22 days left and LR plummeting. What's going on?? Forum

[sanetruth]

So for the last two weeks or so, i was PTing at or above my goal of 170 at least. Each section, broken down, was never less than -5 at the most, usually somewhere between -2 and -4. LR in particular was my best with some sections getting -1. Then, the other day my score plummeted to 166. (Yes that constitutes a 'plummet' in my eyes). However my games and RC didn't adjust, it was just my LR. So I had a mild panic, went back and decided that I was getting a little over confident on LR, meaning that I was leaving too many questions without removing every possible wrong answer, and that was dragging my score down. So the next day i did some LR testmasters work, not timed just going through about 50 questions, got 45 right. Then I did a timed LR section, got -2. Confident that I had addressed the issue, I confronted PT49 yesterday. and while RC and LG both went UP (-1 and -1), my LR got WORSE to -12!!!!

I haven't gone over the test yet, i'm going to go through the LR untimed and see if i can fix every problem, but this is freaking me out. My LR score on this test was comparable to my diagnostic that i took three months ago, so I don't know how I could have jumped up and then fallen all the way back down, twice in a row. Has anyone ever experienced anything like this? Ideas of how to approach the issue with 22 days left?

I know someone might say 'take a step back, a few days off, and you'll feel better once your mind is cleared', but I don't really feel comfortable taking a few days off when there are only 3 weeks left, especially when there is a problem to address and I had a strict schedule planned.

[gdane]

The test changes from the late 40's onward. Focus on the last 10 PT's from now until test day. The old ones just dont cut it.

I too have been experiencing this. Although its not confined to LR. On one test Ill totally destroy LR, but do poorly on RC and vice versa.

Youre in a good position so far. Your score hasnt dropped that much and to be in the high 160's/low 170's is amazing. You'll be fine. Keep working.

Good luck!

[3|ink]

In my experience, troubles from LR fall into two categories:

1.) Failure to retain all of the information from the stimulus:
-Usually the result of fatigue. This happened to me last night. I attempted a PT, but I was falling asleep. I figured my 4 hours of sleep from the night before were getting me
-Can result from hunger.
If you go over your questions and think 'Oh yeah. How did I miss that word?', your performance was probably less than average on the PT.
2.) Failure to understand the concept of the question:
This is what you have to worry about. If you're having trouble understanding the answer, you may need to wait for the next LSAT administration.

[sanetruth]

In my experience, troubles from LR fall into two categories:

1.) Failure to retain all of the information from the stimulus:
-Usually the result of fatigue. This happened to me last night. I attempted a PT, but I was falling asleep. I figured my 4 hours of sleep from the night before were getting me
-Can result from hunger.
If you go over your questions and think 'Oh yeah. How did I miss that word?', your performance was probably less than average on the PT.
2.) Failure to understand the concept of the question:
This is what you have to worry about. If you're having trouble understanding the answer, you may need to wait for the next LSAT administration.

I don't think it's number 2. Like i said, I was performing well on LR prior to these tests. But I guess I could be overthinking some of them? I'm going to go over the section untimed at lunch and we'll see what comes of that.

[xqhp82]

Same situation here. Most of my mistakes tend to be careless mistakes, not conceptual. It seems to depend on the particular PT though...when I dislike the test my score really reflects it. My best LR score is -3 and worst -11. I am doing the 410 difficult LR questions from Cambridge LSAT and somehow I still miss many questions....how discouraging. and I also think sometimes I overthink too much (e.g. today I saw the word 'medicine' in the stimulus and i over-interpreted it when its totally unnecessary). how can I avoid this from happening?

[sanetruth]

So, i made some really stupid mistakes in the beginning, but then realized that a lot of the other 'mistakes' were at least justified, because apparently this test has really hard LR sections.

Testmasters breaks down each test by question and tells you what percentage of their students have gotten each question right. On LR1 for PT 49, only 7 questions had over 80% of students getting them right, which is unheard of. 11 questions had less than 50% getting them right, and 4 had less than 35% getting them right.

Anyways, since the curve took into account the relative difficulty of these LR sections, I would have scored in my average range had I not made the few stupid mistakes at the very beginning of section 2. What this is telling me is that I need to start warming up before the test to get my brain ready for LR. Will try that next time.

[2014]

Out of all of the tests I've taken, they have all been 168+ with the exception of a 160 on one day. The test was no harder than any other, I just had a really bad day, it happens

Just keep getting repititions in so that it's less likely to happen on game day.

[pwrbkg4]

many people do well on the earlier pt's because they have seen the questions before hand. when i was prep-ing and before i took actual pt's, i used to spend a lot of time on questions that i found difficult. by the time i started taking pt's, i could answer those difficult questions in 2 seconds because i've seen them before. i was getting really high scores left and right, but when i took completely fresh pt's, my score dropped a few points...

[sanetruth]

many people do well on the earlier pt's because they have seen the questions before hand. when i was prep-ing and before i took actual pt's, i used to spend a lot of time on questions that i found difficult. by the time i started taking pt's, i could answer those difficult questions in 2 seconds because i've seen them before. i was getting really high scores left and right, but when i took completely fresh pt's, my score dropped a few points...

Yea i was worried about that. Did your score recover?

[pwrbkg4]

many people do well on the earlier pt's because they have seen the questions before hand. when i was prep-ing and before i took actual pt's, i used to spend a lot of time on questions that i found difficult. by the time i started taking pt's, i could answer those difficult questions in 2 seconds because i've seen them before. i was getting really high scores left and right, but when i took completely fresh pt's, my score dropped a few points...

Yea i was worried about that. Did your score recover?

it did, but my scores aren't consistent now. i've been getting 170-174 on fresh pt's, maybe 1 or 2 that are 175+. But on the earlier pt's i was averaging 175+ with a couple of 179s and 180s. Those hard LR questions make a big difference. To tell you the truth, I still don't know how I can fix it, because the questions i get wrong are all different types. The only thing they have in common is that they are the hard ones. And another thing that pisses me off, aside from the fact that i'm running out of fresh pt's, is that I could get all of these questions down to 1 right and 1 wrong answer, and i ALWAYS pick the wrong answer...

[DearCan]

many people do well on the earlier pt's because they have seen the questions before hand. when i was prep-ing and before i took actual pt's, i used to spend a lot of time on questions that i found difficult. by the time i started taking pt's, i could answer those difficult questions in 2 seconds because i've seen them before. i was getting really high scores left and right, but when i took completely fresh pt's, my score dropped a few points...

Yea i was worried about that. Did your score recover?

it did, but my scores aren't consistent now. i've been getting 170-174 on fresh pt's, maybe 1 or 2 that are 175+. But on the earlier pt's i was averaging 175+ with a couple of 179s and 180s. Those hard LR questions make a big difference. To tell you the truth, I still don't know how I can fix it, because the questions i get wrong are all different types. The only thing they have in common is that they are the hard ones. And another thing that pisses me off, aside from the fact that i'm running out of fresh pt's, is that I could get all of these questions down to 1 right and 1 wrong answer, and i ALWAYS pick the wrong answer...

Grrr...this happens to me too. Then once I go back and review the two I didn't eliminate it's super obvious why the one I didn't choose was TCR.

I've also been experiencing OP's problem. I think for me it's nerves. Two months ago I didn't feel as much pressure when doing timed PT's, but with less than a month remaining, each PT becomes more important (not to mention coming close to running out of them). This may sound weird, but I'm considering physical exercise every day until October 9th. Clear my head and shit.

[acharyainc]

burnout...happens to the best of us