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i'm testing on thursday and today i'm just writing in my WAJ about two sections i did yesterday, then i'm going to write a list of the strategies i want front of my mind on test day, then log off haha
go to bed and wake up at the same time you need to be up for the test for the rest of the week
MOVE YOUR BODY! a lot of anxious energy can get stuck in your body and movement is the only cure
on wednesday i'm going to make my favorite breakfast, take a 3 hour walk to exhaust myself, read a book, write logical counters to my anxious worries, watch a movie with some raspberry tea (iykyk.... why does the test always fall at the worst time of the month), then call it a night early :)
you can't add any more skills at this point that would make or break anything for you. you've put the hours in, you know what to do, you can trust yourself. time to take it easy and prep for game day. good luck!
learning to skip has become the key for me, since i struggled with overthinking a lot. am still refining this. but i actually don't hide the clock so when i start to spin i can look at it and that's my cue to force myself to move on.
you have an official 168 man, that's incredible! don't give up on yourself, the difference between 168 and high 170s lies in your strategy which is totally fixable with consistent practice
i feel you with the reading into things due to extra time and overthinking. i've found that creating timing guidelines and sticking to them saves you from overthinking while trusting your thought process, since you clearly know the right answers
try to get the first 10 done in 12 minutes since those are easiest and if you have your skills down you should be able to breeze through those. then give yourself like 15 minutes to do #11-18. 15 minutes for #19-25/26. 10 minutes left for review for any you had to skip, for example. make the timing a non-negotiable in your head, like reading every word for instance
@nr thank you :) i'm proud of you too. if you can put in effort that you're proud of that's all that should count
My LSAT journey is going on two years now.
I've never been a drug advocate and never will have to be after this - this test has served me ego death and I am better off for it.
I steadily improved from low to mid 160s to low 170s throughout May this year, then felt like I lost all of that progress when I scored way below my improvement in June, my third time testing (despite feeling like I did well - later realized that was cope because I did have a lot of questions I spent too much time on and was stuck between two answers on).
I completely spiraled. I had too many personal and familial conflicts occurring at the same time as this repeated failure. I felt so numb to everything and felt like trying more at this test wouldn't be worth the time, money or effort.
With the advice of my husband and fellow successful LSAT warriors, I decided I needed to focus on my health more than studying. I needed to refine my strategies. I knew how to answer these questions. I just couldn't perform when it's timed and back to back and I can't sit at a question for ten minutes.
Since focusing on my physical and mental health consistently every day, I've been super consistent in my scores for the first time in this whole process and feel more confident getting to the right answer.
Even then, I still feel like this PT from yesterday is not a reliable data point because this test has repeatedly evaded me when it matters. And also because it's an older one. I'm trying to shut down this thinking and stay level-headed. Thinking I will do a PT from the 140s next week.
Regardless, I think I'm finally internalizing that your mentality matters way more than your skills at a certain level.
meditation to stay calm and present
eliminating ruthlessly - do not entertain or try to explain bad answer choices to fit the stimulus, get rid of them
skip and return to questions at the end when your mind starts to run circles around itself - do not entertain the spiral
remove the importance of the task from doing the task (falls under meditation)
Going to focus more on improving my RC over the next few weeks.
This whole journey is not what I asked for, nor wanted, but I've come to understand it's what I needed. And it's not over yet.
Onwards! Let's crush October once and for all.
i'm in the same boat as you, was PTing 10 points higher than the score i ended up with.
during the test it felt similar to those higher score testing experiences. i didn't have anxiety during the test (3rd time taking it and i have an anxiety disorder that has gotten worse with this exam preparation) and slept well the night before (only got 3 hours of sleep for my previous two exams and i'm really sensitive to not sleeping).
i was coping so hard when i saw my score... but i looked back and realized i did mess up during LR - i flagged way too many and there were too many questions where i was stuck between 2 answers and i switched my answers last minute to play with fate.
not making any assumptions about you, but i suggest objectively thinking to your testing experience and maybe you did a few things you usually wouldn't do - not trust your gut, overthink a few questions, change answers last minute, strive for 100% certainty so you spent too much time on certain questions? did you sleep well?
if not maybe the exam had a lot of a certain question type that's a weaker area for you.
it took me a while to accept that i didn't execute my practice for that exam as well as i could have after preparing for so long. i took a few months off and am just now getting back at it. it'll get better and we'll get there one day. good luck
@momalley627 you have to turn your applicable-to-real-life-reasoning off to get through this nonsense oh my gooooooshhhh... best of luck to you fellow warrior
but just because the author has to invent dialogue, how does that explain what the reader is expecting? the reader's perspective is not mentioned in that graf at all. maybe it's implied but again we can't say what the readers know/think just because we know what they're reading...
it feels like a fact v belief flaw. like kelly reads historical fiction so kelly must know that all dialogue in every historical fiction book is made up. idk E was very iffy because the assumption jump felt huge and unreasonable.
i got this wrong even though i found the assumption because my mind would not let me believe that the author was genuinely arguing that the solution is to let sea creatures die lol i was like why tf would anyone find that to be a suitable solution and this prohibited me from answering correctly
hey! i worked full-time for 3 years and studied for the LSAT for 2 of those while working. while i had a nice setup (remote job, lots of independent work so i could study during work), i struggled a lot to fully devote my mental energy to the lsat (my work had a lot of BS to put up with so i was exhausted)
from my experience, i'd recommend treating LSAT like your full time job for a few months while working part time, then get a full time job once you get the score you want. i think i would've been done with this journey much sooner if i devoted 6 months to it full time at the start. plus, if you enjoy the job, an extra year of work would help you in your apps as well i think.
i'm someone who struggles with multi-tasking when its between one thing i really care about (lsat) and one thing i cannot bring myself to care about (my old job lol) and they both demand all my attention