Worried about PT's

LSATcantwin

So as many of you know, I went hard leading up to the September test. I took basically every PT from 40-81 leading up to it. I scored lower than expected in September and have since re-evaluated my study habits. I am noticing though that I am remembering a lot of the questions, LG and passages on the test. For example, I went to take PT68 today, and the first RC passage I remembered the entire thing. I took the test 5 months ago, but still knew where to focus in order to get the answers right.

So any ideas on what to do in order to keep things fresh? Obviously I could take PT's in the 30's but for whatever reason I score significantly higher on early PT's than I do on later ones. I want something that might be a little more accurate to test day.

BinghamtonDave

It is not a panacea, but your post reminded me of this thread:
http://www.top-law-schools.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=195603

The main hurdle you are probably going to be facing is the problem of exhausted materials. There is a finite amount of materials out there and as you point out, the older exams are a bit different. My opinion on the matter is that I would be focusing on drilling away weaknesses and really evaluating strange argument forms these last 10 days or so. Most of your pieces should be in place for test day as far as pacing and test taking skills.

As an aside: the pre-36 exams are really great for flaw questions and method of reasoning questions. You might want to brush up on things like the math-type of questions etc. Basically, since you have used the bulk of the newer materials, and apparently have retained a decent memory of those things you've got to make do with filling in whatever gaps persist in your knowledge of the exam. I have a series of questions I review almost daily that helps me with my personal knowledge gaps.

Best of luck and keep me posted
David

FerdaFresh

That's rough @LSATcantwin. I think the beauty of your scenario though, since you've exhausted the latter half of PTs, is you can really spend time mulling over those curve breaker questions or any question you got wrong on any of them. I guess this is directed more towards LR... Have you heard of @Pacifico's strategy of creating an LR set all of questions you've gotten wrong in the past? Even with your working memory that section should be a doozy, and it'd probably be the most insightful BR session you've ever had.

Ohnoeshalpme

I think these are great recommendations. I am a new 7sager; I'm positive I can't teach you anything new about the test. I've read many of your comments and you seem like a wise and seasoned LSAT test-taker. In terms of preparation and skill, there's no reason to score below 170. A 163 in a previous test, is obviously a huge anomaly, so we have to look at it with scrutiny, and more importantly, objectivity. The biggest change that the real test brings is stress and unfamiliarity (outside of the test material). I KNOW you've probably heard this a million times, but it's important to hear it one more time: Winning the mental game is the biggest goal for you right now. Seek resources in that realm, and i'm sure you'll do all of us 7sagers proud.

OlamHafuch

@LSATcantwin said:

So any ideas on what to do in order to keep things fresh? Obviously I could take PT's in the 30's but for whatever reason I score significantly higher on early PT's than I do on later ones.

That's great; you'll go into the test with more confidence.

LSATcantwin

@FerdaFresh said:
That's rough @LSATcantwin. I think the beauty of your scenario though, since you've exhausted the latter half of PTs, is you can really spend time mulling over those curve breaker questions or any question you got wrong on any of them. I guess this is directed more towards LR... Have you heard of @Pacifico's strategy of creating an LR set all of questions you've gotten wrong in the past? Even with your working memory that section should be a doozy, and it'd probably be the most insightful BR session you've ever had.

I might do this. It's something that can really help me hit the rough spots. My only reservation is what this might do to my confidence lol

@BinghamtonDave I will keep hitting weaknesses as best I can. I am still ranging around -6 total in LR. 0/1 in LG and RC is now more consistently around -4/5. Obviously this puts me right on the verge of 170, some times higher some times lower. Reading comp still is hurting me fairly badly, and I think exhaustion gets me in LR. Even with finishing early I typically miss the bulk of my LR problems in the late teens early 20's.

@ohnoeshalpme @uhinberg lol you guys have more confidence in me than I do! I really do want to go into the test more calm this time. I'm purposefully avoiding thinking about it too often and the amount of time I spend on the test is way down. Even still I had a nightmare last night that one of my LR sections turned into this amalgamation of LR/RC where the entire section was one long passage where they pulled multiple LR questions from. Talk about a freaking nightmare lol

Seeking Perfection

Remembering the old PTs does cause a little bit of a problem. It's one, I never faced, but thought I might if September didn't pan out.

What I concluded was that it was okay for me to burn through my PTs anyway since fresh PTs only seemed more valuable than used ones for two things. The first is that they are the only way to get an accurate snapshot of your ability. The second is that they give you a sense of timing on the real test.

The diagnostic power is nice, but if you are committed to putting in as much effort as you can without burning out, it does not really matter what your diagnostic score is. You are still going to try to keep improving it.

The other is the timing. I assume you already are used to the timing of the test, but I might take away 5 minutes or so when taking test sections you have already done. You will go through them quicker if you have already done them once. So account for this by giving yourself less time.

PTs 1-35 probably are not any better than used tests as diagnostics once you have been through the core curriculum thoroughly since it draws heavilly from them. That's probably also why they seem easier.

But taking used PTs with blind reviewing should act just like redoing games over and over again during foolproofing. You might not get as much value as the first time, but should still be able to get quite a bit. I think you can definitely keep improving, but will just be improving blind with no way of assessing how far you have come other than the real test.

Given your situation and my above beliefs, I'd recommend the following...

-If you are worried about exhaustion making LR hard for you, then I think longer tests are your best practice strategy. I practice tested with 4 section test followed by a 15 minute break follwed by another 4 section test and I think this ensured that on the real test I was fresh the whole time. Other strategies for making longer tests work, but then you have to break PTs into pieces which ruins their curves predictive value(since they are already ruined for you as predictors by previous takes this might not be a concern).

-When missing a small number of LR questions I think the best strategy is to compile those you missed and review them on a daily basis. You could incorporate a monster section into this like @FerdaFresh recommended, but the key is to find some way to go over them again and again until they are foolproofed. The extra PTs taken as a result taking PTs back to back help supply more missed questions for this part.

-Reading comp is obviously the hardest to improve on. Maybe read something academic of interest to you. Philosophers in particular tend to write in torturously elaborate syntax at times. If you can find something like that of some interest to you, then read it, and you can mix pleasure, learning, and lsat prep.

As always good luck!