Experimental section, blek

[Chili Palmer]

Is there any way to know which one is the experimental section?  I've done a few practice tests with 4 sections and am really tired by the 4th section and have a hard time concentrating as hard.  I tried doing one with 5 sections by adding in a section from another test.  During the 5th section I felt like a grease spot on the floor and my hand hurt and that made it hard to even bubble.  Any ideas about how to deal with this?  I don't want my score to end up in the gutter cuz I got tired at the end and screwed up the last section.  I was thinking that if I figure out which one is experimental I can relax and not try as hard on it to save energy for the rest.

[Trainwreck]

I read something about the experimental section somewhere that was pretty helpful. I'll try to find it and then post it.

I get tired too when taking the test, but I've heard you can't do anything about that. You just have to practice until you have the endurance.

[Trainwreck]

Found it! Here it is: http://www.powerscore.com/lsat/help/experimental.cfm

Seems like you can't really figure out what the experimental section is until after the test, so you still have to bust ass during the exam.

[EarlCat]

Rumor has it that it used to be possible to determine the experimental, but that it has since changed.  The rumor goes that there used to be only two versions of the real sections released, and the experimental happened at the same time for everyone.  In that scenario (if that was ever really the case), you could figure it out by simply looking around the room.  If you only saw two types of sections (say, Games and RC), then you were in a real section, but if you saw all three (Games, RC, and LR), then you were in the experimental.

This is not the case now, as the regular sections are scattered and the experimental happens at different times for different people.

[Chili Palmer]

Rumor has it that it used to be possible to determine the experimental, but that it has since changed.  The rumor goes that there used to be only two versions of the real sections released, and the experimental happened at the same time for everyone.  In that scenario (if that was ever really the case), you could figure it out by simply looking around the room.  If you only saw two types of sections (say, Games and RC), then you were in a real section, but if you saw all three (Games, RC, and LR), then you were in the experimental.

This is not the case now, as the regular sections are scattered and the experimental happens at different times for different people.

That suckz.  I'm paying lots of $$ to be a guinea pig and do labor for them?  WTF, by us taking experimental sections aren't we doing labor for them to help make more tests?  And we have to pay them to do it?  It almost sounds like an Amway or whatever other scam.  Like the phone call I got the other day (unrelated to school or loans for school), "We have government payout for you, US gov wants us to deliver the funds to you.  All you need to do is give me your CC# and pay $100 processing fee and we will send you the $10k the government wants to give you."

Are experimental sections usually harder or easier than the real sections?  If they are harder I don't want to freak out and cancel my score cuz I felt like I got run over and screwed the pouch on a section that turned out not to count. 

[LSAT Eliminator]

Yes, you are paying to be tested on. That's just the way it is, and that's true for pretty much every other standardized test as well.

To a certain extent this is the only way the can continue to make a fair test. They need huge data sets tied to known results with all the real pressure of the actual thing. By testing on you, tomorrow's test has a better chance of being fair (and in that same vein, by testing on past students, your test is more likely to be free of issues).

Because they are trying to create actual test sections for the future, the experiment should be the same difficulty as the rest of your test. But, everyone knows that the difficulty of individual sections within any LSAT varies, so you may find it slightly harder or easier. And every once in a while they screw up and produce a section that is way too easy or hard (I once had an experimental games section that was so easy it was a joke. But--and this is why they do these tests--when it came back a while later as a real section they had changed some of the rules and made it harder).