Horrible First Full Length PT Score... Help!

[mario6558]

Thanks for reading my post. I have roughly 6 weeks remaining until the December 7th LSAT. I have never taken a full length LSAT, let alone under timed conditions, and I failed miserably
My score was a 138, I know that it's my first LSAT and probably rather common, but I thought I would be a lot better prepared having been in your full online LSAT 6 week course. Before I took this PT we had just finished lesson 5. I am wondering if I should have taken this PT not under timed conditions just to get a feel for the "jumbled" effect on the questions.

I feel like I completely abandoned the concepts that Ive learned upon the start of this exam, primarily due to the being timed concept,and just went straight into survival mode. Lastly on the LG section I did not get to the last game because of time and guessed the whole game. along with roughly 13-18 between the RC/LR sections combined. I guess I just need advice on where to go from here? Do I take 1 full PT a week not timed and work through it via application of concepts and 1 full PT timed for the mental stamina? 6 weeks is approaching fast and attaining a 160 is looking less feasible, especially after that demoralizing 138.

Thanks!

[David Boyle]

Thanks for reading my post. I have roughly 6 weeks remaining until the December 7th LSAT. I have never taken a full length LSAT, let alone under timed conditions, and I failed miserably
My score was a 138, I know that it's my first LSAT and probably rather common, but I thought I would be a lot better prepared having been in your full online LSAT 6 week course. Before I took this PT we had just finished lesson 5. I am wondering if I should have taken this PT not under timed conditions just to get a feel for the "jumbled" effect on the questions.

I feel like I completely abandoned the concepts that Ive learned upon the start of this exam, primarily due to the being timed concept,and just went straight into survival mode. Lastly on the LG section I did not get to the last game because of time and guessed the whole game. along with roughly 13-18 between the RC/LR sections combined. I guess I just need advice on where to go from here? Do I take 1 full PT a week not timed and work through it via application of concepts and 1 full PT timed for the mental stamina? 6 weeks is approaching fast and attaining a 160 is looking less feasible, especially after that demoralizing 138.

Thanks!

Hello mario 6558,

There's no magic formula (I know of) to prepare for the LSAT, but your idea doesn't sound bad. Of course, you could take more tests than that. (I knew someone who claimed to take 4 tests in 3 days--maybe that's a little much!)
Don't forget to review theory, too. You say that you "completely abandoned the concepts that Ive learned upon the start of this exam", which makes me wonder if reviewing theory, or doing more drills or other exercises, might be valuable for you, to fix some of the concepts in your head so that they're second nature, or close to it.
And: don't be demoralized by that 138! Just think of it as some Halloween phantom that will fade away with the light of day. By hard work, you can likely improve and get a much better score!

Hope that helps,
David