Always do terribly on a different section type in full preptest, but okay individually? Forum

[studyingeveryday]

So this is sort of a weird situation, but I think I have two separate problems:

1. I always miss questions that I could have easily done--when I go back and review, I see that I missed a word, or I "forgot" something I did originally have in mind, or when I go back and review it, I'm surprised at what I picked because the answer comes so easily to me then. This happens to me on all three sections. Even though I find there are some questions I get wrong because they were legitimately too difficult for me, I'm missing too many questions I could get and I can't figure out why--even if I try to be "more careful" when I do another section/preptest, I don't always get the results I want. Sometimes it's not as bad, but this happens often enough.

2. Secondly, I have been able to do well on sections individually--with only 2-3 wrong on LR or LG sections when I do one section at a time, and 4-6 on RC, which is what I'm aiming for on the real test (though not sure if it'll happen). However, whenever I take a full preptest, I always do terribly on at least one section. For example, I had 10 wrong in an LR section, and I haven't done that badly in months on LR. Yet, I did the best I ever had on RC. This always happens to me but with a different section. I'm doing another preptest tomorrow to track this and see what happens after a day of studying today.

However, does anyone have any tips for either of these problems? It stinks because I can see that I'm fully capable of doing a lot of questions that I miss, and I'm just not sure what to do or what I'm doing wrong..

[heythatslife]

1. Circling or underlining key words as you go along might help, if you're not doing that already. Otherwise, just read more carefully.

2. I think the issue is brain fatigue. It's easier to maintain focus over a single 35 minute section than on a full prep test that lasts 3 hours. That's why many people recommend that you always do an entire prep test per session if you can help it, because an important part of LSAT prep is building up that mental stamina so you can perform consistently over a 3-hour period. I would even advise incorporating a fifth section into your prep tests, because that's what you'll be facing on the test day. I inserted a section that I did badly from previous PTs into subsequent PTs as a fifth section. Not a perfect method, since you know which one is the "dummy," but it got me into the routine of taking 3 sections consecutively, taking a 10 minute break, and then finishing the remaining 2.

[Clearly]

Two possibilities:

1 Fatigue, it happens. Like the other poster mentioned, practice with an experimental section. I actually advise going beyond that tho, start adding 2 exp sections, or taking 2 tests back to back. When a batter is in the on-deck circle, they don't just swing the bat, they swing with a donut to make the bat heavier. Get used to 6 sections and 5 is cake.

2 The test format. Generally people find that rather than having 4 sections of the same difficulty, that often there are 3 easy/average sections, and a "curve setter", that section that is supposed to trip everyone up. Be it a monster passage or game, or extra hard LR questions, oftentimes people crush three and then meet the curve setter. Now this doesn't apply to all tests, but it would explain why you do fine on random sections, (which have a 3:4 chance of being easy), but when you do all 4 one section always gets you.

[i_wish_i_was_smart]

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