Should I delay my test date? Forum

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MrSam

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Should I delay my test date?

Post by MrSam » Mon Aug 17, 2015 4:21 pm

I am almost positive the answer to my question is "yes." However, a little motivation to do so couldn't hurt. Here is my situation. I started off with a terrible first PT (137). After 1 month of Testmasters, and long hours of drilling, I took another diagnostic. My new score is higher, but still far to low for comfort (147).
I've figured out my weaknesses in each section:

-Logic Reasoning: Staying focused as I read the stimuli. For some reason, I constantly have to re-read the stimuli, after reading the answer choices. Clearly, this wastes a ton of time. If I had to guess, I would say that I am only getting 50-60% of the LR questions correct.

-Logic Games: On my first PT, I was only able to skip around and answer a question or two from each game. On my last PT, I only managed to finish 2 full games (-1 between the 2). It's an improvement...but I'm missing out on a handful of points since it takes me 15 minutes to complete a single game.

-Reading Comp: A combination of my problems in LR and LG. I find myself constantly referring back to the stimulus, and seldom finish all 4 passages. Again, on my last PT I finished two (-1 or 2 between the 2).

That said, am I correct in assuming that there is no way that I can boost my score from 146 to ~165 in the next 6 weeks? I registered for the October LSAT, expecting to make a huge improvement. Unfortunately, I now realize that that was foolish. Is there any way to move my test date or cancel without any penalty?

Thanks for all the help!

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pterodactyls

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Re: Should I delay my test date?

Post by pterodactyls » Mon Aug 17, 2015 4:35 pm

I mean, it all depends on your situation - how much time you will have to study in the next 6 weeks, how motivated you are, what resources you have.

But it is highly unlikely that you would get to 165 by October 3rd.

MrSam

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Re: Should I delay my test date?

Post by MrSam » Mon Aug 17, 2015 4:52 pm

pterodactyls wrote:I mean, it all depends on your situation - how much time you will have to study in the next 6 weeks, how motivated you are, what resources you have.

But it is highly unlikely that you would get to 165 by October 3rd.
That's exactly what I thought. The answers to your questions, respectively:

I left my job to focus all of my attention on studying. I usually wake up around 9 A.M, usually begin studying around Noon, and stop around 10 or 11 P.M. This obviously does not mean that I study for 10-12 hours straight. At most, I study for around 7 hours a day, 7 days a week (less on Sunday).

Very, though, a bit discouraged.

Currently: Testmasters, The LSAT Trainer, and all of the PS Bibles. A buddy of mine gave me his Superprep book as well. Unfortunately, I spend so much time drilling/doing the TM assignments, that I seldom have time to look at any of the books - yes, I know, very stupid of me.

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pterodactyls

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Re: Should I delay my test date?

Post by pterodactyls » Tue Aug 18, 2015 12:21 pm

Well you have until September 11th to delay your test date for the $90 fee. After that you must withdraw and re-register for $175.

September 11th is basically half-way from now until the test. You're at 147 now, you want goal of 165, so looking for 18 point jump.

Half way point means you should be testing at (at least) 156. So if you're not testing over 156 by Sept 11th, you should definitely consider delaying.


I don't think you should make the decision now being that you have until 9/11. Study hard until then and re-assess.

thebestwes

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Re: Should I delay my test date?

Post by thebestwes » Tue Aug 18, 2015 2:19 pm

I'm not remotely an expert on the LSAT, but with diminishing returns I'd hope OP is closer to 2/3 of the way to their ideal score by the 11th. It's probably going to be easier to move from 147 to 156 than from 156 to 165.

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chueca910

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Re: Should I delay my test date?

Post by chueca910 » Tue Aug 18, 2015 2:30 pm

OP, I had the same problem, rereading the stimuli, when I first started prepping. But this mostly happened when I was mentally exhausted and forcing myself to prep. Are you doing this when you're tired? If so, try when you're fresh in the morning or something or feel like you're alert and awake.

Also, as whether this is possible or not -- are you running out of time or you just getting questions wrong?

MrSam

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Re: Should I delay my test date?

Post by MrSam » Tue Aug 18, 2015 3:57 pm

pterodactyls wrote:Well you have until September 11th to delay your test date for the $90 fee. After that you must withdraw and re-register for $175.

