I made a big mistake

NewEnglandBound

There it was, staring back at me, a giant albatross of a mistake. As I confidently marked down the final LG answer as time expired, I look and realize, I'm marking bubble on row 24. This section only had 23 questions. Where did I go wrong? Did I skip a line? No. Did I double up? What happened?

And thus ended my chances at enjoying the possible post-LSAT high. Months and months of work and studying and prepping and a Scantron is going to be my doom.

See you all again next year.

Hibiscus

I hate scantron so much. Waste time filling it in, waste time correcting errors. Worst thing in existence for tight time constraints

bSM45LSAT

Dude don't worry about it. You probably only messed up on the last game bubbling. Think positive!

petitigre

I made a Scantron error as well, but I somewhat expected it as I make a Scantron error almost every practice test. I ended up 1 question short, and realized that I double-bubbled somewhere in the section so I had to erase and refill entire blocks. I don't know if the erasures were effective but I really, really hope this isn't my downfall.

Hibiscus

I'm really afraid of double bubbling now, since I think my LR sections were both at 25 questions... Which I don't think is right

DumbHollywoodActor

I bubble page by page and I'm trying to program myself on every PT to mouth the question nunber as I bubble it in to avoid this. It's my worst nightmare. I'm so sorry.

Hibiscus

I think I need to practice with a scantron, as I don't normally do that and it really threw me off today. Time to pray I didn't mess up too much

The thing is that I jumped around on the questions a lot, so I don't think I should have made errors in bubbling since I had to check the number constantly. And double bubbling should have only messed up one question since I jump around, so I can't even tell if I messed up or not

c.janson35

My one serious scantron mistake came in my freshman year religion class, and since then I've developed a self-talk that helps minimize errors. When I answer a question, say number 15, I first circle the answer in my test booklet and while doing so I say "15 is C." And then when I go to bubble my answer, I find 15 on my sheet, put my pencil tip on the number 15, and then go directly over to the answer while telling myself again "15 is C". This allows you to not only make sure you bubble the correct question number and answer, but also allows you to catch any mistakes that may have slipped by the first time because when you go onto 16 and do the same thing, you will realize "oh wow I bubbled in 16 already something is wrong."

Try this out next time/when you practice (@NewEnglandBound @hibiscus @petitigre)! It really doesn't add any extra time to the process of bubbling and can save you big time.

Hibiscus

@c.janson35 thanks for the tip! I'm definitely going to try that out.

harrismegan

^ Totally agree with this. I've never had a scantron problem because I always always internally say the number of the question as I'm bubbling it in. Sorry to hear this happened to you

Pacifico

Just a note to anyone else reading this thread: Do not take PTs without a scantron... It's okay to drill without them but you are setting yourself up for failure if you don't practice like it's the real thing... Same goes for LSAT watches and such... Train as you will fight so you will fight as you trained!

DumbHollywoodActor

@c.janson35 said:
I've developed a self-talk

I’ve been trying to do this for EVERYTHING. I think it’s the key to excelling on this test. “What’s the flaw?” “Why is the author writing this?” “What do these two rules do together?” I wish there was a more fundamental way to train oneself except to keep talking to oneself. It’s not as easy as it seems.

NewEnglandBound

@Pacifico said:
Just a note to anyone else reading this thread: Do not take PTs without a scantron

I hope that nobody inferred from my OP that anybody should do this. As @Pacifico says, take every PT with a Scantron! This is what makes me feel most defeated, as I'd done ~20 PrepTests with no issues, and then on the real deal...there it is. I drilled with them, I PrepTested with them. So frustrating

@c.janson35 said:
Try this out next time/when you practice

Absolutely. I'm probably going again in December, so the next month or two will definitely involve this strategy.