tips for improving mental stamina Forum

[longdaysjourney]

Does maintaining a high-level of focus through entire timed PrepTests come with practice? Any tips for improving mental stamina?

[3|ink]

Yeah. Watch 'The Hills'.

[3|ink]

JK. It's just a matter of practice. Keep taking prep tests.

[Sell Manilla]

Yes.
I know this isn't widely recommended, but you might try doing one basically every day at the time you'd be taking the test.

[yeff]

Some things I did to build mental stamina en route to a 99+ %ile score:

Took more than 1 PT consecutively. I think I did up to 8 straight sections without a significant break a few times, and also took 2 separate entire PTs in a day on several occasions.

Took sections in less than 35 minutes to practice completing them with time to spare to go back to hard questions, double check answers, and fix bubbling. After I was comfortable completing sections in 35 minutes, worked it down to 30-31 minutes as was possible.

What I wish I had done:

Prepared for the awful awful waiting that precedes the test. While there's no real way to recreate the nerves of the real thing, I wish I had done some Saturday morning PTs with a forced hour sitting with nothing to do. That aspect was the most shocking for me on test day, and I was definitely not in my element for the first section.

Don't burn out though - if you feel you are regressing, take a couple of days completely off.

[blink]

What I wish I had done:

Prepared for the awful awful waiting that precedes the test. While there's no real way to recreate the nerves of the real thing, I wish I had done some Saturday morning PTs with a forced hour sitting with nothing to do. That aspect was the most shocking for me on test day, and I was definitely not in my element for the first section.

wow very interesting stuff. never thought of this.

[navi786]

I just took 2-3 LGs and the economist to read... for the first 30 mins of wait.. then listened to some fav. songs to cheeer me up and avoid the dumb questions of "are u prepared ?"

[kazu]

a. always PT with an experimental section (i.e. test 5 sections). Sometimes, towards the end, I even did six...just for the hell of it, just to know that I could easily rock 5 on the big day.

b. develop the same pregame, and choose warmups that help your mind. For the last few PTs, I always woke up at the same time I would on test day, ate the same breakfast (bowl of honey nut cheerios, banana), had the same cup of coffee and smoke, and did one game before PTing.

Very credited. Also yeff's advice about preparing for the horrible wait before the exam - it took well over an hour when I took the LSAT. By the time we started my adrenaline rush was wearing off.

All of this only comes with practice though.