Does the 7Sage Podcast have an episode that helps decide when to take a break and possibly defer even when you’re near your goal score and have already registered for an exam?

For context, I’m extremely burnt out and making careless mistakes and therefore losing easy points. Average PT is 168 and I took the lsat august and september (158, 164 respectively). Goal score is 172. I’m also KJD.

Scheduled for october but highly considering withdrawing and rescheduling for February. I don’t want to waste a try

Hi all,

I've been studying consistently six days a week since February. I first started studying in May 2025 and was consistent through August 2025, but I was very inconsistent from September through January. I've mentioned before that I made multiple sacrifices to be able to apply this year, so I worry that continuing is just the sunk cost fallacy.

In July I was consistently hitting high 160s, with one 172. I scored a 158 in August (anxiety, among other things) and then a 164 in September, which felt much better. I've essentially run out of new material from PT 130-158, and I'm extremely burnt out. I've been juggling the LSAT with personal issues, school, internships, and extracurriculars.

I took two sections today, and the results matched what I've seen since September: I'm scoring -4 to -6 on LR and similarly on RC. My scores are regressing. I feel like I've done everything right. I didn't intern this summer so I could focus on studying, wrote a WAJ for every missed question, reviewed in detail, and even tried the Socratic method, but I haven't improved past 168. I also haven't had a real break. I took about three days off after August and three after September.

I really wanted to apply as a KJD, but I don't think it's worth continuing to push just for that, especially since KJD odds are already lower than for other applicants. I feel like I'm doing something harmful to myself to prove a point, and honestly, there's an ego piece to it too. This decision took a lot of courage, because I've been preparing myself to apply this year, but everything points toward applying next cycle.

I plan to take the February or April exam. Next year I'll have five classes and an internship but no extracurriculars, so I expect to feel much better, especially with the lower pressure of having February, April, and June as options.

What do you all think? Has anyone been in a similar position?

I got a 164.

Still 5-6 points lower than my average for the last 2-3 months. I was averaging a 168-172.

I got a 158 in august.

6 point increase? Not necessarily. I was extremely anxious and on the verge of a breakdown in August. I nearly had a panic attack. It’s an extreme outlier.

Do I take October and hope for the best? my mindset is just so screwed. Nothing seems to be going right for me in these past 4 months.

I would also like to preface that I started studying in June 2025 with Kaplan for about 1 hr a day. I took a break between September-march. It wasn’t a consistent all out break from the LSAT but I didn’t study much at all (about once a week).

Since march, I’ve been studying with 7sage 6 days a week while juggling 5 classes, internships, extracurriculars, and volunteering. I didn’t intern this summer so I could full time study.

I got my first 165 in April. Started consistently hitting the low 160s in May. Mid 160s in June. High 160s in July, with my first 172. Since the august exam, I’ve been getting scores 168-170, with maybe 1 or 2 165-167 on my off days.

I know it’s not far off, but I felt so much more confident this time. I really can’t say i’m surprised though, I felt it in my bones in the last few days that I scored exactly a 164.

How do I improve my mindset atp? I graduate in the spring and wanted to be KJD.

Right now, if I complete and blind-review a test section on its own, there's no way to have that score count toward a full prep test later. I'd have to manually re-enter my answers into the full test, or retake the whole test and re-answer everything, which distorts the data (since it'd be like having multiple copies of the same score on the same exam).

It would be really helpful to have a feature that lets me combine separately-completed sections into one full-length test score. This would let me properly blind review each section individually while still getting accurate full-test data, without manual re-entry or retaking sections I've already done. I think this would be especially helpful for people who have multi-day testing accommodations or might not have the time to do a full prep test everyday but can do 1-2 sections a day.

158 on August LSAT after scoring 165–172 on recent PTs. Looking for advice for upcoming administrations

Hi everyone! I took the August LSAT, which was my first official LSAT after starting my LSAT journey in May 2025.

