Retakers, how do you feel?

TheMusa

Hi to all my fellow retakers and forgive my grammar; Been grindin my whole life.
I was retaking because in sept i scored 7 points below my PT average, and yes i did strictly time my pts. I choked the games pretty hard though. I retook feel like i did better on the games, on the rest of the test? meh. I did take a couple cold(i wasnt studying nearly as much as i did the first time) PTs in the meantime and scored my average or a little above. i may not have scored higher on the retake, but i can live with it. Life's hard.
Howd you guys' retaking process go and how do you feel you did?

turnercm

I took it in Dec 2013 and the latest administration was my retake. I self studied the first time, took 7sage for the second and studied with them for about four or more months.

Overall I feel pretty good, and I'm hoping for a steep curve because of the LG. The fact that 95% of schools do not average the LSAT scores helps, too. At least it's over, for now anyway. gambino ftw

SoCal Japorean

Dec 2014 went very smoothly for me. I took the Dec2013 and it felt very similar to the style and content of Dec2014 (which was a huge advantage since I drilled PT's 70-73 ad nauseam). I had LG as my experimental also which was a huge + (Last year I had RC as my Exp.). The second LR had a couple questions that I had trouble on, and had 1 question stem that I had no idea what they were asking for; but all in all I feel good about this one.

All in all, I'm optimistic about this one, unless the curve turns out to be -8 or something. I think taking it once before really cut down on the nervousness and the jitters. Not knowing what to expect the first time added to my anxiety; and it doesn't take much for your mind to lock up and lose all sense of time.

I would definitely recommend taking it again for those who are not satisfied with the score that they got. There was a huge difference for me in so many subtle ways between the first and second time taking the test. Knowing ahead of time the a lot of the issues that I would have on test day really helped me to minimize the anxiety/distractions and helped me to put everything into the test. For me, the difference between taking the test the first and second time, would be like the difference between taking practice tests with only 4 sections vs 5 or 6 sections.

Of course this is just my opinion and this was just my impression. I got lucky (LG experimental), and the proctor was good; but I think that it was the experience of having taken the test before really did help. I do realize that I might have to "eat crow" and to take back most of the things I've said once the results come out in January, but all in all, I am optimistic about this one.

joegotbored-1

My first take was in September of 14 and I did fine, but well off my PT average. After reviewing my responses from LSAC and seeing where I went wrong, I decided I could do better and signed up for December. I started studying for September in March...lots of study. I spent at least 3 hours a day on weeknights and between 10-15 hours a day on weekends studying. I do not think I burned out, but I do think it was excessive. For December I eased up, changed tactics, and I think I scored better as a result. I think I'll be in the mid to high 160s. If we have a really solid curve, I could do even better.

For anyone interested in how I improved, here ya go (tl;dr - game theory for LG and reading for structure as opposed to content on RC):

My first score earned fee waivers pretty much everywhere I want to apply so I'm okay with it but I knew I could do better.

To study for the second go, I eased up on PT'ing/BR and focused on changing two things - my LG strategy and my RC strategy.

For LG, I was consistently missing between 3-5 on time alone and so had been rushing to try to get to everything and made silly mistakes on early questions that would turn my -3 or -5 into a -5 or -7. On test day I went -8 as a result of the rushing. If after more than half a year of drilling games, I knew there was no way I was going to become faster, so I decided to use a bit of game theory to improve my score in the section.

I went from trying to answer 4 games to absolutely burying 3 games 100% with no room for error. Then, whatever time I had left, I would try to answer at least the first question on my last game using the rules. If I still had time, I looked for an MBT question since those are super easy to eliminate answers on. Make one board and you can usually knock off 2 or 3 wrong answers and guess on the remainder if time requires it. This strategy really helped me improve. I felt less rushed because I changed my goal and my score went up because I was making fewer mistakes. Essentially, my only wrong answers were the ones I didn't get to.

I also changed my blind guess strategy but I'm not comfortable sharing that here because it has no statistically significant basis - just a hunch that seemed to pay off regularly.

On RC, I went back over JY's course videos and decided to change my strategy for reading. This was typically my best section but I was vulnerable on the time front and on a particular set of question types. I decided to essentially stop caring about the content. Instead, I would read a paragraph, and write a 2 or 3 word abstraction of its format (background + problem + hypo; author opinion + reason; critic's opinion + author defense).

