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Discouraged
I sat for the June LSAT and scored very low. I'm not sure where to even begin, I do not know what the best strategy is anymore to approaching this exam. I don't want to give up but in need of serious help because all of what I'm doing is obviously not working.
Help?
Suggestions please?
Comments
Did you under perform your practice tests? How long did you study? etc
Well the first thing to remember is that;
1.) This test does not define you as a person
2.) You ARE capable of improvement
3.) Many people fail at their first, second, and even third try but eventually beat the test.
4.) You can take time to breath before go after the test again
Once you're able to see that you are capable and just need to try again I would start addressing weakness, section by section, type by type, until patterns appear. Half of this test is exposure and understanding the tricks/AC that the authors use all the damn time.
And then building on it until you are right where you want to be.
You can do this!
One broad level issue I've consistently found with my students is that most of us tend to do a very bad job of recognizing the underlying reasons for our errors. I think that's one of the most essential fundamentals of studying that is most neglected. Look very closely at your errors. What went wrong? Your answer needs to be a lot deeper than something like question type. If you can start developing more meaningful answers to this question, you can start addressing errors more effectively and with greater ability of future application.
Great feedback!
Thank You,
Yes I did underperform when taking PT's. I didn't and still do not know what to address when I'm not sure what I'm looking for in the first place. I go over the problem and afterwards can somewhat understand the logic behind the right answer but then the next question is completely different and I begin applying patterns which doesn't apply and I become confused. Lol, I believe I can achieve scoring better on this test, I just am not sure exactly how I keep going so wrong even after going over wrong answers to understand why! I have to get a handle of this and wish I knew exactly how to.
@CRSTOVALL Cool deal. So, here's what works for me.
First and foremost, remember that this test is super learnable if you adopt a systematic approach to improvement and then just work that method. Lots of people workhorse their way to higher scores. Ain't no reason you can't be one of them. Remembering this has been immensely helpful to me. You gotta keep that confidence high.
That being said, I've found the LSAT analytics on 7Sage to be super useful. Idk if you've tried it or not, but it breaks down each question on the test by question type. It will also show you which types of questions that you need to prioritize. From there, I'm able to understand exactly where my problems are. It's really heartening to realize that even if I'm missing 6 questions from a given section, I'm only really missing 2 or 3 different types of questions. Then, I can go back to the corresponding 7Sage courseware lesson, ask in one of those group review sessions, search forums or whatever. Remember, the important part of this test is the structure, not the content. And the structures repeat themselves over and over again. Focus on structure above all else.
I haven't formally taken the test yet, so I can't speak personally to test day under-performance. However, you can try to take your practice tests in the same room that you'll be taking your re-take in, you can take your PT's at the same time, visualize taking the test successfully in your mind before you go to bed and just generally work on developing a focused but zen/stoic approach to the test.
Hopefully that's helpful.
I have been where you have been -lost, discouraged, and have no idea despite watching myself on video what I am actually doing wrong. What worked for me was I got help. If you have any friends that are really good at LSAT ask them to help you and watch your video or go over stuff with you. If not, I would hire a tutor. All the tutors at 7sage are super affordable. Sometimes when you don't know what you should be doing, its hard to figure out what you are doing wrong.
Just keep your head up. You'll do fine
Thank You so much for the feedback. I will be implementing the suggestions given.
Another question for you,
I'm not officially registered with 7sage and so I don't have any of the material.
Would it be effective if I were to use PT's from library LSAT material?
Has anyone tried this and to do as many questions as they possibly could get their hands on?
My husband is an attorney and he suggested doing as many questions as possible and this is how he passed the Bar exam.
>
This concern is very familiar to me. I learned that I needed a prep course with question-by-question explanations. Personally, I have found that this is the only way that I will improve. It is a waste of time, and nearly useless to 'guess' the logic behind the LSAT question without formal guidance. That's a key issue. I found it necessary to have something to align my conceptualization of correctness/wrongness of answer choices.
Getting all of the practice tests that you can find is useful to studies, but may not be useful if you don't know what to do with the questions (depending on how low you are scoring---very low as in 140's or less or 150's).
I tried, based on the advice a related attorney to do as many questions as possible. This is good, in theory, but it is also a final phase of preparation for the LSAT. You should do as many PT's as possible, after getting a good grasp on the precursory instructional material by question type. I was doing questions left and right, but wasted valuable time and fresh tests thinking I knew what I was doing wrong but never truly learning (and like you, never being able to apply my concepts to different questions of the same type). Don't fall victim to the cycle, and revisit curriculum if you need to, and find a resource that explains the questions individually, so you can construct an understanding of LSAT logic, and determine the errors in reasoning that you make, and compare as to how such errors in your reasoning align to those of a more senior LSAT'er.
Thank You very much!