Burnout Right Before the Test

joecarterruskey

So, I've been studying for the LSAT for exactly a year. I've taken almost 50 practice tests during that time. For the past 2 months, I've been taking 2-3 practice tests a week and BRing them (with a one week break during that time). I've never gotten past a 171 on a first take, and a 177 on a retake. I guess I am exhausted and frustrated. I

I'm at a point where I'm not sure if it would be more effective to take a brief break or to continue grinding. My planned study schedule is the following:

today - finish BR of PT 65, drill RC
tomorrow - PT 72
Thursday - BR, drill RC
Friday - PT 67 retake
Saturday - off
Sunday - BR, drill RC
Monday - PT 76 retake
Tuesday - BR, drill RC
Wednesday - PT 75 retake
Thursday - BR, drill RC
Friday - off
Saturday - lightly drill PT 74
Sunday - lightly drill PT 74

I'm tempted to take the rest of today off, and do a retake tomorrow to boost my confidence instead of PT 72 (since I've heard this is an especially difficult LSAT). Thoughts?

I did want a 180, but I don't know how feasible that is or if I'm capable of making a breakthrough within the next few days. Right now I just want to be able to score in the 170s for the real thing and avoid having to do a retake.

Nicole Hopkins

Yeah take the rest of today off. Pretty much any time when you're like "I need a break!" it's because you really need one.

Take the rest of today off, see how 72 treats you, and I'd even advocate splitting the rest of your retakes up into separate sections, do like 2 sections a day maybe? And really use those to focus on your mechanics. I think you need to focus more on fine-tuning at this point and less on volume. Especially at your score range, just doing a bunch more PT's isn't going to really make the difference—it's in refining the remaining rough edges in your process/understanding. On the whole, this is a fine plan, but I would taper and get more focused leading up to the exam.

BruiserWoods

@joecarterruskey said:
retake tomorrow to boost my confidence instead of PT 72

10/10 highly recommend not going into 72 in burnout mode. This test KILLED me and crushed my confidence because i went into it already entering phase 1 of burnout. I scored 6 points lower than my average on this test (and my average was above 170 leading up to it).

73 was not any kinder. I had to sit out of everything LSAT related to reset my mind. When I went back into it a week later, I scored my average again on 74.

You know how to sit for a fully-timed PT; my recommendation is to just drill 72 as full length sections so you lay eyes on the questions. BUT, I'm only speaking from personal experience, so others may have more valuable insight with more datapoints than just me.

joecarterruskey

@BruiserWoods said:
You know how to sit for a fully-timed PT; my recommendation is to just drill 72 as full length sections so you lay eyes on the questions. BUT, I'm only speaking from personal experience, so others may have more valuable insight with more datapoints than just me.

I was thinking of doing this....maybe I'll do that tomorrow instead of doing a full practice test

joecarterruskey

@"Nicole Hopkins" said:
Yeah take the rest of today off. Pretty much any time when you're like "I need a break!" it's because you really need one.

Haha that's all I needed to hear; definitely will take today off....my BR has been crap so far.

@"Nicole Hopkins" said:
Especially at your score range, just doing a bunch more PT's isn't going to really make the difference—it's in refining the remaining rough edges in your process/understanding.

That's interesting....the folks at top law school forums are big advocates of taking practice tests, and see that as the only way to improve. I'm actually really worried about my endurance, and have started using two RC sections per test (that's my worst section) to make myself improve.

Nicole Hopkins

@joecarterruskey said:
Haha that's all I needed to hear; definitely will take today off....my BR has been crap so far.

I recommend a full-on Netflix or video game binge ... Fallout 4 Far Harbor or Overwatch

Nicole Hopkins

@joecarterruskey said:
That's interesting....the folks at top law school forums are big advocates of taking practice tests, and see that as the only way to improve.

Yeah they seem to be fans of brute forcing generally. You've already done PT's. You've done a huge amount of the work required. Now you need to focus on fine-tuning. Good thing about this community is that folks stick around long-term and can speak to the broader vicissitudes of the test and observations of actual test takers. TLS seems to be much more short-term/one-off and generally quite unregulated (read: inconsistent).

Keep doing PT's but sections are often better ways to identify habits and work on breaking/building them in a more focused way.

joecarterruskey

@"Nicole Hopkins" said:
Keep doing PT's but sections are often better ways to identify habits and work on breaking/building them in a more focused way.

How does this study plan sound

today - off, rest
tomorrow - drill sections of PT 72
Thursday - PT 67 retake
Friday - BR 67, try to redo BR of 65, drill RC if you can
Saturday - off
Sunday - retake 76
Monday - BR, drill RC
Tuesday - drill
Wednesday - retake 75
Thursday - BR, drill RC
Friday - off
Saturday - light drilling
Sunday - light drilling

Nicole Hopkins

@joecarterruskey said:
How does this study plan sound

I think this sounds good!

One thing—make sure that every time you do a PT you do:

1) A warm-up, same as you'll do on test day (I did one LR section, one passage, couple of games in the hotel room right before I walked to test center)
2) A 5th section
3) Start the test at the same time as you'll likely start the real thing (2pm in your case since June test begins at 1.30 I believe? Or 30 minutes after the administration/show up time)
4) Keep track of what you eat/drink and when. See how you feel in the PT.

