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Hi All,

I received my LSAT score yesterday which was a dismal 155. Before I began studying in June for the exam I took a diagnostic LSAT offered by my university and received a 160. Since this was offered by my university it was under correct testing and timing conditions, i.e. no extra bubbling or changing answers/was in a large lecture hall... I then purchased the PowerScore books and completed around 20 practice exams where I was seeing a PT of about 163-170. I expected the score to potentially be lower than my PT due to nerves but since it is lower than my original diagnostic when I literally had zero idea what was going I have NO idea where to go next. I do not want to study further on my own because that appears to be detrimental.

Thoughts?

Edit: I read the PowerScore books and did them throughly looking at each question type. I put in probably around 150 hours in total, which I know is not a ton; however, I guess I am just surprised to see such an intense decrease with studying.

That's a tough question. I don't know any students who declined that drastically on the real exam. Have you reviewed your answers? It might help to tell us what went wrong exactly. It be as simple as a mis-bubble. Or it could be that you have terrible test anxiety. Or anything in between.

Don't give up on self prep. It really works on the LSAT. Something went horribly wrong on test day, and you need to figure out exactly what that was.

I scored 5 points below my diagnostic on the June lsat. Just got my September retake back and did much better. All I can really say is if your 163-170 PTs were full length, timed, etc then you are obviously a prime candidate to retake the test. Have confidence the improvements you are seeing are real and keep studying.

Actually yeah my diagnostic was 154 with me putting c's all the way down in the logic games section and id gotten up to 174 being my highest on preptest and i let nerves get the best of me and mis bubbled around the middle of one section on the sept test and got a 151.

With that big of a drop I would suggest reviewing every answer and make sure you didn’t misbubble.

Which tests did you practice with? Tests 50-70 are known for being a little easier than the 71-present tests, especially the RC section. That combined with nerves could have contributed to the drop.

This is months later, but incase anyone checks into their old answers I thought I would leave a quick update. I took everyone's advice and looked closely at both the bubble sheet that was scanned and what answers I gave. Turns out, I didn't have to look that closely as on reading I bubbled 1-5 correctly, skipped 6 and then bubbled 7-28...

I retook the exam in December, and did not actually study at all from September-December as I did have a fear of "over studying. The score increased 10 points. I plan on getting back into studying and will retake in June or September of the upcoming year.

Thank you all for the advice.