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Isn't it smarter to go in thinking the LSAT is easy
Posted: Sat Dec 25, 2010 12:06 am
by anonymiB
Than freaking out about it before the test? And guessing the obvious and feeling easy and light about the whole test instead of worrying about it throughout?
Re: Isn't it smarter to go in thinking the LSAT is easy
Posted: Sat Dec 25, 2010 12:22 am
by megaTTTron
Yes. The answer is yes.
Re: Isn't it smarter to go in thinking the LSAT is easy
Posted: Sat Dec 25, 2010 12:24 am
by anonymiB
megaTTTron wrote:Yes. The answer is yes.
I think some people just can't do that and that's the real problem.
Re: Isn't it smarter to go in thinking the LSAT is easy
Posted: Sat Dec 25, 2010 12:27 am
by jtoppe2
i tried... still felt like cranial diarrhea
Re: Isn't it smarter to go in thinking the LSAT is easy
Posted: Sat Dec 25, 2010 12:29 am
by AreJay711
Ehh you can take it seriously without freaking out.
Re: Isn't it smarter to go in thinking the LSAT is easy
Posted: Sat Dec 25, 2010 12:31 am
by IAFG
i'll bet if we did a study, we'd find out people who thought the LSAT was easy have strongly bimodal scores.
Re: Isn't it smarter to go in thinking the LSAT is easy
Posted: Sat Dec 25, 2010 12:39 am
by anonymiB
IAFG wrote:i'll bet if we did a study, we'd find out people who thought the LSAT was easy have strongly bimodal scores.
What's your reasoning?
Re: Isn't it smarter to go in thinking the LSAT is easy
Posted: Sat Dec 25, 2010 12:44 am
by DeeCee
jtoppe2 wrote:i tried... still felt like cranial diarrhea
LMAO. Same here. Had to bum some Advil off a kid who had a broken wrist during our 15 minute break because I got a headache during the test by worrying way too much.
Re: Isn't it smarter to go in thinking the LSAT is easy
Posted: Sat Dec 25, 2010 1:04 am
by Adjudicator
It is best to go in feeling well-prepared and confident in your ability.
Re: Isn't it smarter to go in thinking the LSAT is easy
Posted: Sat Dec 25, 2010 1:09 am
by ArchRoark
I personally have never really had problems with test anxiety. I didn't go into the LSAT thinking it was easy, but I certainly didn't freak out about it. The following may sound like hippy advice... meditation helped to get me into a mindset that allowed me to focus on a difficult test, while not being overwhelmed by its implications or questions that I didn't feel 100% certain on. Worked for me... scored 175+
Re: Isn't it smarter to go in thinking the LSAT is easy
Posted: Sat Dec 25, 2010 1:10 am
by IAFG
anonymiB wrote:IAFG wrote:i'll bet if we did a study, we'd find out people who thought the LSAT was easy have strongly bimodal scores.
What's your reasoning?
the people who are right about how easy it is relative to their abilities and the people who are wrong
Re: Isn't it smarter to go in thinking the LSAT is easy
Posted: Sat Dec 25, 2010 1:10 am
by ksimon2007
Adjudicator wrote:It is best to go in feeling well-prepared and confident in your ability.
Re: Isn't it smarter to go in thinking the LSAT is easy
Posted: Sat Dec 25, 2010 1:42 am
by jerrymander
No. Assume the worst. Because you might encounter stained glass, and you should be mentally prepared.
Re: Isn't it smarter to go in thinking the LSAT is easy
Posted: Sat Dec 25, 2010 3:02 am
by benito
A couple years ago this pro football team had "keep choppin wood" as their team motto, meaning no matter what happens you just keep grinding keep going at it. They even had a makeshift tree stump and an axe in the locker room to act out the metaphor before games. It didn't work out very well for them as the kicker swung and missed with the axe, ended up severely cutting himself and missed the rest of the season. Nevertheless I like the chopping wood mentality for the LSAT, its a good one, no matter what happens how hard a particular question is within a section, or how bad you feel you tanked one particular section, or even the opposite if you think ur just crushing it and feel urself easing up a little, you keep that professional workman like attitude. Read the question answer the question. Keep chopping wood.
Re: Isn't it smarter to go in thinking the LSAT is easy
Posted: Sat Dec 25, 2010 3:18 am
by DieAntwoord
benito wrote:A couple years ago this pro football team had "keep choppin wood" as their team motto, meaning no matter what happens you just keep grinding keep going at it. They even had a makeshift tree stump and an axe in the locker room to act out the metaphor before games. It didn't work out very well for them as the kicker swung and missed with the axe, ended up severely cutting himself and missed the rest of the season. Nevertheless I like the chopping wood mentality for the LSAT, its a good one, no matter what happens how hard a particular question is within a section, or how bad you feel you tanked one particular section, or even the opposite if you think ur just crushing it and feel urself easing up a little, you keep that professional workman like attitude. Read the question answer the question. Keep chopping wood.
word.
