Bombed June LSAT - 10 points below avg.!

jpetersyvrjpetersyvr Alum Member
in General 41 karma

Title says it all. I bombed the June LSAT (159) vs. my average preptest scores of 169. I attribute this decrease to a few factors: nerves, primarily, and the fact that my preptests were all generally older tests, so I had little exposure to the most recent exams. I've since purchased preptests 62 - 81, I use 62 - 71 as drills and 72 - 81 as full exams. Beyond that, I did not do 5 section tests and am doing that for all my full practice exams (2x a week).

My drilled sections are still timed, I'll divide tests 62 - 71 into sections, which I'll time myself through to completion. The only difference between these "drills" and a full timed test would be that a full test conforms exactly to the structure of the real LSAT, so fatigue becomes a factor.

Has anyone else had a similar decline in prep vs. actual scores? Further, do you feel it's reasonable to approach my practice scores by the September sitting? Initially my scores for 62-71 were lower, but have recently climbed up into the 169 range, and my full exam marks are still a bit lower, 163-167 range. (Fatigue is evidently a major factor for me!)

Comments

  • _oshun1__oshun1_ Alum Member
    edited July 2018 3652 karma

    I’ve been taking the PTs at random but my very first PT upon redoing 7sage was PT38 and I got a 170. Then I took PT70s and got 163-165. PT61 i took after taking a few PT70s and I got a 168. Then took more in the PT70s and my score dipped back down to 165. Most recently I took PTC2 and got a 172 after a few weeks of barely studying.
    I’m not sure if my higher scores in the earlier tests are entirely attributed to them being earlier tests or bc I have been under a lot of stress at work but I do think the newer PTs are more nuanced and you should focus on PTs 70-80+.

  • ebalde1234ebalde1234 Member
    905 karma

    Earlier tests are different then newer tests in some respects . This is fact you can affirm from the forum . Try to integrate more recent pts in your prep and look at the trends for newer tests , best of luck

  • Nunuboy1994Nunuboy1994 Free Trial Member
    346 karma

    Just retake it- you just had an off day. Also,159 really isn’t that bad at all. Disappointing based on your results? Sure. But a 159 is still a decent baseline score. It’s so cliche but you hear all this hype on forums and sometimes from your peers at university “oh I scored 165 on my last or etc” but then what actually unfolds is quite different (who actually gets those scores). I’ll say at one small university in Connecticut, professors and the prelaw department had their fingers crossed the students would even get 145. That being said don’t get discouraged and definitely retake- this happens even with the best test takers. Sometimes even pretty good test takers can get psyched out from the pressure of an actual testing environment; a friend of mine totally bombed her first LSAT despite PT’s in the 160’s because she had a hard time staying focused and dealing with her nerves in a public setting but then nailed it the second time. Also, honestly, you might just luck out and get a much better test the second time with questions you can actually work with. I took the GMAT five times and finally scored high on the verbal during my fifth attempt- the questions were supposed to be harder but honestly they felt the same as any of the other questions I saw on previous attempts.

  • ebalde1234ebalde1234 Member
    905 karma

    @Nunuboy1994 said:
    Just retake it- you just had an off day. Also,159 really isn’t that bad at all. Disappointing based on your results? Sure. But a 159 is still a decent baseline score. It’s so cliche but you hear all this hype on forums and sometimes from your peers at university “oh I scored 165 on my last or etc” but then what actually unfolds is quite different (who actually gets those scores). I’ll say at one small university in Connecticut, professors and the prelaw department had their fingers crossed the students would even get 145. That being said don’t get discouraged and definitely retake- this happens even with the best test takers. Sometimes even pretty good test takers can get psyched out from the pressure of an actual testing environment; a friend of mine totally bombed her first LSAT despite PT’s in the 160’s because she had a hard time staying focused and dealing with her nerves in a public setting but then nailed it the second time. Also, honestly, you might just luck out and get a much better test the second time with questions you can actually work with. I took the GMAT five times and finally scored high on the verbal during my fifth attempt- the questions were supposed to be harder but honestly they felt the same as any of the other questions I saw on previous attempts.

    Agree to all of this ...one test at a time

  • Leah M BLeah M B Alum Member ⭐
    8392 karma

    You're in good company! I didn't drop that much, but I took the June and it was 4 points lower than when I took the December test, and about 5 or 6 points lower than my current average. For some reason, it seems like more folks than usual bombed this one. I don't know what it is, it didn't seem unusually difficult to me, but I ended up tanking it, so what do I know? lol

    Anyway, all this to say - yes, even with just maintaining your current level, I think you could easily score much higher in September. Sometimes we just have off days. But it does sound like you need to do a little work in acclimating to the length of the test and battling exhaustion. I'd say practice with 5 section PTs and maybe even 6, just to overdo it. Technically, there are 6 sections on test day, including writing. Obviously, that's ungraded. But it's still a length of time that you need to be able to concentrate.

    It definitely is important to be familiar with more recent tests. The formats have changed a bit. Most dramatically, with comparative reading being added in (I think?) the 60s. But there are subtle other changes. I think LR has become a bit more nuanced, with more trap answer choices (answers that would be correct if 1 word had just a slight change to it). The games definitely do have trends. I think overall, they've gotten a little easier, a little more consistent. But they have been bringing back some funky miscellaneous type questions, where you need to be able to figure it out on the fly. It doesn't conform to the standard game types we're used to. That's a skill in itself, being able to come up with a game board or layout that's unique.

    I think you're on the right track with your plan. Just keep all that in mind, skip around some on the tests, and right before the test have your last 2 or 3 PTs all be extremely recent ones.

    Good luck!

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