@ said:

Idk if an anecdotal input is helpful, but fwiw a couple weeks before my December take, I had two PTs in a row where I got 5 less than my average at the time, for no good reason too. I ended up beating my average on the real thing.

Try to engage into positive thinking: look back on the countless hours of work you've put in, all the terrible questions and sections that you've seen, how much your understanding of the LSAT has changed since you first started. Most importantly remind yourself that it was you got those 164s-166s, and that there is no reason why you shouldn't be able to do this again on February 9. Good luck!

Thanks, I really needed to hear this :)

I need to stop invalidating my LSAT abilities at this point because of 1 or 2 PTs and reflect more on how much I've progressed as you mentioned. I don't think I've even taken a moment to think about that tbh, just goes to show how hyper-critical this test can make you lol :(

But only positive thoughts from now!!

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You can't do much as you noted. What I would do is blind review, then take a break, get one last confidence building PT in this weekend and then coast into the test.

If it is burnout, the last thing you want to do is go into a frenzied last minute prep stress session.

If it's nerves the same holds. Relaxation willbe good.

And I am confident you didn't just get worse at the test. That only happens in nightmares.

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That is normal. I've also noticed that if I am feeling a little off, my score drops below my average. Getting some cardio in about an before a pt helps clear the mind.

Thanks for the advice! Will definitely work on taking it easy these next 10 days and not to get too caught up in my head haha.

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Have you taken couple of the recent exams? If you already did and you are already accustomed to the language of those exams, I think it would be better do sections or maybe retake an older exam for a confident boost.

Yes, the last 7ish PTs I've taken have mostly been in the 70s so I think I've adjusted to the language

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The first time I tested I got 1 point less than my average taking two PTs a day until Friday the week before. I scored 1 point below my average. The second time I took one Saturday and one Tuesday and scored 3 above. If I had to do it again I wouldn't change what I di in the last week for either test.

The first test my only studying had been taking PTs and heavilly reviewing(but not blind reviewing) the logic games. I ended up taking more than 20 and less than 30 in 3 weeks. I felt burnout/drained taking the test, but nonetheless basically got my average. By my retake there were only two PTs I skipped taking so I didn't need the extra practice.

My point here is that anecdotes are close to useless. It doesn't matter that I practically scored my average despite being burnt out, it doesn't matter that others didn't and attribute it to being burnt out. In the absense of reliable statistics on the matter, you need to make your decision based on common sense and weighing the costs against the benefits. Here are a few of them.

Costs:

Burnout(You could be more tired for the real thing.)

Your confidence could take a hit if you do worse on an additional PT. (This one depends on a few things. How much have low PT scores impacted your confidence in the past? Was your last PT above or below average? Are you confident enough for your confidence to be lowered? Do you tend to score better when you are feeling confident?)

Benifits:

Additional practice(You've only taken 16 PTs, you may still have something to polish about your timing and or test taking strategy.)

Potential Confidence Increase(You could do well and ride the confidence through test day.)

As we get closer to the test the cost of burnout grows. This is why people hardly ever PT on Friday. If you are going to PT again, do it as soon as possible.

Either way good luck on the real thing!

Thanks for outlining those haha, it helped cement my decision further. My last PT dropped to 159 (when I was avging around 162) so I think my confidence could be hit again and the impact might be worse if I drop below 160. This was a week ago and it made me feel pretty discouraged so I'd rather not put myself in a similar position for Saturday.

I'm going to keep drilling individual sections from LG and use modern questions to hone my technique for LR/RC. At this point I can't imagine sitting through a PT will serve me well because I'm feeling a shred of dread even thinking about it haha. Maybe it's just the anxiety because the test is so close but I feel as if it would impact my test-taking abilities for the PT...

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Hey all,

I've been feeling anxious (as I'm sure many December test takers are) and was wondering whether I should avoid writing a PT today. If I take the PT, I risk burn out (which I'm slightly feeling at the moment) and also lack of confidence heading into the test (if I don't hit around my target score which is a 163).

At this point I've taken around 16 PTs and this will be my second write (I wrote last in September).. so I feel like I know what I know by now and really don't want to head into the test feeling mentally exhausted and deflated. But maybe simulating one more test would provide beneficial for the test on Saturday, I'm not sure!

Any advice would be appreciate :) Also, good luck to everyone writing on Saturday!

If you're feeling slightly burnt out, taking a PT will likely only serve to exacerbate your burn out. You can always take it tomorrow, Wed, or even Thursday. I know many people say avoid taking a PT the day before the test, so just avoid taking a full PT Friday.

Good advice I received from @ was to take a test like the June 2007 that we've all seen many times. Use this to get practice while increasing your confidence. At this point, you're not likely to have any major score increases so focusing on confidence is key!

Good luck!

Thanks for the response Alex!

I'm thinking at this point to not even write a PT before Friday because as you said, confidence is probably the most important thing to control heading into Saturday. But I will be doing timed sections from a test I've already done to make sure I processed all of my mistakes and to brush up on strategies.

