HELP: Consistency Issue

Poocharelli

Hey everyone,

I'm not typically the person who turns to forums for help, but I am falling apart here and have no idea what else to do. After more than 30 PTs, my scores are not consistent. They have ranged anywhere from 161-175. I hit the high160s on my first few tests, and I was taken aback, and I thought there was only one place my scores could go, and that was up. But even now, after all of these tests, I still feel like I roll the dice every time I sit down to take one.

I always know when my score is going to be good. I feel good, my head is clear, and I have a killer instinct for most questions, especially in logical reasoning. But when I'm off, I know it, and things fall apart quickly. I'm unfocused, get frustrated, and second guess my answers. Sometimes I even struggle finishing a section. I have done everything to try and replicate the former state of mind (exercise, nutrition, rest, etc.), but nothing seems to keep me performing consistently.

My last 10 tests, taken about one day apart, were, respectively: 171, 164, 170, 164, 169, 163, 164, 171, 168, 175.

It's been quite discouraging and frustrating constantly going from a high score to a lower score. I have been studying since January, and I wanted to sit for the June exam, but I just couldn't because I am so inconsistent. I moved my test date to July in hopes of remedying this issue.

Should I allow a few more days in between my PTs? Has anyone experienced this type of issue?

All suggestions are welcome! Thank you so much.

LSAT_Wrecker

So if I’m understanding your post, you took 10 PT’s in ~20 days? If that is correct, it would appear that you are not giving yourself enough time to completely review each test, identify the areas that you should review/drill/work to understand better before testing again. I would recommend slowing way down on the pace of testing and increasing the amount of time actually studying. I think you’ll find the general consensus here is 1-2 PT’s a week maximum with the majority of the time spent identifying and reviewing weaknesses identified by the test.

Good luck.

FixedDice

My last 10 tests, taken about one day apart, were, respectively: 171, 164, 170, 164, 169, 163, 164, 171, 168, 175.

Should I allow a few more days in between my PTs? Has anyone experienced this type of issue?

You definitely need more time. Three PTs a week is the boundary between legitimate study and possibly unethical self-torture. Your schedule exceeds that boundary.

Alex

Where are you missing points?

What do your score breakdowns look like when you get those 160 scores compared to the 170- scores?

What was your diagnostic and what did you do to study?

I ask because I've seen other people start off really strong in a section and then have the same inconsistency issues as yourself because they relied too heavily on intuition instead of concrete strategy. That's actually an issue I had with LR a while back. I started off missing only a handful on LR and kept relying on intuition and pattern recognition to do well. Eventually I was missing -0 on one LR section and -5 on another LR section of the same PT. Very frustrating. But sometimes it's just as simple as making sure you have a tried-and-true, consistent strategy for every question type/section.

If your scores are that inconsistent you have enough data to comb through, review, and find trends and specific area of weakness you can work on. Probably best to take a break from full PTs for now and do that.

Also from your post it seems like there's an underlying mental aspect to your score dips. Taking too many PTs back to back can do that to some people. It becomes a negative feedback loop when you're over-testing yourself, underperforming, and then stressed out when you do your next PT.

You may also consider taking a break and recharging. I think aside from LG, every time I've taken a break I've come back and done just as well, if not better, on LR/RC.

Good luck!

Seeking Perfection

I would slow down the PTs a lot. You could be burning yourself out a little. You may find having fewer days taking actual PTs will enable you to have that clear headed sensation for more of them.

If you still want to take quite a few PTs I strongly think that taking two back to back is better. In this way you can do two a week with only one day of having the stress of a PT or up to 4 a week while only having two days consumed by the pressure of literal testing. I would take at least one day a week to straight out rest and maybe 2 as you get closer to the test. The other days should be spent analyzing your PT results and drilling weaknesses which get exposed by the PTs.

Also budget for a really light week to rest up right before the test.

So what is your typical section breakdown? Are their particular LR question types you miss most frequently? Are your logic games sections consistantly -1 or -0? If not, which game types throw you off the most?

Poocharelli

I really appreciate all of the responses!

I typically go -0 or -1 on LG, with the occasional -3. When I feel good, LR is one of my best sections. My typical range is -0 to -2. RC has always been a roll of the dice, and it often decides how high my score will be. I go anywhere from -1 to -6 on RC.

When my scores are in the 160s its definitely because my LR falls off the rails. When I mess up a section, its never a -4 or -5. I fall apart and find myself getting at least a -6 or greater. And its never any question type in particular.

When I'm in the 170s, my LG and LR are all fine. Depending on how my RC pans out, that decides how high my score goes.

My diagnostic was 152. I have completed the 7Sage CC, went through the Manhattan Books, and dabbled with the the Trainer for LR and RC. I have a pretty good strategy for each question type.

So should I not do any timed sections on days where I'm not testing? I blind review all of my tests, so should I just focus on untimed review and study my mistakes?

Again, thank you for all of these responses. I think I have been going too hard and that has caused a lot of stress and overthinking when I sit down to take a test.