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November exam overall difficulty
TrustingGod
Free Trial Member
So I have been reading the discussion on the exam and now I'm getting nervous about my score. The LGs were unfortunate due to the the mining question as I usually shoot to get -0 for LG. Due to one of the substitution questions and the mining question I probably missed a few. Also I remember struggling a little on the last LG question too. I did terrible on the experimental LG, so I almost cried when I found out that's not being scored. To me the RC didn't seem too bad, but then again my brain is fried and I can't remember much. I also feel like since June 2017 they have changed the language of the LR sections to use softer answers, where sometimes two answers can work but we have to pick the best one that for ex: "weakens the most." So I don't know how to feel about LR, and this seems like this will be the direction of future exams. Many people are saying it was difficult and now I'm scared that I shouldn't feel confident in my efforts, and maybe I should be studying to retake. So please leave your feedback on the overall difficulty of the exam. Was it way more difficult than the other exam this year?
Comments
I thought it was easier than June and July. June’s RC destroyed me. I thought this one was a very typical LSAT. It’s also totally possible that I was just more prepared for this one after 8 months of studying. But it also seemed easier than the September test, which I didn’t sit for, but I did a PT on it.
I can't speak for this year's actual LSATs, given this was my first ever official test.
But you're right OP, compared to the PTs I have taken, questions were much less cookie cutter and harder. There were quite a few questions where you came down to 2 very attractive ACs. You could literally argue for your answer being correct IMHO. Of course, LSAC hedges itself by making you choose "the most" or "the best". I thought this held true for both LR and RC.
I only practiced with PT 50s and below, because of my Premium package. I would caution others that these earlier tests, although very good practice, are not completely representative of what I faced yesterday.
This is tricky because we are all so vulnerable to bias from our stages of prep, mood, and perception of how we scored. From what I have seen in this thread, on Reddit, and from my own experience, the consensus seems to be a tough LG due to the Mining game, 2 Average LR sections, and a relatively easy RC. Obviously anecdotal evidence like this is weak at best, however, speculation like this is the only thing keeping me sane until 12/8.
This was my first ever official test. Alot of it is a blur, because my first section was what I think was the experimental LR. And that section had lots of back and forth points of view, really long question stems and was so time consuming I didn't finish. This really got me off on the wrong foot- I have been finishing LR with 10 + minutes in PT. Second section was Reading Comp and this was perhaps the first time I have ever been happy to see reading comp. The questions and passages felt more familiar though still being so shaken from the previous section I can't say if I actually scored well on this section, just that I didn't see anything much different than I have seen before. My third section was logical reasoning. The first three questions I actually felt about 90% confidence on, overall this section was more familiar but I was just really really off on this test. It took me hours to get past the nerves after this test and I am not a nervous test taker. 3rd section of LR reading felt a little harder than the previous but not like that first section.
I still think I got a lot wrong in these sections because I was so off by this point but I did finish. My last section was logic games. I love logic games and under no time pressure I usually go minus zero or maybe up to -2. I worked really hard last week on working and fool proofing the logic games so this section felt like far and away my best section. The first two games I flew through, possibly wrong on substitution and equivalence but I expected that. When I got to third game which was the mining game I looked at it, didn't feel super comfortable with the game board I was trying and quickly left it and did this last game which was fairly easy for me. I went back to the mining game and never really found what I thought was a great game board so I just tried really hard to stick to the rules. I had three questions left at 5 minutes and did try to eliminate wrong answers. I feel I could of got 1 maybe 2 of those three right. Aside form the mining game I felt the logic games to be easier than what I had been practicing with but the practice tests that I have been using (30's to mid 50's) didn't really fully prepare me, this test did feel different.
Tbh I thought the Bonbo LR section was one of the easiest I’ve ever done. But the mining game and movie passage were huge time sinks for me so I think it all balanced out for me.
I thought that movie passage that was just me...I felt like I was going around in circles. As for the mining game I thank 7Sage for knowing to move on, I at least got the last game done and points there before sinking into the mining game. I can't wait to see JY do the mining game so I can see all the things I did horribly wrong, I am thinking LSAT in January at this point.
Thank you everyone for your valuable feedback. It's definitely calmed my nerves. The only thing to do now is wait until December for those scores. Good luck to you all!
I think the LR was slightly harder than average, but pretty fair. I actually found the games very easy (counter to most people primarily because of the mining game). I actually found RC pretty challenging (where most people thought they were easy). Other than the first rc passage about the ancient civilization, I actually thought the other 3 were hard to nail down. On the surface they seemed pretty easy but I wasn’t completely clear on them.
This test had the easiest RC I’ve seen in a long time
I thought LG was easy from someone who usually doesn't ace the section anyways, now all this anxiety around the mining game on the forums is making me nervous i totally missed some key details or something lol. I feel like mining game was super similar to all the games back around 15 to 35, it was just a spin on a game type we have already seen. I'm pretty sure theres a game around thirty that is essentially just this exactly.
