What to do after massive PT score drop?

Traianus

Hi all,

Hope all of your studying is going well. I finished the curriculum portion of the course about two weeks ago, and have taken six practice tests since then. While my first four showed a general progression toward a score I would be very happy with, the last two tests have been a 9-point and 11-point drop from my best score, which I made only days before. This leads me to a few questions.

• Is this normal?

If so I guess that eliminates the need to answer the rest of these, but two scores an average of 10 points lower seems strange to me.

• What should I do to remedy this situation?

I have read that this could be caused by burnout, but I am not feeling burned out and I'm eager to learn from my mistakes (I've had college classes that made me feel burned out and it doesn't feel anything like what I'm feeling right now). So is more rest the answer, or should I work it out through more PT's?

Any advice would be appreciated on here or through PM's.

Thank You

Adam Hawks

Ok, some advice from an LSAT novice.

1.) Eat some ice-cream and watch a Wesley Snipes movie.

2.) Look at the 7Sage analytics and listen to the dulcet sounds of JY showing you how to solve the difficult problems while taking notes.

3.) Write-up the wrong LR answers. Re-do games that gave you difficulty (untimed). And write an RC journal to clarify reasoning.

Make sure you're getting plenty of rest. Cap your study to probably no more than 3 hours a day. Meditate and just relax. The test you will be taking will be nothing more than a new, proctored PT. If you don't do well, you can always take it again.

https://media.giphy.com/media/55PqlnfROGE3S/giphy.gif

TheDeterminedC

There's no need to view two score drops and suddenly think you're hitting some type of LSAT crisis. Relax and realize these two might be pressing your weaknesses more then others. I think it's more reliable to see your progress by averaging the last 5 PT scores like 7Sage advocates for. Every time you do a new PT, drop the fifth one and go off that score. It just becomes too stressful to ride the emotional rollercoaster basing how you're doing off only the new one you just did. Although the overall score is always from 120-180, you have to realize that each PT is very different in exactly what questions each are testing. Even section wise you might have a hard section that is your strength or it might be a hard section where you're not the best in. That's not even including how much sleep you got the night before, your mood that day, what you ate, the time of day you took it, were you distracted, ect. Just find mistakes in each one you do, keep working hard and take your notes. You don't have to stress if you're doing your due diligence.

eRetaker

I had a huge score drop when I took PTs 72-78. The way I always saw it was that I can gain more reviewing a bad PT than one that I actually scored well on. I personally dug deep into the reason that my score died in that range and found that the LR sections there were more difficult than the other PTs that I had done especially since that was my most volatile section at the time. Sure, I was scoring much lower in that range than I did in PTs 67-71 but I honestly felt that I was getting better at the LSAT during this time.

Traianus

@"Adam Hawks" said:
Ok, some advice from an LSAT novice.

1.) Eat some ice-cream and watch a Wesley Snipes movie.

2.) Look at the 7Sage analytics and listen to the dulcet sounds of JY showing you how to solve the difficult problems while taking notes.

3.) Write-up the wrong LR answers. Re-do games that gave you difficulty (untimed). And write an RC journal to clarify reasoning.

Make sure you're getting plenty of rest. Cap your study to probably no more than 3 hours a day. Meditate and just relax. The test you will be taking will be nothing more than a new, proctored PT. If you don't do well, you can always take it again.

https://media.giphy.com/media/55PqlnfROGE3S/giphy.gif

This is good stuff, thank you! Especially the RC journal, that seems very helpful.

Traianus

@TheDeterminedC said:
There's no need to view two score drops and suddenly think you're hitting some type of LSAT crisis. Relax and realize these two might be pressing your weaknesses more then others. I think it's more reliable to see your progress by averaging the last 5 PT scores like 7Sage advocates for. Every time you do a new PT, drop the fifth one and go off that score. It just becomes too stressful to ride the emotional rollercoaster basing how you're doing off only the new one you just did. Although the overall score is always from 120-180, you have to realize that each PT is very different in exactly what questions each are testing. Even section wise you might have a hard section that is your strength or it might be a hard section where you're not the best in. That's not even including how much sleep you got the night before, your mood that day, what you ate, the time of day you took it, were you distracted, ect. Just find mistakes in each one you do, keep working hard and take your notes. You don't have to stress if you're doing your due diligence.

