Hitting a huge rut and questioning everything

bethel.j.aviles

My study journey began in January and I plan on taking the August LSAT. I spent the first two months going through the LR Bible and was doing well in the practice sections at the end of each chapter. Just recently, I finished the 7Sage CC and felt confident whenever I drilled at the end of each section. Due to my anxiety surrounding this exam, I've been procrastinating when it comes to taking an actual PT and decided to take a small step toward my goal by taking an untimed LR section using the 7sage drilling feature. To my dismay, I was unable to focus on any of the questions and had to re-read over and over again. To compound the issue, nothing was clicking or making sense and it felt like I was reading gibberish. I got 15 out of the 26 questions incorrect and I feel inherently stupid. I didn't even have the mental energy to blind review and at this point I'm questioning if I'm truly cut out for this. Am I just brain fatigued? Any encouragement is welcome.

ryanmerrifield14

You have to measure something before it can be improved -you've just taken a huge first step! I would recommend ripping the band aid off and taking a full timed PT to remove any ambiguity around where you stand since you can't really improve if you have no baseline.

I was super dejected after taking my diagnostic since I (and I think a lot of people taking this test) thought I was going to magically just be a natural at it. Getting over those expectations and adopting a growth mindset have been super helpful for me (not to say that I don't still feel that way sometimes).

The test stamina can only come with practice and I'm still struggling with this - you're definitely not alone here.

Step away for a day or two from studying and recharge, then take the full PT - I think think that's a good, actionable first step. Then let the analytics guide you.

Sophumbra

First off, it is unfair to yourself to contemplate concluding you are not cut out for the LSAT/this path merely based on such a small sample size/instance. August is a while from now and it sounds as though you've already made significant progress by thoroughly familiarizing yourself with fundamentals. From what I hear/see, most students see significant improvement through their first 12-20 Practice Tests.

Secondly. . Here is some potentially unorthodox LSAT advice that could be encouraging. . . Not a fan of untimed sections or blind review (or 36 question LR sections if that is not supposed to say 26). Untimed sections have this way of lulling testers to sleep, whereas timed sections keep the attention & focus of test takers so that they stay "in the rhythm of the LSAT". As for Blind Review, that may work well for others, but I think it is more efficient to go over questions knowing what was right and wrong before inundating your mind with additional thought processes you didn't have when you first engaged with the problems in question.

Ultimately grappling with actual questions under time constraints and carefully evaluating your performances is the best pathway to improve at the LSAT, and it sounds as though you haven't yet seen what you can do by utilizing that pathway. The comprehension and reasoning skills measured by the LSAT can all be learned and mastered by most anyone, though certain attributes like verbal fluency affect how quickly a given person grasps those skills.

And remember that the LSAT's writers spend hours upon hours creating and refining their questions, all for takers to endeavor to solve them in typically less than 2 minutes a pop. Here is what former LSAT-question writer Stephen Harris, who wrote hundreds of LSAT questions, said in an interview:

"...You can spend a lot of time staring at a blank screen before fingers hit keyboard. I found that it was hard to average one LSAT item a day when I was writing items as fast as I could. And some items are definitely harder to write than others."