Advice ??

EvetteCee

I am scheduled to take the September exam ( 18 days) for the 1st time. I have been having inconsistent PT's from 157-163 within the past 2 weeks. I've been taking 1/2 PT daily. My goal is at least 168 Maybe even 165. I'm debating whether I should reschedule for December or not. I'm weakest at RC missing sometimes 7/8. LR from 5-7 & LG from 0-3. Any advice?

Cant Get Right

You should almost certainly reschedule, but most importantly, please please stop taking PTs!! PTs aren't your primary means of learning this test, they're your primary means of identifying the errors you need to address to improve. At the rate you're burning through them, you are not taking the time to learn anything from them and all you are really accomplishing is burning material. Running out of material is the one LSAT mistake you can't fully correct, so whatever you have left you've got to save it. Look over your last few tests and try to find patterns. For each question, ask yourself why you missed it or even if you got it right, why you may not have fully understood it. Then find a meaningful answer: something that goes beyond question type. You'll find that if you do this exercise well, a lot of questions will seem to have similar answers. Study those errors until you're confident you won't make those mistakes again. Only then should you take another PT. Good luck!

Alex

I would reschedule without a doubt. You're off to a good start but ultimately the increase you're looking for will take longer than the 2.5 weeks you have left.

The first thing you should do is stop taking 1-2 PTs a day. Taking more practice tests more frequently is not going to help you. It's a waste of time and material and arguably detrimental in the long run. Taking PTs are great for gauging our improvement but not great for achieving that improvement. Blind review, drilling, and reviewing material is how we improve. You want to take a PT and then spend as much time as you need after to eliminate any weaknesses you had on your last PT. For example, last week I scored my highest on a PT ever. But instead of taking another PT, I've since just been drilling games because I went -4 on the LG section. Until I am going -0 on games there's really no point in me taking another PT. I already know where I am likely to miss points and I already know what I can do to make sure that doesn't happen.

Try using the 7Sage analytics tool to track where you're weakest on logical reasoning and spend time drilling those question types. That's a good place to start for now. If you can get your LR section down to only missing -3/-4 per section and LG down to -0/-1 you will be right at the 165 range you want.

Good luck!

EvetteCee

Thanks guys! I feel in my gut that I can definitely feel better, but I'm not as sure that I'll be able to do so by the September date. That being said, do you know if Law schools typically accept the higher LSAT score if the test is taken twice or if they average the 2 scores?

nathanieljschwartz

@"Bay Area" so almost all schools claim they only look at the highest score. HOWEVER, that does not mean that having more than one score will not affect your application. Many admissions officer have said that they look at the highest score but they do note if you have another lesser score.

Besides the fact that many people have claimed a slight drop in there performance on test day,

so i suggest getting a few points higher than your target score before taking it anyways

Alex

@"Bay Area" said:
Thanks guys! I feel in my gut that I can definitely feel better, but I'm not as sure that I'll be able to do so by the September date. That being said, do you know if Law schools typically accept the higher LSAT score if the test is taken twice or if they average the 2 scores?

They typically only accept your highest, but they consider all scores.

TheMikey

@"Bay Area" said:
Thanks guys! I feel in my gut that I can definitely feel better, but I'm not as sure that I'll be able to do so by the September date. That being said, do you know if Law schools typically accept the higher LSAT score if the test is taken twice or if they average the 2 scores?

yale cares, for some reason. but basically every other school just cares about your highest as that is what is reported.

sidenote: NYU claims they average scores on their site, but there has been a bunch of evidence of retakers out there to show that this claim is pretty much BS.