Why You Could be Improving-Even if Your Score Hasn't Gone Up

You studied diligently for months, and you feel like the LSAT is finally clicking. But then you take another practice test only to see your score dropped a couple of points. You feel defeated and frustrated. Was all that studying for nothing? Believe it or not, the same score or even a lower score does not necessarily mean you did not improve. In this post, we will discuss why improvement does not always manifest itself directly into a higher score and how to more accurately track whether you are progressing.

Factor #1: Micro-skills take time to accumulate

If you workout for a day, would you expect to see immediate progress when you look in the mirror? Probably not. Some people don’t see physical progress for weeks or months. But that doesn’t mean they aren’t getting stronger or in better shape. The same thing applies to the LSAT. Sometimes, your understanding of the test can improve but just not enough to manifest itself into a higher score. As you gain more exposure to the test, your score should begin to improve.

Factor #2: Test difficulty

Some tests are harder than others. Although most tests are similar in difficulty, it’s almost impossible to create a test that is exactly the same difficulty without simply repeating the same questions. This is why the LSAC doesn’t just report your actual score. They also report a score band, which is a range your score falls under. For this reason, it’s not uncommon for people to experience fluctuations in their test scores.

Additionally, concepts are not equally distributed for each test. You will not have the exact same number of Necessary Assumptions or questions pertaining to Conditional Reasoning, for example. This means that some tests will slightly play on your strengths than others. For example, if you are good at Strengthen questions, you will probably perform better overall on a test that has more questions of that type.

Factor #3: Psychological Factors

Your mental state plays a huge role in how you perform in any given field, and the LSAT is no exception. If you didn’t get enough sleep or were stressed due to some unforeseen circumstance, these variables will of course affect your actual performance.

How to Track Progress Instead

So, as strange as it may seem, looking at your practice test score alone is often not a reliable indicator of progress. But in that case, how can you truly tell if you are improving? First, pay attention to trends instead of individual test scores. You should expect dips in your scores along the way, but you should see if your scores are trending upward. As long as you are hitting new highs occasionally, there is strong evidence that you are improving.

Second, pay attention to concepts and question types instead of scores alone. If you read my post on how to study, you would know that taking practice tests alone is not as efficient as drilling paired with occasional tests for most people. When you take practice tests, focus on the concepts you drill more than the score itself. Even if your score went down, it’s a positive sign if you got 100% accuracy in the concepts you drilled. On the other hand, a higher score is not necessarily something to feel satisfied with if you missed many questions pertaining to the concepts you drilled.

When you approach gauging progress in this way, you avoid the guesswork and take out the “luck” aspect of the LSAT. Instead, you end up focusing on true, measurable progress and are able to assess your weaknesses more accurately.