Losing Reading Comprehension Ability

Faaabs93

2 post in one day, I know, I'm sorry.

SO after PTing consistently in the mid 160s, I've started to crumble. My last PT's have been 159, 162 and 161 respectively. (60, 61, 62).

"But that's an average variance in test scores" one might say. Not necessarily. For LR I'm doing better than when I was in the mid 160s, for LG I'm doing the same, but I'm bombing Reading Comprehension every time, once even going -15. I drilled the hell out of RC for a week, using 'newer' (55 and on) sections, and consistently got only -5. After drilling, I decided to do preptest 62 today. The only reason I scored so low on reading comp was because I spent way too much time on passage 3, which caused me to completely miss a section. When I repeated the specific passage that I missed under timed constraints, I only got 1 wrong.

So tonight, unbelievably stressed, I've been trying to drill reading comp again, and have been failing miserably. I have spent the last 5 hours drilling RC, on top of doing a full 5-section test this morning.

I seem to 'forget' how to do reading comprehension. It's almost like I've lost everything I've built up.

What should I do? I'm getting extremely nervous as test day is soon. I was using JY's memory method, and it worked, but it's almost like Will Smith came up to me with that device from Men In Black and wiped my knowledge.

All of my other sections are always consistent but I'm afraid, because of my recent trends, RC will break me come test day.

StopLawying

Sounds like burn out, maybe take a few days off from LSAT. Go relax, hang out with family and friends, etc. I know it's close to test day but I promise it'll help you out in the long run. You didn't just forget how to do a RC section. Many people on TLS and here on 7sage have said that taking a few days off helped them immensely in the days leading up to the test. Good luck!

Faaabs93

Ahhhh, I feel like it might be burn out too. I normally study 4 hours in the morning and 4 at night, but two nights ago I took the night off to combat my burn out. It seemed to work... until my recent PT score haha.

I guess I just fear that it's not burn out and that the day I take off to rest could be the day that I would have learned how to do RC better. Before I was going avg -7, took time off to drill, bumped it up to average -5, maintained this -5 average over two days, doing probably 4 passages a day, and now I'm at the like -12 point.

Pacifico

Yeah you're burning out... take the rest of the week off and come back this weekend and do a PT. Get out of your head about RC and just relax.

@InsertPseudonymHere said:
I guess I just fear that it's not burn out and that the day I take off to rest could be the day that I would have learned how to do RC better.

This is not a good mindset to have. There is no magic elixir, you just need to get in there and do the work. Take a break and recharge your batteries. If you're waiting on some crazy epiphany that gives you a -0 every single time well I'm sorry to break it to you but that shit is not happening. The LSAT is hard, RC is hard, and it remains that way even for the top test takers that consistently get 175+. They don't have magic on their side, they just have an understanding of the task at hand and they go in and put the work in every single time because it's not going to be given to you just because you drill or just because you average this or that. You still have to perform and at this point your brain is just crying out for help to make you stop and chill out for a bit.

lsatblitz

@Pacifico said:
RC is hard

You got that right!

Gotta keep pushing though. I'm on the same boat, we'll get through this.