BruiserWoods

@"Nicole Hopkins" said:
1) A warm-up, same as you'll do on test day (I did one LR section, one passage, couple of games in the hotel room right before I walked to test center)

how do you choose your warm-ups for test day?

joecarterruskey

@"Nicole Hopkins" said:
3) Start the test at the same time as you'll likely start the real thing (2pm in your case since June test begins at 1.30 I believe? Or 30 minutes after the administration/show up time)

I've been doing all of the other things for the entire duration of my study experience, except that I typically end up taking my test at 1:15 or 1:30 as I get frustrated waiting, but I'll make sure to make these next 3 tests right at 2

joecarterruskey

@BruiserWoods said:
how do you choose your warm-ups for test day?

I typically do 7-10 LR problems, one game, and then I read a passage and think about it as I would on the test. I try to conserve my energy.

BruiserWoods

@joecarterruskey right, but from where? How do you choose the content?

joecarterruskey

@BruiserWoods said:
right, but from where? How do you choose the content?

Ah, well I've been using the 2003 tests lately. Should I be doing them from more recent prep tests?

Nicole Hopkins

@BruiserWoods said:
How do you choose the content?

I did random selections from a PT I just randomly had printed out. It was 60 or after.

Cant Get Right

I’ve been thinking that I’m going to stick to my greatest hits going into the last couple weeks. My thinking is that will keep me sharp as well as max out my confidence. So, any perfect LR section, my favorite games (admit it, you all have favorite games), RC passages that I remember finding particularly interesting. If I do PTs at all, I’ll stick with retakes from my highest scoring tests.

joecarterruskey

@"Cant Get Right" said:
I’ve been thinking that I’m going to stick to my greatest hits going into the last couple weeks. My thinking is that will keep me sharp as well as max out my confidence. So, any perfect LR section, my favorite games (admit it, you all have favorite games), RC passages that I remember finding particularly interesting. If I do PTs at all, I’ll stick with retakes from my highest scoring tests.

I guess the junction I'm at is should I be focused on learning more/tweaking mistakes or boosting confidence? I saw that you scored a 180 recently (congrats!), so for your study strategy is probably going to be a little different than mine. Like I've said, I've gotten as high as 177 on a retake, but I can't say if that's reflective of my test-taking ability.

What really got me in the blues was that I've been getting -2 to 0 wrong on LR, but got 5 wrong on a section this last test.

Cant Get Right

@joecarterruskey said:
I guess the junction I'm at is should I be focused on learning more/tweaking mistakes or boosting confidence?

At this point, I say boost confidence and keep yourself fresh. If you still need to learn more then you’re not going to bridge that gap at this point anyway. Don’t let one bad section dictate your feelings. It’s not representative. Look to your averages.

And believe it or not, my 180 was the first thing I did back from a two week break. When you got it, you got it. It’s not going anywhere. And if you don’t, it’s too late now!

But if you’re averaging -0 to -2 on LR, then you got it.

BruiserWoods

@"Cant Get Right" my best scores have all been after 2+ week breaks too, interestingly enough.

Cant Get Right

Yeah, it wouldn't surprise me if that was actually kinda typical @BruiserWoods . There's a lot to be said for being in a clear, refreshed mental state.

Nicole Hopkins

@BruiserWoods said:
@"Cant Get Right" my best scores have all been after 2+ week breaks too, interestingly enough.

@"Cant Get Right" said:
Yeah, it wouldn't surprise me if that was actually kinda typical @BruiserWoods . There's a lot to be said for being in a clear, refreshed mental state.

Same here 100%.

joecarterruskey

@BruiserWoods should I be warming up with more recent problems than 2003?

joecarterruskey

@"Cant Get Right" said:
At this point, I say boost confidence and keep yourself fresh. If you still need to learn more then you’re not going to bridge that gap at this point anyway. Don’t let one bad section dictate your feelings. It’s not representative. Look to your averages.

And believe it or not, my 180 was the first thing I did back from a two week break. When you got it, you got it. It’s not going anywhere. And if you don’t, it’s too late now!

But if you’re averaging -0 to -2 on LR, then you got it.

I feel inclined to redo the most recent practice tests since the language of those problems are more likely to match that of the upcoming June test....my retakes are in the 174-177 range, and honestly I don't think a perfect score on a retake would make me wet my pants anyways.

Good advice though man.....I was getting worried that maybe I was getting rusty with LR because I was using my drill time to focus on RC.

joecarterruskey

@"Nicole Hopkins" said:
@BruiserWoods said:
@"Cant Get Right" my best scores have all been after 2+ week breaks too, interestingly enough.

@"Cant Get Right" said:
Yeah, it wouldn't surprise me if that was actually kinda typical @BruiserWoods . There's a lot to be said for being in a clear, refreshed mental state.

Same here 100%.

I've never had that luck with breaks. Then again, I've been scoring the same range for 8 months now.

Cant Get Right

I was wondering where all these tags were coming from!

But yeah, do whatever your experience has taught you will be best for you. Just don’t let yourself become overly concerned with losing or gaining any knowledge or skills at this point. Neither of those things is going to happen. So just focus on doing whatever works best for you to stay sharp.

BruiserWoods

@joecarterruskey I think it's best to warm up with sections from 60 and newer, just because that's the type of question you should expect on test day. But I honestly don't think it matters enough to make a huge difference; I think the goal is just to crank up your brain muscles.