Huge difference btw timed and BR, what should I do?

crushcrushcrush

Hi,
I am having trouble regarding timed pt and anxiety issue.
So when I do full timed-pt, my score is 160-167 but in BR, I constantly hit 173+.
This huge difference sucks since everytime I saw questions without timing going, it is not that difficult (I miss easy questions very often under timed)
I feel stucked and anxious whenever I am doing timed pt and that happens just before I took my first real LSAT and it continues.

Currently, I am doing one timed pt for one week.
I do not want to push myself so harsh to alleviate burnout status.

What should I do?

drbrown2

Combine your 1 PT/week plus review with drills and review of those drills. Expand on the detail you go into during review. Anticipate when a question is hard for you and skip so you don't miss out on easier points due to lack of time. Once you have seen enough of the same questions over and over again you'll start anticipating the correct answers more often on hard questions, which will help you avoid getting bogged down with the trap answer choices. BR score should keep going up and the timed score should start approaching your BR score.

As for anxiety being the cause of the poor performance, try improving your focus and learning ways in which you can regain focus if you start feeling distracted and nervous. Once you've done these PTs enough the individual scores don't really matter anymore, and you will be more used to the mental fatigue that comes with PTing, which will hopefully help you to feel less anxious.

Alex

@gemparksz said:
Hi,
I am having trouble regarding timed pt and anxiety issue.
So when I do full timed-pt, my score is 160-167 but in BR, I constantly hit 173+.
This huge difference sucks since everytime I saw questions without timing going, it is not that difficult (I miss easy questions very often under timed)
I feel stucked and anxious whenever I am doing timed pt and that happens just before I took my first real LSAT and it continues.

Currently, I am doing one timed pt for one week.
I do not want to push myself so harsh to alleviate burnout status.

What should I do?

I think what you’re experiencing is quite normal. I will also venture a guess and say you probably haven’t done many PTs at this point. That’s ok! It takes a lot of time and hard work to bring your timed score closer to your BR score. With a 173 BR you have tons of potential. And on a good day, a 167 and a 173 BR isn’t really a huge difference.

I would recommend taking timed sections daily. I used to take 1 LG and one LR/RC each day. 1 PT every other Saturday.

I found that once I did more timed work outside of a weekly PT, I became inured to the anxiety that the clock would give me. Before this, however, I had the same issue. That was what worked for me anyway.

Pride Only Hurts

would say focus on your problem areas and drill them under timed conditions (I found doing the CC LR drills with a stopwatch next to me helped.) If you're missing easy questions those are considered overconfidence errors. Figure out why. Then, ideally, you're range will shift to 165-170. Once you're no longer missing easy questions you will need to focus most of your time on test taking strategies like proper skipping and pacing. This is what will ultimately narrow your BR/timed gap. But for now I'd focus on the overconfidence errors!

Princess

Timed sections for sure have been helping me a lot. I'm in the same boat as you and @Alex recommended the LR timed sections to me in another post. I've been trying to take 2 timed LR sections each day with intense BR from 40s-50s. I'm going to be doing PTs 60s to now evens. I'm hoping that I can carry these improvements into the 60s, but I'm afraid that it'll go down again as I get to recent tests.

crushcrushcrush

Thanks a lot guys!! I feel so much better after reading all of your great advice and I will start new regimen. Love this forum. Thank you again:)

Leah M B

That is totally normal! If anything, that's just an awesome BR score that you should be proud of. The thing with BR is that until you are basically hitting 178-180 on timed PTs (which is like, less than 1% of people haha), your BR score is always going to be higher, and often much higher than your timed PT score. I pretty consistently BRd in the high 170s the whole time I PT'd from like 164-170 or so. Most people never really catch up to their BR score, because there will always be ways you either trip up while under timed pressure or don't have enough time to finish. I would say yes to adding in drills, and also making sure your BR is very thorough - analyze why you got questions wrong. Going too fast? Stressed out at the end and freaked out? Getting caught with trap answer choices? The reasons behind why you miss questions is the most valuable part of your studying. You're doing great, just keep working!

crushcrushcrush

@"Leah M B" said:
That is totally normal! If anything, that's just an awesome BR score that you should be proud of. The thing with BR is that until you are basically hitting 178-180 on timed PTs (which is like, less than 1% of people haha), your BR score is always going to be higher, and often much higher than your timed PT score. I pretty consistently BRd in the high 170s the whole time I PT'd from like 164-170 or so. Most people never really catch up to their BR score, because there will always be ways you either trip up while under timed pressure or don't have enough time to finish. I would say yes to adding in drills, and also making sure your BR is very thorough - analyze why you got questions wrong. Going too fast? Stressed out at the end and freaked out? Getting caught with trap answer choices? The reasons behind why you miss questions is the most valuable part of your studying. You're doing great, just keep working!

Hey, Thank you so much for the sweet comments. You really helped me to cheer myself up. Yes, I will keep going as you said. I wish I can be the rare one who catch up my BR score. Thanks again. I hope everything goes perfect in your journey:)

tams2018

Step one of blind review. During the actual test, if the passage you read doesn't feel that clear to you OR the question isn't clear OR the answer choices you read doesn't make sense OR all three, CIRCLE IT.

There are some questions you have answered that sank your time and lowered your score.