Feeling Defeated

kewiseley99

Hey guys. I am starting to feel really defeated when it comes to this test. I am doing amazing on the you try its when I was going though the core curriculum and its just getting my timing down for that. I keep seeing just keep drilling and your speed will get better. However, whenever I take a PrepTest, I am BOMBING them. I seem to get more questions wrong and my timing is horrible. I have no idea how I'm supposed to jump a minimum of 10-15 points by October. I have been studying for 4 months now and I have only improved 9 points. Any advice would be greatly appreciated because I feel like I'm seeing law school slip through my hands and its crushing me.

myepez2500

Hi there! It's normal to feel discourage but hang on.

I'd recommend to balance out taking PTs and drilling. Don't concentrate so much on drills because the only way you will be able to build test stamina and get the timing down is by replicating test conditions (aka taking PTs). After you're done taking a PT under timed conditions, I'd recommend to blind review every section. Make sure to take your time and understand why each answer is right/ wrong. If you notice that you're consistently struggling with the same question types, I'd recommend to drill those. Select the difficulty to the easiest and start moving up as you feel more comfortable. The key is to drill question types you struggle with and not the ones you're already good at.

Hope this helps! You got it

laurabogorad

9 points is impressive though so I would not invalidate that. I would personally focus on individual sections of a practice test for now- so 1 logical reasoning section etc. per day. And then take a full pt test on the weekends. Keep pushing!

emmalsats

I am just commenting to let you know that you are not alone. I am totally in the same boat. I did well on blind review and when I began my journey I scored my goal score on untimed tests. When I added timing, my confidence hit rock bottom because my score went down significantly. I have read every thing I can find on timing and there seem to be a million different conflicting ways to get better. I think the best thing to do is practice, which sounds awful and tedious but I truly do not think there is a one size fits all at getting better at timing. I have been just drilling and practicing and I hope my score will start to see improvements soon. I am hoping for the best for you! I have a great support system who are constantly reminding me that I am capable of doing well so I am passing that message on to you too!

NickxSchwartz

Not alone in this. The test is daunting for a reasons, and it is not easy. It might come natural to some but I would say most struggle. It is about the struggle and effort you put in that will overall get you to your goals. Keep taking it question by questions and you will get there! Timing is a struggle for me also right now. I have so far just been ignoring the timing, which might not be advised but it is helping me in getting the foundations down and recognizing the patterns. One of the things I struggle with and what has helped is ignoring the timer/time and actually reading the question through, and not rush reading the question and then the answers. For me I found myself skimming the stem with the pressure of time and then misreading and having anyways to go back and reread the stem. If you read it through the first time and understand the logic, the answers then fly by and you make up time there. I found that at least for me, looking at the analytics my time is going down slowly per each question and when I flag a question for review, I so far have had more time to actually go back and review flagged questions. This is just what has been working for me, and might not be your best way, but know that the test is hard, and ultimately it is designed to piss you off and challenge you. Keep at it! Law School is not slipping through your hands, you are here after all on this platform working towards it.

echoyidinggao

You are not alone in this! Just for reference, before I started the CC, my PT was at 153. After the CC and a few drills, PT at 157. For three months I was oscillating between 160 and 164 with no visible improvement no matter how I drill. Like in drills I'm doing pretty well. But when it comes to PT I consistently only had time to finish at most 22 questions in each section (both RC and LR).

I got very good at letting go of a question tho. If I couldn't do it after two passes at the answers, that's a pass. Anything inference or MBT/MBF (my weakest and always a time sink for me) that looks complicated after Q10, pass. Anything that's not a parallel reasoning but the answers can't even fit into my screen? pass. If I have time for it at the end I will come back to it. This did not improve my LR score by much but it improved my mental health by a tremendous amount, and I don't get a blinding headache by section 4 which is always a plus.

Recently I broke my plateau in LR. For the past 3 PTs, I am now able to consistently have 1-2 extra minutes left after finishing all the questions in the section. And I got my first -0! The new LR drills tagging system really helped me! So maybe try drilling those instead of by question types. Also I recommend not looking at the time while doing PT.

Full timed PT also takes stamina which takes practice and a healthy mental space. I was burning out a little last month, and it really showed in my PT performance. Took an entire week off. Got better.

Would really appreciate any advice on RC tho like god help me it seems to be getting worse (sobbing)

kewiseley99

Hey guys! Thank you all for the words of encouragement. I will be taking all of this advice and seeing what ends up working for me. For a lack of better term, it is nice to see I am not the only one feeling this way. Hopefully with the newly updated RC CC and the LR tags, I can drill more effectively. I also think I may have to spend way more time on the blind review after the PT's as that is where I am struggling the most it seems. I know you all will do great when it is time to take your test!!