"Removing Luck" on PTs

Hans Zimmer

Hi everyone,

I'm wondering what people's thoughts are as to guessing on questions you don't get to/are uncertain of on PTs.

I listened to a 7sage podcast and J.Y says to always leave these blank, so that you can remove the element of luck and better gauge where you're at skill-wise.

I have been implementing this practice and I think it may be having a negative psychological effect on me. My PT scores have been ranging from 153-157 while taking this approach and consistently seeing my results be lower than what I think they could be is rather discouraging.

For perspective I tend to not get to about 20-25 questions per test.

Should I just try to get over this psychological hurdle, or should I just start guessing on those questions and boost my confidence?

Thanks in advance!

noonawoon

I haven't heard this perspective (completely leave blank to gauge your "skills") but I'd probably disagree with taking PTs that way. On a real test, you will be making educated guesses on questions you are uncertain about. Why not develop that intuition and reasoning by practicing it now

Hans Zimmer

@noonawoon that's an excellent point. I've developed a habit now of just leaving them and I'm a bit worried it could negatively impact me on test day.

I just took J.Y's word to be golden because, well, he's pretty good at this stuff. However, I think I'm going to start making those guesses.

Thanks for the input

RaphaelP

I think the best approach is somewhere in the middle, and the approach should be different for questions you don't get to versus those you're unsure about. If you have 30 seconds left and several questions blank/won't have time to read them and would be blindly guessing, I agree that you should leave those blank - a blind guess is a blind guess, and that's not really a skill you can improve on (and you don't want to artificially inflate your score with a lucky guess that you won't reliably repeat on the real day).
Questions you're uncertain about/have time for is a totally separate matter - being able to thoughtfully eliminate choices IS a skill to develop. Even the highest scorers have questions on each test that involve some uncertainty - being able to narrow it down to two choices and know how to decide between them in the face of uncertainty is a thing you'll need to do on the real day, and is worth practicing now. If you were to leave blank every question that you felt uncertain about, you'd be leaving blank plenty of questions that you plausibly could get right by process of elimination. Instead, give it your best, and flag them for Blind Review to do untimed.

Hans Zimmer

@rjp12345
Thanks for the detailed and nuanced response!

I have been leaving some questions blank because I'm not certain. But I think what you and @noonawoon have suggested is the way to go. I should be practicing eliminating the wrong ACs and making that educated guess.

As to ones I just don't get to, say for an RC passage, it would seem to make more sense to leave those blank to avoid inflation.

ericchoi12

The LSAT, unlike some other standardized tests, doesn't penalize you for guessing for a reason. For instance, on the old SAT you could save yourself some points if you left something blank, since the exam would penalize you extra from wrong answers. The idea behind LSAC's decision is that even if you get a couple right guessing, LSAC is confident that your score would not be any different if you're actually getting lucky, and thus they don't mind giving you the "extra" points for correct guesses. Tbh I don't think it deludes your score as much as you think. Being down to a 50/50 or 1/3 on an LR isn't that uncommon, particularly for the newer PTs, where trap answer choices are worded very meticulously. All in all, your score in totality is not going to differ that much even w/ a couple guesses. On the real thing, if you don't know, you'd be guessing, so I think I don't think guessing on PTs is that bad unless you're guessing for a significant amount of the test.
If I were you I'd just guess and do blind reviews. While you're BR'ing you can make a note if you're guessing or not.

Hans Zimmer

@ericchoi12 the thing is I'm leaving like 25 blanks sometimes.
Unless my math is wrong, that "should" result in 5 extra points-which is fairly significant for someone in my position who just needs a high 150, but is scoring in the mid 150s.

In any event I should just prioritize getting better at the test so I don't need to rely on luck at all.

OldLadyK

I'm scoring right where you are, with the same goal score in mind, and I've always filled in questions I couldn't get to on PTs. I wouldn't leave anything blank on test day and so, for me, guessing has been an important part of developing and practicing a skipping strategy. I always include the ones I guess on in my BR, so it's not like I'm completely avoiding them.

VerdantZephyr

Fill them in, because you will on test day, but note the numbers you filled in so you know you really need to go over them after even if you get them right. You will fill them in on test day, so do it now. A PT should give you an accurate idea of your possible score as well as an accurate idea of what you struggle with. You can treat them as both on a PT. Mark them as skipped or wrong on your paper. You can even look at what your score would be if you got them all wrong using the LSAT score converter on this site. Just subtract the additional "wrong" answers.

Hans Zimmer

@VerdantZephyr @OldLadyK thank you both for the advice!

I just took another PT today and did mix in some more guessing. It really is a skill and I'm a little annoyed at myself for having neglected it.

WouldRatherBeEating

I would consider noting or flagging the questions you guess on but still filling them in. You can then see your score and compare it (using the score without saving option) to what your score would be if you had gotten all of your guesses wrong. That way you know the bottom range of your score compared to the predicted.

chsc3555

Quickly bubbling in answers to the questions you don't have time to thoughtfully answer is a skill unto itself. If you forgot to do this on the real thing because you hadn't been doing it in practice, that would be a serious bummer.

For this reason, I do it in practice. But I don't let lucky guesses fool me into thinking I know things that I don't. For instance, yesterday, I got a personal best of -3 in LG, but I'm aware that I really only earned a -5. (Two of my guesses were correct.)

Psychologically, it feels nice to get a -3, but I'm still about to drill games until test day because I know it was kind of a fluke! I guess I'm just trying to say: guess because it's a good habit, but be honest with yourself about the score you earn.

Hans Zimmer

@WouldRatherBeEating

Good point, I haven't been taking advange of that feature of the site.

@chsc3555

I would never forigve myself if I forgot to bubble in those qs I don't get to.

It really does just come down to being honest with yourself I suppose. Congrats on smacking LGs btw!