A Retake Story: 155 Diagnostic to a 175. Forum

[Thelaw23]

I'm usually not one to make these, and I am currently a tad bit buzzed. However, the members on this forum have been so helpful that I just couldn't help but post this thread and share my story to hopefully help others.

My cold half-timed diagnostic was a 155. The last section or two I did without timing at home because I just couldn't get through it at my class's location after work. I started the course July 2015.

I practiced the basics through my course's curriculum and my instructor's advice. To be honest, I had a pretty great instructor. He taught us a lot of strategies outside of the book, boasting about how the LSAC people knew what was inside the book and used it against us.

I was hitting around 160's - 164's when I finished the course, which is when I started taking the timed practice tests. Afters tens and tens of timed practice tests I hit 166-170. I postponed the October test to December because I knew with my 3.5 GPA that I needed a higher LSAT to get into the schools I wanted to get into. I then began to zone in on my weak zones and practice those sections, while doing even more practice tests. I was hitting 170's - 175's.

The whole time I was taking four section tests, I felt like my stamina was good. What was one more test?

I took the December test.

It was a disaster. I overworked myself the weeks before, taking test after test. The day before, I slept in by against, and then I couldn't fall asleep the night before the test. I slept maybe 3 - 4 hours max. I was super anxious and nervous before the test. I finished all the sections but I didn't feel confident at all. The last section completely destroyed me for I couldn't think straight by then.


I got 165. This honestly broke me. I spoke so much bravado, was so sure that I would get higher than 170 with my practice tests being 170-175. I let down everyone I knew, including most importantly myself. It was honestly the lowest point of my life. I just stopped considering myself bright or smart.

Many people close to me, including my family, told me to accept my December score and settle for lower ranked schools. If I wanted to retake, I would have to take a year off between finishing undergraduate and starting law school. They said there was no guarantee that I would do better - and all I would do is waste a year of my life before becoming a full-fledged lawyer. I didn't listen to anybody, including my brother and father. I knew I could do better. I didn't want to settle.

I started studying for the June 2016 LSAT at the middle of April. I started taking the same practice tests, but now I took six sections of the test. However, this time, I took less tests, trying to minimize burnout. The week before the test, I took only two tests. I went shopping, had fun, played video games, just tried to relax.

When I took the June 2016 test, I was in the zone. I finished my sections minutes before time ran out, but instead of going through the questions I wasn't sure about I meditated until the end of the section. I remembered how in my previous test, when I went back and started second-guessing myself this only lead to the deterioration of my 'mojo' or 'zone' and hurt my performance onward.

I got a 175.

Guys, please don't give up. Don't listen to others - only listen to yourselves! Don't settle, work for the score you want to get! It is very much possible, just make sure you work tirelessly when you need to and at the same time give yourself a rest before the test so that you are 100% come test day.

Another thing is controlling your anxiety/stress levels. I am not sure if this was a contributing factor, but before the June 2016 test I started working out, eating healthy, quit smoking to a certain extent (still smoked when I drank, although closer to the test date that was rare). All of this helped me feel more confident and less anxious.

If anybody has any questions please message me and I will answer as fast as I can. This has been a long journey and I am glad the way it turned out for now, but I can't help but think of what would have happened if I were not to push forward. What if I stayed with my 165?

Sorry about any grammatical errors, will surely fix them later on!

[Deardevil]

Thanks for writing this up;
I'm sure many TLSers, whether they took the June test or not, need this extra boost.

Scared as I might be for getting a not-so-desirable grade, giving up isn't an option.
I'm fortunate to have great support in both friends and family, so I'm confident I can make it through;
the rest is up to me, really. No matter how long it takes (but ideally the first or second time around).

What material and strategy did you use to overcome logical reasoning?
I'm one month into my prep after basing my knowledge around the PowerScore Bibles,
being able to pretty much conquer LG after several trials, so that leaves the other two sections...

And congrats on the 175; you finally made it.

[QuentonCassidy]

OP, you are awesome and this post is awesome. Congratulations on all the hard work paying off; you certainly deserve it. Best of luck on your upcoming admissions cycle!

[Mikey]

Saw your post in the waiters thread but wanted to again say congrats OP, that's truly an amazing score. That's quite an LSAT journey and you deserve that score. Best of luck with your cycle!

[CPA-->JD]

I'm usually not one to make these, and I am currently a tad bit buzzed. However, the members on this forum have been so helpful that I just couldn't help but post this thread and share my story to hopefully help others.

My cold half-timed diagnostic was a 155. The last section or two I did without timing at home because I just couldn't get through it at my class's location after work. I started the course July 2015.

I practiced the basics through my course's curriculum and my instructor's advice. To be honest, I had a pretty great instructor. He taught us a lot of strategies outside of the book, boasting about how the LSAC people knew what was inside the book and used it against us.

