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A person I know said that this is a way to "warm up the mind." Has anyone tried it? He said to wake up, take two practice sections, then go into the real thing.

I think this is terrible advice. But he got a 175 and just graduated from CLS.

Bronx Bum wrote:A person I know said that this is a way to "warm up the mind." Has anyone tried it? He said to wake up, take two practice sections, then go into the real thing.

I think this is terrible advice. But he got a 175 and just graduated from CLS.

It's all a matter of opinion. Most people advocate to work through one section of LR and one or two LGs UNTIMED, and not to grade yourself.

The LSAT is long as hell. I wouldn't push it, but a warm-up is definitely necessary.

My approach:

favorite game untimed

easy reading comp section untimed

1-10 of a LR section untimed

I recommend 10 LR questions that you got wrong from your first practice tests but now you understand, and one easy game that you have on lock. DO NOT try new stuff on game day to warm up. It also skip any RC because that is just going to tire you out.

I had success doing 8 or so LR questions, 1 game I am very comfortable with that I may have struggled with early in my studies, and no RC. Reading RC doesn't prep me for the RC section any more than doing LR does.

I did about 8 LR questions, 1 game, and 1 reading passage the morning before my exam. Just as a warm up to get in the right mindset.

And they were all new material.

I plan to do 2 LGs, which is my normal PT warmup.

I plan on praying to a various bunch of religious entities that I will not get an experimental LG

crestor wrote:I plan on praying to a various bunch of religious entities that I will not get an experimental LG

This.

I may have come to being adept at LG and I can certainly say that I'm infinitely more proficient in this section I thought I'd be 2 months ago, but I will never prefer it to RC or LR.

Bronx Bum wrote:A person I know said that this is a way to "warm up the mind." Has anyone tried it? He said to wake up, take two practice sections, then go into the real thing.

I think this is terrible advice. But he got a 175 and just graduated from CLS.

It's great advice. It has little to do with "warming up the mind" (although the person you know is wrong about that too). It has to do with reassuring yourself that you can do the work when you are stressed. It's just psychological preparation.

edit: I would time and I would check your answers. But keep it to 4 or 5 LR questions and 1 or 2 LG games. If you are in the zone, you'll be sucking all the glucose into your brain as you can. You might even experience some lightheartedness halfway through the test. Some raisins will help that. But don't start the test so drained that you get exhausted before it's over. So do take it easy on the warmup. But it has to be timed and checked because that accomplishes the psychological purpose of the warmup--prove to yourself that you can hit your target under stress.

It's kind of like a physical warmup. When a batter gets ready to swing, he's just very gently moving his arms as he expects them to move when he's at bat. He's not actually warming up--his muscles are fine. He's been playing for several innings. He is just mentally confirming his stroke before he gets to the plate.

edit: You might make mistakes in your warmup. I did. Just refocus and redo. Just get the stroke right. If you make your first boneheaded mistakes during the actual test, you could spiral out of control and never recover. Use the warmup as a chance to get a grip before the test starts.

Lg exp over RC any day for me.

Less stressful for the mind.

Masturbation before the test is proven to produce results.

I agree with the idea of doing some questions untimed from each section before the actual test.

I tried that on a few PT's - definitely did a LOT better on them when I did the untimed questions beforehand than when I simply sat down and did the PT without the warm-up questions. In my opinion the likely cause of this was that the practice questions made me get into 'the mode'/activated those neural pathways.

As a former cross country and track runner, I believe the methods are similar - before a big race we often did a few warm-up laps first around the course (sometimes even doing the entire course once through before the actual race through the course) because it gets your body warmed-up and activated. People who simply ran without any warm-up always got lots of cramps and whatnot. Same with the LSAT (except replace stomach cramps with brain cramps lol).

1 RC passage, 10 LR questions and one game section is my warm-up plan.