So I bombed the first diagnostic, BIG TIME! Forum

[bbobby12]

Wow, its alright, you cant stop if its what you really want to do. and there are law schools that you can get into even with a 130, 140, not ABA, but keep working. I think the stress gets to everyone and youre not the first person to mess up

[crumpetsandtea]

Wow, its alright, you cant stop if its what you really want to do. and there are law schools that you can get into even with a 130, 140, not ABA, but keep working. I think the stress gets to everyone and youre not the first person to mess up

While I agree that you shouldn't stress as much, DO NOT attend any schools that will take you with under a 150 LSAT score...especially if they're not ABA approved.

[AffordablePrep]

Honestly, if you start with a sub 130, I'd also look at doagnostics for other entrance tests. With a score that low it's possible your strengths may play more into a different field. In this economy, you really need at least a 160 to make law an even somewhat logical bet and it will be a lot of work. If you're like the posters on this site then you can do it, but equally rare to people who diag at a 170 are people with the work ethic to improve 30 points. Can you devote yourself to 14 hours plus studying for the year it would take? Are you obsessive, but able to channel it towards a single constructive goal? These are q's I'd ask yourself.

[Ende]

Wow, its alright, you cant stop if its what you really want to do. and there are law schools that you can get into even with a 130, 140, not ABA, but keep working. I think the stress gets to everyone and youre not the first person to mess up

I will not, under any circumstance apply to a single school that is not ABA !

[Ende]

Honestly, if you start with a sub 130, I'd also look at doagnostics for other entrance tests. With a score that low it's possible your strengths may play more into a different field. In this economy, you really need at least a 160 to make law an even somewhat logical bet and it will be a lot of work. If you're like the posters on this site then you can do it, but equally rare to people who diag at a 170 are people with the work ethic to improve 30 points. Can you devote yourself to 14 hours plus studying for the year it would take? Are you obsessive, but able to channel it towards a single constructive goal? These are q's I'd ask yourself.

That does sound like a viable option, but presently, I want to continue. I'm ready to and willing to put in the work. I put in 4 years of part time/full time undergrad, not to mention juggling multiple jobs (at one point I was working 3 jobs and taking 3 classes) just to get here. I'm going to get a reward out of it. If I need to delay the October LSAT and push it back to December, I'm ok with that. Right now, its too early to tell. When I got to the 3rd section on the diagnostic, I got frustrated and literally put C for all of them. I know if I would of "christmas tree'd" section 3, 4, and 5 and got a 150, or a 160 + I would be singing a completely different tune, and this thread wouldn't even exist. The light bulb will go off eventually. For example, the logical reasoning section we started off with wasn't making much sense. When we started the logic games at the end of the class, I followed along with it and the light bulb started to flicker, so right there in itself I know if I put the work in, the results will come. It's just a matter of time.

More importantly, I'm not a quitter!

[PeanutsNJam]

Honestly, if you start with a sub 130, I'd also look at doagnostics for other entrance tests. With a score that low it's possible your strengths may play more into a different field. In this economy, you really need at least a 160 to make law an even somewhat logical bet and it will be a lot of work. If you're like the posters on this site then you can do it, but equally rare to people who diag at a 170 are people with the work ethic to improve 30 points. Can you devote yourself to 14 hours plus studying for the year it would take? Are you obsessive, but able to channel it towards a single constructive goal? These are q's I'd ask yourself.

That does sound like a viable option, but presently, I want to continue. I'm ready to and willing to put in the work. I put in 4 years of part time/full time undergrad, not to mention juggling multiple jobs (at one point I was working 3 jobs and taking 3 classes) just to get here. I'm going to get a reward out of it. If I need to delay the October LSAT and push it back to December, I'm ok with that. Right now, its too early to tell. When I got to the 3rd section on the diagnostic, I got frustrated and literally put C for all of them. I know if I would of "christmas tree'd" section 3, 4, and 5 and got a 150, or a 160 + I would be singing a completely different tune, and this thread wouldn't even exist. The light bulb will go off eventually. For example, the logical reasoning section we started off with wasn't making much sense. When we started the logic games at the end of the class, I followed along with it and the light bulb started to flicker, so right there in itself I know if I put the work in, the results will come. It's just a matter of time.

More importantly, I'm not a quitter!

Well, to be frank, you quit in the middle of your test. Logic games is the easiest to learn. I believe RC is the hardest to learn. Considering how you didn't even try on the 3rd section, your diag score isn't even remotely accurate, now is it?

