Does anyone else get very disparate logical reasoning scores on the same preptest?

DEC_LSAT

I took preptest 68 and scored very differently on the two LR sections. i am a bit perplexed by the discrepancy. How does one get 85% on one of the LR sections and then 56% on the second LR section? I did them timed during a full practice test and THEN redid both sections, timed as well, and got the same score on a different day. I redid them to make sure that the second sections failure wasn't an accident. The difficulty level of the second LR section is clearly much more difficult for me. I would say 85% on the first section is a great outcome but the second section killed my score overall. any tips or explanations for the difference in difficulty? Do i need to go back to fundamentals? do preptests usually have one section of the LR that is SIGNIFICANTLY more difficult in comparison to the other? thanks in advance!

bjphillips5

Hi @DEC_LSAT,
Typically, one of the LR sections is harder than the other. Sometimes one is really easy and the other is really hard. Sometimes they're not too far apart in difficulty. But I always do better on one of the LR sections than the other. My best advice is to rigorously Blind Review both sections, but more importantly the harder section. The best way to improve on the harder LR is a really good BR practice. That means 100% certainty on every question before you check your answers. See this video for advice how to do that:

Even if you don't take all of her advice, doing a more intense BR always helps than a less intense one.

DEC_LSAT

@bjphillips5 excellent thanks for your feedback!

jowens7317

I agree with @bjphillips5 what gets me is that I'll get the first 15-20 right and then miss 3-5 of the remaining questions on each section.. it gets really frustrating haha

Nanchito-1-1

I know you probably dont want to hear this but..... dont focus on the score so much. Think of it as an opportunity to find out what your weaknesses are.

oh yes and proper br as always.

Wind-Up Bird

If you're wondering whether this fluctuation happens within the test to anyone else, I can almost guarantee that it does. Personally, I've had a PT where I went -2 on the first LR and -12 on the second. Try not to dwell on the score too much, but it's definitely important to reflect on what caused the massive score drop. I remember when I completely lost focus because I was super hungry or experiencing a caffeine crash... Things I learned to control during test day :P

Best of luck on your studies!

Alex

@bjphillips5 said:
But I always do better on one of the LR sections than the other.

@dec_LSAT

Same. Sometimes I will go like -3 on one and -5 on another.

As others have said, do a good BR and learn what you can from the ones you miss.

DEC_LSAT

@"Alex Divine" i mean disparate tho! -3 and -5 is closer to consistent when compared to 85% and and 56% correct on the other.

Not Ralph Nader

@DEC_LSAT as other people mentioned sometimes one section is really harder than the other. And other reason is that sometimes test writer stack up one kind of question in one section. For example on the first LR section you might not see many NA questions but on the other section there would be lots of them and if you are not strong with them it could cause the difference.

Cant Get Right

Yeah, I guess that is a bit drastic. Maybe you needed a warm up and underperformed the first section? Or maybe you wore out before reaching the last section. Who knows. Whatever the explanation for the discrepancy, the solution is the same. Figure out what what you did wrong and why. Learn from that information. Distribution doesn't change the process.

DEC_LSAT

@"Cant Get Right" i wish.... but it was the second section that i bombed. and i redid both sections and scored exactly the same (both times were timed and the second time was the very next day). it was definitely the questions! I will BR that section this week. thank you