Abandon Ship?

MPeabody

Up until last week, I was feeling really confident.

My previous five scores (under strictly timed/bubbled/public conditions):

PT 57- 179 (definitely an outlier)
PT 72- 173
PT 66- 173
PT 71- 173
PT 77- 176

PT 81 comes out and all the cool kids are taking it. 169. (LR -6; LG -0; RC -4)

To be honest, I didn't BR it as hard as I should have because I was anxious about the score so it only went up to 173. I have since gone over every question on the test and feel like I understand it inside and out. And then I took off two days to avoid burnout because I really am trying to learn from y'all's wisdom.

But I was still pretty freaked out about the drop so I took 80 to convince myself that I just had an off day and that I really could do the most recent tests.

...166. (LR -8; LG -3; RC -5)

(BR brought it up to 177; -2 LR, -2 RC)

For both 81 and 80---nothing really stood out in regards to having a bad day or anything. I always feel panicked during a test and grossly underestimate my score, but these tests didn't feel noticeably worse.

Perhaps I felt a bit more pressure since I knew these were the most recent and hence the best comparisons to the real deal and then feeling like it was do-or-die for 80 after the previous test. But if it really is an issue of underperforming under stress, things aren't going to end well on the 16th or in law school anyway.

Several of the questions were stupid mistakes, but I realized there was an RC passage I didn't fully understand the first time through and a couple of LR questions that I didn't understand under timed conditions (but I get them now.) I haven't been unable to finish an LG section in about 10 tests, but even if that had gone perfectly I still would have been stuck with a 168.

Is this because I haven't taken enough recent tests? (72, 71, and 77 are the only ones I've done in the 70's. I was trying to save them.) Is it just a couple of off days in a row and I need to chill the #%*$ out? What do I need to do to move forward? How do I assess if I need to postpone (and much more importantly--how do I avoid postponing because ughhhh)?

Thanks so much for your help!

TheMikey

PT 81 is hard. I took it today and got completely wrecked, shake it off.

You may be burnt out tbh, take like 2 days off and then get back into it. I wouldn't postpone, it seems like you're more than capable of getting that high score.

Paul Caint

From what I heard, PT 81 had difficult LR and medium-difficulty RC. The problem was that the LG was super easy. LG oftentimes sets the curve - unprepared people usually do really badly on it. If you're very prepared though, a difficult LG section - which some people invariably get a perfect score on - can result in a massive curve to inflate your score.

Anyway, PT 81 compensated with difficulty in other sections, but the supposedly ez pz LG made the curve feel nonexistent.

You should be fine tho, you have a great history of scores.

Alex

@MPeabody

I think a 169 is right at the low point of your PT range. The average of your last 5 PTs is about a 174, so scoring 5 points lower isn't that crazy; though I can absolutely see how it can be demoralizing. The consensus seems to be that PT81 had a pretty challenging RC section that caused many people to score a few points lower than they are used to.

How to avoid having to postpone?

Well, you mention above that some of the questions you got wrong were "stupid mistakes." Be very, very cautious of invoking this as a reason for why you missed any questions. There are no such things as stupid mistakes on this test. Each wrong/trap answer choice, no matter how obviously incorrect, is by design. You need to analyze why you made the "stupid mistake" and do all you can to avoid making it again.

I agree with @TheMikey 's assessment about not postponing. If you're happy with getting a score around a 170-173, I think you should take the test. If you're aiming for a 174-176, I may consider postponing just because I've known several people to describe them breaking the low-mid 170s plateau, and jump into the high 170s consistently with more prep.

I think whatever you decide, you are going to do very well! Never let one test shake you man. These are the practice runs that don't count.

Good luck!