I was hitting around 160's - 164's when I finished the course, which is when I started taking the timed practice tests. Afters tens and tens of timed practice tests I hit 166-170. I postponed the October test to December because I knew with my 3.5 GPA that I needed a higher LSAT to get into the schools I wanted to get into. I then began to zone in on my weak zones and practice those sections, while doing even more practice tests. I was hitting 170's - 175's.

The whole time I was taking four section tests, I felt like my stamina was good. What was one more test?

I took the December test.

It was a disaster. I overworked myself the weeks before, taking test after test. The day before, I slept in by against, and then I couldn't fall asleep the night before the test. I slept maybe 3 - 4 hours max. I was super anxious and nervous before the test. I finished all the sections but I didn't feel confident at all. The last section completely destroyed me for I couldn't think straight by then.


I got 165. This honestly broke me. I spoke so much bravado, was so sure that I would get higher than 170 with my practice tests being 170-175. I let down everyone I knew, including most importantly myself. It was honestly the lowest point of my life. I just stopped considering myself bright or smart.

Many people close to me, including my family, told me to accept my December score and settle for lower ranked schools. If I wanted to retake, I would have to take a year off between finishing undergraduate and starting law school. They said there was no guarantee that I would do better - and all I would do is waste a year of my life before becoming a full-fledged lawyer. I didn't listen to anybody, including my brother and father. I knew I could do better. I didn't want to settle.

I started studying for the June 2016 LSAT at the middle of April. I started taking the same practice tests, but now I took six sections of the test. However, this time, I took less tests, trying to minimize burnout. The week before the test, I took only two tests. I went shopping, had fun, played video games, just tried to relax.

When I took the June 2016 test, I was in the zone. I finished my sections minutes before time ran out, but instead of going through the questions I wasn't sure about I meditated until the end of the section. I remembered how in my previous test, when I went back and started second-guessing myself this only lead to the deterioration of my 'mojo' or 'zone' and hurt my performance onward.

I got a 175.

Guys, please don't give up. Don't listen to others - only listen to yourselves! Don't settle, work for the score you want to get! It is very much possible, just make sure you work tirelessly when you need to and at the same time give yourself a rest before the test so that you are 100% come test day.

Another thing is controlling your anxiety/stress levels. I am not sure if this was a contributing factor, but before the June 2016 test I started working out, eating healthy, quit smoking to a certain extent (still smoked when I drank, although closer to the test date that was rare). All of this helped me feel more confident and less anxious.

If anybody has any questions please message me and I will answer as fast as I can. This has been a long journey and I am glad the way it turned out for now, but I can't help but think of what would have happened if I were not to push forward. What if I stayed with my 165?

Sorry about any grammatical errors, will surely fix them later on!

Hey thanks for posting! I just got a 166 and feel exactly like you described after your December test. I'm so discouraged now after spending 95% of my time studying lg I still got -6... What did you do differently in terms of your studying to bring your score up so much? How did you overcome having( I assume) done most of the material?

[dg99]

Thank you for posting this! Helped me to feel much more confident/hopeful!

[Barack O'Drama]

Thanks for the inspiring story! That is so awesome, you should be incredibly proud...

You're going to have an awesome cycle

[Thelaw23]

Thanks for writing this up;
I'm sure many TLSers, whether they took the June test or not, need this extra boost.

Scared as I might be for getting a not-so-desirable grade, giving up isn't an option.
I'm fortunate to have great support in both friends and family, so I'm confident I can make it through;
the rest is up to me, really. No matter how long it takes (but ideally the first or second time around).

What material and strategy did you use to overcome logical reasoning?
I'm one month into my prep after basing my knowledge around the PowerScore Bibles,
being able to pretty much conquer LG after several trials, so that leaves the other two sections...

And congrats on the 175; you finally made it.

Hey! You got this man, just zone in on your goal and don't give up!

I think with logical reasoning what helped me is just doing a sheer amount of PT's and going over the questions I got wrong thoroughly. I would log every incorrect question into an excel file. After a while of doing many LR sections you begin to sort of "get it." You begin to understand how much you can assume and how much you can't - there's a very fine line. You begin to understand that there are small patterns to the test, questions that you can breeze through.

OP, you are awesome and this post is awesome. Congratulations on all the hard work paying off; you certainly deserve it. Best of luck on your upcoming admissions cycle!

Thanks man I gotta start getting into that and finding out what I have to fine-tune.

Saw your post in the waiters thread but wanted to again say congrats OP, that's truly an amazing score. That's quite an LSAT journey and you deserve that score. Best of luck with your cycle!

Thank you!! I really appreciate it

I'm usually not one to make these, and I am currently a tad bit buzzed. However, the members on this forum have been so helpful that I just couldn't help but post this thread and share my story to hopefully help others.

My cold half-timed diagnostic was a 155. The last section or two I did without timing at home because I just couldn't get through it at my class's location after work. I started the course July 2015.