This makes a lot of sense, I know that I can't live and die by every single score. Sometimes I think about the final score during the exam and that makes things a whole lot worse. I'm trying my best to block those thoughts out and focus on each individual question/game/passage and not worrying about the final outcome. It reminds me of a wise saying...

How do you eat an elephant?

One bite at a time.

Also definitely haven't been getting enough rest either, need to make that a priority from now until September. Thank you for your help!

Traianus

@eRetaker said:
I had a huge score drop when I took PTs 72-78. The way I always saw it was that I can gain more reviewing a bad PT than one that I actually scored well on. I personally dug deep into the reason that my score died in that range and found that the LR sections there were more difficult than the other PTs that I had done especially since that was my most volatile section at the time. Sure, I was scoring much lower in that range than I did in PTs 67-71 but I honestly felt that I was getting better at the LSAT during this time.

That's reassuring to hear. I took 36-40 and did well on 38 and 39, but had a bad showing on 40 and I skipped to 60 today (to try and get a more "modern" LSAT) and that is the worst one I've taken since the diagnostic (I actually missed more questions on this one than my diagnostic). I found the LR to be noticeably harder on 60 than any test from 36-40.

You're totally right though, in that there's a lot more to learn from a "bad" test than from a "good" test. Thanks for pointing out the silver lining.

keets993

If I'm reading this right you've taken six practice tests in the span of two weeks? If so, that's waaay too many. You shouldn't do more than 2 per week. Also, are you analyzing each test thoroughly? Does your BR consist of writing out your reasoning for each question you're unsure of and not just 'no this doesn't feel right' but detailed, thorough analysis?

Also, seeing that you jumped from 40 to 60 could also explain it. But as @ebalde1234 stated, channel your frustration (after a break away) into incorporating these 'lessons' into your drills and review. It's easy to say it was caused by burnout or the switch (which I'm sure part of it was) but there must also be something deeper and more fundamental. Maybe you eliminated AC's because you felt they required an assumption or were too strong but then chose an answer choice that was much more flawed.

ebalde1234

@keets993 said:
If I'm reading this right you've taken six practice tests in the span of two weeks? If so, that's waaay too many. You shouldn't do more than 2 per week. Also, are you analyzing each test thoroughly? Does your BR consist of writing out your reasoning for each question you're unsure of and not just 'no this doesn't feel right' but detailed, thorough analysis?

Also, seeing that you jumped from 40 to 60 could also explain it. But as @ebalde1234 stated, channel your frustration (after a break away) into incorporating these 'lessons' into your drills and review. It's easy to say it was caused by burnout or the switch (which I'm sure part of it was) but there must also be something deeper and more fundamental. Maybe you eliminated AC's because you felt they required an assumption or were too strong but then chose an answer choice that was much more flawed.

Keets on point as always ... silly mistakes = big areas for improvement

ebalde1234

I think we all experienced the drop ... the question is how will you address it . This is going be based on trends you found in br / weaknesses . Document everything- review (short advice )

Traianus

@keets993 said:
If I'm reading this right you've taken six practice tests in the span of two weeks? If so, that's waaay too many. You shouldn't do more than 2 per week. Also, are you analyzing each test thoroughly? Does your BR consist of writing out your reasoning for each question you're unsure of and not just 'no this doesn't feel right' but detailed, thorough analysis?

Also, seeing that you jumped from 40 to 60 could also explain it. But as @ebalde1234 stated, channel your frustration (after a break away) into incorporating these 'lessons' into your drills and review. It's easy to say it was caused by burnout or the switch (which I'm sure part of it was) but there must also be something deeper and more fundamental. Maybe you eliminated AC's because you felt they required an assumption or were too strong but then chose an answer choice that was much more flawed.

Yes, I've ended up taking quite a few to try and get a feel for timing. That being said, I could definitely be doing a better job of BR.

Many times, especially with LR, I'm doing exactly what you talked about in your second paragraph. I don't go back during the section and change the answer, but I pass over an answer which I think works for one that is "better" (and turns out to be wrong). Any advice for this persistent issue, or is this something every LSAT taker has to learn to struggle with?