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PTs all over the place
strugglinglsater
Free Trial Member
Hi everyone-
I am taking the July LSAT (SOS) and am going to go into it with PTs all over the map- ranging from a 164 to a 175 (averaging around a 168). Any suggestion on how I can push them over the hump in the last couple weeks? Planning on taking two a week in between now and then. I just took PT 77 which was absolutely brutal and demoralizing but I am trying to stay calm. Any tips/ tricks out there?
Comments
I don't know if there are any "tricks". Basically, you just need to blind review effectively. Two PT a week might be too many for you to have time to fully understand the questions you got wrong or right, what questions you were over or under confident on, which questions may have been better for you to skip, etc. Also, one data point (PT 77) is not a reason to feel demoralized, but I totally get it. I recently did that test and was 5 points below my average of the previous 5 PTs, its easy to get down on yourself. But ultimately, it isn't about the score of a PT but more about what we learned from it. Since your scores seem to have a very wide range, I would look into that a bit more. Are those all from recent ones? The previous 5-6? You need to analyze any patterns and look at question types, the 7sage analytics tool is really helpful for that. Drill certain question types if necessary, review the core curriculum, watch some videos on questions you aren't fully understanding. These test have a statistical variation of +/- 3, I believe, so your range of 11 points seems wide. There are subtle differences between older and newer tests, so it would be beneficial to understand those differences. Talk problems out, explain them to yourself, a study partner, a S/O, your dog. Just taking as many PTs as possible before the July test isn't going to help if you don't adequately understand your mistakes.
Don't stress, just keep plugging along and you'll crush the LSAT!
To give better advice, mind sharing by section breakdown? Is it always RC (for example) that fluctuates or do your sections take turns wildly fluctuating?
Take a look at where you are going wrong. Is it time? A certain question type? A certain section? Recognize what your habits are when you get there and reevaluate them. Don't panic, as that won't solve anything. Relax and do some introspection to learn more about yourself and what exactly is giving you trouble.
I went through a phase too where my PTs were extremely inconsistent. More studying just helped push through that and then I became very consistent in just a 2 or 3 point range. But it's good if you can start narrowing down why there's such a big swing. A question type, a section, time management, what part of it that is making you all over the map. You can't worry too much about any 1 score, there are always going to be outliers. But if you just keep pushing through, I think you'll eventually start to even out and become more consistent.
Sections have varied- sometimes it’s reading comp, most recently logic games, and earlier on it was always logical reasoning. Hopefully can drill down on some issues in the next couple weeks! Thanks for the encouragement
Be consistent in your approach. You should be testing at the same time of day under the same circumstances every time.
Also, meditation, exercise and diet are all things that you can incorporate into your routine to shore up inconsistencies.
Have you gone back and looked at what your raw scores were for those tests? My last two PTs had a 4 point different between them, but when I looked at the raw score, I had gotten five questions wrong on both, just one was scaled differently. Thinking in terms of questions right vs. my converted score for the whole test (in addition to each section as most people do) might be a useful way for tracking improvements.
Ok I took another PT this weekend and have weirdly discovered something- I have been taking my best PTs after I biked to the place I take them, and my worst ones after being sedentary beforehand. Looks like I am going to have to figure that out.
This is great! Physical activity usually helps with studying, especially getting your mind right. Try to do something in between, like push-ups. They will allow you to meet the physical activity standard and is something that is easily enough to do before your official test.
I feel the same way. My last 4 PTs have been n, n-3, n+3, n-3 ... overall a 6-point range, with an overall average of n. The last one (n-3) totally crushed my morale. I'm trying to remind myself that it's about the overall trend/data set, not individual data points. Ah, I wish there was a way to reassure myself and really make mysefl believe it though!
Hey,
Just wanted to comment that having variation in scores is completely normal. According to LSAC, the standard deviation for a given person is usually about 2.6 points.(https://www.lsac.org/jd/lsat/your-score/score-band). That means that your range of 164-175 with a 168 average is just about within +/- 2 standard deviations. I know it's frustrating seeing scores go up and down, but hopefully knowing that almost everyone experiences similar fluctuations can ease the anxiety a little bit.
I also experience a pretty large degree of fluctuation in my test scores. Sleep and stress seemed to be the largest contributing factors in my experience. Before taking my exam, I would always rate my observed quality of sleep and my stress level on a 1-10 scale. I did notice a correlation between reporting a high stress level or very poor sleep and a lower score on my PT.
My advice for attaining better consistency would be to first look for elements of the exam that could account for your variation. Perhaps you're struggling with NA, and a particular exam had like 6 NA questions. Or, perhaps a section had 4 parallel reasoning questions and you found yourself running out of time -- whatever it is, try to look for shared elements between the exams where you see the fluctuations.
Then, I would also begin tracking certain other elements like sleep, stress, exercise, diet, and anything else you can think of that might affect your scores. Be sure to track your feelings on a particular day before you take the exam. If you do find that there are elements that appear to be affecting your score, you can then take measures to control for these variables.