Advice for LSAT score dropping again after improvement?

hfekete

I was doing well on my prep tests and saw a lot of improvement in my score until last week when I started getting questions wrong that I usually don't even think twice about. I feel like I am back at my starting point. Has this happened to anyone? And what is your advice for starting to improve again?

kmcke01

Yes this happened to me and it happens to a lot of people. The reasons for why are going to vary a lot for each person though.

What helped for me was taking the pressure off and really deep diving into why I was getting answers wrong.
Apart of the reason I was getting worse was that I was finally understanding concepts and this was taking me LONGER to do each one. Before I was just going off intuition and I had an ok chance of getting answers right. After studying the concepts I was understanding the logic behind them, but was a bit more delayed timewise as I wasn't comfortable. After sticking with studying in drilling I not only understood the concepts and got more answers right, but I did them quickly.

Another thing I noticed is that I was looking at my practice-tests in a very short sited way. I was really getting "lucky" on a lot of them and would often bomb the experimental sections. In reality my performance didn't get much worst as a whole, but the way I was testing was just less favorable to the score I was getting.
I made sure to hone in and analyze my practice tests and identify any weak spots.

The biggest thing for me though was stress management. I made the decision that if I wasn't ready for this years test cycle and had to take January it wasn't going to be the end all. I was able to focus more on what was going to improve my results long-term and not just short-term, and this shift in studying had dramatic impacts in the way I was taking tests. When I take tests I feel more prepared and well-rested despite actually cutting my study time down. I only study a maximum of five hours as after this point I feel myself stop making mental progress.

mas441

This was great advice! Thank you for sharing it. I appreciate what you said about it taking longer, initially at least, to answer questions, after you had delved deeper into understanding them. I'm looking forward to returning to drills and practice tests with this in mind.

dizzyfrootloops

Hi there! I experienced this pretty recently as well, so I hope it helps to know you are not alone in facing this (it really ruined my mood that day haha). This may sound counterintuitive but sometimes stepping away from the test is SO necessary, I can't emphasize this enough. Yes, it may feel like time wasted because you aren't studying. But trust me when I say that all of my plateaus and periods of consistently making seemingly silly mistakes were overcome by not thinking about the test! I know taking prolonged breaks isn't feasible for everyone, but even a day or two off will only benefit you when you come back with a fresh mind.