2nd Diagnostic

I'm up at 6:30 a.m. Sunday morning. I'm to drive 2 hours to do a diagnostic review session for the LSAT.

People usually do worse on the 2nd diag than they do on the first. This is mainly because they are still trying to master the techniques and thus slower at going through the test. People who do worse are usually depressed and down during the diag review.

There are those who improve 3-4 points and start celebrating. But 3-4 points increase is hardly an improvement. According to the LSAC, on any given day, someone could correctly answer or miss one or two more questions. If you take this into consideration, these fluctuations (3-4 points increase/decrease) mean that despite the improvement one could have just as well scored the exact same score as he/she did on his/her 1st diag. If people go from a 150 to a 153, I tell 'em not to get too excited. Likewise, I tell people not to get too depressed, if they go from a 148 to a 145.

Some people actually jump 10-15 points. They get ecstatic and expect the same jump on the next diag. But on the next diag they won't jump that much because increasing points on the LSAT becomes exponentially harder. It's much easier to go from 140 to 155, then it is to go from 155 to 170.

The best attitude after the 2nd diag is to understand that studying for the LSAT (in a prep course) is a process. One success or failure doesn't mean much. However, constant and repeated success/failure is an entirely different story.