I've been studying consistently almost every day (except Saturdays) while attending school full-time, interning part-time, and participating in a weekly extracurricular.My PT progression looked roughly like this:

April 2026: consistently low 160s/June: consistently mid 160/ July: consistently mid-high 160/ Early August: 172 on PT 157: August LSAT: 158

Since the exam, I've taken PT 158 and PT 159 and scored 165 and 169, respectively. So I don't feel like my underlying ability has suddenly dropped to the 150s. Normally, my LR sections are around -1 to -4, and RC is around -3 to -6. On the August exam, however, I ended up missing around 22 questions overall.

What went wrong on test day? (based on personally journaling my experience)

1. Sleep/anxiety: I've always struggled to sleep before major life events. I anticipated this happening before the LSAT, and unfortunately, I barely slept despite being in bed for 10+ hours attempting to sleep. By halfway through the exam I was exhausted, and I caught myself rereading the same words repeatedly. I was also experiencing significant anxiety during the exam (I was literally shaking, crying, and breathing heavily toward the end of each section). I really tried to prepare myself before test day by not going any over any LSAT material the day before, eating protein in the morning, avoiding too much caffeine, etc.

2. RC was extremely difficult for me: The first RC passages were already difficult, and I believe the August RC section I was administered was considered particularly difficult according to Powerscore recap. The comparative passage was especially bad for me. It was extremely philosophical/scientific and unlike the types of RC passages I had practiced. I had a bit less time than I wanted left for that final passage.

When I realized I was running out of time on that passage, I started shaking and nearly hyperventilating. Also, because the RC section was my first section of the exam, it definitely affected my mindset going into the rest of the exam.

3. I started overthinking answers: Even on questions that I normally would have considered manageable, I found myself second-guessing answer choices and talking myself out of answers. This is something I've noticed in my recent review as well. I'll sometimes identify the correct answer initially, but then convince myself another answer is better as I read through the rest of questions or if I'm in between two questions. The only questions I get wrong are ones that I flag.

What I've done since the exam: I took about four days off after the exam, and since then I've been studying again. I've been specifically trying to: stop overthinking earlier questions, trust my reasoning more, pay closer attention to details while reading, practice taking PTs at approximately the same time of day as the actual exam, review my mistakes more carefully rather than simply looking at the correct answer. My recent PTs were: PT 158: 165/ PT 154: 169, so I'm still performing in the range I was before the August exam.

My situation going forward

I'm currently registered for both September and October. I'd really like to apply this cycle because I feel that I have a strong overall application (GPA, significant life experiences, internships, extracurricular involvement, etc.).

However, my semester is starting this week, so my schedule will become:

Monday: Free / Tuesday: Internship 9–5 + ~1 hour total commute / Wednesday: Internship 9:30–1:30 + extracurricular 4:30–7:30 + ~1 hour commute / Thursday: Free / Friday: Free / Saturday: Free / Sunday: Free/ 5 asynchronous classes (workload likely to be completed on mostly on Monday, any remaining could be finished later in the week). I also have ADHD, so I made sure to get all of the accommodations I needed. I am medicated.

What I'm trying to figure out: Given that I scored a 172 only a couple days before the August exam, then scored a 158 on test day, but have since scored 165 and 169 again:

How would you recommend I approach the September and October exam? I'm registered for both.

I'm especially interested in advice about:

1. Whether my recent PT scores are enough evidence that the 158 was an outlier.

2. What you think I should specifically work on over the next few weeks based on this experience.

3. Whether anyone has experienced a similar large gap between PT performance and an actual LSAT score, and what helped them close that gap.

I'm aiming for the 170+ range eventually, so I don't want to rush into September just because I want to apply this cycle. At the same time, I don't want to unnecessarily delay if the evidence suggests that August was simply a bad administration for me.

I'd really appreciate any advice!

As someone who plans on taking the LSAT on paper, I wish I could take drills on paper too! After doing LSAT questions on paper for so long, it makes it really hard to drill effectively if I do it on a computer. I've tried to do it on my tablet but I like to write physically on my paper next to the question so it's quite difficult.

I think it would be helpful if there were a feature that told us which lesson to review based on our top priorities. For example, let's say next to my top priority question type to review, it would suggest I review a specific lesson.