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The LSAT Bird Box Challenge

BPPlaura-lsat-blog-lsat-bird-box-challenge

Because we the people love nothing more than a stupid, unnecessary, and potentially dangerous challenge, the nation has been swept by the Bird Box challenge, in which — inspired by the eponymous movie starring Sandy B. — people blindfold themselves and then attempt to do normal daily tasks, such as walking down the street or using the subway.

A Bird Box challenge video of someone attempting to studying for the LSAT while blindfolded sounds like just about the most boring video imaginable — although this two-hour Microsoft Word tutorial from 1989 might beat it — but there is at least one context in which you might want to let your love for stupid internet fads guide you, and that’s when it comes to your practice test scores.

We’ve spilled a lot of ink on this blog about the importance of practice tests, so you might be surprised — shocked, even — to hear us speak ill of practice test scores. But here’s the thing: In the initial stages of studying, your practice test scores likely won’t fully reflect the progress you’ve been making.

There comes a point in every LSAT student’s journey where they’ve been studying for a while, have learned how to tackle a bunch of question types, and are ready and amped up to use those new skills on a practice test — only to find that their score has hardly changed at all from where they started.

As it turns out, there is a very good reason for that; for one thing, although you may know how to do the questions, you’re probably still slow as molasses (a very topical reference as we approach the centennial of the Boston Molasses Flood!). And for another, although there’s a lot you know, there’s also (at the risk of sounding demoralizing) a lot you don’t know, which is going to affect your overall score even if you’re improving on the question types you’ve already studied.

So although practice tests in the early phases of studying provide valuable feedback, in that you can use them to assess how well you’re doing on question types you’ve already learned, you shouldn’t get too hung up on your score. It’s very, very common for people’s scores to plateau for the first month or so of studying, followed by big gains as you wrap up learning new material and start reviewing old concepts and practicing timing. And you also shouldn’t blindfold yourself in the hopes of creating the next big viral YouTube video — trust us, it’s just not worth it.