I practiced the basics through my course's curriculum and my instructor's advice. To be honest, I had a pretty great instructor. He taught us a lot of strategies outside of the book, boasting about how the LSAC people knew what was inside the book and used it against us.

I was hitting around 160's - 164's when I finished the course, which is when I started taking the timed practice tests. Afters tens and tens of timed practice tests I hit 166-170. I postponed the October test to December because I knew with my 3.5 GPA that I needed a higher LSAT to get into the schools I wanted to get into. I then began to zone in on my weak zones and practice those sections, while doing even more practice tests. I was hitting 170's - 175's.

The whole time I was taking four section tests, I felt like my stamina was good. What was one more test?

I took the December test.

It was a disaster. I overworked myself the weeks before, taking test after test. The day before, I slept in by against, and then I couldn't fall asleep the night before the test. I slept maybe 3 - 4 hours max. I was super anxious and nervous before the test. I finished all the sections but I didn't feel confident at all. The last section completely destroyed me for I couldn't think straight by then.


I got 165. This honestly broke me. I spoke so much bravado, was so sure that I would get higher than 170 with my practice tests being 170-175. I let down everyone I knew, including most importantly myself. It was honestly the lowest point of my life. I just stopped considering myself bright or smart.

Many people close to me, including my family, told me to accept my December score and settle for lower ranked schools. If I wanted to retake, I would have to take a year off between finishing undergraduate and starting law school. They said there was no guarantee that I would do better - and all I would do is waste a year of my life before becoming a full-fledged lawyer. I didn't listen to anybody, including my brother and father. I knew I could do better. I didn't want to settle.

I started studying for the June 2016 LSAT at the middle of April. I started taking the same practice tests, but now I took six sections of the test. However, this time, I took less tests, trying to minimize burnout. The week before the test, I took only two tests. I went shopping, had fun, played video games, just tried to relax.

When I took the June 2016 test, I was in the zone. I finished my sections minutes before time ran out, but instead of going through the questions I wasn't sure about I meditated until the end of the section. I remembered how in my previous test, when I went back and started second-guessing myself this only lead to the deterioration of my 'mojo' or 'zone' and hurt my performance onward.

I got a 175.

Guys, please don't give up. Don't listen to others - only listen to yourselves! Don't settle, work for the score you want to get! It is very much possible, just make sure you work tirelessly when you need to and at the same time give yourself a rest before the test so that you are 100% come test day.

Another thing is controlling your anxiety/stress levels. I am not sure if this was a contributing factor, but before the June 2016 test I started working out, eating healthy, quit smoking to a certain extent (still smoked when I drank, although closer to the test date that was rare). All of this helped me feel more confident and less anxious.

If anybody has any questions please message me and I will answer as fast as I can. This has been a long journey and I am glad the way it turned out for now, but I can't help but think of what would have happened if I were not to push forward. What if I stayed with my 165?

Sorry about any grammatical errors, will surely fix them later on!

Hey thanks for posting! I just got a 166 and feel exactly like you described after your December test. I'm so discouraged now after spending 95% of my time studying lg I still got -6... What did you do differently in terms of your studying to bring your score up so much? How did you overcome having( I assume) done most of the material?

Hey!
The second time around I started redoing the PT's again. This time, however, I increased to doing six sections and I took it slow. Burn out is very real! Try not to do too many tests at this point. You have a very solid foundation at this point you just have to fine-tune and practice so you don't forget it and then make sure the week before the test you just chill out. Take maybe a test or two, but take it easy - relax, go to the mall, watch movies. Make sure to wake up extra early the day before the test so that you can fall asleep early in the evening and get good rest.

Just do everything possible to have your mojo up during the test. Treat yourself to everything possible the few days before-hand. You have the technique and skills now it's just that mojo that you need to get going.

Thank you for posting this! Helped me to feel much more confident/hopeful!

You got this man!

Thanks for the inspiring story! That is so awesome, you should be incredibly proud...



You're going to have an awesome cycle

I hope so! Thank you very much

[proteinshake]

congrats and enjoy Columbia

[bmathers]

Nice post. I got a 153 original diagnostic, then had a major headache on the day of my first LSAT and got a 153 on the test (I also burnt out, went from a 162 days before to a 153). I retook in June and got a 158 (still a bit below my PT average, but will get me into my target schools). I retook the LG section on the test today and went from a -6 to a -2. That alone would have pulled me up to a 161, and I scored the worst I ever have (including my original diagnostic) on the 2 LR sections on this test. My goal was a 160.. now I am upping that to a 164 goal score.

This forum makes me know that I can do it.

[Eternalsunshine]

Congrats!

[WeightliftingThinker]

Congratulations!

You said, "The second time around I started redoing the PT's again. This time, however, I increased to doing six sections and I took it slow."

Were those sections under time constraints?