HELP! Advice on Retake: aiming for t14

jennyleejh

Fellow 7sagers,

I'm in a bind and am in serious need of advice. So it's already been about 10 months since I first started studying for the LSAT, and the June 2017 test was my second attempt, after the first one which I ended up canceling (turns out I was way too underprepared to deal with the test day anxieties and pressures). By the week before the June test day, I had done almost all preptests from 1 to the most recent 80s, and was averaging in the 170s, with the highest score being 177. Of course, I took into consideration that some of these scores were inflated because they were retakes (with about 3 months break).

I felt quite confident leaving the test center in June, feeling that no particular question gave me a hard time and that test difficulty was not much different from that of the numerous PTs I took. Unfortunately, turns out that was false confidence, and I was quite devastated to receive my score of 166, a score that is far below my average PT score. I know that 166 is not the end of the world, but I'm just disappointed and frustrated because despite all the work I've put in, my real test day scores simply do not reflect what I can achieve.

Although I've heard that 3 attempts may not be received so well by top tier schools, nevertheless I've reached the conclusion that I should take it one last time, as I feel like giving up now would be a total waste of what I've invested so far. I have a GPA of 3.93 from University of Chicago, and was really hoping to boost my application with a strong LSAT score.

But the problem is, I simply don't know where and how to begin studying for a third retake. I've used up all the practice tests, gone over the 7sage curriculum multiple times, and am pretty confident (or thought I was) with the fundamentals of each section. From my previous PTs, I know that my RC is the weakest, but I don't know where I went wrong on test day because the tests taken in Asia are all undisclosed tests (am I correct?). I don't know if 7sage has done all it could possibly do for me and whether I should turn to other resources... I think test day pressures have a huge impact on my performance but I'm not sure how to remedy that, or if I will ever be able to.
That brings me to the issue of when I should take my final test, because I'm not sure if I'm currently worn out from long period of intensive studying, or whether I should be gritting my teeth and committing 2 more months to prepare for the September test. I know that September will put me at a better place to apply early for my top choices, but then again I'm thinking, what good would that do if my scores are subpar?

I'm just a bit lost as to how I should approach my third and final exam, all the while writing my personal statements, essays of all sorts. I'm sorry for this lengthy chunk of text but I would tremendously be grateful any kind of advice you guys have for me. I've been thinking about it on my own for a few weeks but am feeling nervous and hesitant about not knowing whats best for me.

thank you so much guys!

jaylenosgarage

You can always use old tests and personally I benefitted A LOT from reusing PTs. What really helped was to doing 8 sections PT everyday so that I become automatic approaching the test. Since you've been obviously scoring in 170s, I think you should aim for September.

potatocowpower

I think the general consensus is that even among the T-14s, most schools only look at the highest score.

Perhaps test day nerves got the better of you and you mis-bubbled for half a section? That would kindof resolve the paradox, with you coming out feeling good about it, scoring much higher on pts and given your test anxiety for your first LSAT.

I took the LSAT twice, 174 and 178, going through almost all the PTs each time. I believe there was still much benefit to redoing them.

I would handicap myself in multiple ways to offset what might be inflated scores from repeated takes. My 5 section PTs would always start with RC, which I too loathed. This meant that I was more tired for the 4 scored sections. For LR I would force myself to explain why I didn't like each answer choice, which possibly offset familiarity with the question. You can give yourself less time for LG or you can force yourself to do more during the LG time, like eliminating answer choices even after you circled one you were pretty confident about (doesn't work so much for open-ended questions where you need to diagram out each answer choice)

My thoughts on anxiety and pressure would involve learning to perform under stress, perhaps taking PTs in a suboptimal environment like a busy cafe, or setting yourself up to be as unstressed as possible on test day. For me this involved understanding my sleeping habits so I would be the right level of tired the day before the test to get a good night's sleep, waking up early for some exercise, and doing a warm up "section" of the first 10 LR qns, an RC passage and a logic game before leaving for the test center.

For you it might involve looking at your current prospects on mylsn which should have you accepted at some T-14s if you apply to alot of them. In fact Chicago accepted 63% of 165-166, 3.9-3.95 applicants from 2015-2017 and Northwestern took 81%. I mentioned your mylsn chances because I feel a do-or-die mentality for you might be detrimental given your past anxiety.

I think it's a matter of not just improving your understanding of the LSAT but your understanding of yourself in relation to the LSAT. How can we convert those PT scores to a score on the actual LSAT?

There's a guide on TLS for retakers which you might find helpful: http://www.top-law-schools.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=195603

In terms of general law school admission strategy and your LSAT timing, you could register for September and decide by Aug 22 whether you postpone til December, which still isn't too late for T-14, there's a fee of $100 for postponing but I don't think it's too high a price to pay for the option.

