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An absolute bummer when you take a preptest and your score is lower than your pre-studying test.

psbrathwaitepsbrathwaite Member
edited September 2014 in General 207 karma
I need a 160. I got a 147. My last test I got a 152 ( about 3 weeks ago though ). Maybe my score is a couple of points lower than it was before i even began studying at all because I took the test so late in the day and my mind was already kind of scatter-brained.

Nevertheless,

I just bombed the test.

I have 6-7 more tests scheduled before the sept 27 test ( maybe 8 tests )

Anyone experienced gains in such a time frame..with such a score? Good lord lol.
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Comments

  • mjjohns6mjjohns6 Member
    418 karma
    This also happened to me. I went from a 155 to a 148 :( & I'm trying to reach a 160
  • David WayneDavid Wayne Free Trial Member
    571 karma
    If your scores aren't where you want them to be, postpone. You'll improve with time, but 13 - or even 8 - points of improvement from preptest scoring in less than 20 days is too much to reasonably expect. You don't need anyone on the forums to tell you that.
  • mjjohns6mjjohns6 Member
    418 karma
    The deadline to change your test date was on the 8th :/
  • psbrathwaitepsbrathwaite Member
    207 karma
    Sheet
  • msmith85msmith85 Alum Member
    213 karma
    The deadline may have passed but if your skils don't improve by test day, assess your performance on test day. I know for me, I can feel when I hit my target score and can feel when I don't ranging by how much I struggle with the test. If test day feels awful CONSIDER (I truly mean consider fully and with knowledge of the consequences) canceling your scores and taking in December.
  • madeleinemadeleine Alum Member
    259 karma
    Do not focus on numbers right now.
    Two weeks ago I scored 13 points below my PT the week before. Why? I didn't get 8 hours sleep, at times I was hungry, I hadn't 'warmed up'. Next week, I was back to normal. Examine what you did wrong to prepare that day. So much is in preparation. Did you eat enough? Stay away from alcohol the night before? Not take the test at the end of the day when you're exhausted? Learn from this. If you want to score that 160, external factors can't be what drag you down.

    As far as studying, I think you should be going way harder, if possible. I work full time and go to school 2 evenings a week, but I take at least 2.5 PT's a week and wake up early every morning to review. I'm going to keep doing that until a few days before the test. Without a eat/sleep/LSAT mantra, I can't see myself scoring what I do now.
  • bealebeale Alum Member
    3 karma
    I too just scored lower this week than I have any other time. It was very discouraging, and I don't want to cancel because I want to apply early admission to one particular school. However, I took a deep breath and re-assessed how I had been studying. For me, I was trying to cram in all the lessons and was recently realizing I wouldn't have enough time to complete them all. Given what I've studied now, I think the best approach is to continue to take practice tests, and then really, really focus on why you got answers wrong. Not only that, while you are listening to the explanations, identify what type of question it is, and then take notes during the explanation. You'll start seeing patterns even if you didn't' get a chance to take that course session. If it helps, take that same practice test again after the explanations to make sure you absorbed the information and can apply it. Then just keep taking them!! If you're feeling really time crunched at this stage in the game, focus on your worst parts. I was actually surprised that my weakest parts were not the logic games, so I need to shift my attention to the logical reasoning (which thankfully is a section where patterns can easily be established). Good luck everyone!!
  • danielznelsondanielznelson Alum Inactive Sage Inactive ⭐
    4181 karma
    Take the money hit and postpone your LSAT date. You're losing money, but a 160 will change everything if instead of the scores you've had.
  • brainwvsbrainwvs Alum Member
    79 karma
    Congratulations! You have reached the child state of LSAT Preparation. When you start, you are a baby. You are blissfully unaware of the things you don't know. You are full of self confidence, optimism, and joy. You will get 180! You will be accepted to Yale for sure! Then you start studying the rules. Learn how complicated the test actually is. You lose your self confidence. You know that the way you used to do LSAT is wrong but you don't quite know how to apply the newly learnt rules. Your score drops. You are a child. This is no time to take LSAT! This is the time to keep on studying. You will soon reach the awkward teen years. You start seeing your strengths and learn your weaknesses . Your score slowly start to crawl up. Then you are an adult. You know the rules. You know how to score 180. You just don't know how to do it fast enough. Until the age of wisdom finally arrives. You are a Yoda. You did not learn to do things any faster like you thought you would. You learnt to predict: when you see a question stem in game or LR you quite often see what they are going to ask. What trick they are sending your way. You just skim thought the answer choices to look for the one that you know is there. You recognize the wrong answer types as if they were bad people you have learnt to avoid. You cherish the correct answers as if they were old friends. Study some more you must.
  • joegotbored-1joegotbored-1 Alum Member
    802 karma
    LSAT poetry at its finest... love it @Brainwvs !!
  • psbrathwaitepsbrathwaite Member
    207 karma
    ....The Jedi has spoken.
  • LouieRodriguezLouieRodriguez Free Trial Member
    82 karma
    I don't want to be rude... but if you're able to score a 147 with actually being serious about the test- you are nowhere near ready and the material hasn't sunken in yet for you. You need to drill more. Or you need caffeine to help your mind stay relatively focused on whats going on. You have to understand what you're reading. I think this may be your problem. In fact, I think thats the problem for most people taking this test... they are not processing the information with the perspective they need to analyze all this information.