+You should not have time for feelings.
Re: Isn't it smarter to go in thinking the LSAT is easy
Posted: Sat Dec 25, 2010 3:30 am
by 09042014
jerrymander wrote:No. Assume the worst. Because you might encounter stained glass, and you should be mentally prepared.
Disagree. The LSAT is easy. And you know almost exactly what a test will be like when you sit down and take it.
Re: Isn't it smarter to go in thinking the LSAT is easy
Posted: Sat Dec 25, 2010 4:27 am
by Ragged
+1 for this thread. Go in thinking you are going to dominate, even if you aren't strong in some sections pretend that you are when you are going in to write the real thing. Be more like Jay here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x4-ChcL6Pzo&feature=fvw
Re: Isn't it smarter to go in thinking the LSAT is easy
Posted: Sat Dec 25, 2010 9:40 am
by iceland
Desert Fox wrote:The LSAT is easy. And you know almost exactly what a test will be like when you sit down and take it.
+1
It's smart think the LSAT is easy because it is, in fact, easy. It only
seems difficult to those who have not prepared adequately.
Re: Isn't it smarter to go in thinking the LSAT is easy
Posted: Sat Dec 25, 2010 10:17 am
by kkklick
If I end up getting my target score this time yes I will agree the LSAT is easy. I also think that a test day environment is the X factor not too many people consider, and the ones that do still may have an issue. I only had an anxiety issue with the LSAT my first time but it didn't have an affect on my overall performance. I just went in to the test as if it was a game and I was trying to beat it.
Re: Isn't it smarter to go in thinking the LSAT is easy
Posted: Sun Dec 26, 2010 2:03 am
by T6Hopeful
Ragged wrote:+1 for this thread. Go in thinking you are going to dominate, even if you aren't strong in some sections pretend that you are when you are going in to write the real thing.
+1. Remember that even if you encounter something you THINK you've never seen before, you're probably just caught up in the moment, and you probably HAVE seen it before. Either way, staying reasonably confident will give you a better edge and a clearer head 99% of the time.
Re: Isn't it smarter to go in thinking the LSAT is easy
Posted: Sun Dec 26, 2010 2:06 am
by mths
not if you're not good at it
Re: Isn't it smarter to go in thinking the LSAT is easy
Posted: Sun Dec 26, 2010 2:09 am
by GeePee
I think the easy/hard dichotomy is pretty meaningless with respect to the LSAT.
If anything, it should be more of a confidence boost to think that the LSAT is difficult, but one is well prepared, than to simply believe that the LSAT is easy.
Re: Isn't it smarter to go in thinking the LSAT is easy
Posted: Sun Dec 26, 2010 2:12 am
by megaTTTron
GeePee wrote:I think the easy/hard dichotomy is pretty meaningless with respect to the LSAT.
If anything, it should be more of a confidence boost to think that the LSAT is difficult, but one is well prepared, than to simply believe that the LSAT is easy.
whatever gives you the confidence boost.
Re: Isn't it smarter to go in thinking the LSAT is easy
Posted: Sun Dec 26, 2010 2:13 am
by Adjudicator
GeePee wrote:I think the easy/hard dichotomy is pretty meaningless with respect to the LSAT.
If anything, it should be more of a confidence boost to think that the LSAT is difficult, but one is well prepared, than to simply believe that the LSAT is easy.
Yeah, there you go.
The LSAT is never easy, so you should never think it is. However, you can be well prepared for the challenge.
Re: Isn't it smarter to go in thinking the LSAT is easy
Posted: Sun Dec 26, 2010 2:22 am
by anonymiB
Adjudicator wrote:GeePee wrote:I think the easy/hard dichotomy is pretty meaningless with respect to the LSAT.
If anything, it should be more of a confidence boost to think that the LSAT is difficult, but one is well prepared, than to simply believe that the LSAT is easy.
Yeah, there you go.
The LSAT is never easy, so you should never think it is. However, you can be well prepared for the challenge.
No, I don't think this. The questions on the LSAT are easy, meaning they are not meant to trick you and if you had a long enough time you could figure out every question on there, and you would not need prior knowledge to do so, you could just read the questions and figure out the answers.
The LSAT is a time test, there are lots of easy questions but you have a little over 1 minute to do each question and lots of reading for each one, so you have to read and make a fast decision for the most part.
I think it trains you to read logical arguments clearly and quickly and make the right decisions on them, obviously a valuable tool for a lawyer.
I PT at about 167, so I may not be the best advisor on TLS, but I know a little about the test, that is all I can really say here, and these are my opinions more than anything else.