What To Do With A Lower Than Average PT Score Forum

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MercW07

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What To Do With A Lower Than Average PT Score

Post by MercW07 » Thu Aug 17, 2017 9:41 pm

I started taking PTs 3 weeks ago and have constantly been in the low 160s. On Monday I took one hoping to see a slight jump possibly into the mid 160s, but ended up with a 159. I was pretty defeated at first but after BRing it, and correcting the few mistakes I made, I was confident a mid 160s score was possible for me at this time. Fast forward to this evening. I take another PT and upon completion think I scored somewhere in the low to mid 160s. I honestly felt pretty good about the test. So I put my answers in 7Sage's LSAT Analytics tracker and boom, a 151 pops up. I honestly thought I entered an entire section wrong at first or something along those lines, but after looking through everything the score was correct. This number is just so much lower than the scores I have been getting that Im not really sure what to do right now. Normally I do a full BR the next day after I take a test, but at this point I don't even want to touch this thing.

So basically Im looking for some advice from those of you that took many PTs during your studies, and had a few hiccups along the way. Did you take a couple days off after a bad PT, or just keep doing what you had been doing all along? Id really like to just delete this test from my memory ASAP, but Im not sure if that is the right way to go about this. Right now Im thinking about taking the day off tomorrow, and taking a fresh PT on Saturday morning with a clear mind. My only concern right now is if I have another low PT on Saturday, it may really kill my confidence moving forward, but Im interested to hear what you vets have to say.

Edit: Ill also add that my 151 was taken completely cold, whereas in the past Ive been able to warm up. I know warming up is important, but surly not to the tune of a 8+ point drop, right?

studystudystudy

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Re: What To Do With A Lower Than Average PT Score

Post by studystudystudy » Fri Aug 18, 2017 2:04 am

Did you bomb the first section? If so, could be indicative that the lack of warm up really nailed your score.

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MercW07

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Re: What To Do With A Lower Than Average PT Score

Post by MercW07 » Fri Aug 18, 2017 10:01 am

studystudystudy wrote:Did you bomb the first section? If so, could be indicative that the lack of warm up really nailed your score.
I did bomb the first section, but my scores in all 4 sections were lower than average. You would think by the 2nd or 3rd section I would have been warmed up, but it does not appear that was the case.

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Re: What To Do With A Lower Than Average PT Score

Post by studystudystudy » Fri Aug 18, 2017 8:10 pm

In my own experience, I used to BOMB the first section. Always. I started warming up and it really helped. This could be a factor for you. Another question would be, what PTs have you recently taken resulting in low 160s and what PT did you get a 151 on? I know many have said the 70s have really stepped up the game. I know RC was BRUTAL for me regarding PT75.

There is definitely something to be said for fluke tests. Maybe do a timed section and see what happens. I also find that not scoring it until finishing BR is helpful with confidence, because you can see your potential and not get completely blasted with self doubt. Remember confidence is key!

If you have access to 7sage analytics, maybe take a look at the trends. See what you tanked on the most. Drill some of those question types and compare it to your other tests. Maybe it's highlighting a weakness that was not as prevalent in your previous tests?? I think more information would help in diagnosing the issue.

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lollsat

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Re: What To Do With A Lower Than Average PT Score

Post by lollsat » Sat Aug 19, 2017 3:28 am

studystudystudy wrote:In my own experience, I used to BOMB the first section. Always. I started warming up and it really helped. This could be a factor for you. Another question would be, what PTs have you recently taken resulting in low 160s and what PT did you get a 151 on? I know many have said the 70s have really stepped up the game. I know RC was BRUTAL for me regarding PT75.

There is definitely something to be said for fluke tests. Maybe do a timed section and see what happens. I also find that not scoring it until finishing BR is helpful with confidence, because you can see your potential and not get completely blasted with self doubt. Remember confidence is key!

If you have access to 7sage analytics, maybe take a look at the trends. See what you tanked on the most. Drill some of those question types and compare it to your other tests. Maybe it's highlighting a weakness that was not as prevalent in your previous tests?? I think more information would help in diagnosing the issue.
What do you do for warmup if I may ask?

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studystudystudy

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Re: What To Do With A Lower Than Average PT Score

Post by studystudystudy » Sat Aug 19, 2017 10:48 am

lollsat wrote:
studystudystudy wrote:In my own experience, I used to BOMB the first section. Always. I started warming up and it really helped. This could be a factor for you. Another question would be, what PTs have you recently taken resulting in low 160s and what PT did you get a 151 on? I know many have said the 70s have really stepped up the game. I know RC was BRUTAL for me regarding PT75.

There is definitely something to be said for fluke tests. Maybe do a timed section and see what happens. I also find that not scoring it until finishing BR is helpful with confidence, because you can see your potential and not get completely blasted with self doubt. Remember confidence is key!

If you have access to 7sage analytics, maybe take a look at the trends. See what you tanked on the most. Drill some of those question types and compare it to your other tests. Maybe it's highlighting a weakness that was not as prevalent in your previous tests?? I think more information would help in diagnosing the issue.
What do you do for warmup if I may ask?
I do normally the first few LR questions from a past PT, 1 passage, and 2 games. This last time I actually did some SA questions (which I normally have trouble with) accidentally and did better on LR than I usually do. I might start integrating that in as well. Just make sure you give yourself some time between warming up and taking the actual test. Unless you warm up in your car before walking into the test, you wouldn't actually be PTing under test taking conditions. And even then, there's the huge time sink from checking in and everyone getting settled to starting the actual test.

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Re: What To Do With A Lower Than Average PT Score

Post by MercW07 » Sat Aug 19, 2017 3:01 pm

studystudystudy wrote:In my own experience, I used to BOMB the first section. Always. I started warming up and it really helped. This could be a factor for you. Another question would be, what PTs have you recently taken resulting in low 160s and what PT did you get a 151 on? I know many have said the 70s have really stepped up the game. I know RC was BRUTAL for me regarding PT75.

There is definitely something to be said for fluke tests. Maybe do a timed section and see what happens. I also find that not scoring it until finishing BR is helpful with confidence, because you can see your potential and not get completely blasted with self doubt. Remember confidence is key!

If you have access to 7sage analytics, maybe take a look at the trends. See what you tanked on the most. Drill some of those question types and compare it to your other tests. Maybe it's highlighting a weakness that was not as prevalent in your previous tests?? I think more information would help in diagnosing the issue.
The PTs that Ive scored in the low 160s were 36-43 with 44 being my 151, so admittedly not a huge sample size. With that being said, I still did not even think a score as low at 151 was possible. After BRing the test I found so many small mistakes that contributed to my low score. Ive come to the conclusion that it was just a bad day, and my lack of warm up was a factor.

After getting a good warmup in this morning, I took PT 45 and scored 164. The entire test just felt...better so Im pleased with the result. While I am still a bit shocked that I scored as low and as far out of my range as I did on PT44, I think Im just going to move past it and make sure I warmup before every PT I take from here on out.

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