The 2nd Practice Exam
Back when you took your very first LSAT, you may have not scored all that well, but really, did you care? Your less-than-stellar score could be easily attributed to a number of things, such as insufficient sleep, insufficient focus, or insufficient lack of being hung over (though the real reason is just that the LSAT is super hard, and it was the first time you saw it). But by the time you’re taking your second test, you will have spent quite a bit of time studying. Presumably your score should go up, no? These expectations can make taking your second exam a rather daunting task.
In truth, you should not at all be obsessing over the actual score. You should still have well over a month before you’ll be taking the actual LSAT, and that’s a lot of time to improve. There are some things to be learned from this practice exam, but the numerical score itself isn’t going to one of those helpful tidbits. At the time of the second exam you have yet to acquire all the tools for attacking all the questions, so it really isn’t reflective of what will turn out to be your ultimate score. The truth of the matter is that it’s pretty common for students to have their scores drop on this test, but then they then bounce back up after they’ve learned the remaining concepts, like a rubber ball hurled at a hardwood floor. In this article I, Jodi Triplet, will be will be going over the things in exam two that actually are informative.
The fine print: This advice is geared toward people taking a test for the second time, and who have around a month and a half or more until the test, not for people who are well into their studies and who have taken multiple tests already.
The finer print: If you have taken tons of practice exams without much of a strategy, you might want to rethink your approach…
What you can glean from your test performance:
1. Whether you’ve learned and are internalizing your methods.
When you’ve completed the test, pour over it carefully and identify the questions that require you to utilize the skills you have already acquired. The ones you got right are good indicators of which skills with which you’re probably fairly strong. The ones you missed might indicate weakness in certain areas, areas that should now be reviewed. Luckily, there remains a good deal of time until test day to review and refine the methods that you’re still shaky with.
2. How good you are at ascertaining how well you did.
You need to learn how to predict your score, and every exam you take should be used as practice for this. After you take a test, but before you score it, go through it mentally and try to recall which ones you think you missed. Using all the data you can remember, try to predict your score. Then see how it actually went. If you were way off, try to figure out why it was at such variance with your expectations (for better or worse). By doing this exercise for your practice tests, you will learn how to accurately predict your score on the day of the real test, which will inform your decision as to whether or not you should cancel.
3. How to build your endurance
The LSAT is a long test, and you can’t adequately prep for it by just doing homework here and there for short intervals. Taking practice tests from time to time will force you to do intense hours-long marathons, increasing the focus and stamina that you’ll need for test day.
So as you take and score your second test, remember that the score itself is of little importance. Endurance, prediction, and question-by-question analysis are what matter.
Post by Jodi Triplett
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