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Before i begin this post, I do not care that I'm "killing myself slowly", "getting cancer", or "its a bad habit".

Sometimes I feel cigarettes are what get me settled and calm before the test, and other times I feel like it gets me out of the loop, not able to focus. To the smokers out there, have you seen any trends or have some insight on the relationship between taking PT's (or the actual LSAT) and smoking cigarettes?

I have no idea, but, you should definitely not try to quit smoking right before the LSAT. Definitely try to quit after.

Squintz805 wrote:Before i begin this post, I do not care that I'm "killing myself slowly", "getting cancer", or "its a bad habit".

Sometimes I feel cigarettes are what get me settled and calm before the test, and other times I feel like it gets me out of the loop, not able to focus. To the smokers out there, have you seen any trends or have some insight on the relationship between taking PT's (or the actual LSAT) and smoking cigarettes?

I feel like how cigarettes make me feel has a lot to do with a variety of other factors. If a slept well the night before and remembered to eat, then a cigarette makes me feel calm and collected. If not, I can get jittery or woozy. How often do you smoke? Have you noticed anything like this for yourself? If you're not a chain smoker or you don't need a cigarette to feel 'normal,' then I would say avoid smoking for the few days leading up to the test, but if you're an habitual smoker, don't change any habits until after the test.

I wouldn't recommend changing any happens before the LSAT. Whatever your smoking routine is, keep it that way!

I'd say just don't smoke immediately before any more PTs or the actual test. You want to make the conditions on test day as similar as possible to the conditions that you studied under. If you're having erratic results from a pre-test cig, I wouldn't risk it unless you're an actual smoker who can't make it however many hours without a smoke, or unless you can pin down some other factor that's leading to the jittery, unfocused thing you experience. In that case, well, just cross your fingers.

I'd also appreciate it if you could try requesting a smoking room when you check in on test day and report back to us on the results. Thanks.

Squintz805 wrote:Before i begin this post, I do not care that I'm "killing myself slowly", "getting cancer", or "its a bad habit".

Sometimes I feel cigarettes are what get me settled and calm before the test, and other times I feel like it gets me out of the loop, not able to focus. To the smokers out there, have you seen any trends or have some insight on the relationship between taking PT's (or the actual LSAT) and smoking cigarettes?

As with what everyone said already, definitely don't try to quit before the test since that's just added anxiety and cravings...

As for any insight before taking PTs, I think it's best to smoke if you have to at least half an hour before the PT...that way you have some time to kind of let the effect kick in and calm you down, or if it gets you jittery, it'll wear off by the time you have to take the exam.

I would also not recommend taking a cig in the 10 minute break, because of the reasons I stated above, but that's to each his own.

I would not consider myself a chain smoker, but I definitely have 4-5 on a daily basis. I'm taking a PT manana, so i'll probably have one 30 minutes before I start the test and during the break. Getting the recommendation I shouldn't quit is somewhat relieving considering I've stuck with this attitude without talking about it with other people.

I really don't know how much it affects me yet, and I'm probably gonna end up taking notes on how I feel, especially if having a cigarette during the break (for some reason I feel like this will make it worse). My buddy who took the test in October '12 told me to smoke as many as I could/needed before the test and said try to get in two during the break (his reasoning-- he is an avid smoker, and well...has his own unique way of doing things). He scored right under 160 for those curious, is retaking, and still stands by this.

I'll start recording cigarettes and trends and will report back to the others that are curious.

To the above post, when you mean smoking rooms, do you mean like an actual room I can smoke in? Confused by this one.

If you're addicted to nicotine, then make sure you get nicotine. Patches, gum, dip, or snus all work.

If you're not addicted to nicotine, then I'd just smoke one before the exam and quit stressing. Your time is almost assuredly better spent on narrowing down the types of questions you miss in PTs, instead of running control-variable experiments with cigarette breaks.

Again, too much dogma. Just do what you always do, it's a multiple choice test for christs sake. You will know the answer or you won't, if you're a smoker keep smoking, if you're not a smoker don't start.

The only thing I will say regarding smoking, is don't smoke DURING preptests. I was a smoker when I was studying and I smoked inside, so I would smoke during PTs, and you want to replicate the real testing experience with every PT, and obviously smoking isn't part of that experience.

Dude quit smoking. It could give you heart disease

Cheers Guys.