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How important is bringing a watch to test day?
Posted: Tue Jun 04, 2013 1:40 am
by christam
I test with a digital stopwatch at home and have been getting pretty good at finishing each section with plenty of time.
The only thing I really change depending on time is switching from group to individual bubbling during the last 5 mins which the proctor announces.
Considering I don't want to buy an analog watch but I will if it is strongly recommended. How necessary is the clock?
I'd like to hear from people who have already taken the test, how much they rely on their own clock and from June '13 folks who are coming up to the big day themselves.
Thanks!
Re: How important is bringing a watch to test day?
Posted: Tue Jun 04, 2013 1:53 am
by californiauser
I tested back in December and am retaking next week. I brought a watch but forgot to set it for 3 of my 5 sections. It absolutely affected my performance because there was no clock in my testing center. It's more of a comfort thing for me more than anything, I suppose.
Re: How important is bringing a watch to test day?
Posted: Tue Jun 04, 2013 1:59 am
by Daily_Double
I'm not bringing one. I usually, almost always finish each section before or very close to the 30 minute mark. I have a few nice watches, and I don't think resetting them to, I guess some random hour, would really help. Also I just think that after one does enough stuff, the 35 minute sections become sort of a habit, and to use an analogy, if you start the habit of waking up at the ungodly hour of 5:00 AM everyday then supposedly, I haven't woke me up before 7:00 AM in months, you don't even need to set an alarm clock because your body is used to it.
Re: How important is bringing a watch to test day?
Posted: Tue Jun 04, 2013 2:03 am
by rinkrat19
It is not uncommon that the proctor fucks up the 5-minute warning (forgets until there's 2 minutes left, or gives it early and the group has to argue with him, etc.) Do not depend on there being a clock in the room or having a competent proctor.
Much better to take a watch, have it on your wrist or desk, and end up not needing it, than risking needing it and not having one. You'll never regret having a watch, but you very well might regret not having one.
Re: How important is bringing a watch to test day?
Posted: Tue Jun 04, 2013 2:06 am
by ManOfTheMinute
its just nice to have a quick way to see how you are doing vs. time... i mean, if you don't care about knowing that you only have 5 minutes lefts, but two passages, then it's not important at all
Re: How important is bringing a watch to test day?
Posted: Tue Jun 04, 2013 2:08 am
by Clearly
Is it like bad advice day on tls!? Did I miss the memo!? Bring a damn watch!
Re: How important is bringing a watch to test day?
Posted: Tue Jun 04, 2013 2:10 am
by rinkrat19
Daily_Double wrote:I'm not bringing one. I usually, almost always finish each section before or very close to the 30 minute mark. I have a few nice watches, and I don't think resetting them to, I guess some random hour, would really help. Also I just think that after one does enough stuff, the 35 minute sections become sort of a habit, and to use an analogy, if you start the habit of waking up at the ungodly hour of 5:00 AM everyday then supposedly, I haven't woke me up before 7:00 AM in months, you don't even need to set an alarm clock because your body is used to it.
Oh, well, if you have a few nice watches, by all means go against common sense.
There's no possible way that could backfire, and someone who has a few nice watches shouldn't be expected to use up any of the niceness of his few nice watches by using them on anything so prole as the LSAT. I mean, my god. It'd be totally different if you just had a bourgeois Timex or something, but we're talking a few nice watches here.
Re: How important is bringing a watch to test day?
Posted: Tue Jun 04, 2013 2:13 am
by Daily_Double
You're right rinkrat19, I could have phrased that better.
What I'm getting at is that, you can kind of, actually no, there's really not that much uncertainty here, you should be able to mentally know, based upon experience, when you are ahead of schedule, on schedule, or behind schedule. Thus bringing a watch really shouldn't matter. Especially since it's basically just a rough approximation of wherever you are. But that could also just be me. If I run out of time in a week I'll be sure to post here saying that I'm too cocky or something
Re: How important is bringing a watch to test day?
Posted: Tue Jun 04, 2013 2:16 am
by rinkrat19
Daily_Double wrote:You're right rinkrat19, I could have phrased that better.
What I'm getting at is that, you can kind of, actually no, there's really not that much uncertainty here, you should be able to mentally know, based upon experience, when you are ahead of schedule, on schedule, or behind schedule. Thus bringing a watch really shouldn't matter. Especially since it's basically just a rough approximation of wherever you are. But that could also just be me. If I run out of time in a week I'll be sure to post here saying that I'm too cocky or something
There's no way to predict how nerves and adrenaline on test day will affect your timing. In my case, I literally finished my RC section
15 minutes early, a good 10 minutes faster than normal. Which is insane. I would have had no idea that I had nearly 20 minutes to re-check if I'd been depending on my (usually fairly consistent) internal clock.
Re: How important is bringing a watch to test day?
Posted: Tue Jun 04, 2013 2:16 am
by Jeffort
The answer depends on how dependent you are on keeping track of time to keep a good pace and stay in proper mental form so you don't melt down, freak out, go way off pace, F'k up big time.
I think overall that being very dependent on a timing device in order to stay on pace and feel like you are on track in timed conditions is bad for hitting your peak score. People that focus on and monitor how much time is left/has passed frequently during each section tend to stress out more, make more mistakes, freak out/freeze up more which costs them points. Obsessing about time increases stress level, which makes thinking clearly, logically and rationally harder to do and it also takes time away from thoroughly analyzing the materials at hand.
Basically, in general, if you are heavily focused on time and have to or do check it many times per section, you could be scoring better and be more relaxed if you stopped obsessing and stressing soo much about keeping track of time.
