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Dealing with fluctuations.

LindsMitchLindsMitch Alum Member
in General 589 karma

I am signed up for th June lsat. My recent scores have been 165, 168, 169, 169, 171, 165, 170, 173. And then today I got a 164 on pt 72. I know sometimes we just have bad days but I went into this test rested and confident, I just don’t know what happened. Trying not to let it bring me down but I am experiencing some anxiety for sure with only 3 weeks left to go. While I’ve hit 170+ several times, I just don’t feel solidly there and would be pretty bummed if I score below it on test day. Sadly July is not an option for me as I’ll be abroad. How should I proved. LR seems to give me the most trouble, today I missed a combined 14 Questions there alone

Comments

  • OhnoeshalpmeOhnoeshalpme Alum Member
    edited May 2018 2531 karma

    Meditation, diet, exercise are the big three. If you already have control of these things, great job and keep it up! If you're missing any one of these things it's in your best interest to incorporate it into your routine. There's not a ton that you can change test-wise in 3 weeks other than some focused drilling and a few PT's. If you really want to guarantee a 170+ then i'd recommend that you postpone all other activities and study full-time for the LSAT until September, or however long it takes for you to be averaging 174 on your PT's.

  • Leah M BLeah M B Alum Member
    8392 karma

    Honestly, that to me looks like a solid upward trend with just a couple of outliers. I think you're doing great!! We all have certain tests that we bomb for one reason or another. My weakness is RC so any test that has a really hard RC section, my score tanks too. Ugh.

    But, if you want to focus your studying a bit and LR is for sure your weakness, then maybe do some drilling by question type? Using either the problem sets or pulling new questions from the bank. Shore up your knowledge in specific types that give you the most trouble.

    But really, I think that looks overall like your score is consistently going up with just some fluctuation. Keep trucking along!

  • Cofife88Cofife88 Member
    90 karma

    I think it might be good in your situation to sit down and seriously analyze your past five or so practice tests. Maybe even record a PT or two to get a better idea of how your testing. When you get some of your lower scores, are there any sections or question types that you’re regularly missing? On your highest scores, are there sections that you did unusually well in?

    If you ask these sorts of questions, you may be able to identify a pattern or a gap in understanding that has been leading to some fluctuation. Your scores seem to be fluctuating just outside of regular ranges, so this may help you pin down what is causing that.

    If you can’t find a question type that is sinking your time, causing you extra trouble, etc., it is still possible that your fluctuations have to do with outside influences. Has there been a testing location that is more loud than others that you are using? Did you get a good night’s sleep the night before? Hopefully some of these suggestions help! Good luck and I hope that you can see that range tighten before the test!

  • LindsMitchLindsMitch Alum Member
    589 karma

    Thanks for your responses all @Cofife88 @"Leah M B" @Ohnoeshalpme It's just such a bummer to get a 173 last week and then immediately follow it up with a 164.

    In terms of identifying what is changing to cause these fluctuations ...I don't feel like it is anything environmental, though I do think I could up my exercise/meditation/diet regime over the next few weeks. It's not in bad shape to begin with but I think I should probably be a bit more intentional of scheduling time in which my brain must focus on things other than the LSAT. I am waitressing and I also tutor, both of which I can do while still thinking about the LSAT and I think it is starting to drive me a little nuts haha.

    I feel confident with LG. Even on sections where there is a randomly hard or out there game (like in this PT 72, game 4), I still miss an absolute max of 3, with 0/-1 being much more common. I feel like I've been able to get my RC more stable in the past month. Whenever things go south, like in today's PT (-6), I can pretty much pinpoint it to time management. I got all the questions but 1 right in the first 3 passages and missed the other 5 from the last passage because I was only beginning reading when 5 minutes were called.

    LR is the real problem...while the analytics feature has been helpful in identifying my problem areas (SA, NA, Parallel flaw, Weakening), it seems so random as to whether I miss 2 in a section vs. 7. What happens more typically is I do really well in one section (-2) and then not as hot in the second (-4/-5). Like I said earlier, today I missed 7 in both. I am going to really just try to do focused drilling of the questions I've missed over the last 10 or so PTs to see if I can identify commonality.

    I would be open to taking it September...it would be my third take, but it is hard for me to imagine cancelling June considering I have broken the 170s several times.

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