Why have I been getting lower scores on my LSAT, even though I have been practicing?
Take a deep breath and do not panic. This is a common phenomenon that students encounter while preparing for the LSAT. When this happens, they are at the “plateau” phase during which the effort exerted seems to not produce any visible and positive outcomes.
It is difficult to garner motivation to keep going forward during this phase - trust us, we understand.
What’s going on?
To move forward, let’s diagnose your lower test results first. What is making your score drop? Here are some possibilities.
You’ve been relying on your intuition and don’t have a solid foundation of formal logic
Without a solid understanding of formal logic, students who solely depend on intuition for the test may see a plateau or even decrease in their later scores. This plateau is the extent to which their intuition can take them. Take this as a lesson that intuition does not always align with logic. Humans operate on not just logic but also emotions, experiences, biological instincts, etc. The LSAT, however, cares for logic only. How we set aside these competing instincts to focus solely on logic thus becomes our main objective.
This is why we study formal logic. Having a solid understanding of its rules allows us to confidently articulate the reasons behind choosing or eliminating an option. It also allows us to learn from the mistakes we make in past practices.
You have a specific weakness that a test happens to target
If a student is particularly weak in “flaw” type LR questions, they may do worse in a test that has more of those questions. If this is the case, the student could at least take comfort in knowing that, having correctly identified their area of weakness, they now have a concrete goal to work towards - drill “flaw” type questions and review their past mistakes. After all, there are no unfixable “flaws” in preparation for the LSAT - pun intended.
You’ve been burning through timed practice test and not spending enough time on review
As they enter later stages of their test preparation, many students tend to spend too much time on completing as many practice tests as possible without ever looking back on them. The latter – not spending enough time on reviewing past practice tests – is a huge mistake. No improvement will come without reviewing. In mindlessly burning through timed tests, students make the same mistake as 1) – instead of depending on articulated reasons, they depend on their intuition to fix their future mistakes.
You’re exhausted and hate this process
We’ve all been there. The preparation for the LSAT feels long and students can burn out. Battling this mental resistance while trying to practice active reading is difficult, if not impossible. This may be why students’ scores drop towards the end of their preparation process.
Also Read - What to Do the Day Before the LSAT
What could you do?
Go back to the basics
If you haven’t learned formal logic, make it your top priority to learn it. If you have learned it, review it and practice it.
Practice your area of weakness
Identify your areas of weakness first. After that, practice, practice, practice. And don’t forget to review the ones you get wrong or are uncertain about.
Review, review, review
Whichever stage of preparation you are at, review should always take up a significant amount of time. For students nearing the end of their preparation, review should make up most of the remaining preparation. There is very little point in doing one practice test immediately after another, given that you already know where your score approximately stands and where your weaknesses are. Look back on your past mistakes and, if possible, questions that you got right but were uncertain about while doing the test. Reflect on why you (almost) chose the wrong option, articulate why the correct option is correct. Nothing besides articulated logic guarantees that you wouldn’t make the same mistakes next time.
Trick your mind into loving this process!
There is no solution to the mental resistance, other than to try to lift it. Trick your mind into thinking that you enjoy the process. For the RC section, for instance, it is important to have a curious mind before starting the passage. Take this as a unique opportunity to learn about niche areas of sciences, humanities, and the law! It may be readily apparent, but active reading requires an actively curious mind.
Conclusion
We acknowledge the frustration associated with test prep. Take a deep breath. The only thing you must do now, is to take the next little step, whether that be learning the foundations, or drilling your weakness. Trust the process and know that the plateau/score drop is but a phase in the preparation process, not the destination.
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