Bad week?

AudaciousRed

I really blew a PT this week. Like.. 6 points off bad. But my BR is staying high. Does this seem to happen to others very often? For reference, it has been a really rough week between school and finals posting, car issues, etc. Thinking maybe I should forget it since the BR was still great and move on... Thoughts?

Alex

Yeah I think so. One data point (one test score) really doesn't tell you anything and is statistically insignificant. My last PTs looked like this. 170, 170, 163

I was kind of bummed when I got the 163, but I didn't stay bummed once I realized that tests where you score much lower are great learning opportunities. I finally got hit with some LR questions that were pretty challenging for me and I took a lot away from them. I truly think I'll be a better LSATer for having got them wrong and scoring 7 points lower on this last PT.

I was also tired, took it after work, and can think of a dozen other reasons it may not had gone as well as it could have.

Secondly, variation is a normal part of life. We just don't usually objectively measure it in numbers like we do on the LSAT. If you measure your dish washing efficiency for a week, I'm sure each night your efficiency may vary 15% one way or the other. Might even drop and break a plate every now and then, haha. We just don't think anything of it because we don't time ourselves and evaluate ourselves while we do the dishes.

All that to say, a variation of 5 points or so isn't anything to stress out about.

On top of it you had a tough week. It's okay to be a bit bummed over it, but make sure you learn all you can from your mistakes.

beezmoof

You’re okay! It was an off data point. Take this as an experience where you’re learning the conditions in which you perform maximally. Aka I need to let’s say have 8 hours of sleep, not be doing much other work, etc.

Growth isn’t linear! If it were, studying would be a lot easier

eRetaker

Yeah it happens to everyone at some point. It may also have to do with certain preptests being more to your weakness than others. For example preptests 72, 75, 78 had a cycle of tough LG and LR sections that made me score 6-8 points lower than I normally would, so I wouldn't worry too much about one or two low scores.