Score Fluctuations Forum

[kiklavan]

.

[Ntp73821]

Does anyone else have this problem or any advice on increasing consistency?

My score varies anywhere from 160-168. (This month 2 168s, 1 167, 1 166, 2 160s, 2 162s). Although most often my low score has to do with bombing logic games, today on PT 75 I did well on games and still ended up with a 160. This is frustrating because I want to take the test in 2 weeks and I was reallllyy hoping to break 170 (And yes, I BR like crazy)

You should try plugging all of your tests into 7sage and then drilling your weaknesses. It helped stop my scores from fluctuating. I was fluctuating from 163-169 and then I used 7sage and now I'm pretty consistently 170-172

[diamondlaw21]

Does anyone else have this problem or any advice on increasing consistency?

My score varies anywhere from 160-168. (This month 2 168s, 1 167, 1 166, 2 160s, 2 162s). Although most often my low score has to do with bombing logic games, today on PT 75 I did well on games and still ended up with a 160. This is frustrating because I want to take the test in 2 weeks and I was reallllyy hoping to break 170 (And yes, I BR like crazy)

You should try plugging all of your tests into 7sage and then drilling your weaknesses. It helped stop my scores from fluctuating. I was fluctuating from 163-169 and then I used 7sage and now I'm pretty consistently 170-172

I'm having the exact same issue as OP (same score range and everything.) I've been using 7sage and can see the breakdown of my weaknesses in LR, but I'm not sure how to properly drill them specifically. Is there a method you'd recommend? FWIW, I have access to all PTs

[Ntp73821]

You should try plugging all of your tests into 7sage and then drilling your weaknesses. It helped stop my scores from fluctuating. I was fluctuating from 163-169 and then I used 7sage and now I'm pretty consistently 170-172

I'm having the exact same issue as OP (same score range and everything.) I've been using 7sage and can see the breakdown of my weaknesses in LR, but I'm not sure how to properly drill them specifically. Is there a method you'd recommend? FWIW, I have access to all PTs

What I would do is use the 7sage question bank to sort the LR by question type. From there make a list of the questions that correspond to your problem areas and go through those. If you have problems seeing why the wrong answers are wrong and why the right answers are right, I would use LR from the preptests that are explained on LSATHacks, which is a free resource with really good explanations. I definitely would recommend leaving some of the more recent PTs clean (if you haven't already taken them) and doing LR from maybe PTs 62-71.

[diamondlaw21]

You should try plugging all of your tests into 7sage and then drilling your weaknesses. It helped stop my scores from fluctuating. I was fluctuating from 163-169 and then I used 7sage and now I'm pretty consistently 170-172

I'm having the exact same issue as OP (same score range and everything.) I've been using 7sage and can see the breakdown of my weaknesses in LR, but I'm not sure how to properly drill them specifically. Is there a method you'd recommend? FWIW, I have access to all PTs

What I would do is use the 7sage question bank to sort the LR by question type. From there make a list of the questions that correspond to your problem areas and go through those. If you have problems seeing why the wrong answers are wrong and why the right answers are right, I would use LR from the preptests that are explained on LSATHacks, which is a free resource with really good explanations. I definitely would recommend leaving some of the more recent PTs clean (if you haven't already taken them) and doing LR from maybe PTs 62-71.

This is great advice - thank you!

[pricon]

Score fluctuations are due to two things. Either you have mastered the material and you are seeing the consequences of mental fluctuations, or you have not and are seeing the natural fluctuations based on the diversity of question-type-and-difficulty distributions on exams. Since you have not mastered the material, it must be the second case.


Advice would be to either master the material first, then you will phase out the second source of this problem; or simply better evenly distribute your understanding so that you are not hindered by fluctuations in distributions. However, that last bit of advice is sort of paradoxical, because the only way you could reliably phase out any score fluctuations based on distributions of question types would be to master the material. Either way, the best advice seems to really be to master the material first, then deal with the first case, where fluctuations in scores result from fluctuations in mental states.

[kiklavan]

.

[kiklavan]

.

[pricon]

Score fluctuations are due to two things. Either you have mastered the material and you are seeing the consequences of mental fluctuations, or you have not and are seeing the natural fluctuations based on the diversity of question-type-and-difficulty distributions on exams. Since you have not mastered the material, it must be the second case.


Advice would be to either master the material first, then you will phase out the second source of this problem; or simply better evenly distribute your understanding so that you are not hindered by fluctuations in distributions. However, that last bit of advice is sort of paradoxical, because the only way you could reliably phase out any score fluctuations based on distributions of question types would be to master the material. Either way, the best advice seems to really be to master the material first, then deal with the first case, where fluctuations in scores result from fluctuations in mental states.

This is helpful! Thank you. Do you think that timing could also reasonably be said to play a role in my inconsistency? I've noticed that the times I have trouble finishing (let myself get wrapped up in a question and guess on the last ~5 in that section (LR & RC)) my score plummets, whereas when I pace myself more evenly my score is on the higher end.

Yeah. The interesting thing about a question taking you more than four minutes is that you are most likely to get it wrong, whether you spend four minutes or seven minutes on it. Therefore, I suggest guessing on a question as soon as it seems like it will take you more than four minutes. Also, pace yourself to get through questions 1–10 in 10–12 minutes and questions 1–20 in 20–25 minutes, as a rule of thumb.