Taking the LSAT a third time! Advice

What_To_Do

hey y'all.. I am slowly getting out of my post lsat score depression and I am ready to give this test another try - (Should I say a beat down!!). Not sure how unique my situation is but I scored roughly 10 point below my PTs. I got 153 - when I was PTing at 163-165. I bombed the LR (got -11 on each section - was at -4/-5 during PT), games were in line with my PTs and so was RC. I am delaying law school for another year and retaking it. I need some advice:
1. I feel like I am pretty familiar with all the LSAT materials out there. I worked my butt off last go around and really went through most the published exams. How do I deal with that now?
2. The Exam will be my priority and work would be secondary, so I will have time. whats the ideal schedule? I am deciding between Feb and June LSAT. Any advice on that?

Thank you all

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@What_To_Do:

I had a very similar situation. Your problem is quite possibly burnout, based on your level of preparation.

I believe very strongly that once you have gotten good, the only section that you can get worse in is LG, and that that comes back quite quickly with practice. If you really worked your but off, and especially since you were getting 163-165, you either suffered from nerves or burnout. My suggestions:

1) For nerves, try meditation. It calms the mind and can focus you, especially if you have a distraction in the back of your mind. It was the biggest thing to get me over the hump to my goal score.

2) For burnout, do what I did. I burned myself out before June and got about 6 points lower than my goal score. Between June and October, instead of doing 5 tests a week, I did only 2, and never again scored even close to the score I got in June. On test day I got precisely at my average.

The lesson, I think, is that you're not going to get worse once you make improvement. But really, if you go with studying less, definitely drill LG frequently. I feel that I got bad at them during this period of less study, and had to cram for a week before the test to get back my skill. Fortunately LG are easy come easy go.

nordeend

If you are not applying this next cycle then take the june 2016 test and get your application in early next year. To improve on LR you MUST be doing a thorough blind review. How many fresh PTs do you have to take?

Artwork94

This sounds like me 152 on test when I scored 161 on my last 2 preptests.. but I am retaking December... Don't know if thats a good idea since Im still bummed a bit

aaabbbccc

@josephellengar
So for your October test, what did you primarily work on besides two PTs a week? What would you say as your average study time per week?

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@lsat_321 Pretty low. Occasionally I'd do an individual section, but mostly I didn't even review the tests that I took that much. I guess I spent roughly 5 hours on tests per week (factoring in finishing sections early, roughly 2 hours/test and half hour to study). In the last week I crammed logic games. I did maybe 10 sections over the course of the week and watched maybe 3 hours of 7sage videos.

That's compared to roughly 20 hours/week during the Feb-June time period. I would watch videos on days that I didn't do a test.

ddakjiking

I took the test for the 3rd time.

Since you are aiming for Feb or June, sounds like you planning to apply next fall. I would recommend taking it in June since you stated the exam will have a priority over work. I would honestly take a bit more time off now and restart studying come mid to late November. Burnout was real during my ~15 months of studying. If I felt an incoming burnout, I was sure to take a week off from the LSAT completely.

GSU Hopeful

@What_To_Do

@"What_To_Do" said:
I am deciding between Feb and June LSAT

Most definitely June.

@"What_To_Do" said:
I feel like I am pretty familiar with all the LSAT materials out there

I'm assuming when you say all, you mean all. But, I have to ask... Have you read the Trainer? Do you have access to core curriculum of that wonderful life saver called 7Sage? If you have neither of them, I would find a way to get both. If you start now, you should have just enough time to make it through the curriculum and leave yourself with a couple of months to PT in preparation for the June test. If you have been through "everything" and still in the mid 150's, then these two prep materials are going to be necessary conditions for increasing your score.

@"What_To_Do" said:
I worked my butt off last go around and really went through most the published exams. How do I deal with that now?

When you say "most of the published exams", I'm assuming more than half. But which ones from 36 on have you been through? How many? If you have been through all of them, it kind of boils down to this: What's done is done. You'll have to rely on retakes down the stretch. You can still learn from retakes but the score will be inflated somewhat so keep that in mind. Any of the recent tests that you haven't taken, I would save them for the few weeks before the June test. Fresh retakes for you at this point are precious and should be guarded at all costs. Don't waste those fresh tests that you have left. When you get back PTing, you should be thoroughly Blind Reviewing each of them on a clean copy of the test. The BR process is where you make the most gains in your learning. If you need further instruction on what this process is, feel free to hit me or another mentor/tutor/sage up and someone will explain.

You can get to the point that you want to be at but it's going to involve acknowledging a couple of things. First, its going to suck and involve alot of hard work. Secondly, and perhaps most importantly, you need to be humble and realize that even though you were PTing at 163-165, you were a 153 on test day. That won't be the story come the June test, but it was the story for that day. Realize that you were exposed for what you were on that day and make your mind up that you're going to improve regardless of the price you have to pay. Best of luck to you and let us know if we can help further.

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@josephellengar

Thank you for your response Joseph! Sorry, but one more question!
Even though you didn't contribute as much for the October test (in terms of time-wise), you weren't worried about a possibility that you may not retain some important skills you learned but were confident of what you got?

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@lsat_321

I don't think that people every fall back in RC or LR. AS long as you do some work, it seems to stick, at least for me. In fact, I did not study at all between June and getting my score about 5 weeks later (or whatever it was). First test I took after returning to study was my best score ever.

The only exception to this is LG. I mentioned above that I had to cram for LG, and I found that happened prior to the June test, even when I was taking 5 tests a week and getting perfect LG sections. Somehow I was getting the games right but losing the content at the same time. When I finally got -4 on the LG section on the real test I realized that the videos are an important part of maintaining LG skills, even if you get everything right.

Summary: RC is very hard to learn very hard to forget; LR is hard to learn and hard to forget; LG is easy to learn and very easy to forget.

aaabbbccc

@josephellengar
Especially, I definitely agree on the LG point. I got too complacent about it on the October test.
Thank you so so much for your advice!

What_To_Do

thank you all for your comments. @josephellengar - very comprehensive, will def try to avoid burn out and the meditation. I tried it before and it was helpful but i was never serious enough about it. I will go for the June exam.

deleted account

@What_To_Do: glad to help!