Bad night of sleep = Below-average LSAT? Forum

[kpuc]

I was only able to get 2 hours of sleep before the Oct. LSAT due to simply not being able to fall asleep. I had been going to bed at 11 and waking up at 7 for a couple of weeks, but on the night before the LSAT, I just couldn't fall asleep. By the time I realized that it was a serious problem, it was too late to take sleeping meds like a Benadryl. I finally fell asleep at around 4:30am, and got up at 6:45am.

The thing is, I didn't feel tired at all during the LSAT, and I did pretty well in RC (-0) and LG (-3). Those scores were consistent with my PTs. But I got -8 for LR, which was worse than some of my earliest PTs. I had been consistently getting -2 to -5 in the LR for the 50s PTs.

I felt good about my LR coming out of the test. Could my lack of sleep have clouded my judgment (I can usually tell when I've botched an LR section). Anybody else have sleeping problems and got a score below their PT average?

[kkklick]

Same thing here, except it affected me elsewhere. Got only 3-4 hours of sleep, didn't feel tired at all during the test, but missed the very first LR and 8 more which is a bit more than my avg. Missed 5 on LG and I guarantee it was because it was my last section and I was tired. Missed 10 on RC. Enough said.

I don't know if sleep played a factor, but when reviewing the test I definately missed a few LR that I normally never would have. Haven't gone over LG yet, RC was just a crapshoot. In December I'm going to work out so hard that day throughout the day that I can't help but fall asleep as soon as my head hits the pillow.

[2Serious4Numbers]

Same thing here, except it affected me elsewhere. Got only 3-4 hours of sleep, didn't feel tired at all during the test, but missed the very first LR and 8 more which is a bit more than my avg.

I almost lost it looking at that first LR question. I just couldn't pinpoint the disconnect but got it through POE. Great way to start i know

[alphagamma]

This happened to me in June. My sleep was disrupted, and I did poorly on the test. I took it again in October, my sleep wasn't disrupted, and my score was much better.

So I think sleep definitely could have affected you. Retake?

[dcman06]

Bad sleep can affect performance on anything, much less the LSAT. But normally, let's say that I sleep three hours one particular night at 3 AM and then wake up at 6. At 6 AM, I'll likely be very groggy, but in about a couple of hours at 8 AM I won't feel groggy anymore and at least somewhat alert. That feeling lasts for maybe another five six hours. All of this without 5 hour energy.

[mtrl]

I think that, without sleep, you still won't do as well even if you feel awake. Missing sleep takes a toll that doesn't always necessarily result in tiredness. After the LSAT, I was on an adrenaline rush and felt like I could sit another test if I had to. Then, suddenly, I could feel how spent my brain was, even though I wasn't tired.

What I would suggest is taking a nice hot bath or shower before you go to bed for the two nights leading up to the test. Heating up your skin is an effective non-pharmaceutical way to induce sleep. I did this, and in spite of my anxiety I managed to fall asleep quite easily.

[niederbomb]

I did not sleep at all 2 nights before the LSAT and then only about 3 hours the night before.

Definitely could be the problem...What do ya'll think about loading up on sleeping pills?

Without drugs, it's highly unlikely that I will get decent sleep close to the test.

[gerbal]

I do believe that a bad night's sleep can affect test performance. However, in case you do have a restless night right before your lsats, don't let that convince yourself that you'll do poorly on the test. I had some nerves the night before, couldnt fall asleep until around 1 (went to bed at 10), woke up at 4 and couldnt fall back asleep but ended up doing well on the test. The morning of, I was angry at myself for letting my nerves affect me, but I didn't feel that tired so I told myself that I was going to be fine. I will say that I had plenty of sleep the week leading into my test tho, and a regular sleeping pattern for a month going into the test, and I believe those were key.

[kpuc]

I did not sleep at all 2 nights before the LSAT and then only about 3 hours the night before.

Definitely could be the problem...What do ya'll think about loading up on sleeping pills?

Without drugs, it's highly unlikely that I will get decent sleep close to the test.

Did your LSAT score fall below your expectations? Was it an unmitigated disaster?

If sleep is a big problem for you, then what about taking a drowsy pill very early in the evening? Usually, the problem with those things is that you feel groggy and dehydrated in the first hour or two after you wake up. But if you take it at around 8pm, fall asleep by 9pm, and wake up at 5am, you'll have a lot of time to feel fresh for the LSAT.