Obviously it's a good idea to bring a watch so you can double check time and check your pace a few times if need be, but not if you are going to be distracted by it and constantly checking it. By test day you should have enough practice under your belt to know the pace you need to keep to finish each section and what being on that pace feels like. With a watch you should not need to check time any more than two or three times per section, four at most.
Anecdotal reports show most people that achieve high scores don't obsess much about time during sections and obsessively check it frequently, but rather just spot check every so often to confirm they are on track like they think they are. A fair amount of timed tests taken properly should build an accurate internal sense of time so that you have a good accurate feel for when 15 mins has gone by, 30 mins, etc. and only use the watch to spot check/verify every now and then.
Re: How important is bringing a watch to test day?
Posted: Tue Jun 04, 2013 2:20 am
by christam
I did not even consider the proctor fucking up, that alone has convinced me to go out and get a watch!
Any recommendations on what type? It should have a bezel (the little adjustable ring) to make things simple right?
Also, what do you guys think about bringing a grip of sharpened pencils. I really like writing with a sharp pencil for logic games so I plan on switching pencils after each game and I don't want to have to worry about breaking a pencil and having to sharpen.
So I am thinking 10 sharpened pencils just to be safe. Thoughts?
Re: How important is bringing a watch to test day?
Posted: Tue Jun 04, 2013 2:28 am
by Jeffort
christam wrote:I did not even consider the proctor fucking up, that alone has convinced me to go out and get a watch!
Any recommendations on what type? It should have a bezel (the little adjustable ring) to make things simple right?
Also, what do you guys think about bringing a grip of sharpened pencils. I really like writing with a sharp pencil for logic games so I plan on switching pencils after each game and I don't want to have to worry about breaking a pencil and having to sharpen.
So I am thinking 10 sharpened pencils just to be safe. Thoughts?
There will be NO pencil talk polluting this thread, take that drivel to where it belongs:
http://www.top-law-schools.com/forums/v ... 6&t=206480
Just get a basic cheap analog watch with big easy to read numbers and hands, figure out how to adjust the minute hand, practice with it a few times, make sure you take the watch on test day, don't think about this topic again other than those few things about it. Be happy and score well. Stress less over the next week, don't look for more things to stress about, try to reduce stress instead of increasing it.
Re: How important is bringing a watch to test day?
Posted: Tue Jun 04, 2013 2:43 am
by christam
Trolls trolling trolls...
Re: How important is bringing a watch to test day?
Posted: Tue Jun 04, 2013 11:06 am
by bp shinners
If you don't have a watch, you can't be guaranteed the ability to check the time should you want to.
If you do have a watch, you can be guaranteed the ability to check the time should you want to, PLUS you can just not pay attention to it if that's more your thing.
I always go with the route that leaves me more options.
Re: How important is bringing a watch to test day?
Posted: Tue Jun 04, 2013 11:57 am
by Pneumonia
Daily_Double wrote: I have a few nice watches, and I don't think resetting them to, I guess some random hour, would really help.
You don't have to reset it for it to be useful. You can just wear it/bring it and go by the actual time, noting it in your head or test book at the beginning of each section.
.
Posted: Tue Jun 04, 2013 12:17 pm
by 06162014123
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Re: How important is bringing a watch to test day?
Posted: Tue Jun 04, 2013 12:17 pm
by A. Nony Mouse
christam wrote:I did not even consider the proctor fucking up, that alone has convinced me to go out and get a watch!
yeah, the proctor in my first LSAT screwed up the time on one of the sections. LOLed at him trying to convince a room full of stressed-out wannabe lawyers obsessively keeping time that there were only 5 minutes left, not 10.
Re: How important is bringing a watch to test day?
Posted: Tue Jun 04, 2013 12:55 pm
by guano
californiauser wrote:It's more of a comfort thing
Re: How important is bringing a watch to test day?
Posted: Tue Jun 04, 2013 2:07 pm
by Clyde Frog
You can't have a good time without a good watch.
Re: How important is bringing a watch to test day?
Posted: Tue Jun 04, 2013 2:09 pm
by Br3v
Clearlynotstefan wrote:Is it like bad advice day on tls!? Did I miss the memo!? Bring a damn watch!
Re: How important is bringing a watch to test day?
Posted: Tue Jun 04, 2013 2:11 pm
by objection_your_honor
I use an $8 Casio that I've scored with a knife at increments of 8:45. It helps making certain strategy decisions like whether or not I can spend an extra 30 seconds on an RC question before moving on, or whether or I have time to eliminate every other answer choice on an LG question.
Re: How important is bringing a watch to test day?
Posted: Tue Jun 04, 2013 2:29 pm
by Clyde Frog
Who uses the position of the sun to keep time? Can we make a thread on that?
Re: How important is bringing a watch to test day?
Posted: Wed Jun 05, 2013 1:09 am
by rambleon65
Bring a watch just to have more options, but don`t get caught up on it especially if you haven't practiced with it all along.
From PT 1, I always used an analog watch, setting clock to 12:00. But if you are only accustomed to using a digital timer, don't get caught up trying to use your watch.
It's all about comfort and trying to replicate your PT experience as much as possible.
Re: How important is bringing a watch to test day?
Posted: Wed Jun 05, 2013 1:16 am
by sublime
..
Re: How important is bringing a watch to test day?
Posted: Thu Jun 06, 2013 2:05 am
by LDVM4334
if you start it at 12:00, it'll be at the 7 after section 1, slightly past the 2 after section 2, and slightly past the 9 for section 3. that's all you need before break.