When do you throw in the towel?

BigJay20

I'm fairly good at LSAT and can pretty much -0 my way in any section on a good day. The moment the timer goes on, it can drop to as low as -11. I've been at this for 10 months; full-time devotion and looking back, I feel grossly disappointed in myself. This was the first time I really took a chance on myself; committed 100% to something. Yet, my score doesn't improve. I'm running out of PTs. I haven't had a good sleep since I started about a year ago {because that's how bad I want it }and now I feel like it's slipping out of my hands. How do you decide, "I'll just settle with what I have and take the test?" I'm not too sure because the timed sections aren't representative of my potential-but the reality is that it's a timed exam with added test day pressure.

glopez37-1-1-1-1-1

Well just know that you are in a better potential start than me and I'm Pting around 160 as high as 164. I'd recommend doing extended time lsats or questions in general and slowly cutting back your extra time. start with something like 50% more time and cut back to 30% then 15% then 10% and so on. You'll get there man don't let the test win!

mkleinman0000

All you can do is your best. As long as you know you put everything you had into it, then try to relax, and take the test. First off, there's no way you're going to do your best if your stressing over it. The fact you've got perfect scores on every section leads to me to believe it's the anxiety getting in your way. (Speaking from experience) It sounds like you have a ridiculous amount of potential, personally I've yet to have a perfect score on any section. At the end of the day, our end goal is to become attorneys, not obsess over the LSAT, so do the absolute best you can, give it your all, try to do it in the most relaxed mind state possible, and take it from there. Good luck buddy!

gaver456

Hi! I'm in a very similar boat as you. I know this might not be a common suggestion, but maybe see if your Doctor can give you extended time for anxiety. It really helped my score!

Granger Danger

Therapy can be great. I wasn't sleeping well for a solid year as well before really naming and facing my LSAT-related fears. When that wave of anxiety is trying to crush me, I now ask myself why I am feeling this emotion. Name it. Mine usually is that I don't feel smart enough or I run through a list of hypotheticals, the what ifs. I've taught myself to shut down the hypotheticals. They are noise and make me lose focus. Meditation and yoga can help too. I don't think you or anyone should throw in the towel, however. Talking to an experienced tutor who has faced test anxiety themselves can really helpful too, in my opinion. I hope this helps.

Lime Green Dot

@BigJay20 said:
This was the first time I really took a chance on myself; committed 100% to something. Yet, my score doesn't improve. I'm running out of PTs.

This was me for so long! And I mean long, like probably almost 3/4 of a year. Not to mention the very beginning of my prep when I started 5 years ago (stopped for a while b/c of other commitments). I am 100% out of fresh PTs, yet I'm pressing on, and you should too!

Seconding @"Granger Danger" in that throwing in the towel, considering all you've invested, is not the answer if law school is something you've really wanted. But be careful not to question that desire on a bad or sub-par PT/study day. Remembering why you're doing all this to begin with needs to be at the forefront of your mind, your steadfast anchor when things don't go well.

I think it's also important to do 2 things right now:

(1) SLEEP. Seriously - no matter how big your ambitions, your brain can't function at its peak unless you're giving it proper rest; I don't have a lot of sleep during the night, but that makes power napping all the more critical to my every day. If sleep is difficult, rather than a voluntary choice to stay up, let me know! In addition to meditation/mindfulness, I've got some other simple recommendations that have helped me;

(2) Slow down b/w practice sections and b/w PTs. I used to crank out 3 PTs/week. Maybe some can keep up with that, but for me it really wasn't working, and I denied that for so long. I think that it was a HUGE reason why I was stuck in the infamous 160s plateau and also questioned whether I could/should continue during this horrendously long period. You hear it a lot, but it deserves mention b/c it's true: Speed + accuracy will follow only after you gain understanding. The real kind.

You might be missing that many during a timed run, b/c you think your understanding is solid, but at least for me, that was my own overestimation/denial of hard truth that I was relying on my own shaky intuition. The right kind of intuition can only be built up after you really understand why you're missing the things you're missing.

It might be time to either go back over lessons as needed (espesh if there's a particular type you're missing) or (probably and) seriously hyper-analyzing your misses, flags, anything that took more time for you than it probably ought to have. 'Being slow' in your review of each question/passage/game and not saying 'oh, today I'm going to BR alllll of PT 36' means you're unlimiting yourself to take the time you need on the Qs that gave you angst and understanding them in their full complexity. It's agonizing when you're in the process of doing this, but rewarding when you're done - best of all, you will slowly start to see the results you are indeed most fully capable of, and I think you'll see your 'good days' becoming more the norm

You can do it, BigJay!!!

bearwithnohoney

Never give up ever. No surrender. "slow is smooth, and smooth is fast." The paradox of this exam is you have to slow down to speed up. Don't fixate on a perfect score. A T14 school is nice yea, but at the end of the day a law degree is what's most important right? If you score a 160 + you can get a full ride at some of the lesser known (but very good) schools which may save you the six figure debt of one of those ivy leagues anyways. Sometimes taking a bit of time off helps. Also meditation for 20 minutes a few times of week will change your mentality positively (which is half the battle imo). Never give up. No surrender