[jd20132013]

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[Sandro]

I had 2-3 hours of uncomfortable car sleep before the test. I missed the first LR question on Section 2 and the 3rd on section 5. I missed 9 total LR which was higher than any other PT i'd taken in months. I missed 8 on games, highest i'd missed on any of the recent PTs ( and i only guessed on 2 oct, compared to 4-5 on bad PTs).

I ended up with a score within 1-2 points of what I would need to be comfortable at my target schools, now I'm on the razor's edge at most and out at my top.

[kpuc]

Come to think of it, very early in September, I took PT 51 and also bombed the LR (-11!). I had been drinking the night before, and slept uncomfortably for about 4-5 hours on my friend's sofa. I was a bit hungover in the morning when I took the PT. My RC and LG were fine though.

Based on these two cases, it seems that mental impairment seems to be affect my LR mostly.

[motiontodismiss]

Sleep definitely affects your performance on the LSAT. Consider this rather nonrepresentative anecdote:

PrepTest taken with 3.5 hours of sleep after a full day at work, 45 minute sections=155
PrepTest taken with ~9 hours of sleep right after lunch, 45 minute sections=165

The tests were within 3 days, without any review in between.

Considering the raw score difference was a whopping 13 points, I'm inclined to believe that it fucks me up across the board, mostly on LR/RC (difference was +14).

Your brain just functions better when it gets its much-needed rest time. Rest time can skew scores by 10 points on a PREPTEST, what do you think rest time+nerves will do on the real thing?

[nStiver]

I got 3 hours. I felt like I did well on the test. I was very wrong. SLEEP IS THE MOST IMPORTANT THING for an lsat taker.

[KevinP]

I got 3 hours. I felt like I did well on the test. I was very wrong. SLEEP IS THE MOST IMPORTANT THING for an lsat taker.

+1
You are absolutely correct and this cannot be emphasized enough.

[Sandro]

I got 3 hours. I felt like I did well on the test. I was very wrong. SLEEP IS THE MOST IMPORTANT THING for an lsat taker.

I too came out of the test thinking I did well with almost negative amounts of sleep, thoughts of 170 if I didnt miss too many on RC and LG. Nailed RC on the head -3, -8 LG and -9 LR. Thinking back on my PTs I took right when I got up in the morning it was the same score, low 160s.......

[nStiver]

I got 3 hours. I felt like I did well on the test. I was very wrong. SLEEP IS THE MOST IMPORTANT THING for an lsat taker.

I too came out of the test thinking I did well with almost negative amounts of sleep, thoughts of 170 if I didnt miss too many on RC and LG. Nailed RC on the head -3, -8 LG and -9 LR. Thinking back on my PTs I took right when I got up in the morning it was the same score, low 160s.......

Wow, literally the same exact story for me. I thought I hit upper 160s easily and possibly a 170. 163 on real thing. God I wish I could go back and re take it, but this was my 3rd and final try...I was playing with live rounds. Now when I look back on things, I would literally just stop studying when I was tired. I had no experience taking an LSAT on little to no sleep.

[kineticx]

I have chronic insomnia, and was not surprised to get close to zero sleep before the test. However, I don't think it affected my test-taking abilities that much. The drop from lack of sleep was more than compensated by the adrenaline rush... I ended up on the upper threshold of my PT average.

[kpuc]

I just reviewed my Oct LSAT and while I got almost all of the tough LRs correct, I made many silly mistakes that I usually don't make (such as making multiple mistakes in the first 15 questions).

I'm guessing that the lack of sleep affecting my "auto-pilot" mode of thinking, whereas I was still able to fully concentrate on the toughest questions. IT was the moderate-difficulty questions that messed me up.

[niederbomb]

In college, I almost failed Calculus until I started taking Benadryl after mid terms and ended up with a B. Lack of sleep is ok with reading and writing tests, but any test that requires you to actually break things apart and solve a problem hurts anyone who is nervous or tired.

With lack of sleep, one would expect the score to be RC>LR>>>>>>LG. Pretty sure that's what happened.

Time to load up on sleeping pills and use them every night until December.

[hscohen]

+1 to pretty much everything in this thread.

Fire alarm went off at 2am night before LSAT, giving me about 3-4 hours of sleep, followed by another 1.5ish once the alarm finally turned off. Got -5 from my cold diagnostic, -10 from my PT avg. Retaking in December, good luck to all of you who are doing the same