PT Score is decreasing. Advice would be greatly appreciated!

Comments

• pannab Alum Member

  March 2015 28 karma

  Hi @alexandergreene93! Same thing happened to me a few months back. What worked for me was I took a break from LSATs for a day, took a step back and just did something fun with friends. I think I was at a point where I was stressing out way too much over every single question and overthinking it, putting too much pressure on myself and it sounds like you might be too. Everyone has a bad score somewhere along the way, I wouldn't stress about it too much! I'd say doing another one would be counterproductive at this point. Probably better to take a breather and get back to the next pt with a fresh mind! Hope that helps, good luck with your studying!
• NYC12345 Alum Inactive Sage

  March 2015 1654 karma

  @pannab Thanks for the advice. I've practically lived and breathed the LSAT for the past three months. How often do you typically take PTs? I am taking the Oct 2015 LSAT and have more PTs than the number of weeks leading up to the exam.
• Nilesh S Alum Inactive ⭐

  March 2015 3438 karma

  @alexandergreene93 I agree with @pannab you need a break... don't worry... this is a natural and even necessary part of your growth in the LSAT prep process... when you come back, you will be rejuvenated and things will quickly fall back into place. As for PT's you are in a pretty healthy spot... try do 2 a week with extensive BR... that should hold you in good stead.
• NYC12345 Alum Inactive Sage

  March 2015 1654 karma

  @"Nilesh S" If I do two a week, then I will have finished all PTs by June or July. Should not complete any PTs until a few months before the test and then go at it with two PTs a week? If so, what should I do in the mean time? I have Cambridge drilling packets, but I still seem to get a lot of the difficult questions wrong. Do you have any advice for improving on RC?
• Nilesh S Alum Inactive ⭐

  March 2015 edited March 2015 3438 karma

  @alexandergreene93 Well that's even better i.e. prep material and time wise... what you ought to do work on your weaknesses by blind reviewing the hell out of those questions on the Cambridge packets that you get wrong... make a document tracking the types of questions that you get wrong and then eliminate your weaknesses by studying the lessons for such types of questions from the 7sage curriculum again... also re-enforce lawgic... and then move to the remaining PTs... remember, PTs are a finite resource... don't waste them by attempting a PT when you have got clear areas of weaknesses that you need to shore up.
• Nilesh S Alum Inactive ⭐

  March 2015 3438 karma

  I would still say take a break...and more than a day or two... I'd say 4 - 5.
• jdawg113 Alum Inactive ⭐

  March 2015 2654 karma

  Make sure you remember Quality over quantity! big thing to remember. You want to get in as many PTs as you can b4 test day but that doesn't mean you want to burn yourself and/or materials without getting everything out of it. Make sure you are taking ur time to fully review and understand what is going on. It does sound like your brain is getting a little tired so like Nilesh said I would take a break and do nonLSAT stuff for a few days and come back swingin hard
• Nilesh S Alum Inactive ⭐

  March 2015 edited March 2015 3438 karma

  Also don't worry too much about PT 38 score... that one has a BEAST of a game which is one of the toughest games in LSAT history - even if you worked through it it may have affected your state going into the other sections... I remember crying to @"Jonathan Wang" about that game still what we've (I and @jdawg113 ) said ought to help.
• 2 Likes

  Jonathan Wang Yearly Sage ⭐

  March 2015 6874 karma

  Whether a mistake is 'careless' is completely irrelevant. You either made a mistake or you didn't. Did you skip a word? Misread a word? Mis-parse a sentence? Well, how are any of those things remotely excusable in any context, when words are the tools of your trade and your sole responsibility is to make sure you're evaluating them correctly?
  
  Always adopt an attitude of no excuses. Were you careless? Well, how can you allow yourself to be careless when you're aiming for a top mark? Were you too tired because you finished up section 5 at midnight? Well, why'd you start it so late then? Did you stumble on conditional logic in this question? Then why don't you know it better? It's a tough thing to do, and your ego will take a bit of a bruising, but ultimately this sort of no-nonsense approach (buffered with the occasional relaxation day) will ultimately prove beneficial.
  
  Otherwise, jdawg and Nilesh have it spot on. Quality trumps quantity every time. Generally great advice from those two, so be sure to listen to them.
  
  And yes, @"Nilesh S", I remember that. I used that opportunity to give you the "you're not good enough then" chat, which appears to have worked out for you
• Nilesh S Alum Inactive ⭐

  March 2015 3438 karma

  Yes it did... I still feel that I should have done better though, but that's that.... hopefully will do better in law school
• 2 Likes

  Jengibre Member

  March 2015 383 karma

  Can't agree enough with the above comments. I burned through a lot of preptests before I discovered 7sage and the blind review method. Now I actually spend several days on one test. I take the test under timed conditions, then blind review the next day. During this process I reread all the reading comprehension and do all the games again. I only redo the LR questions I circled, but I circle each question that gives me the slightest doubt. The day after that I score the test and watch all relevant videos. I then take note of which questions I got wrong and re-watch some of the instructional videos about those question types. On the next day, I redo all the logic games again, trying to go as fast as possible, remembering all inferences. I still see fluctuations in my scores, which I hope will get more consistent by June, but I have improved significantly since using this method.
• NYC12345 Alum Inactive Sage

  March 2015 1654 karma

  Thanks for the advice guys.