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Do your scores vary greatly?

Hi. This is my first time posting on here!

Do your scores vary greatly? Mine do, and it's making me feel a little crazy. I have no idea if this happens to other folks, and, if it is preventable, what I can do about it.

My goal is to get a 170, at least. On Tuesday I got a 166- only 4 points away! Then today I scored a 158. What da fooq?

Granted, yes, I was feeling a little more tired today than I did the other day. Does tiredness cause an 8 point fall?! Should I always avoid taking a practice test if I'm not feeling up to it or is it good to sometimes push through (even if it means a lower score)?

I have no friends studying for the LSAT, much less friends who are trying to score 170+. Any advice on how to even out scores or even just confirmation that I'm not nuts would be appreciated.

Thank you!

Comments

  • kmullins2525kmullins2525 Member
    82 karma

    Individual PT scores are kind of a noisy indicator, especially if you're taking a lot of them. To prevent this panic at a drop in score, I chart my PT scores and insert a trend line. So, even if my scores are fluctuating, I can tell if they're trending up/down/flat. Here's my list so far, so you can see that big dips (up to 10 points!) do happen, but I really worked to reduce that by identifying and drilling my weaknesses rather than just madly redoing PTs. Good luck!

    167 169 168 170 172 169 172 178 169 168 177 173 172 177 178 175 173 178

  • noah-1noah-1 Member
    17 karma

    @kmullins2525 said:
    Individual PT scores are kind of a noisy indicator, especially if you're taking a lot of them. To prevent this panic at a drop in score, I chart my PT scores and insert a trend line. So, even if my scores are fluctuating, I can tell if they're trending up/down/flat. Here's my list so far, so you can see that big dips (up to 10 points!) do happen, but I really worked to reduce that by identifying and drilling my weaknesses rather than just madly redoing PTs. Good luck!

    167 169 168 170 172 169 172 178 169 168 177 173 172 177 178 175 173 178

    Kmullkins, are these your scores on the same practice test or a variety of practice tests?

  • kmullins2525kmullins2525 Member
    82 karma

    @"noah-1" said:

    Kmullkins, are these your scores on the same practice test or a variety of practice tests?

    Different practice test every time.

  • @kmullins2525 Thank you for your advice!

  • 571 karma

    Remember, there are natural variations in the difficulty of tests depending on what your strengths are. Depending on that 158 PT, it could just be that you are terrible at RC and that was a difficult RC. BUT, it could also do with luck. You just happened to make a few good guesses on the 166 PT that made the jump. To settle your variation, you have to be more consistent in your approach to the sections/questions. Without this standardization, you will continue having variance!

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