Then when I got to the questions, I somehow had a far better understanding of what they were asking. If I had a MC or MP question, I'd just look for "Author opinion" or "hypo" and look for that in the answers. It was usually reworded, but never significantly. For author agrees with questions, I checked their opinion. For structure questions, it was cake because I had already written the structure next to the paragraphs.

My speed went up and my guesses/waffling between two answers went down. I didn't have to really remember anything. I had been at -2 to -4 on any given RC and started to see -0s. Pretty exciting stuff considering how long I had been studying at this point.

I drilled the Cambridge packets for LR types that I struggled on and watched JY's videos for the ones I wasn't clear on. Mostly to keep from getting rusty.

My timed PT's went from mid to high 160s to low 170s in about 2 weeks. No idea if my success in anecdotal or if I really stumbled on some generalizable methods, but I was happy with my new comprehension.

Good luck!

Michaels

joegotbored how did you find the LG this past weekend? I usually go perfect in the games, even in September and could not finish the last game here (and I believe it had 6 questions). It was truly shocking.

[Deleted User]

did goodman

harrismegan

@thalaiva1
In all the prep tests I took before December, I got probably between 0 - -3 wrong the entire time. Most of the time none. That LG in December was beyond anything. I was soooo nervous. I guessed on the last game completelyyyyy.

Allison M

I thought that the games were pretty standard. What was really different for me was how spacey I felt during the test; I felt like I was on autopilot, answering the questions without really thinking about them. I ended up with 10+ minutes at the end of each section to look over my answers (which was true of my PTs as well, but I assumed that the stress of test day would eat up that time). I left the test centre feeling really confident that I scored somewhere around my PT average (in the mid/high 170s), but now I'm worried that I went through the test so quickly that I missed key details along the way. I'm going to be a ball of nerves until the scores come out on Jan. 5!

joegotbored-1

@thalaiva. I felt fine about the games. I had good setups for the first three games and feel like I didn't get any wrong on those. The last game wasn't difficult, I just didn't have any time to do setup as a result of my new strategy (this was by design, not surprise). I am almost certain I got the first question right using the rules and I think I might have gotten one other right. I guessed the same answer for the last 4 or 5 questions, which is fine by me. I know I lose points in games so I felt more relaxed about it going in. There were no tricky games in my opinion.

@AllisonM. I'm sure you did as well as you feel you did. The autopilot thing seems to be par for the course - I felt it back in September too. If you felt like you made mistakes or didn't have the time left at the end like you did during your PTs then that might be cause for concern, but I think you're likely solid. I hated waiting last time, but since I feel better this time, and because I don't plan to take it again regardless of my score, I'm more calm this time. I know after the new year I'll change my tune, but for now, just focusing on my essays.

Hope you both did well!

ahoneyc

I took the LSAT for the first time in June 2012, right before graduating from undergrad in December of that year. At that point, I was not really sure if I even wanted to be an attorney, but I thought that if I a good score on the LSAT, I would just go to law school the following year anyway.

I did NOT get the kind of score that I wanted, so I decided to go out and have some life experiences! I moved to South America to be an intern for a legal aid organization that fought for child sexual assault victims for a year and I loved it so much that I stayed on longer. I worked with attorneys who were very bright and who were really helping people in an unfamiliar culture and language for two years and it was this experience that prompted me to re-take the 2014 December LSAT and start my journey towards becoming an attorney.

After taking a couple of years off from LSAT studying, I did better on my practice tests than I ever did two years ago. I also have confidence that this is the right path for me. However, I think the most important thing that my experiences from my years living abroad has given me is perspective. I studied for the December LSAT as hard as I could. I took as many practice tests as I could. I did everything within my power on test day to get the highest score possible. Now it is out of my hands. But no matter what score comes back, I will still be an attorney in a few years.

So, in summation, I guess my advice to anyone who wants to retake would be this: before retaking the LSAT, make sure that this is really what you want to do for yourself, and that you are not doing it because someone told you that you should do it. Figure that out however you need to. If you already feel affirmed that law is the right career path for you, that is great! Now realize that when you take this test, it is just the first step towards becoming an attorney. If you score a few points lower on the actual test than you did on the practice tests, that won't prevent you from going to law school. I feel so much better about this last LSAT because I am finally able to view it in that way.