Pt from 2002

kmarie7

Today I took at Pt from 2002, and did pretty poorly compared to my other recent PTs. Is this PT too out of date to be concerned? It seemed to take me a lot longer than the newer Pts I have previously done.

BinghamtonDave

How far along are you in your studies? If you have only recently started, many others will tell you that there will be bad PT days before there are really good PT days. As for the specifics of your question, yes, there is plenty of useful information on the late 30s- early 40s PTs. The topic is the subject of a fair amount of debate in the LSAT study community, but I would say that the tests from the 30s and 40s are 85-90% similar to what you will encounter in the 70s. Others are welcome to disagree, but aside from the rule substitution question on LG, a comparative passage on RC and maybe maybe a trend towards more subtle answer choices on RC, the underlying structure of the test is very similar in the 30s-40s and today in my experience.

*edit for clarification

kmarie7

That is good to know. This is only my 5th Pt, so hopefully it was just a bad day. It was only 5 points off from my highest, but I had been seeing a steady increase, so a 5pt decrease was a little discouraging. Thank you!

draj0623

I had a similar experience when I started taking PTs. I initially did poorly on one from the same range of tests and thought it might be an anomaly but then, as I took more PTs, my score was gradually decreasing. I decided I was experiencing some level of burn out or exhaustion and took a short break to see if that helped. The break did help me overcome the decline. I know it can be demoralizing when you experience that kind of fluctuation in a negative direction so I think it would be helpful to just know yourself and whether you think a short break could help or if this was just a bad day you can shake off. Consider all aspects of your PT experience to see if there is something that you may have done differently to derive that outcome. Even if you did hold all things constant, I have heard that some degree of fluctuation initially is common. I wouldn't be too concerned just yet. Best of luck in your studies!

MrSamIam

Don't be concerned, not because the PT is relatively "old" but because it's just one PT. You may have had an off day, or maybe that PT was ridden with questions that you tend to struggle with. Either way, figure out why you did poorly, and combat the issue directly.
If you were having an off day, rest.
If it was full of question types that you're not completely comfortable with, drill those question types.