The Official December 2014 Study Group Forum

[nlee10]

I like this discussion we have going on. Glad to be a part of this TLS fams.
Finished 6 RC's and laundry. Lunch break.

[Rigo]

[mist4bison]

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[GreenTee]

I certainly see what you're saying GT, but I think it depends on the person. Putting way too much pressure on themselves may make some people buckle. There is a lot of external pressure because of hard material, time constraints, the expectations of family and/or peers. Piling too much internal pressure on yourself in addition to these external pressures can be unhealthy and adversely impact your performance.
Bottom line is that we all know ourselves well. I've had my best PT scores when I go into them not putting too much pressure on myself. So for me, having the security of a retake takes a lot of the pressure off of me on my first take. Of course I'm going to try my best, but if something goes wrong, I know it's not the death of all my law school prospects and that fact is comforting.

One more thought about managing internal pressures:

I think no matter what you say to comfort yourself leading up to the first take, you WILL feel a lot of pressure to perform on test day. It's not something most people can just turn off voluntarily. So isn't it better to face that pressure with the greatest amount of preparation possible?

I think trying to alleviate the pressure in the months leading up to the test just serves to help justify doing less work than you could and probably should be doing. And when test day rolls around, the amount of pressure you feel might actually increase as a result of that.

[Smallville]

I feel where you're coming from but I think a do or die mentality can lead to more nerves and stress and test nerves on D-day. This can cause an even lower score.

You're totally right. But I guess my point is that the do-or-die mentality has to happen at some point, if you actually want to score at that level. Almost nobody gets there by accident. Better to put yourself through that the first time, so that it all becomes easier if there has to be a second time.

Obviously you should prep and prepare reasonably, but I don't think hard goals are healthy.
It's better to go into the final month and the test thinking "I'm going to give it my best shot" rather than "I must get at least a 173."
I know for me, studying has been a roller coaster. I feel great one day and like a complete failure the next day. Telling myself that I'm simply going to do my best has allowed me to get rid of a lot of the unhealthy anxiety I was feeling before.

Im just hoping my "barely study and pull out an awesome score" method from college pulls through here...
but really, I agree, some days you just hit the books hard and feel so accomplished and other days you just sit there staring going nowhere

[IsThisForReal]

I think no matter what you say to comfort yourself leading up to the first take, you WILL feel a lot of pressure to perform on test day. It's not something most people can just turn off voluntarily.

Thank you for confirming my abnormal-ness GT.

[Rigo]

[GreenTee]

I think no matter what you say to comfort yourself leading up to the first take, you WILL feel a lot of pressure to perform on test day. It's not something most people can just turn off voluntarily. So isn't it better to face that pressure with the greatest amount of preparation possible?

Thank you for confirming my abnormal-ness GT.

Are you trying to say that your abnormality is that you are capable of voluntarily turning off that pressure?

If so, I envy you.

[IsThisForReal]

I think no matter what you say to comfort yourself leading up to the first take, you WILL feel a lot of pressure to perform on test day. It's not something most people can just turn off voluntarily. So isn't it better to face that pressure with the greatest amount of preparation possible?

Thank you for confirming my abnormal-ness GT.

Are you trying to day that your abnormality is that you are capable of voluntarily turning off that pressure?

If so, I envy you.

Pretty much. I couldn't care less about standardized tests anymore. I obviously want to do well on them, but I don't get any anxiety from it.

[GreenTee]

I don't get any anxiety

These words are like gibberish to me. You mean there exists a mental state devoid of anxiety?

Bigfoot. Unicorns. Loch Ness.

eta - Every morning I wake up and thank the dear sweet baby Jesus for granting me the greatest gift in the world: Anxiety (aka, an endless supply of intrinsic motivation).

[koala-fy]

Took a full PT today...first one since September (I know, I know, I suck). I definitely felt super rusty, but thankfully I didn't completely bomb it.

LR: -5
LG: -1
LR: -7
RC: -1
Score: 169.
It's suddenly pretty clear that LR is holding me back like it did in September (weird, because it didn't use to be like that).

After blind review....
LR: -3
LG: -0
LR: -3
RC: -1
Score: 175.
I actually changed two correct answers to incorrect ones during BR (both in LR); it would've been a 177 otherwise. I will say that a lot of the LR mistakes jumped out pretty quickly during BR. Now I just have to have them jump out during timed conditions too. Definitely easier said than done haha

[nlee10]

Took a full PT today...first one since September (I know, I know, I suck). I definitely felt super rusty, but thankfully I didn't completely bomb it.

