To take or not to take? Forum

[StopLawying]

Practicing b/w 162 and 167, typically going -4 to -8 on LG. Have been studying on/off for a year (20 hours a week, took 2 months off) and decided to wait a cycle and apply for Fall 2017. Signed up for the Feb test though a few months ago, thinking I'd be able to get my games score down. Do you guys think I should postpone until June ( this will be 3rd time postponing) or have I reached my peak? From what I hear most people get LG down to -0,-1 within a few months but that hasn't happened with me. Should I stop being afraid to take the test and just go with it? I'm not worried about losing the $, just wanna preserve my takes. Also it sucks having to tell family and friends that I postponed, again. They think I'm crazy at this point. I'm a big advocate for postponing until ones ready to take the exam, but when do you just say enough Is enough,take the damn thing already! Thanks for your help

[Blueprint Mithun]

Practicing b/w 162 and 167, typically going -4 to -8 on LG. Have been studying on/off for a year (20 hours a week, took 2 months off) and decided to wait a cycle and apply for Fall 2017. Signed up for the Feb test though a few months ago, thinking I'd be able to get my games score down. Do you guys think I should postpone until June ( this will be 3rd time postponing) or have I reached my peak? From what I hear most people get LG down to -0,-1 within a few months but that hasn't happened with me. Should I stop being afraid to take the test and just go with it? I'm not worried about losing the $, just wanna preserve my takes. Also it sucks having to tell family and friends that I postponed, again. They think I'm crazy at this point. I'm a big advocate for postponing until ones ready to take the exam, but when do you just say enough Is enough,take the damn thing already! Thanks for your help

Hmm, interesting dilemma. The way I see it, if you're applying for Fall 2017 anyway, there's no rush to take the February test, since it won't give you any advantage over the June test in terms of applying early. I'd definitely explain that to your family/friends if they aren't aware already. Also, screw what they say. You're deep enough in this game where you might as well ride it out to the end.

It's clear that you're frustrating by all the postponing and the time you've spent prepping without actually taking the test. Sitting through an actual LSAT is a good experience. Nothing feels quite like test day, and going through it once will leave you more prepared for a potential retake. When you say you're afraid of taking the test, is it because you're nervous about taking the real LSAT, or because you're afraid of taking it before you've reached your potential? If it's the former, then the experience of taking one might serve you really well for next time.

Can you be more specific with what you're struggling with on LG? Is it timing? Specific game types? Making inferences? All of the above? What prep have you done specifically for the games section? If your score is fluctuating that much, then I'm certain there's room for improvement. Plateaus are common, especially once you get to 160+. Giving us idea of what you've done thus far will give us a better idea of what to point you towards for the future.

[StopLawying]

Practicing b/w 162 and 167, typically going -4 to -8 on LG. Have been studying on/off for a year (20 hours a week, took 2 months off) and decided to wait a cycle and apply for Fall 2017. Signed up for the Feb test though a few months ago, thinking I'd be able to get my games score down. Do you guys think I should postpone until June ( this will be 3rd time postponing) or have I reached my peak? From what I hear most people get LG down to -0,-1 within a few months but that hasn't happened with me. Should I stop being afraid to take the test and just go with it? I'm not worried about losing the $, just wanna preserve my takes. Also it sucks having to tell family and friends that I postponed, again. They think I'm crazy at this point. I'm a big advocate for postponing until ones ready to take the exam, but when do you just say enough Is enough,take the damn thing already! Thanks for your help

Hmm, interesting dilemma. The way I see it, if you're applying for Fall 2017 anyway, there's no rush to take the February test, since it won't give you any advantage over the June test in terms of applying early. I'd definitely explain that to your family/friends if they aren't aware already. Also, screw what they say. You're deep enough in this game where you might as well ride it out to the end.

It's clear that you're frustrating by all the postponing and the time you've spent prepping without actually taking the test. Sitting through an actual LSAT is a good experience. Nothing feels quite like test day, and going through it once will leave you more prepared for a potential retake. When you say you're afraid of taking the test, is it because you're nervous about taking the real LSAT, or because you're afraid of taking it before you've reached your potential? If it's the former, then the experience of taking one might serve you really well for next time.

Can you be more specific with what you're struggling with on LG? Is it timing? Specific game types? Making inferences? All of the above? What prep have you done specifically for the games section? If your score is fluctuating that much, then I'm certain there's room for improvement. Plateaus are common, especially once you get to 160+. Giving us idea of what you've done thus far will give us a better idea of what to point you towards for the future.

Hey, thanks for responding. I'm not afraid at all to take the test, I'm actually eager to take it already since it's been an incredibly long process. At the same time though, my concern is that if I take the test in a week I'll screw up LG so bad which will result in a wasted take. On my previous PT (71) I scored a 167 with a -6 on LG, despite it being considered an easy section. And around a few weeks ago, on PT63, I got a 162 with a -10 on games.
If my main problem was RC or even LR I'd just take the exam since it's much harder to improve on those sections, and who knows whether the 4 extra months would help. But almost everyone agrees that LG is the easiest section to improve on, and so I'm hesitant to take the real LSAT with the mindset that I'll probably go -6 in games. Even if I could just get games down to -3,-2 on a consistent basis I'd be thrilled and the extra wait would definitely be worth it. On the other hand though, I keep thinking that if I haven't gotten LG down in all this time, what will happen over the course of the next few months that'll help me improve my score?
I have several problems with the games: First, it's hard for me to figure out a proper game board for some of the more difficult games. For example, hybrid games and unusual games (like Zones, PT 72 G4) give me a difficult time b/c by the time I end up figuring out how to best set up the game I'm already 3-4 minutes in. In addition, I also have problems with games that require more brute force, which I find to be the case with the more recent tests. PT 63 G3 comes to mind, a game I found really difficult even though it was considered pretty "average." The way my games section usually works is that I get a few wrong within the 3 easiest games of the set, and totally bomb the hardest game due to lack of time/not being able to figure out. This usually results in the -4 to -8 score I'm talking about.
I've tried 7sage and other ways to improve games but I still haven't improved. I'm thinking about hiring a tutor and letting him/her see how I do LG during a real test. I need someone to tell me exactly what I'm doing wrong and how I can best approach certain games. I'm hoping this would get me down to -2,-3 on games and if I'm able to fix up some weaknesses with LR and RC I think a 168 + is attainable.
On the bright side, I still have plenty of fresh material left--- around 23 practice tests from PT 38-78, + 2 of the SuperPreps, in case that makes much of a difference. Thanks again for your help!