My Pre-Test Strategy – Curious to see if it Pays Off?

twssmith

Last December after a year of studying, I withdrew from the test because I knew I wasn’t ready. No problem. I re-dedicated myself to the curriculum and master the concepts that were my weaknesses. When I made that decision, I took my last full PT to provide a diagnostic for my future PT scores. Crazy, with no pressure and albeit a PT in the 30’s, I scored a 170, a score I had never seen other than BR scores. That score gave me the biggest incentive to really delve deep to master the concepts of the LSAT before I took another PT. I was fortunate to take advantage of every moment 7Sage provided for Webinars/ Office Hours/Forum Advice to really understand the LSAT leading up to the June test date. Once again, thanks to Nicole’s advice that I wasn't ready, I withdrew again.

Recognizing the value of the BR calls and trying to accommodate a chaotic personal life, this summer I did just the LR’s to attend the calls for a few weeks. Then, I was stuck with a problem – I hadn’t taken the RC or LG for those tests and had no way to build analytics by entering a full PT nor did I have any idea where I stood in actual PT scores. This is where I got creative. For every new PT LR’s that I was taking for BR calls, I would take the previous PT’s LG & RC. I had already created a cover sheet for all my PT’s for a Global view so I just filled in the sections as I took them and never scored a PT in its entirety.

I gauged my progress within each section not a PT score. When evaluating a section, I broke it down by strengths and focused on my weaknesses drilling them in between tests. Not being able to focus on a PT score I hope really helped me to not get caught in the highs and lows of normal PT experiences. When I sucked at a section, it was easier to tackle specific issues than a mountain of a PT score to try to figure out what went wrong.

Over the past year, I sincerely worked my butt off working on building an internal clock on LR, skipping strategies for all sections and to make the most of my dreaded RC inability. But, I knew my weaknesses going into Saturday and I came out of the test site with a smile – not because I crushed it and no way to know if I tanked it until scores are released – but it was fun to get into a zone where I knew the questions that I probably missed but I felt very confident in the questions that would have caused panic not only in June but especially last December.
All the Best, T

Nanchito-1-1

Interesting way to study Ty! It's so important to know your weaknesses and know when to implement skipping strategies. I'm happy you went into test day feeling strong and confident in your abilities.

Sprinkles

Love this! It's so easy to get caught up in a high score and so easy to feel down when you don't score as high as you wanted. Thanks so much for sharing your words of wisdom! bookmarking