Post
by koalacity » Mon Dec 02, 2013 6:08 pm
Hi December takers! Good luck on Saturday! I posted this in the Retakers thread last night, but thought I'd post it here for the non-retakers ITT (apologies to people who saw this twice) in case it's helpful to anyone.
This is what I did for the week prior to October (everyone is different, obviously, but this is what worked for me):
Saturday: Visited test center (couldn't take it at the test center because the rooms were locked and it was super creepy inside the building), took PT 62 (178), worked out.
Sunday: Reviewed 68, watched 7Sage LG videos, very minimal LG drilling (like a game or two), worked out.
Monday: Took PT 69 (only got a 173), reviewed it, and worked out.
Tuesday: No LSAT whatsoever, worked out.
Wednesday: No LSAT whatsoever, worked out.
Thursday: Took off work, took PT 61 (175), reviewed some of it (never ended up reviewing the LRs-oops), and got a massage.
Friday: Took off work. Watched the 7Sage videos for PT 61 LG mid-day (intended to do this in the morning, but it ended up being later in the day than I had hoped) and worked out.
Most of all, I focused on destressing and taking good care of myself the week leading up to the test.
Unlike some people who recommend getting less sleep than normal two nights before the test (with the idea being that you'll be tired enough to fall asleep easily the night before the test), I focused on trying to get at least 7.5 (preferably 8+) hours of sleep every night the week before the test, because I knew I might have trouble sleeping the night before the test due to nerves (which ended up being the case-I'm prone to insomnia anyway). I am VERY glad I structured my sleep this way, because I feel like getting sufficient sleep the week prior significantly lessened the impact of insufficient sleep the night before (though I probably still got around 6 hours), and I think I would've had even more trouble sleeping if I had been sleep-deprived from the previous night (because then the pressure to get enough sleep that night would've been even worse than it already was). I also worked out a lot to lower my stress level/boost brain function, and ate lots of healthy (but not novel) food.
The morning of the test, I woke up, did some yoga/worked out for about 30 minutes, showered, and ate breakfast. I had intended to do 2-3 games as warmup before I left my house, but ran short on time, so I brought them with me to do in my car if I had extra time after I parked. I ended up only doing like half a game before I got too worried I wasn't going to get to the test center (like a 10 minute walk from where I parked) in time to pee before the test started. Moral of the story? Even if some little things don't go right on test day, it's not the end of the world.
Also, I practiced mindfulness (while studying, at the gym, at work-wherever) in the weeks leading up to the test. I know it might sound like some weird hippie nonsense, but seriously, I think it really helped me not become distracted or panicked during the test itself. Being mindful gave me the discipline to stay focused on exactly what I was doing on the test right at that moment, and not on the proctors walking around or the people tapping their pencils or noises in the hallway or thoughts like "ZOMG I CAN'T FIGURE OUT HOW TO DIAGRAM THIS GAME AND I'LL NEVER GET INTO LAWL SCHOOL NOW."
Anyway, sorry for the rambling. If you have questions, please feel free to ask!
Also, I would add that one thing that was really key for me was learning when to accept that I needed to move on from a particular question/game and come back to said problematic question/game only if time permitted. I had to do this with game 3 in October (the theaters game)-if I had stubbornly stayed working on it until I was confident of every AC, I probably would've ran out of time to do game 4 properly (which was an easy game, and I would've lost a bunch of gimme points). Instead, I moved on to 4, finished it easily, and was able to go back to 3 and finish the questions that had given me trouble without panicking or running out of time.
(except my co-workers who have no clue that i have any intentions of leaving and going to law school).
