Should I cancel? Need Advice

bruingirl1205

Hey guys,

I've been on 7Sage for quite some time now but I don't post that often. Here's my background: I started studying for the LSAT in the summer of 2014 with a Blueprint classroom course. It was not helpful for me and I continued to study after the course but not consistently. I found 7Sage in fall of 2015 and went through the curriculum. It was helpful but I still didn't feel ready to take the exam. Between April 2016 until now I have been studying consistently. I even took a 6 week leave from work to study full time prior to yesterday's test. I have a 3.9 GPA from a great school. My goal score was 165+ for yesterday's test. I have been PTing in the mid-160s and BRing in the 170s.

Yesterday started off great. I felt good about the first three sections (LR-RC-LR). However, like many others on here, I had some serious issues with LG yesterday. LG was my 4th section. I completely choked on games 3 and 4 and unfortunately carried that anxiety and stress into my last LR section which has turned out not to be experimental. Needless to say it was extremely hard to focus in that last section and I had to guess on more questions than I normally would need to. I am seriously considering canceling my score. I know most schools take the highest score, but I can't stand the thought of having a low score on my record. I am completely devastated.

What should I do? I am not even sure how to study moving forward now that these oddball games are becoming the new "norm".

hufflepuff

My 2 cents:

I took the test yesterday and had a really similar experience to you. I was feeling really great for the first part of the test (had 2 RC + 2 LR, so LG was my last) and just could not think around a lot of games 3 + 4. Combo of a few things I think (including heat in the room + medical history for me) but I really felt like I might pass out during that section which obviously did not help. Thinking back more calmly and rationally, I'm hopeful I might have been able to save some points by calming down toward the end of the section but it's hard to say. Also, this was my last section so I'm reasonably confident about my performance for the other sections.

How are your points usually distributed? Do you count on LG for your scores? If LG is usually not the strongest section for you anyway, maybe the difference in points between here and what you normally get isn't as wide as you think it might be. Maybe the first LR and RC could help compensate for that and the last LR if you think they were strong. How confident are you about the last LR? Were they educated guesses or just random bubbling? I don't know the answer to any of this obviously, I'm just trying to suggest some things to think about from someone who was in a similar experience.

On cancelling... I think it's really tough. I tend to agree with conventional wisdom that barring a catastrophe, it's better not to, especially since this is only your first take. I know it's a personal choice though and really, only you know what's best for you. I'm assuming you're in the US? I'm Canadian but I would say look at the schools you're applying to and if there's any way your scores could put you in the running there. If you cancel, you'll never know what might have been a really decent score -- this may or may not be an important factor to weigh in your decision. I know that for me personally, there have been a couple PTs where I thought LG was way off my average (and I wasn't wrong... they were pretty bad) but the overall score has turned out fine. I really think there's some truth in the difficulty of the sections balancing each other out a bit and it seemed to me like yesterday's test did that.

I have no idea if any of this will be helpful but just want to reiterate that I (kind of) know how you feel and I'm sorry the test didn't go the way you had wanted to + prepped for Good luck with the decisions ahead

Vickpetrosian1

Just look at it unless your shooting for HLS even northwestern only cares for the higher score don't be too hard on yourself I'm in your exact same shoes testing wise as well my pts are exactly the same as yours .... well get through these rough times have faith... and remember consistency topples talent any day

bruingirl1205

@hufflepuff @Vickpetrosian1 Thank you both for your insight! I have a lot to think about over the next couple days.