파이팅!

jennyleejh

Thank you so much for taking the time to write such a thoughtful feedback. As you suggested, I'm going to sign up for September and decide then if I'm ready or not. And your advice on overcoming my test day anxieties and pressures is especially helpful - I'll definitely be trying them out. I'll also retake my PTs (for the third time - which will probably show extremely inflated scores) with the handicaps you mentioned, so thank you for that! Can I just ask one more question - should I be using a different strategy when I review tests I've taken more than once? In the past I've also gone over each question by pinpointing why each wrong answer was bad, why I was attracted to it, etc., so do you think there will be further benefit in reviewing the PTs the same way? I guess I'm just a little worried that the review method isn't working for me so I was hoping to get some additional tips! Thank you

Alex

@potatocowpower said:
I think the general consensus is that even among the T-14s, most schools only look at the highest score.

Perhaps test day nerves got the better of you and you mis-bubbled for half a section? That would kindof resolve the paradox, with you coming out feeling good about it, scoring much higher on pts and given your test anxiety for your first LSAT.

I took the LSAT twice, 174 and 178, going through almost all the PTs each time. I believe there was still much benefit to redoing them.

I would handicap myself in multiple ways to offset what might be inflated scores from repeated takes. My 5 section PTs would always start with RC, which I too loathed. This meant that I was more tired for the 4 scored sections. For LR I would force myself to explain why I didn't like each answer choice, which possibly offset familiarity with the question. You can give yourself less time for LG or you can force yourself to do more during the LG time, like eliminating answer choices even after you circled one you were pretty confident about (doesn't work so much for open-ended questions where you need to diagram out each answer choice)

My thoughts on anxiety and pressure would involve learning to perform under stress, perhaps taking PTs in a suboptimal environment like a busy cafe, or setting yourself up to be as unstressed as possible on test day. For me this involved understanding my sleeping habits so I would be the right level of tired the day before the test to get a good night's sleep, waking up early for some exercise, and doing a warm up "section" of the first 10 LR qns, an RC passage and a logic game before leaving for the test center.

For you it might involve looking at your current prospects on mylsn which should have you accepted at some T-14s if you apply to alot of them. In fact Chicago accepted 63% of 165-166, 3.9-3.95 applicants from 2015-2017 and Northwestern took 81%. I mentioned your mylsn chances because I feel a do-or-die mentality for you might be detrimental given your past anxiety.

I think it's a matter of not just improving your understanding of the LSAT but your understanding of yourself in relation to the LSAT. How can we convert those PT scores to a score on the actual LSAT?

There's a guide on TLS for retakers which you might find helpful: http://www.top-law-schools.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=195603

In terms of general law school admission strategy and your LSAT timing, you could register for September and decide by Aug 22 whether you postpone til December, which still isn't too late for T-14, there's a fee of $100 for postponing but I don't think it's too high a price to pay for the option.

파이팅!

I back this comment up 100% You will be fine, OP. You've got a great GPA and the ability. Re-do old tests, even for a third time. Tests are like oranges, there's always another drop to squeeze out of them.

Also, have you dont PTs A,B, C, C2 and Feb 97' ?

Cant Get Right

One thing that's important to me is making sure I show up on test day mentally and physically sharp. If I'm sleepy or hungry or anything, I definitely see a drop in my performance. So make sure you're bright eyed and ready to rock once the test starts. For the June test, I can see how something like an afternoon caffeine crash could be pretty devastating. For the other dates, just make sure you're getting plenty of sleep and allowing yourself enough time in the mornings to get in a good breakfast, warmup, etc.

potatocowpower

hmmmm i would look into how you get questions wrong? is it usually guessing incorrectly 50-50? in that case maybe you still don't truly know the question type or are still careless despite averaging in the 170s.

For example if you guess all right on 10 50-50 questions you might score at the high end of your range, but if you are unlucky with guessing it might not even be in the 170s. I think there's a tendency for some people to attribute doing well to actual competency/improvement and not doing so well to bad luck/anomalous test question distribution when in reality both are products of the great binomial distribution probability god.

i guess the takeaway is that you might want to be very honest with yourself about your actual confidence, and to seriously review if there was some doubt above a certain threshold. unless you are getting -0 for all sections every time, there is room for improvement

another thing that might be a problem for you is time management, reaction under pressure during tests. what is your reaction when you encounter a difficult question? do you tend to stare at it for awhile, spend an above average amount of time on it and still get it wrong often? if that is the case maybe skipping and returning later might be a viable strategy. even if you end up spending the same amount of time on the easy/difficult questions in the end, you allow yourself to be in a less anxious state of mind for the questions which you should be getting right and similarly anxious for the harder ones, rather than continually anxious if you did the questions in order.

here's a 7sage article about that: https://7sage.com/why-you-have-to-skip-questions-on-the-lsat/

i think the analytics tool would be useful here, to see what kind of questions trip you up so you can decide what to focus on improving, or maybe just knowing what questions you tend to do consistently badly on, so you can skip them initially?

another piece of borrowed wisdom i utilized was compiling a list of errors i tended to make and look over them before each PT. when i got stuck i would try and recall the list and see if i was committing any LSAT sins. highlights of my personal list included: LG stimulus might have important stuff, don't be careless, read question again. Which actually all fell under what one might consider carelessness.

I guess it depends on recognizing where you are and what is stopping you from realizing your potential and figuring out the most effective way to rectify that by Sep/Dec and executing that plan of action