September 11th is basically half-way from now until the test. You're at 147 now, you want goal of 165, so looking for 18 point jump.

Half way point means you should be testing at (at least) 156. So if you're not testing over 156 by Sept 11th, you should definitely consider delaying.


I don't think you should make the decision now being that you have until 9/11. Study hard until then and re-assess.
Thank you, that's great advice. I'm hoping to boost my LG score to -1/-2 total, at most for all 4 games, and at least get through 3 1/2 RC passages with near perfect scores on each passages, again, -1 per passage at most.

Either way, I know my Achilles heel is timing. If I can get to around a 160 by the 11th, I'll take the October test. If not, I'll change my test date. Either way, I can always take the test in October and cancel my score.

MrSam

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Re: Should I delay my test date?

Post by MrSam » Tue Aug 18, 2015 4:03 pm

chueca910 wrote:OP, I had the same problem, rereading the stimuli, when I first started prepping. But this mostly happened when I was mentally exhausted and forcing myself to prep. Are you doing this when you're tired? If so, try when you're fresh in the morning or something or feel like you're alert and awake.

Also, as whether this is possible or not -- are you running out of time or you just getting questions wrong?
I can get the questions correct on all 3 sections if I am simply drilling, without any time pressure. Of course, I understand that that does not translate to an accurate assessment of how I will do on a PT or the actual test.

I do force myself to study even if I am tired. But I have a line, and I make sure not to cross it. If I get to the point where I'm falling asleep, or simply cant focus, in general, I stop studying.

A bit of both. On LG, I answer all of the questions correctly. The points that I am missing out on are lost because I don't get to the game. For some reason, it takes me 15 minutes to do each game. When it comes to RC, I can finish 2 passages with -0 to -1 each passage. But, again, I rarely ever get to the 3rd passage.
Regarding LR, I usually end up rushing through the questions. This is because I spend so much time on the first 10 questions...again, because I constantly find myself rereading the stimuli. After question 10 or so, I realize that I only have about 15 minutes of time, and force myself to only read the stimulus once. This ultimately leads to incorrect answers.

chueca910

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Re: Should I delay my test date?

Post by chueca910 » Tue Aug 18, 2015 7:22 pm

MrSam wrote:
chueca910 wrote:OP, I had the same problem, rereading the stimuli, when I first started prepping. But this mostly happened when I was mentally exhausted and forcing myself to prep. Are you doing this when you're tired? If so, try when you're fresh in the morning or something or feel like you're alert and awake.

Also, as whether this is possible or not -- are you running out of time or you just getting questions wrong?
I can get the questions correct on all 3 sections if I am simply drilling, without any time pressure. Of course, I understand that that does not translate to an accurate assessment of how I will do on a PT or the actual test.

I do force myself to study even if I am tired. But I have a line, and I make sure not to cross it. If I get to the point where I'm falling asleep, or simply cant focus, in general, I stop studying.

A bit of both. On LG, I answer all of the questions correctly. The points that I am missing out on are lost because I don't get to the game. For some reason, it takes me 15 minutes to do each game. When it comes to RC, I can finish 2 passages with -0 to -1 each passage. But, again, I rarely ever get to the 3rd passage.
Regarding LR, I usually end up rushing through the questions. This is because I spend so much time on the first 10 questions...again, because I constantly find myself rereading the stimuli. After question 10 or so, I realize that I only have about 15 minutes of time, and force myself to only read the stimulus once. This ultimately leads to incorrect answers.
If you're not working or anything like that then maybe its possible (for you to finish the sections on time). but really who knows, the only thing you can really do right now is keep practicing and see where you're at on the 10th

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seashellstandard

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Re: Should I delay my test date?

Post by seashellstandard » Tue Aug 18, 2015 7:50 pm

Just study hard, and if your collective pt's aren't either at or above** where you want the day before the test date, then you can cancel your LSAT online and it does not count as an official cancel. I was signed up for June's test, but knew I wasn't ready and cancelled the night before. Having the June date made me study harder. Now I am signed up and for sure taking it in October. Sure, you are out a bit of money, but it's not that much.

** Anna Levy says you should pt to 3 points above what your desired score is, before you take the exam, as most people score lower on exam day than in their highest pt.

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Brentwood

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Re: Should I delay my test date?

