have the right answer. Also, a more stressed mindset leads me to a lot more self-doubt while taking the exam.
When I'm able to go in calmly, and assured that I have enough time to read things carefully, read every word rather than skim, and evaluate every answer choice, I've had PTs with a score 9 points higher than PTs where im rushing through the whole thing. My advice is to make a little ritual before taking the exam of whatever you know puts you in a level-headed place. For me, this means taking a little walk, not having too much caffeine and not worrying about anything but the questions in front of me when taking the exam, especially not about how much I need to improve before taking the real thing.
I've also found it to be important to not carry a rough question over into the next one - when I meet a question that costed me a lot of time or I was really unsure about, I have a tendency of worrying about it while I'm reading the next question. Taking a second after a bad question to take a deep breathe is worth the time to me to reset myself.
If you know/understand the material, and can correct your mistakes on BR, I would really recommend getting to know your mentalities and recognising when your mind might be getting in your own way. Sometimes we are our own worst enemies! Assure yourself that you've got the skillset to succeed, and hopefully this reassurance will bring confidence and patience in answering the questions :)
Are you finishing the sections when timed? I strongly recommend trying a few sections where you don't care about finishing. Just focus on getting every question you attempt correct; if you end up having to guess on 5 questions, so be it. There's a good chance this approach results in a higher average LR score.
Hey I want to let you know you are not alone. I'm in the exact same boat as you. I took my first PT in February and got a 148. I got a little over half way through the first two sections, and then forced myself to finish the last sections. I was in school at this time though, so I didn't really dedicate much time studying after. I might've studied 20 hours from February to the end of May, and then I took another practice test. I thought to myself this time I would just try to focus on finishing all of the sections and my score would go up. And it did! I got a 156 on this practice test, and I was a little under halfway done with the core curriculum in 7sage I think. This put the impression on me that my improvement would be linear after this, and it would be smooth sailing. Boy was I wrong. Since then, I've been consistently studying around 20 hours per week, and I still haven't been able to beat that 156 score. Studying for this test has proven to be one of the most challenging and frustrating things I've done in my life. I haven't gotten the results back yet, but I took the August LSAT and I'm pretty sure I bombed it lol. I'm going to try and take a week off and come back to studying to see if that helps. I'll let you know how it goes.