What should I do after a bad FL?

Question

Hey yall sorry about the post but im freaking out rn. I took a next step full length a couple months ago as a diagnostic and I got a 498, I just took a Kaplan FL today bc I'm almost done w/ my content review and I got a 494?? I don't know how I did worse and I'm panicking rn what should I do??

Answer 1

Hey!

I know it's hard, but try not to panic! Sometimes that just happens! If you want to talk to me about this further you are welcome to, but in the meantime ask yourself these questions:

1) How long have you been doing content review and for how many hours/day/week?

1. If the answer is less than 10 hours per week at a rate of less than a month, you should probably do more content review (depending on how comfortable you feel with the material). This is rather subjective and I can't offer great generalized advice, so this is something you will have to think about carefully.

2) When is your exam?

1. If you have a month and a half or less until your exam, strongly consider pushing your exam back a month for more content review.

3) How many actual practice questions have you done since beginning studying?

1. If you haven't been doing any practice questions (less than 7 per week) and haven't been doing daily CARS passages, this is likely a large contributing factor to your score. I suggest at least one month of study that is committed almost entirely (80% of all study time) to answering practice questions including taking full-lengths and reviewing your mistakes/guesses. You will see the highest leaps in your score during this time--trust me.

Strongly think about #2. It is okay to push your exam back a month. It's better to get a 515 and apply a month later than to get a 505 and apply a month earlier. Again, let me know if you want to talk about any of this with me personally. I am happy to help. Best wishes!

Sincerely,

Jean-Marc