Advice / validation

C_J_2020

Hi guys,

I've recently taken the Nov 2024 LSAT and am pretty discouraged by the results, to say the least. I had been preparing for the last two months or so (about 5 hours per day appx) and had been doing a lot of PTs (too many I'm sure) in a range of 172-176 with a couple outliers outside the range on both sides, and I ended up scoring a 167 on the actual exam. There were a few adverse conditions which I am confident wouldn't occur again on a retaking, but I don't think any of it could have had that big of an impact so there must be something else. I took a 'diagnostic' two and a half months ago or so and got a 169. Please note though that I did take the exam back in 2020 (hence the username), and I scored a 168 on that one, so the 169 'diagnostic' wasn't a real diagnostic as I was obviously still familiar with the exam from four years ago.

I usually get from -1 to -3 on both the LR and the RC, but generally if I miss 3 on an LR section for instance I'll only miss 1 on the other and only miss 1 on the RC. Doing the math for the 167, I guess I must've missed 13 total at a minimum, which is pretty outside of my range, and almost unbelievable to be honest. It's also frustrating that they no longer allow you to view the exam to find out where you missed your points and review the questions for potential inaccuracy.

Has anyone been in a similar situation, where you've dropped 6 or 7 points from your average PT score on the actual exam? It's hard to take to be honest, and I can't help but feel like my PT scores are meaningless in the face of the score I just got. Also, I know it's somewhat common, but I don't understand how my score could have been below my diagnostic after multiple months of prep. It's all very discouraging, and I'm not really sure what to make of it or what to do differently. I know I need to take fewer practice tests (which is good because I burned like 15 of them in total), but what should we be doing to practice, actually? Just timed drills? At this rate, I worry that I'll run out of legit LSAT questions before I can get my target score (174) on an actual exam.

I don't know if I'm looking for advice or validation, but I think I would be happy with either or both. This was a long one so thank you if you've read this far. I'm kind of considering buying a few hours with a tutor (unsure of where) so let me know if you have an opinion on that with the poll below. Thank you