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[KMart]

How much were you studying in the week before the test? Did you feel exhausted while taking the test?

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[Jeffort]

I took the June test and got a 163....Today I took my first PT (or anything LSAT related since the June test) and got a 175. I was already planning to retake in October since the majority of my PTs leading up to June were in the 166-170 range.

Needless to say, I am surprised at this score and am thinking that maybe I overstudied for the June test? I know that this is only one test, but it is encouraging as I was expecting a lesser score if anything after not looking at LSAT material for 2 months.

Has this scenario happened to anyone before? Any advice on how to stay in the 170s? Thanks.

Was the PT you took today a fresh recent one (like from PT60's-70's range) that you had never seen any of the questions/LG's/RC passages from before and did you take it under strict test day conditions?

163 vs 175 is a HUGE score discrepancy that is much larger than the typical ~three point test day drop compared to recent PT scores that many people experience.

Being somewhat or significantly LSAT over saturated/burned out on test day from not taking any/many LSAT prep breaks in the last two weeks before test day isn't likely to fully account for/be the main cause of your much lower than you expected June 163 score given your high 160s/170 PT range. 4-5 hours of prep work most days of the week (like 5 days a week) isn't really that extreme such that it would cause serious score killing burned out performance on test day. 6-8+ hours a day of prep 6-7 days a week is more in line with the amount of prep that can cause LSAT burnout to a large enough degree that can negatively affect some peoples test day performance. (Of course, YMMV since burnout/LSAT over saturation affects different people in different ways on test day)

Since the June test is disclosed, the best place to start for figuring out the cause(s) behind your lower than PT range June score is to thoroughly review your performance on that test in depth, especially the questions you answered incorrectly. You should also honestly reflect on and list out all the reasons that you believe helped you/contributed to you achieving 175 on today's PT since there is a significant difference in the skills/ability levels needed to achieve high 160s and especially 170's range scores versus low 160's range scores on test day under real test day conditions.

Being somewhat familiar with just one or two LG's or RC passages or some of the hard LR questions from a PT before taking (or re-taking) it timed can and frequently does lead to significantly inflated PT scores since we're talking about only roughly 10 raw points difference between a 163 and a 170 with the scales for most PT's, and the difference between low 160s range and high 160's/170's range scores is most influenced by your accuracy rate and time management with the hardest/highest difficulty level questions/LG's/RC passages+questions.

Even if one hasn't actually seen/done and/or reviewed any of the questions from a PT before taking it as a timed PT, just knowing general stuff about the PT you're about to take can also significantly positively influence/inflate your score. Things like, but not limited to knowing before you take a PT which types of LG's are on the test, which section(s) are the harder/easier ones, which LG's/RC passages are the harder ones, the order of the section types, going over time by even just 30-60 seconds per section/for some sections, taking a minute or two break between sections, etc. can significantly inflate PT scores at the high end for people with the skills to score in the low to mid 160's under real test day conditions, since again we're only talking about ~10-15 raw points difference between low-mid 160's scores and 170's range scores.

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