Self-study
Hi everyone, I am looking for guidance after receiving my score from the June LSAT. I got a 168 on the real test but I had been scoring in the 170s on every PT I've taken for the past 2 months. I had not gotten below a 171 since April, and I scored a 175 on both PT 158 and PT 159 (the last ones I took before the real test). I had also been practicing in environments similar to test day conditions to make sure that the testing center didn't throw me off since I took it in-person. This in combination with hitting my goal scores repeatedly on PTs made me feel relatively confident going into the real thing, but I ended up scoring around 5-7 points below what I had been scoring on PTS. This was the first time I had ever taken the real thing, so I'm wondering if it could have been test day nerves due to having never experienced the real environment before or if there is some kind of disconnect in my understanding/thought processes. Another issue is that I have been studying since late January and do not have any fully fresh PTs or sections left. Any advice on what I can do in the meantime between now and my retake in August to perform at the level I had been performing at on my PTs would be greatly appreciated!
I am in a similar situation where I scored significantly below my PT scores on the real test. It definitely did shake my confidence, but after talking to others I have found that this is actually very common especially on the first attempt. Remind yourself that you have an advantage on your next attempt that you did not have before: you now know exactly what it is like to take the real thing. It has definitely helped me a lot to switch my mindset from "I've been studying for months and couldn't execute on the real thing so all of that was for nothing" to "I have performed at a certain level before, but what was missing was knowing exactly what to expect on test day, which is something that I have now." I've learned that the majority of people take this test more than once and a lot of the time it is due to this exact situation. You know what you are capable of, you know you can score at a certain level, and now you have all the tools you need to go in there and kill it.
As for changes to prep strategies, after the June LSAT I changed my approach to studying significantly and found it to be extremely beneficial and it has definitely increased my confidence going into my August retake. The core of my new approach is cutting down on VOLUME of material and focusing heavily on review, as well as changing my review strategy. My new review strategy has helped me tremendously with understanding the actual mechanics behind all types of questions and has given me a TON more confidence in every aspect of the test. I have also changed my approach to RC and found that this change has helped me a ton too. Please feel free to message me for a more in depth explanation (as well as anyone else who may be going through the same thing or who just want to hear about some new methods, I would love to share the things I have learned that have helped me with people who share this same frustrating experience).
I'm going to tell you the same thing I had to tell myself so many times: do not let this test kill your confidence. You got this.