Are my fluctuations in RC scores caused by anxiety?

Pride Only Hurts

Anyone have strategies for RC anxiety? I was averaging around -4 for months until today when I went -12 on PT 79. I noticed my anxiety was through the roof by the end of the section and what worries me is that I didn't really notice until after the section was over. I knew I spent too much time on a pretty easy opening passage and I think I let that get to me. For some reason this seems to only happen with RC. I went -1 and -0 on LR that same test so I know I wasn't just "having a bad day". I'm thinking maybe because I usually finish the other sections with some time to spare, I'm not stressing out about the time crunch. But the amount of time we're supposed to spend on easy passages vs hard ones still seems so vague to me.

DivineRaze

@"Pride Only Hurts" I am in the same boat, once I start putting too much stress or importance on it I start to do worse than how I usually do. I usually get -3 and I just took a PT and got -10 and I got -1 on the LR too hahaha. At this point I have been doing PT's almost everyday plus blind reviewing them. I feel like i'm addicted to doing PT's but I usually do my best when I take like 2-3 days completely away from LSAT material then come back to it. The stress for doing well makes me sometimes second-guess my gut and in turn I pick the wrong answer.

BlindReviewer

I recently took PT 79 too and didn't do so hot on the RC lol

There are noticeable times where anxiety kind of throws me off my game, but for that RC, I think the lacquer passage and the last passages were pretty hard, and I think the former was hard because there's just that kind of rift in the middle where you have no idea what they're talking about. And then I think you have to go into the answer choices with a very shaky understanding, which the questions then capitalize on.

I'm working on RC right now, and the biggest hurdle I see with it is just answering questions when you feel like you have no idea what the right answer is (feeling like you don't know, at least for my perfectionist self, has turned out to be a lot different from what I actually retained from the passage). I think the biggest change from the old to new RC is that they throw in a lot more random answer choices that make you wonder if it was mentioned in the passage, and you just kind of have to be more confident in your memory.

Also I definitely had the same problem where I leisurely went through the first comparative passage and then found I was way over time on it -- definitely just want to work on pacing and overall RC form, I think.

Alex

Different things work for different people when it comes to anxiety.

For me prayer/meditation and a good warm up were generally helpful.

I noticed that much of my RC anxiety came when I had to re-read sentences/paragraphs/passage, which generally happened when I neglected to do a warm up.

For my warm ups I would just do a handful of LR questions off of an old test or just read an old RC passage. It was really just about getting my mind into “LSAT mode” more than anything else.

Not sure if these things will work for you, but try to pinpoint what the root cause of your anxiety is? Are you scared you’ll perform poorly? Well, just remember it’s a practice test — the point is to practice! These scores don’t count.

Best of luck!

alumivacui

@Alex said:
Different things work for different people when it comes to anxiety.

For me prayer/meditation and a good warm up were generally helpful.

I noticed that much of my RC anxiety came when I had to re-read sentences/paragraphs/passage, which generally happened when I neglected to do a warm up.

For my warm ups I would just do a handful of LR questions off of an old test or just read an old RC passage. It was really just about getting my mind into “LSAT mode” more than anything else.

Not sure if these things will work for you, but try to pinpoint what the root cause of your anxiety is? Are you scared you’ll perform poorly? Well, just remember it’s a practice test — the point is to practice! These scores don’t count.

Best of luck!

Do you use any videos or apps for your meditation? I frequently meditate and would loooove if i could find a good 10-15 minute guided meditation video

Alex

@alumivacui said:

@Alex said:
Different things work for different people when it comes to anxiety.

For me prayer/meditation and a good warm up were generally helpful.

I noticed that much of my RC anxiety came when I had to re-read sentences/paragraphs/passage, which generally happened when I neglected to do a warm up.

For my warm ups I would just do a handful of LR questions off of an old test or just read an old RC passage. It was really just about getting my mind into “LSAT mode” more than anything else.

Not sure if these things will work for you, but try to pinpoint what the root cause of your anxiety is? Are you scared you’ll perform poorly? Well, just remember it’s a practice test — the point is to practice! These scores don’t count.

Best of luck!

Do you use any videos or apps for your meditation? I frequently meditate and would loooove if i could find a good 10-15 minute guided meditation video

I use the Waking Up app. It’s a monthly fee but Sam (the guy who designed the app) recently said on his podcast if you can’t afford it, email him and he’ll give you a free subscription.

There are also a ton of free videos online.

I also used to listen to this religiously before my PTs:

Good luck

Better every day

@"Pride Only Hurts" said:
Anyone have strategies for RC anxiety? I was averaging around -4 for months until today when I went -12 on PT 79. I noticed my anxiety was through the roof by the end of the section and what worries me is that I didn't really notice until after the section was over. I knew I spent too much time on a pretty easy opening passage and I think I let that get to me. For some reason this seems to only happen with RC. I went -1 and -0 on LR that same test so I know I wasn't just "having a bad day". I'm thinking maybe because I usually finish the other sections with some time to spare, I'm not stressing out about the time crunch. But the amount of time we're supposed to spend on easy passages vs hard ones still seems so vague to me.

I really struggle with my variance on RC and frequently go anywhere between -2 to -7. It is the only section that I experience this kind of variance and it’s incredibly frustrating. At this point RC pretty much completely determines whether I end up at -168 or -172 and knowing that it almost always comes down to the RC section makes me that much more nervous for it. I just never really feel like I am in control on RC sections and that is a terrible feeling. I am trying meditation because I feel like at this point my attitude/mindset has more of an effect on my RC performance than my actual LSAT reading ability. Unfortunately, I am not sure how exactly to best deal with this. I wouldn’t worry too much about just one test if I were you. I personally don’t think it’s helful to worry about what passages should require more or less time when you are actually taking the test unless timing is a major issue.

Madssssss L.

"I really struggle with my variance on RC and frequently go anywhere between -2 to -7. It is the only section that I experience this kind of variance and it’s incredibly frustrating. At this point RC pretty much completely determines whether I end up at -168 or -172 and knowing that it almost always comes down to the RC section makes me that much more nervous for it." - @"Better every day"

I identify with this so so much. And og post, I felt the saem exact way about this exam. I went -0 LG, -1 and -3 LR, then -5 on this RC section and it brought me down to a 172. Time isn't a problem for me.
BRing now, and what I've been doing review wise for RC is taking my time with the passages, and writing out the purpose/MP of each paragraphs, the whole passage's connectness/structure, MP, Purpose, Tone, and various viewpoints mentioned/at task. Then I retake the questions without looking at my og answers.
I haven't seen wild wild improvement, but I think it's because, like you, I'm now self-conscious abt my RC sections and my mental clarity becomes a big factor and frazzed with the impetus to perform as I'm concentrating on improving this section.
I'm going to keep doing the aforementioned BR strategy (as I mostly always go 100% or only miss 1 or 2 when I do so), and hopefully those habits burn into my modus operandi and show up on test day. And I'm going to try to chill abt RC in general. I've had days where I go -0, days where I don't. But I'm capable of 0, so I'mma just be easyyy.

Best of luck to you (and hmu if you wanna bounce questions ever, bc it sounds like we're in similar positions).

2ndTimestheCharm

I can relate. I felt in control on Monday of both LR sections and the real LG section. But RC had control of me, and it's the shitiest feeling since I've done so many RC passages in 2 years - and I have gone -0 in them before. But the one on Monday got me. I can't even tell you, in my own words, what the passages were about. So that means I didn't read them well. They didn't click. If the rest of the test hadn't gone so well, I'd cancel. But it did - so I feel like I should wait and see how it all shakes out...