dailygrind wrote:
...it does actually appear to pass along useful and novel information (to the highly neurotic...).
Yes, I agree.
This post is mainly directed to those accurately described by the bold ^
TO: People obsessed about keeping track of the precise amount of time remaining in sections in such excruciating detail as described in posts in this thread and other similar threads.
For the sake of your test day performance/resulting score, calm down, get a grip, and think about this logically and methodically.
Every moment spent during a timed section thinking about how much time remains by repeatedly checking the clock and doing mental calculations about it are wasted moments not spent analyzing the material on the page in order to answer more questions correctly.
Moments of distracted attention checking the clock subtract from the time you have available to concentrate on/analyze the question content and answer choices in order to hopefully select the credited answer choice. People generally perform better when their attention is focused solely on analyzing the materials on the page to figure out which answer choice to bubble in.
Many students waste significant amounts of the allotted time-per-section as well as mental energy by obsessing multiple times per section about how much time remains while taking the test. That type of behavior typically causes increased anxiety and leads to a lower score than the student is capable of had he/she just focused mainly on working the questions rather than obsessing about time every step of the way.
With a good prep foundation, understanding, familiarity of and proficiency with (through quality prep, practice, study and review) the logic/concepts/question types/structure-format/good logical strategies/techniques, etc., prepared test-takers should not have to think much about or put effort into keeping track of time remaining per section.
Once one has the skills pretty well practiced and hopefully has mastered the test to the best of their ability, timing should fall into place naturally and not require much thought on test day or depend on timing reminders other than the status check/verification five minute warning. Something akin to where the five minute warning hopefully matches up to your internal clock/pacing to verify where you are at and/or gives you the 'oh crap, bubble in guess answers for the remaining questions and/or review and maybe change uncertain AC's before time is called' alert that is helpful if you are running behind in the section or want to review a previous question/AC selection.
People that end up being chased around by the clock in a mental way similar to the image below typically have not prepped/studied/reviewed sufficiently and/or have not practiced properly under simulated test-day conditions
HONESTLY when taking timed practice tests to gauge/predict potential score range. The churn-and-burn, spend most prep time mainly taking lots of timed practice tests mentality/prep method many students foolishly go with is a cause of significant practice test range to reported score discrepancies.
Some of this is probably why there are tons of threads/post on the forums with people complaining about reported scores significantly lower than their practice test score(s)/range.
I hope this post where I meandered into tangents off the main thread topic helps some people that are preparing to take the LSAT soon.
To put it more concisely, there is no instrument other than your well trained brain that will significantly boost the LSAT score you achieve on test day.
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