The last PT I wrote about a week ago was lower than what I wanted by a few points and I was pretty discouraged by it so I really don't want to put myself in the same position for the real thing lol.

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No! do not PT if you even feel slightly burnt out! I learnt that the hard way in September when I tried to do as many PTs as I could before the exam.

Haha okay I'm definitely just going to be doing light reviewing based on what you and David have said! Are you writing in December as well?

Yes I am!! Good luck to youuuuu

Good luck to you as well!! Let's conquer this test finally :)

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No! do not PT if you even feel slightly burnt out! I learnt that the hard way in September when I tried to do as many PTs as I could before the exam.

Haha okay I'm definitely just going to be doing light reviewing based on what you and David have said! Are you writing in December as well?

Great, thanks!

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I can answer this question strictly from a personal preference. I would not take another PT. I would instead do some light drilling up till Friday and do some very brief warm ups come Saturday morning. I would keep things light. The analogy I use is that boxers don't spar 12 rounds the week of the fight.

Any areas of confidence that are not quite up to par, do a bit of focused drilling this last week.

Best of luck

David

Thanks for the advice! I was thinking along the same lines, but almost felt guilty for not writing a PT this week. It's crazy what studying for this test does to you. Hopefully my rested mind pays off on Saturday. :)

My LG section I'm fairly confident about, but LR seems to fluctuate still, so maybe it would be best to review the question types that have given me trouble in the recent PTs I've taken?

Thanks again!

Nope, I'm in the same boat. I believe they come out in batches?

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Over on reddit they're saying it's a -12 curve!!!! Good luck everyone

Is that or 170?

Yup! Also someone said the raw score for a 160 was 72-73 which seems quite nice

Over on reddit they're saying it's a -12 curve!!!! Good luck everyone

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Haven't forgotten this!--Still putting something together; I expect that I'll post over the weekend. In the meantime, I hope that you all are enjoying your gains and hard work!--A.c.S

Perfect, can't wait to read it!

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Oh, ok. Well, I'll post something on some of these points as soon as I get in front of my computer and have time (which might not be until tomorrow since I have to prepare a lecture). In the meantime, don't get down though. I actually think that RC is a very learnable section (far more than ppl give it credit for). Look forward to posting more later!--A.c.S

Thanks I appreciate that! Looking forward to reading your post :)

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Can you discern some specific issue that you have with RC (e.g., timing)? If so, what is it (what are they)?

I think I tend to read through the passages faster than I should, so when I start approaching the questions I often have to refer back to the passage a lot and this burns me for time. Also I'm a little hesitant with skipping, so when I run into a difficult passage in the beginning I have this mentality of wanting to get through it first rather than coming back to it later and attempting an easier passage instead.

In general, I find the nature of the RC questions difficult (analogy, inference, AP). I was consistently averaging -8/-9 while I was PTing, but for some reason the September test really overwhelmed me (particular the judicial candor passage if you took the test) and it left me with 5 minutes for the last passage which is obviously awful timing on my part.

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Some reading comp passages are just brutal like that- I feel like with the LR section you eventually become really familiar with the traps and at some point everything clicks. RC can be way more fickle because some passage you just get right away- don't give up.

Yup... the placement of certain RC passages (and particularly hard questions) can absolutely wreck your momentum for the rest of the section as well.

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I'm on the exact same boat, got a 152 but was scoring around 157 - 164 during my practice tests the weeks prior. I forgot my watch the day of the test and timing threw me off. Just trying to find the motivation to get back to studying even harder and more intentional. I do agree that we should take today off and re-strategize tomorrow.

Wow! I had my watch and my timing was still off haha. Yup, I feel the same way.. Ever since the September test I've been working on law school apps and taking a break from the 3 months of intensive studying.. Now I feel lost and do not know where to begin. We'll get our mojo back, but it's hard right now to feel motivated enough to study.

@ said:

I feel you. I didn't do as great as I would have hoped.

I don't know if this helps, but from now until December 2, I plan on pinpointing where my mistakes are and working on trying to understand why the right answers are right. From the end of September until now, I was working on re-learning the material, but I'm going to start really drilling the information by the end of October.

Don't feel discouraged. Your dream score isn't going to come easy, granted, but if it was easy, everyone could do it. Just take today off, restrategize, and keep pushing. I think you'll be just fine.

Thanks so much for this :) Yeah I'm sort of in the same boat strategy-wise, I think I've grasped the fundamentals, but I was probably not as hard on myself during PTing and BRing as I should have been. Ultimately though, timing completely destroyed me and hopefully it's something I can see improvement on with using skipping more often (I rarely skip, but I watched the webinar and it's very convincing).

Good luck with your LSAT studying the rest of the way, I hope we both reach our target score!

Going to post in a separate thread (deleted the content)

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Just got home from work and checking the LSAC site the first time. I can't even see where the grey thing is lol

help anyone?

Under the subheading "LSAT" select "LSAT status" and scroll down, there you should see all of the LSAT documents as grey (item response report etc.). And above you'll see your administration date, score, percentile.

This is all great, thanks everyone!