Yo, so I’ve come across a very strange problem. I usually get it in and smoke weed everyday but yesterday morning I decided to do a PT without doing the normal routine of waking and baking. Two days ago while baked I did 0 RC, -2 LR1, -1 LR2 and -4 LG (173 scaled), but then yesterday I decided to change it up and just go into it after a short jog to the library and without vaping - got a 159! Totally fucked up every section, like even -7 in RC!
After review the main flaw I had was that I was over-thinking, especially in LR, and my accuracy went to shit because I actually circled TCR then switched to some bumblefuck shell game or some other stupid answer
Anyone in a similar situation?
Edit - My consistency is usually ~165-170 at the moment, with the lowest ever at 157 first time diagnostic (last month)
Do you normally exercise before taking a timed PT?
Maybe the jogging had something to do with it, if jogging is not part of your normal pre-test routine.
Could also just be a coincidence. You may need a larger sample to determine whether the failure to follow your normal waking and baking routine is a likely cause of the score drop.
Edit to add: you did a PT 2 days ago, and then you did another one yesterday. I generally advise against taking PTs on consecutive days precisely because it can lead to score drops / burnout.
Do you normally take PTs on consecutive days? If so, I’d recommend taking a day in between to do nothing, or relatively lighter studying.
I’m in the same boat bro. I have to bake the day before I take a pt to get a really good night of sleep. I blazed yesterday around six, drank some tea around ten and slept like a baby and did pretty well on my pt this morning.. I’ve heard that if you’re taking pts and studying in a specific state of mind and are doing as well as you want, to not change anything
Wow, not to sound like a fanboy but are you the Steve Schwartz? If so, I bought your 3 month study plan back in April and have read pretty much all of your blog posts and I owe a lot of my success to you. ESPECIALLY your in-out method, which has totally replaced the MLG way I used to do it (logic chains and whatnot).
The one thing on your schedule that I didn’t follow was the off-days and the on-off PTing thing; to be honest, I guess it was because I felt like that would make me complacent. I also was highly skeptical about the notion of ‘burn-out’ as just an excuse unmotivated people use for being tired and lazy. If you don’t mind, can you clarify why 1 on, 1 off is better than PTing every day with review? I always denied that burn out is a real ‘thing’ (If it is, I swear that I am straight-up burned out, my PTs have actually been in slight decline lately). In other words, how would PTing every single day as opposed to every other day lead to score drops?
Thanks for the response. I really appreciate all that you do for us LSAT folks, as well as your pretty superhuman mastery of the material.
I’m so glad to hear that you’ve enjoyed the blog and related resources!
The point of full-length timed tests is not to get through as many as possible. The point is to improving your pacing and endurance, while exposing yourself to the newest exams. You need time to engage in detailed review of the exams that you take. For almost everyone, there is not enough time to do this properly and completely on the same day that you take the exam.
Additionally, burnout is real, and it’s not laziness. It results from doing too much work in too short a period of time (essentially, overtraining). I have seen it in many, many, students who try to PT every single day. You can only take so much before you become fatigued. If you search TLS, you’ll see others posting about their experiences with burnout. To me, at least, it seems like a plausible explanation for your score drop.
In any case, I’m glad that you appreciate my work!