LR: -5
LG: -1
LR: -7
RC: -1
Score: 169.
It's suddenly pretty clear that LR is holding me back like it did in September (weird, because it didn't use to be like that).

After blind review....
LR: -3
LG: -0
LR: -3
RC: -1
Score: 175.
I actually changed two correct answers to incorrect ones during BR (both in LR); it would've been a 177 otherwise. I will say that a lot of the LR mistakes jumped out pretty quickly during BR. Now I just have to have them jump out during timed conditions too. Definitely easier said than done haha

Congrats after a long break!

I love your RC score.

[WorldsCollide]

Flaw questions are stupid. Logical Reasoning is stupid. The LSAT is stupid. I'm done.

(^ only not really. Just frustrated. What is going on, life?!)

[BillPackets]

I don't get any anxiety

These words are like gibberish to me. You mean there exists a mental state devoid of anxiety?

Bigfoot. Unicorns. Loch Ness.

eta - Every morning I wake up and thank the dear sweet baby Jesus for granting me the greatest gift in the world: Anxiety (aka, an endless supply of intrinsic motivation).

i dont get anxiety LJL i am being easier on myself this time around like rigo said i think with the "i must get at least X score" i think that really killed me and rather than studying and trying to learn from my mistakes i used my mistakes simply as a benchmark on each test as to how badly i failed and it just didnt work well, plus hellooooo everyone

[Rigo]

[BillPackets]

Howdy Bill. Happy Election Day.

confession: ive never voted

[koala-fy]

Thank you so much nlee!! Congrats on doing 6 RCs, that sounds brutal. I never know what to think about my performance on reading. I've had tons of tests with -1 or -2 on reading, but then suddenly I'll go -5 or -6 or even -7. I went -3 on the actual exam, so I guess it kind of averaged out lol.

It sucks how reading has gotten more difficult in recent years. I can't even pinpoint exactly what it is...it just somehow seems like the questions are asking you to make more vague inferences. Or something like that. I just know that I hate it.

[Rigo]

[Colonel_funkadunk]

Yo koala how you gonna post your pt score and not post what PT it was

[koala-fy]

Yo koala how you gonna post your pt score and not post what PT it was

Hahha ooops, thought I posted it....it was PT 28. Yeah, definitely not very indicative or relevant (especially for RC) but I don't have many untouched ones in the 60s, and I'm trying to conserve those for closer to the test. So I went with an old one that I hadn't done. This was more of a post-September diagnostic after a month sans LSAT.

[GreenTee]

180 tar, Koala

[koala-fy]

180 tar, Koala

April Ludgate is an inspiration

[portmanteaux]

Is anyone else experiencing fluctuations in their scores with the newer tests?
I normally go -2 or -3 in LR and finish a few minutes early, but on test 49 I didn't finish one LR section and went -9(!!!)
But then on test 50, I finished the first LR section early and went -0 (for the first time). I also got more wrong in RC on PT 50 than usual. Do you think if the RC section is harder than usual, they make an LR/LG section a little easier to compensate?

It makes me nervous to have my scores fluctuate so much and I don't know if/how I should be adjusting my prep!

[Rigo]

[koala-fy]

Is anyone else experiencing fluctuations in their scores with the newer tests?
I normally go -2 or -3 in LR and finish a few minutes early, but on test 49 I didn't finish one LR section and went -9(!!!)
But then on test 50, I finished the first LR section early and went -0 (for the first time). I also got more wrong in RC on PT 50 than usual. Do you think if the RC section is harder than usual, they make an LR/LG section a little easier to compensate?

It makes me nervous to have my scores fluctuate so much and I don't know if/how I should be adjusting my prep!

This 100% happened to me before I took the test in September. I think it's pretty agreed upon that on the newer tests (particularly in the 60s) RC gets harder, or at least feels harder. Unfortunately I didn't hit those tests until about 2 1/2 weeks prior to September's exam, so it's good you're finding this out a month before the test so you have time to adjust and not freak out like I did. I also do think other sections are "easier" if a test has one difficult section. I remember when I took PT 71 I went -7 on RC (ugh) but I only got -7 combined on both LR sections and LG (which left me with a 170 since the curve was -14, probably because that section sucked so much).