Awful December LSAT score Forum

[mka5000066]

Walking out of the test I knew I didn't do well because I messed up my logic games section on regards to time and bubbling. Even despite the fact I was expecting a low score in response to my error, im so beyond upset. I scored 2 points less than my first diagnostic more than a year ago, 8 points lower than my average practice scores before the test.

I plan on retaking the test. I think im looking for advice on how others have been really upset about their scores were able to deal with it.

With the February lsat being so late into the admission cycle I'll probably have to wait a gap year, so my other question is what to do during a gap year?

I just received my score and am honestly proud of myself for even staying composed enough to type this up, any advice would help.

[MidwestLifer]

Get a job?

ETA: In regards to what to do with your gap year. Look at it as a chance to grow.

[smile0751]

First, as a person who got the same score on the real LSAT as I did on my first diagnostic test (which was timed and the one by Kaplan to mimic the real test), I understand your frustration/anger/disgust with your situation/feeling of ineptitude. Your focus on taking the test again is the right approach, and stuff like this happens. That's why they give you three shots at the test. The second time usually goes a lot better, and if not... then the third time's the charm! Just remember to work hard and perhaps vary your studying approach between efforts.

As to what to do with your gap year, the world is your oyster. What did you study undergrad? What do you love doing? I think a gap year is a time when you can do what you want--or study more for the LSAT.

[downbeat14]

.

[hill1334]

Walking out of the test I knew I didn't do well because I messed up my logic games section on regards to time and bubbling. Even despite the fact I was expecting a low score in response to my error, im so beyond upset. I scored 2 points less than my first diagnostic more than a year ago, 8 points lower than my average practice scores before the test.

I plan on retaking the test. I think im looking for advice on how others have been really upset about their scores were able to deal with it.

With the February lsat being so late into the admission cycle I'll probably have to wait a gap year, so my other question is what to do during a gap year?

I just received my score and am honestly proud of myself for even staying composed enough to type this up, any advice would help.

Based off of the information you provided above, it seems as though your average practice score was only 6 points higher than your diagnostic. It may be the case that you just had an incredibly high diagnostic and, therefore, not much room for improvement, but that seems like a rather small increase to me (particularly considering that, if you are like most people, you likely did not fair all that well on logic games when you took your diagnostic). If, e.g., your diagnostic was a 156 and your practice test average over your year studying is a 162, I think you have either not put in enough time or have some bad study habits. While I think that people overhype, to some extent, the learnability of the LSAT (everyone is simply not capable of scoring 170+), I do think that everyone is capable of improving their average PT score more than six points over their initial diagnostic.

TL;DR: Based on the info you provided, you might want to consider revising your study habits.

[mka5000066]

Thank you everyone for the advice.

I took a gap year this year after college and worked for a political party which was an absolutely awful experience. I'm so ready for law school, and especially after the failure of my attempt at this gap year I'm not really sure what I would do.

As to the last response, I had a private tutor through Kaplan. I was averaging about 167-8s on the 4 practice tests I took the month of the test, overall i've taken about 15 full timed tests. I started off at a 162 diagnostic when I first began, my final score on the actual test was a 159, the lowest score i've ever seen. As I mentioned, during the test I forgot to fill in the bubbles on the LG section until last minute and couldn't fill them all before time ran out. I committed around 8 hours a day to studying for two months prior to the test, so i'm relatively confident i'll perform well on the February test keeping in mind that on the actual test you can't just circle the correct answer haha.

My GPA undergrad was a 3.75 and I graduated in the top 9% of my class, but with a 159 on the actual test I'm not going to be competitive for the schools i was looking at. It's unbelievably upsetting because I feel that I prepared, but just messed up on something stupid. Mainly the coping is what i'm most concerned with :/