I don't know what to do

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• 4 Likes

  tscheps Member

  October 2020 8 karma

  I wouldn't let yourself stress out too much. My analytics thingy looks like a heart rate monitor with the amount of ups and downs on it, and I think that's fairly normal. Yes, the noisy cafe probably didn't help your score, but what else is going on?

  Are you taking too many PTs and not giving your brain time to rest in between them?
  Are you getting more and more stressed as you don't see any progress?
  Are there other trends in your PT data that this bad one fits into?

  Honestly, and I could be TOTALLY wrong here, but I'm staunchly against the "study at every possible moment" strategy; your brain needs time to rest; you need time to relax and think about other things. I noticed when looking back at my data that my best PTs were all on Mondays/Tuesdays, which is probably because I had the whole weekend to get good sleep, and I almost never did any LSAT stuff on Sundays. I usually bombed on my Friday/Saturday ones because I was the most exhausted from the work week, so my strategy with the Oct. LSAT was to take the day before the test off and literally just watch Forensic Files and relax, and I'm feeling really good about how I did yesterday.

  Yes, you should definitely study, but there's more to this process than that. Take time for yourself and enjoy things wholly unrelated to the LSAT. It's fall and beautiful as shit outside. Give your brain some time to actually recover and register the stuff you've learned by relaxing, and I'm sure you'll start seeing more progress.
• Saaamuel Alum Member

  October 2020 edited October 2020 128 karma

  PT 73 was really f*cking hard. It was the worst score I had from PT 60 to 76 by almost 10 points. You are not alone.
• parkdan7070 Core Member

  October 2020 50 karma

  For me, PT 60s was my highest scores and weirdly into some 70s PT, my score tanked.. it also freaked me out and I started to study at like every moment I had which honestly stressed me out more. Just take some time off and come back into studying knowing that scores will fluctuate but that doesn't mean you forgot the fundamentals.
• karko2525 Member

  October 2020 edited October 2020 620 karma

  @bellahyeon14 Hi, just wanted to pop in with some reassurance! I completely understand what you're feeling. Getting a score lower than your PT average feels insanely crappy because you know you can do better. However, I just want to say that a month is still a lot of time to improve even if it doesn't feel that way. In addition, I think a lot of people see score dips once they hit the 70's and 80's and it's mainly due to LR and the misc games that start appearing. I find that the LR wording becomes much more vague and tricky once you get to the most recent exams which is why for a lot a people, scores start dropping. There is a light at the end of the tunnel though and a lot people start seeing an increase in their scores once they do more recent PTs. I think it's all about getting used to the language and subtle nuances that the test writers have incorporated in the newer exams. I also saw my score fluctuate once I started taking the newer exams, but it also shot back up to my normal PT average so don't fret! I encourage you to go back to this PT and really look at the problems you got wrong and see if you can understand where you went wrong. For me, misreading is a huge issue and often determines my LR scores and I realized it's not that I don't understand the logic... it's really the vague language or catching the one word that distinguishes a wrong answer choice from a trap answer choice that gets me.

  As for test day, I think it's completely normal to fear scoring in a certain range. Sometimes sh*t happens and you may not get the score you anticipated or maybe you will exceed your expectations! Anything can happen on test day so don't be too hard on yourself. Just focus and do your best and I think that's all we can really hope for. I am sure you'll crush this test eventually and I wish you the best of luck on the November LSAT. It'll be my 2nd attempt in November so let's push through!
• WouldRatherBeEating Alum Member

  October 2020 456 karma

  Other people have already adequately explained why this score shouldn’t affect how you’re feeling. I have also had scores drop and then climb again, don’t worry too much.. as far as helping you get to actually studying, try to give yourself a limit about forums & stuff, but also try to drill a little more so you can break things into smaller pieces. Assure yourself that you’ll do 2 logic games and 2 passages and a dozen LR questions. Or break it down smaller- you only need to do 10 minutes of studying, just one LG or one RC, etc. just try to do something small, but don’t guilt yourself about not studying all the time. You can’t make huge progress every day... some days are just to relax and the goal is to keep yourself a little fresh on the sections.
• VerdantZephyr Member ⭐

  October 2020 2054 karma

  Don't stress, just relax, take a day or two break, and come back. Do you have your actual LSAT soon?