Differences in Section Difficulty

[PowerSteve]

Since I've completed my PowerScore course I've taken five additional LSATs and the following is the number of incorrect questions I got for each of the logical reasoning sections (In the order that I took the exams):

Sept. '95:
Section 1: 6
Section 2: 2

Dec. '95:
Section 1: 2
Section 2: 7

June '99:
Section 1: 9
Section 2: 2

Oct. '99:
Section 1: 3
Section 2: 8

June '01:
Section 1: 2
Section 2: 9

Clearly I am concerned because I did best on the first of these exams (with respect to logical reasoning), second best on the second exam, and the three most recent ones I performed most poorly on. Another concern is that I have very consistently done much better on one logical reasoning section compared to the other. I do recall during my course (and a virtual module if I recall correctly) that the LSAT evens out demanding sections with less demanding sections. Still, is such a consistent difference in performance normal between logical reasoning sections?

It should be noted that time is often an issue for me, and on the sections that I only got two or three incorrect answers, I attempted almost all of the questions (I was very happy that on the most recent exam I took, for the very first time I at least had a chance to attempt every single problem in one of the sections). On the sections that I did more poorly on, however, I would often not get up to about five problems or so - usually because I would get a little hung up on problems earlier in the section which I would often wind up getting incorrect anyhow. If I could recognize that these questions would be time consuming and I would likely not get them correct anyhow, of course I would move past them without spending much time on them. However, I often have difficulty figuring that out quickly, and since I feel like I have the potential (based on my consistent ability to get only two or three wrong on one of the logical reasoning sections) I don't want to give up a question early on in the section.

I would appreciate any helpful comments or advise given my situation.

Thanks,
Steve

[Jon Denning]

Hi Steve - thanks for the questions. It seems like you're really asking two things here: 1. what might have caused the slight drop in performance from those first two tests to the next three, and 2. how do you explain the performance difference in the two sections on each test. I'll take those one at a time.

1. Hard to say exactly what could have caused the slight drop. In fact, unless something fairly obvious occurs (game takes 15 minutes, misgrid, etc), usually it's a collection of factors that accounts for changes in performance from test to test. Certainly it could be due to the dates of the tests themselves, where you found the two older tests to be easier than those from 4-6 years later. It could be a fatigue factor, where perhaps you've gotten a bit burned out from a lot of studying. It could be any number of things. But missing 8 or 9 total compared to 11 total is a pretty small fall off and probably not cause for alarm just yet. Instead, go back through the last few tests you took, look at the LR question on which you struggled, and make sure you understand exactly what was going on in the questions (nature of argumentation, question type, why your choice was wrong and the credited answer correct), and then be extra careful to keep an eye out for a similar situation on the next practice test/section. Also, begin to gravitate towards more recent tests, as you'll find those to be the most representative of what you'll see when you take the real thing (older tests are great practice conceptually, but newer tests are probably closer to what you'll see on test day from an overall difficulty standpoint).

2. Again, it can be pretty tough to pinpoint a single cause for something like this, as fatigue, concentration lapses, and differences in section difficulty can all play a role. And, yes, students often report that one section of LR seemed harder than the other. But it sounds like your biggest (or most immediately apparent) issue is one of time management. If you find yourself completely lost on a question, or spending entirely too much time, move on before you lose the chance to answer multiple questions in an attempt to get that single one correct. I see it all the time where a student will spend 3-4 minutes each on a couple of questions in the mid-teens, and not even get a chance to read 22-25. You're giving away points when you do that, something you can't afford on test day. So keep a closer eye on the clock and know when to simply move on; a more consistent pace should help to give you more consistency in performance.

I hope that helps!

Jon

[PowerSteve]

Thanks for the advice Jon! I am already doing most of what you suggest, though there are some things you wrote which I will focus more on now. I am going to be doing all of the exams offered from PowerScore and I figured it would be better for me to go from oldest to newest, since, as you mentioned, the more recent ones will be more indicative of what I will encounter. Tomorrow I will be doing October '04 and will continue doing the next available exam every Wednesday and Sunday. The only exception is that I plan to take the June '09 (on 5/30) and December '10 (on 6/3) after December '11 (which I will take on 5/27) so that I have more time to review the 2011 exams. This means of course that I will finish my last practice exam eight days before the real thing. In between testing days I review the exam I took last in addition to the random extra section that I took with it as the "experimental". Does this sound like a good plan? Is there anything you think I should tweak?

By the way, on the June '04 exam that I took this past Sunday I got two incorrect on one LR section and six incorrect on the other. At least it is getting better in total. I also got only two incorrect on the October '02 LR section 1 which I took as the experimental, so let's see how I do on the October '02 LR section 2 which will be tomorrow's experimental...

Thanks again for all of your help,
Steve

[Jon Denning]

No, nothing I would tweak. I think that's a great plan actually, provided you give yourself plenty of time for review after each test (which it sounds like you've been doing). At this point I think it's just a matter of staying motivated and confident, and continually chipping away at areas of weakness.

Keep us posted on your progress!

JD

[PowerSteve]

Thanks Jon - will do! I actually started closing my LR gap. Yesterday I did the October '04 exam and selected exactly three incorrect choices in each section (and that's given the fact that I didn't even have the time to attempt two questions in each of those sections). Also, my experimental section yesterday was the second LR from October '02 and I only selected 3 incorrect answers (I did the first LR section for my previous test's experimental and only selected 2 incorrect choices then). So, that is something positive. What is annoying, however, is that I noticed that although my raw scores have been rising, my scaled score is actually decreasing...Anyway, I'll keep chipping away!