[Ende]

Well, to be frank, you quit in the middle of your test. Logic games is the easiest to learn. I believe RC is the hardest to learn. Considering how you didn't even try on the 3rd section, your diag score isn't even remotely accurate, now is it?

No, it's not. I just got so frustrated, which in turned burned me out. At the time I wasn't thinking about it from that perspective. It's a good thing I have good friends. They helped me keep things in perspective.


Anybody here having a difficult time getting through the homework via the TM course? Alot of homework for lesson one. I spent about 2 hours on it, plus about 45 min on my lunch break re-reading the stuff to try and get a better understanding and still haven't finished it all.

[BrianP]

More importantly, I'm not a quitter!

Right on.

[Ende]

More importantly, I'm not a quitter!

Right on.

If I do, I'll be haunted with the "what if I would of continued"...

It'll haunt me for a long time, and its exactly what I'm not interested in.

[Psib337]

Anybody here having a difficult time getting through the homework via the TM course? Alot of homework for lesson one. I spent about 2 hours on it, plus about 45 min on my lunch break re-reading the stuff to try and get a better understanding and still haven't finished it all.

I took Testmasters for the June test, my advice is to be smart about the homework. I made the mistake of trying to do it all at once and fell hopelessly behind and as a result some things just didn't stick and I never PTed anywhere near where I wanted to score (and then stubbornly took the test anyway hoping everything would work out...it didn't). If I were to take the class again I'd do half the homework and stop there and then continue to do the rest later if I wanted/needed to. After answering 60 questions I was pretty much burned out and everything I did atfter that I'm pretty sure was just counterproductive.

[Ende]

Anybody here having a difficult time getting through the homework via the TM course? Alot of homework for lesson one. I spent about 2 hours on it, plus about 45 min on my lunch break re-reading the stuff to try and get a better understanding and still haven't finished it all.

I took Testmasters for the June test, my advice is to be smart about the homework. I made the mistake of trying to do it all at once and fell hopelessly behind and as a result some things just didn't stick and I never PTed anywhere near where I wanted to score (and then stubbornly took the test anyway hoping everything would work out...it didn't). If I were to take the class again I'd do half the homework and stop there and then continue to do the rest later if I wanted/needed to. After answering 60 questions I was pretty much burned out and everything I did atfter that I'm pretty sure was just counterproductive.

I was thinking of "do what you can, with what you have, with where you're at".

[Ende]

Well, I might as well keep this thread going to track my progress..


Took diagnostic #2 yesterday, 9 point jump! Also, I pushed the exam back to December.

[BrianP]

Good job.

[Amoore114133]

Get yourself some extended release adderall and consume a lot of protein on test days...protein fuels the mind as well as the body...and practice relaxing maybe start meditating or something...and stop eating gluten, that helps some people's minds...adderal and protein for sure tho

[Ende]

Get yourself some extended release adderall and consume a lot of protein on test days...protein fuels the mind as well as the body...and practice relaxing maybe start meditating or something...and stop eating gluten, that helps some people's minds...adderal and protein for sure tho

Funny you brought that up. I stay in relatively good shape year round, with a normal gym attendence of 4-6 days a week. Gluten was eliminated a while back to help bring in my lower abs. Meditation is done here and there...

Extended release adderall? WHERE? lol...doubt my Dr. will prescribe that.

[RCinDNA]

Well, I might as well keep this thread going to track my progress..Took diagnostic #2 yesterday, 9 point jump! Also, I pushed the exam back to December.

Good for you - in your case, such a big jump on your second PT probably indicates that you let nerves get the better of you and you were simply unfamiliar with the test itself. Take the LSAT when you are completely confident that you are ready. Since you said you are willing to take the time to really study for this test, I would suggest PithyPikes' method, since it gives you such a solid plan for seeing improvements - I took a course, as well, and while I had good instructors, my solid improvements came from not getting overwhelmed by the amount of material to cover and pacing myself better. Really learn the games the test makers play to interfere with your confidence and concentrate on mastering Logic Games and identifying your weak points in Logical Reasoning. The Logical Reasoning and Logic Games Bible really helped me.

[Ende]

Well, I might as well keep this thread going to track my progress..Took diagnostic #2 yesterday, 9 point jump! Also, I pushed the exam back to December.

such a big jump on your second PT .

You're the second person to say that. What's the big deal in that jump? I was thinking a big jump was something in the range of 20-30 points. Besides, I'm still a considerable ways off.

[M.M.]

