LSAT Discussion Forum

Hello Powerscore! I am having an issue I was really hoping I could get some guidance/advice on. I am registered for the August LSAT, and have taken plenty of practice tests, and almost consistently, (though not every time) I am missing more questions down the stretch of the LR sections than I am in the beginning of them. Sometimes it is long streaks of missed questions, and other times it is bunches of them separated by 1 or 2 correct ones. What can I do to improve this bad habit that is consistently dragging my overall score down, I will occasionally see this happen to me on RC as well. Any Advice would be well appreciated.

James

I have this happen to me as well. Ive read a couple of powerscore blog posts, and this happens because of mental fatigue/Mindfulness. I find that around number 16/17 this starts to happen to me. Powerscore does provide blog posts about this, and how to combat this problem. They have helped provide a little insight. I have found what works for me is just practicing a whole LR section for an hour every other day has helped me build the mental stamina needed for this test. Also mindfulness meditations everyday for 15-30mins reallllyyyy helped. I know it sounds crazy, but it really centers your mind and helps you to focus on being in the present (this was also a powerscore blog post).

Hope this helps a little
Good luck!

Hi James and Haley! Haley, thanks for providing some nice tips.

It's extremely normal for people to get more questions wrong in the second half of an LR section. As Haley points out, part of this can be a stamina issue. To that end, she's exactly right that there's a couple things you can do to up your stamina. Practicing untimed LR for long stretches of time, taking full timed practice tests with 5 or even 6 sections, doing mental focus exercises, maybe doing physical exercise such as running, making sure you've got a consistent sleeping/eating/schedule, etc.

But aside from stamina, the bigger issue is that the questions simply get harder as the section goes on. Here's a blog post about it:

https://www.powerscore.com/lsat/help/lr ... iculty.cfm

So again, it's very normal to get more wrong in the latter half of an LR section. It just means that you're bumping up against more challenging questions. To that end, it's very important to work on implementing all of the methods we talk about here on the Forum, or in our Course Books and Bibles. On many of the easier questions at the beginning of LR sections, you can sort of "intuit" your way through a problem. But as the section goes on and the problems get harder, you need a consistent and structured approach to all 13 of the LR question types in order to succeed. So keep honing those question types! Pore over the PowerScore Bibles, and post here in the Forum for any specific questions/question types that continue to give you trouble.

Hope that helps!