The Week After the LSAT
Note: This is Manhattan LSAT instructor Emily Dugan‘s first post for our blog. Welcome her in the comment section!
The June LSAT is finally over. At this point, one of two things are likely going through your head. Either “Yes, I am done, and I can finally stop worrying,” or “Oh crap, that was so much harder than I was expecting, I think I did awful.” Both reactions are totally normal, but one is more useful than the other.
If you fall into the first group and are just relieved it’s over, you’re doing well. If any major errors had been made, you would have noticed at the time, so your confidence is a great sign. Just wait for your score to come in and give yourself some much needed rest.
Most people, however, have some qualms about how well the test went. This is a much more normal reaction. Know that almost everyone who walks out those doors is disappointed in their performance. The truth is that most of these fears aren’t well founded. Unless you can point to some specific thing like you forgot to fill in one section of the test on the answer sheet or you got violently ill during the logic games, you probably did exactly as you’d been doing on your practice exams.
It’s tough to tell in the heat of the moment which questions you got right or wrong. The LSAT is a difficult test, so it’s rare that you’ll be 100% sure that the answer you put was the right one. Add to that the stress of test day, and people often assume that they got all those questions wrong. You didn’t.
LSAT preparation teaches you how to think and how to evaluate logic. If you’ve spent time working on this, then you are going to be ready for many of the questions the LSAT will throw at you. Think of it like a big sports game. The athletes aren’t going to be perfect, but the training will kick in and they’ll still do well. Most people miss questions, most athletes miss shots. But the test can still be won with all the right answers you got.
If all this still isn’t making you feel better, try completing one last practice exam. Take it under the same conditions of test day. If your score is roughly what it was on the last practice test you took, that means you’re staying consistent. Your actual LSAT score will likely be right in line with the two practice ones. There is very little chance that you were doing fine, on test day your score dropped significantly, then all of a sudden you were doing fine again. Truly, stop panicking. You have the tools, and you’ve been trained how to use them.
The general takeaway: relax. It’s over. You trained, you prepared, you showed up, and you did it. Relax for a few weeks at least, and enjoy your accomplishments.