I found one of the LR considerably harder than what i was used too. The two LR i got also seemed quite different from one another, the one that opened with the leaf eating fuckers i fished with some time left, but had some trciky questions. On review i caught a few and switched a few answers. The other, which i remember had oysters, i barely finished in time. This one was filled with complex stems but the answers were easy to eliminate. this LR section moved a lot slower for me and ultimately was more difficult.
LG RC LR LR LG
mining game was 5
im thinking -10, i dont think -11 is going to happen but im thinking posative thoughts
This was my perception of it. I struggle with LGs anyway, but the mining game totally threw me. I skipped it and went to the last one, but by the time I was done with that I had little to no time left for the mining game and just guessed everything except the first question. Felt that the LRs were pretty standard and I I finished without rushing at the end like I often do. My experimental was LR, though, and I do remember one being harder than the others; I just don't remember which one it was! RC is always good for me, and I felt good about this one, even the movie one (though it was the toughest).
Hopefully my feeling about this test is correct (that I hit my target). I've been wrong before. I thought I completely tanked the first one I took a year ago, but got a 158 (not as good as I'd hoped, but ok). Then I took September's test as a PT on Friday. My dogs barked through the entire thing [literally!] and I was super annoyed and struggled with the LGs and got a 161 LOL If I did worse on Saturday than the dog-barking PT on Friday, I may just give up
The mining game really threw me too. I immediately recognized it was a weird game and skipped it, came back with 10 minutes and still couldn't finish. I think I panicked and couldn't nail down a game board. Everything else felt about average. The movie passage took me too much time. And the LRs sections weren't too bad, except the last two parallel logic questions on one of the sections just ended with me making a guess. It felt slightly better than the September test, but who knows.
My first LR was the experimental I think. It was definitely the toughest and left me devoid of the confidence I normally have when beginning a test. I was glad to flip to the next section to see it was games which I normally crush. I did just that for the first two games - I was practically smiling in my seat like a maniac - but the mining game reared its ugly head and although I completed it and made sure to understand the inferences, I sunk a lifetime's worth of time in it. I got the 5-minute mark while completing the last question for it, only giving me 4 and a half minutes for the last, presumably easiest game of the set. I'm still kicking myself for not skipping it and coming back. That's procedural f*ck ups 101.
My shock of bombing the LG section carried over to my 3rd section which was LR. I could barely read the first 5 problems - lets call it temporary illiteracy. Luckily I rallied and was able to crush it (I think, we'll see as I agree, there were many LR questions with 2 attractive answer choices), but I still felt uneasy. I was praying, wishing, pleading with all the religions combined to give me a second LG section, giving me hope that the one I tanked was experimental. That second LG section never came... Now my fate lies in the hands of my performance with the other sections and I think we can all agree that they usually lend themselves to the most variance. I've prepared well so I'm hoping the skills I gained carried through for me which I think they did, but only that LSAC, all caps email we get in 3 weeks will tell.
Most people talk only of LG and LR. Was RC so easy as to not even warrant mention? Lol
I felt that this exam was either easier, or I was better prepared for it. The June exam apparently had a hard RC, the Sept exam (my first take) was hard LR, and I predicted this exam would be hard LG (which it was because F that mining game), but aside of that, it seemed relatively benign. I felt that there were maybe 4-6 questions in each LR that had me head scratching, and the only part of RC I didn't mesh with was the movie passage. Good luck!
I actually felt this test was more difficult than when I sat for the test in July. It wasn't even that the questions on this test were harder (except LR def were); I found myself spending much more time in each section than usual. The 3 non-mining games were easy and I finished them relatively quickly, but I ran out of time before fully grasping the mining game (guessed on 4/5 based on 2 possible boards I made up) which was super frustrating because I feel like I was 1 inference/3 minutes away from getting it all done confidently & correctly. The RC & LR also took longer with the that one stupid LR section having way more "2 answers look plausible" questions than I've experienced in a long long long time (just look at the Reddit forums...). I usually have 2 to 4 minutes to review LR, but this time, I got so stuck on those 10+ could-be-either-answer questions that I had 30 seconds to read and guess on that last super long question with no time for review of 5 to 10 that I flagged.
Maybe I got more stupid and inept after the July test, but I definitely felt less confident after this November exam. Just for reference, I did fairly well in July (160's); was just hoping for a 2-3 point increase before I submit my apps. At this point, looks like that is not happening lol.
Like others have said, I thought this was a balanced LSAT, nothing too crazy. I did however think RC was tough. Seems like most people thought it was easy or hard, no in between.
I thought my first LR with the bonobo question wasn't so bad.
The three LG's except mining were not very bad. I think I got max -5 on LG, which is avg for me.
I had 2 other LR's and I thought those were pretty tough. Lets hope for the best!
The more I read from others the more I am convinced of the personal nature of how one performs. As we can see there is no real consensus here. From my personal experience I sometimes find things that are "easy" that others complain about, and vice versa. Also, a person's expectations of how they wish to perform usually alters their evaluation. A 163 can bring about many different reactions among different people even though it is the same exact score.