Time to take a break?

[NickSabanIsGod]

Hey Powerscore,

For the past 2 weeks or so I keep finding myself a few small mistakes away from scoring a 170, which is my goal on the test.

However, I did poorly on a practice exam today and I am concerned that I am hitting a wall. Is this common for students who have been studying seriously? Also, would you suggest taking a few days off or any other strategy to improve my performance leading up to the exam?

Any input would be appreciated. Thanks.

[Dave Killoran]

Hey Nick,

Thanks for the question! First, congrats on being close enough to 170 that it's just a few small things keeping you from it. That's great! Second, what you are experiencing is common and frankly somewhat natural. So there's no need to worry to much about the fact that it has occurred (and you don't seem to be, which is excellent. Some students panic a bit, and that is obviously not helpful).

Next, what I would do right now is take two or three days off. You've identified that there's an issue, you suspect that you might be hitting a wall, and so I think the appropriate remedy is to react aggressively and give yourself a break. If there was more time I'd say take a longer break (in the spirit of http://blog.powerscore.com/lsat/bid/243 ... your-score), but that's not the situation we have here so let's go with two-three days.

Last, don't let the results of a single practice test get you down. I wrote about this in a response to another student (see lsat/viewtopic.php?t=7473, which talks about some of the ideas I mention here), but a single poor practice exam can be the result many factors, from just a bad day to simply bad luck. It could also be that the lower score is within the expected standard deviation and isn't really all that "bad." Regardless of the reason, a single test isn't a trend and you don't want to give it an outsized weight in your deliberations.

That's a start, and please let me know what you think. Thanks!

[NickSabanIsGod]

Dave,

Thanks for getting back to me. I am going to take your advice and take it easy over the next couple of days. Hopefully the break will get me back on track. Thanks again.

[dulin]

I agree, it is better to take a few days off and freshen up so that you can get back to your studying with a fresh mind.