    A 147 is just bonkers assuming you've actually been studying, which I have reason to believe is suspect.
  • LouieRodriguezLouieRodriguez Free Trial Member
    82 karma
    And stop with this idea of I need this score or that score... or three weeks ago I scored this score. Instead say to yourself, I got this question wrong, what can I learn from it? Why didn't I understand this RC passage. What made this game difficult. It's not the scores that matter right now. It's whether you're learning from your mistakes. Would you feel better if you scored a 180 and had gotten amazingly lucky christmas treeing your scantron? I don't think a reasonable person would. You need to understand the material. Be grateful you are getting questions wrong because they provide feedback. They are hinting at what you do and do not know.
  • LouieRodriguezLouieRodriguez Free Trial Member
    82 karma
    Doing a kick flip on a skateboard isn't terribly difficult once you've learned how to kick flip. But you can't be happy, or sad, or disappointed with anything until you've actually mastered the kick flip. Once you do have it mastered, then, maybe, can you be disappointed by the fact that you screwed up the kick flip when everyone was watching.
  • kelsey.rkelsey.r Alum Member
    62 karma
    I was in your same situation for the June test. I had PT in the 150's but I would also get some in the mid 140's...even 2 weeks before the test. I had convinced myself that it was external factors for the recent 144-148 PT's and the many in the 150's was the more reliable range of my ability. I was dead wrong. I got a 147 on the actual test. It is best to use your lowest, recent score as where your current abilities are....while it is possible that the lower scores are the fluke, what if they are not? If the higher scores are the norm and the low scores are a fluke, then postponing will likely increase your actual score even more and you are in a great place. If the high scores are the fluke, then it's a problem to bank on and assume otherwise because the reality of the actual day and test will not align with the fluke and the lower scores will be your reality that will show up on your official LSAC report. I am retaking the test this September because I made the mistake of taking it in June. My PT's are now averaging between 159-165 and have not dipped below 157, regardless of external factors like time between PT's, full time work, taking it late in the day, being sick, etc. I took the very fundamentals I had learned for June and pushed even harder through the summer and in just a few weeks the improvement has been drastic and I know are a reliable indicator of my abilities.

    And the deadline has passed to change...BUT you can withdraw up until midnight the night before and it doesn't show up in your official report. you only lose the registration fee. Regardless of the range of PT scores, or what you need to get, a PT score drastically different from what you want so close to the test is something you really should consider. Don't hope for the best on the actual day.
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