How many tests should you take to have a good idea of what your performance on test day would be approximately like? So I'll answer it by starting with a different question is, how many tests should you take overall, timed? You should take at least 10 timed exams before test day.
But if you're in the final week before your exam, I'm not saying take 10 exams in a week. (Just take one or two instead.)
If you want to know where you currently stand, what your current LSAT aptitude is, and where you would most likely score on test day if you took the exam right now, what you want to do is you want to take the average of your most recent five exams (assuming you've taken them in a fairly recent period of time).
So, let's say, maybe over the past 2-3 weeks, you've taken five exams (and these are five sections, not four). You take the average of those five exams. That's a pretty good indication of where you currently stand.
Now, LSAC has what they call a score band, which means that, let's say someone's scored a 170. This person's range is approximately 167 to 173, which is a 6-point range. So that person could one day get a 167, the next day get a 173, and LSAC would say the LSAT is perfectly valid, and this is just within our normal realm of score variation. And that comes back to the question of why scores fluctuate.
They fluctuate because each exam only has 100-to-101 questions approximately, but the LSAT tests more than 101 concepts (and they come up in a variety of ways). There are game types that come up once every 10 exams. There are logical reasoning arguments, i.e. methods of reasoning, that only come up once every dozen exams, and there are reading comp topics that come up only once, ever.
So if you respond particularly well or poorly to one of those things and it shows up on your exam, then your score will vary accordingly. If you get a circle game and you hate circle games, maybe that's your 167. If your exam does not contain a circle game and it contains your favorite reading comp topic ever, then you might get a 173, but you're still the same person. And you're probably feeling sharper some days than others.
Based on how you slept and what you ate the night before, whether the person next to you was distracting or not, all of those things make a difference. That's why we need an average. That's why we need a large data set from which to make an estimate. If you did great three days ago and your exam tomorrow goes poorly, that doesn't mean that Test Day will go poorly for you.
For more, I've got an entire playlist focused on LSAT Test Day prep here -----> and several articles on LSAT Test Day prep here ----->
No comments:
Post a Comment