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I took my first 3 practice tests (#11, 12, 13) and scored a 160, 160, and 162. I just took PT #14 and scored a 156. I am so unbelievably frustrated right now. I didn't do anything differently, I took the test in the same place as always. I just bombed for some reason. It makes me think that the prep tests aren't helping me get better. Does this happen to everyone? How do you deal with it?

RELAX. Now, look over your mistakes and see what you did wrong. What kinds of questions are you missing, are these usually the ones you are missing, which did you spend the most time on etc. Everyone has a bad PT every once and a while and it isn't indicitive of how your performance will be on the real test. Perhaps you need to step away for a couple of days (I know this can be hard to do, it was for me) but you could be approaching a burnout point. Just take a deep breath, perhaps take a day or two off, and then kick the crap out of the next one.

unattended bag wrote:I took my first 3 practice tests (#11, 12, 13) and scored a 160, 160, and 162. I just took PT #14 and scored a 156. I am so unbelievably frustrated right now. I didn't do anything differently, I took the test in the same place as always. I just bombed for some reason. It makes me think that the prep tests aren't helping me get better. Does this happen to everyone? How do you deal with it?

This is fairly common. Everyone has a bad test once in a while. Also some tests will just be harder for certain people and others easier. No need to worry about it though

Take a day or two off if you feel burned out

While it's a huge deal for admissions, you have to remember that +/- 4 points is the experimental error of the test. That is, you're actually expected to vary that much.

Secondly, while doing PT's helps, just doing PT's doesn't help all that much.

When you first start taking prep tests you should be focusing on mastering as much of the material as you can. Don't get frustrated if your score drops. You have to stand back and ask yourself what it is that you did wrong. Once you see a mistake you have to figure out a way to correct it on future tests.

If you feel frustrated don't hesitate to take a day or two off from studying. Go get drunk or otherwise have fun. Just make sure when you get back to it you can approach it with a calm mind. Look at the questions you got wrong and figure out why those answers were wrong. Then find the correct answer and make sure you see why the correct answer is correct. If you keep doing this it will start to add up, one question at a time, and your scores will begin to increase.

KibblesAndVick wrote:When you first start taking prep tests you should be focusing on mastering as much of the material as you can. Don't get frustrated if your score drops. You have to stand back and ask yourself what it is that you did wrong. Once you see a mistake you have to figure out a way to correct it on future tests.

If you feel frustrated don't hesitate to take a day or two off from studying. Go get drunk or otherwise have fun. Just make sure when you get back to it you can approach it with a calm mind. Look at the questions you got wrong and figure out why those answers were wrong. Then find the correct answer and make sure you see why the correct answer is correct. If you keep doing this it will start to add up, one question at a time, and your scores will begin to increase.

Took one of my best PTs hungover

balzern wrote:

KibblesAndVick wrote:When you first start taking prep tests you should be focusing on mastering as much of the material as you can. Don't get frustrated if your score drops. You have to stand back and ask yourself what it is that you did wrong. Once you see a mistake you have to figure out a way to correct it on future tests.

If you feel frustrated don't hesitate to take a day or two off from studying. Go get drunk or otherwise have fun. Just make sure when you get back to it you can approach it with a calm mind. Look at the questions you got wrong and figure out why those answers were wrong. Then find the correct answer and make sure you see why the correct answer is correct. If you keep doing this it will start to add up, one question at a time, and your scores will begin to increase.

Took one of my best PTs hungover

Ha! All of my best PTs were when I was a little bit hungover.

balzern wrote:

KibblesAndVick wrote:When you first start taking prep tests you should be focusing on mastering as much of the material as you can. Don't get frustrated if your score drops. You have to stand back and ask yourself what it is that you did wrong. Once you see a mistake you have to figure out a way to correct it on future tests.

If you feel frustrated don't hesitate to take a day or two off from studying. Go get drunk or otherwise have fun. Just make sure when you get back to it you can approach it with a calm mind. Look at the questions you got wrong and figure out why those answers were wrong. Then find the correct answer and make sure you see why the correct answer is correct. If you keep doing this it will start to add up, one question at a time, and your scores will begin to increase.

Took one of my best PTs hungover

lol. I think the key point is that you aren't going to learn anything when your frustrated and your mind isn't functioning properly. Even if you make yourself study for three hours you won't get anything out of it besides a headache. Just accept the fact that you need to let your brain go numb and do it. Everything about the LSAT is learnable if you're patient and put enough time into it.

KibblesAndVick wrote: lol. I think the key point is that you aren't going to learn anything when your frustrated and your mind isn't functioning properly. Even if you make yourself study for three hours you won't get anything out of it besides a headache. Just accept the fact that you need to let your brain go numb and do it. Everything about the LSAT is learnable if you're patient and put enough time into it.

Definitely true. When students ask how much they should be studying, I always reply "as much as you can without getting burnt out or frustrated, because studying while burnt out or frustrated is 100% useless for anything besides making yourself more burnt out or frustrated."

Now bored is another issue. If you start to feel bored, make yourself do the work. Make yourself do it the right way.

Thanks everyone. I've decided to handle this the way I handle most of my problems: destroy my body with drugs and alcohol and just hope the problem fixes itself.

Just kidding. I'm going to take a day or two off, and then spend a couple days going over these tests, finding out which answers I got wrong and why, and then re-studying those sections of the bibles.

Thanks again. I guess it's just a test........right?

unattended bag wrote:Thanks everyone. I've decided to handle this the way I handle most of my problems: destroy my body with drugs and alcohol and just hope the problem fixes itself.

Just kidding. I'm going to take a day or two off, and then spend a couple days going over these tests, finding out which answers I got wrong and why, and then re-studying those sections of the bibles.

Thanks again. I guess it's just a test........right?

I support your decision and suggest you supplement a case of Miller Lite and enjoy the nice day/evening. Good Day.

take a few days off. Until you have completely let go of the decrease in your score. I would say 3-4 days at the earliest. No reason to rush these things. Once you have detached and your ego isn't really involved, then you are free to continue without making it a bigger issue than need be.

I had it happen when I first began studying was into mid 150's, was like a 8 point drop in score (147). I was crushed. Let go for almost 10 days and then came back to it. 1st PT back at it with no review/study was 158 and never dropped below 157/158 after that. until test day of course, whole different story. I didn't really study at all, just reviewed briefly after each test. I wasn't really attempting to conquer this exam in June. I just wanted to sit for it and get the "freak out" fest out of the way.


The drugs/booze thing is fine if that is your bag. I see it as unhealthy if your mind is not in a good space. Took me about 10-12 years of drinking to figure that out but I enjoyed the light bulb moment. Just do other things, balance is the key here. Being consumed by this and giving it excessive amounts of time is how you can really waste 3-6 months of your life only to stress yourself out. Come test day all that pressure and BOOM...SYSTEM FAILURE

be easy with it.

unattended bag wrote:I took my first 3 practice tests (#11, 12, 13) and scored a 160, 160, and 162. I just took PT #14 and scored a 156. I am so unbelievably frustrated right now. I didn't do anything differently, I took the test in the same place as always. I just bombed for some reason. It makes me think that the prep tests aren't helping me get better. Does this happen to everyone? How do you deal with it?

So this 156 is only your 4th test? Yes definitely need to calm down about it lol you have hopefully dozens more you will be doing and plenty of time to improve. Two weeks before the june test i got a 148 score. I laughed about it and reviewed my answers and tossed it aside as a fluke and all 5 tests after that were mid 160s