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I had a student last week who, uh, proudly
told me they took four full length

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practice tests in six days.

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Four of them.

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And they were utterly devastated, I mean,
completely derailed because their score

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actually dropped on the final one.

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Oh, that makes my head hurt just hearing
it.

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It is the classic, you know, the cognitive
illusion that taking the test is the same

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thing as, as actually getting better at
the test.

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You are just measuring the temperature
over and over.

10
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Exactly.

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I call it the, the Am I better yet, Doc,
syndrome.

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Taking three practice tests in five days
and expecting a score increase is like

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saying, Am I better yet, Doc, right after
swallowing the first pill.

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00:01:10,965 --> 00:01:16,385
You are just repeatedly measuring the
fever before the medicine has any actual time

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to work in your brain.

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Which just leads to massive, soul crushing
fatigue.

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But, okay, how does someone actually know
if they are in a real,

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genuine score plateau, or if it is just,
like, normal day to day variance?

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Because my score used to bounce around by
five points all the time.

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Right, variance is completely normal.

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To identify a true, systemic plateau, we
use the three three three diagnostic rule.

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That is, a complete lack of score progress
across at least three full length exams,

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taken over a span of at least three weeks.

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If you meet those criteria, you are
plateaued.

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If it has only been a week, or if you have
only taken two tests,

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you do not have enough data to panic yet.

27
00:02:07,447 --> 00:02:07,986
Hmm.

28
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That three three three rule makes so much
sense because it,

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it forces you to look at a trend instead
of obsessing over one bad Tuesday.

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You know, when I was studying, I hit this
wall at one hundred and sixty five.

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I, I was totally stuck.

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I was taking test after test and getting
nowhere, and out of pure frustration,

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I just stopped.

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I took four full days completely away from
the LSAT.

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No logical reasoning, no logic games,
nothing.

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And when I came back, the very next test I
took, I scored a one hundred and seventy.

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That is not a fluke, Nora.

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There is actual neurobiology behind that.

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Logical structures and complex reasoning
habits do not solidify when your brain is

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under high adrenaline testing pressure.

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They, they actually crystallize during
periods of rest and recovery.

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It is like muscle growth.

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You do not build muscle while you are
lifting the weights.

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You build it when you are sleeping and
eating afterwards.

45
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Right!

46
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It was like my brain needed that empty
space to actually build the pathways.

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I had to stop the constant testing to let
the concepts sink in.

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But the problem is, when people do study,
they fall into what I call the process to

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performance trap.

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They can be incredibly methodical and
logical when they are doing untimed drills.

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They find the conclusion, they find the
premises, they look for the gap.

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But the very second a thirty five minute
timer starts, all of that structure just

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flies out the window.

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They panic and start relying entirely on
vibes and rapid reading.

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Oh, the vibes.

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I know that feeling so well.

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It is like, oh, this answer choice just
feels right, or, uh,

58
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this one sounds like something a lawyer
would say.

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It is total speed guessing because you are
terrified of the clock.

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And speed guessing is where scores go to
die.

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So, to break this, you have to do what we
call an untimed second try audit.

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It is a highly practical way to separate
pacing errors from conceptual blind spots.

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Before you grade your next practice test,
do not look at the answer key.

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Instead, hide the key, go back to every
single question you flagged or missed,

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and attempt them a second time with
absolutely unlimited time.

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Yes!

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This is exactly what I did.

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And this method, rather than taking back
to back practice tests into oblivion,

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helped me realize that I actually knew the
material.

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I just was not giving myself the
permission to apply it under pressure.

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Once I took the timer away, I realized,
oh, I actually can solve this.

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Speed naturally follows true
understanding, not the other way around.

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Right.

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If you cannot get it right with unlimited
time, you have a conceptual problem.

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If you can get it right untimed, but miss
it under pressure,

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then it is a pacing and strategy problem.

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And the best tool for pacing is having a
highly customized,

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personal skip list before you even sit
down for the exam.

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We call it the skip and succeed rule.

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Wait, tell me more about that.

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Like, what was on your skip list?

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Well, for instance, immediately bypassing
any parallel reasoning question with a

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dense stimulus that appears after question
fifteen.

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00:05:45,833 --> 00:05:49,192
Those questions are notorious time
vortexes.

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If you get sucked into one, you can easily
spend five minutes on a single point,

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which completely starves you of time for
three easier questions at the end of the

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section.

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Oh, absolutely.

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I used to get so stubborn.

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I would think, no, I have already spent
two minutes on this,

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I have to finish it.

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00:06:10,014 --> 00:06:14,754
But the math of completion versus accuracy
just does not support that.

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Think about it.

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If you rush through twenty six questions
just to finish the section,

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but you miss half of them because you are
rushing, you only get thirteen points.

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But if you calmly, methodically attempt
only twenty questions with high accuracy,

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and let us say you get eighteen of those
right, plus you guess on the remaining six

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and get maybe one or two of those by pure
luck, you are looking at twenty points.

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That is a massive score increase just by
doing less, but doing it better.

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It is pure arithmetic.

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Accuracy always beats completion on this
test.

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If you want to break your plateau, you
have to stop chasing the clock and start

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chasing the process.

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Take a breath, put the timer away for a
bit, and stop taking tests into oblivion.

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Honestly, that is the best advice anyone
can take.

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Alright, I think that is a perfect place
to stop.

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Good chatting, Adrian.

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00:07:17,863 --> 00:07:18,842
Talk soon, Nora.