Post by Brentwood » Tue Aug 18, 2015 7:58 pm

seashellstandard wrote:
** Anna Levy says you should pt to 3 points above what your desired score is, before you take the exam, as most people score lower on exam day than in their highest pt.

Not sure how I feel about that rule; seems arbitrary. Not to mention that some people actually score higher on test day. For me, the test day adrenaline really allowed me to lock in and devote all of my mental resources to the exam. I tried really hard on my PTs too, but my actual score ended up being 2-3 points higher than my average PT. Of course, everyone's different, and the best way to approach this seems to be "do what makes you feel comfortable."

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MrBalloons

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Re: Should I delay my test date?

Post by MrBalloons » Tue Aug 18, 2015 9:13 pm

None of this is sounding good to me.

If I were you, I'd be PTing untimed once a week and drilling each section (mostly untimed but occasionally timed) until I had a solid grasp of how each section works. If you're consistently missing nearly half of your LRs, never finishing RC, and only getting through half the LGs, that tells me you've got work to do on the fundamentals. That comes through untimed drilling.

Follow some of the guides you'll see on here on how to drill. Figure out exactly why each wrong answer's wrong and each right one's right, use 7sage video explanations for LG, etc.

Your gains per hour worked are criminally low. I don't want you to keep slogging away aimlessly like that.

ETA: OH, but to answer your question, it seems super unlikely that you'd boost a 140 something to a 160 something in a matter of weeks. But it also seems super unlikely that you've put in the work you have and haven't seen substantial improvement yet. So who knows, really. I'd follow the above advice. Immediately change the way you're studying. It isn't working. And make your decision about delaying the test sometime before the penalty date.

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splitsohard

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Re: Should I delay my test date?

Post by splitsohard » Wed Aug 19, 2015 11:18 am

I'm having much of the same problems as you. I started studying for a month and saw my score go up ~8-10 points. I already registered for the October LSAT but my score is not nearly as high as I need it to be. I'm at about a 159 currently. I told myself to keep studying, but to keep in mind that I might have to reschedule my test to December. Schools are much more splitter friendly earlier in the application season than later, which is why having the December test date is essentially suicide for me but at least it wont impact my chances of getting into a top law school if I decide to reapply next year (which I really *really* don't want to have to do).

Right now, this is what my goal is: since I have until 9/11 to reschedule, and my goal is a 170+, I'm giving myself until 9/5 to take a timed practice test and score 167+. If I don't hit that goal, then I have to reschedule.

Also I think another thing that might help you that I've kind of noticed in studying/making gains myself: make sure you aren't just taking timed practice tests and reviewing those, but also looking through strategy books. When I first started, the only gains I made were through the logic games section because those are really the only "learnable" ones where you dont *necessarily* need a strategy book for, but I continued getting -8 or -11/RC and -8 or -11/LR which was destroying my score. I would constantly drill through practice tests and try to gain points by sheer force but it was not working for me. I needed to slow down, go over different explanations, etc. and often times i was right -- for me it was never a comprehension issue, it was merely a "translation" issue where "inference" or "conclusion" or "main point" (for example) mean something different in formal logic than I had been taught, and so it was that I was getting those questions wrong based off of me not understanding the question, and not realizing that it was because I was not understanding the question.

I went through the Kaplan RC, LR strategy books. Got about halfway through the LG one and thought it was useless. Right now I'm doing Power Score for all three sections and I think they're great but shouldn't be used alone. I'm looking into some drilling books so I can get extra practice the concepts / strategies I'm learning about.

HTH.

MrSam

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Re: Should I delay my test date?

Post by MrSam » Fri Aug 28, 2015 11:51 pm

Thank you, everyone. I truly do appreciate the advice. I will be taking another timed PT soon, just to see where I am now. So far, I've gone from not being able to finish a single LG to completing 2 per PT. Unfortunately, this is where I've plateaued. To make matters worse, I've actually gotten slower. I think my problem in all of the sections, especially LG is that I get flustered because of the time limit. On LG, I freeze up and constantly ask myself
"is there an inference I can make here?" Most of the time it seems like there are so many possibilities, so I don't bother. Once I review the game (7Sage or TM) I realize how easy it was -for them- to make the inferences that I missed. I'm also feeling burnt out. I decided to take it easy today, but will be back on track starting tomorrow.

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