Well, I might as well keep this thread going to track my progress..Took diagnostic #2 yesterday, 9 point jump! Also, I pushed the exam back to December.

such a big jump on your second PT .

You're the second person to say that. What's the big deal in that jump? I was thinking a big jump was something in the range of 20-30 points. Besides, I'm still a considerable ways off.

I should preface this by saying that normally people don't score as low as you initially did, so it makes sense that a 20-30 point jump is incredibly rare. If you have someone take their first diagnostic and score 145, obviously a 25 point jump would be tremendous, placing them from the 26th to the 97th percentile (obviously it depends where you're scoring initially). Personally I've never even heard of a jump that big. Even a 9 point increase in one PT is big because, using an initial 145 again and jumping to 154, it represents a 33% percentile jump. Be proud of it and continue making gains.

[BrianP]

Well, I might as well keep this thread going to track my progress..Took diagnostic #2 yesterday, 9 point jump! Also, I pushed the exam back to December.

such a big jump on your second PT .

You're the second person to say that. What's the big deal in that jump? I was thinking a big jump was something in the range of 20-30 points. Besides, I'm still a considerable ways off.

I don't know. You sounded like you were proud of yourself for making that jump. I was just agreeing that it was good. If you don't think it was any good then...

[Ende]

Well, I might as well keep this thread going to track my progress..Took diagnostic #2 yesterday, 9 point jump! Also, I pushed the exam back to December.

such a big jump on your second PT .

You're the second person to say that. What's the big deal in that jump? I was thinking a big jump was something in the range of 20-30 points. Besides, I'm still a considerable ways off.

I don't know. You sounded like you were proud of yourself for making that jump. I was just agreeing that it was good. If you don't think it was any good then...

I just didn't think it was that big of a deal, as I'm still a huuuuuggge way off. In all honesty, I'm just happy I'm in the right direction. I'm guessing, all things considering, that a jump like that this early is a good indication.

Ahhh well, back to hitting the books.

[delusional]

OP, I honestly don't believe there's even such a thing as bombing a cold diagnostic. It's a nice tool to help track progress, but it is meaningless as an objective measure. I did not take a diagnostic because I did not use a course, but I imagine that I got an average of 4-5 wrong in each section of LR and RC and 18 wrong in LG. If I had scored it and found that I got in the 150s, I would have given up. I learned LG and fine tuned the others and got a 178. If you need to learn LR, RC, and LG, you can also improve on all three.

[qou]

First timed-pt under constraints was 144, (I got almost zero assumptions and logic games). To be frank, I had never taken a standardized test like this one and I had never seen a logic game before, I also thought "assumptions" were the pervasive arguements implied in the passage itself... .... ... so yeah, tested at 169 and am taking in Oct to get over 170.

The gains I was able to get was due to the fact that I had never seen it before, and a few books later I was able to really understand it. Plus these forums were key as well.

Good luck, remember, sacrifice everything for the next several weeks, you can go on vacation after the test

[Ende]

OP, I honestly don't believe there's even such a thing as bombing a cold diagnostic. It's a nice tool to help track progress, but it is meaningless as an objective measure. I did not take a diagnostic because I did not use a course, but I imagine that I got an average of 4-5 wrong in each section of LR and RC and 18 wrong in LG. If I had scored it and found that I got in the 150s, I would have given up. I learned LG and fine tuned the others and got a 178. If you need to learn LR, RC, and LG, you can also improve on all three.

I'm telling you, I score a 178 there will be an earthquake, lol

[Br3v]

dont worry baout your diagnostic score.
Lots of people freak out when they first see it, just use that as motivation

[RCinDNA]

Well, I might as well keep this thread going to track my progress..Took diagnostic #2 yesterday, 9 point jump! Also, I pushed the exam back to December.

such a big jump on your second PT .

You're the second person to say that. What's the big deal in that jump? I was thinking a big jump was something in the range of 20-30 points. Besides, I'm still a considerable ways off.

Hey again, Ende. I was just suggesting that your first cold diagnostic may not have been an accurate reflection of your potential score on the test due to your nerves.

Some test companies push the idea of taking a cold diagnostic so that their students have a metric to use for tracking their improvements and hence, that the investment is worth it. This is neither a critique or an endorsement, though, as I think this can have mixed results depending on the student and their overall confidence level.

Some people don't even bother with a cold diagnostic, since they are more concerned with how they do after studying and preparation to avoid psyching themselves out. One of those people actually wrote one of the "How I Scored a 180" articles http://www.top-law-schools.com/how-i-sc ... icle2.html.