Mental Endurance. Forum

[InPursuitOfaPassion]

I'm wondering what strategies to employ in order to increase mental endurance. Admittedly, Im not at the stage where endurance is a top priority, but Im worrying about it and the worry is interfering with my prep.
Are full length exams 1-2 a week enough to increase endurance? Or should endurance be incorporated into regular practice by completing so many questions per session (which would differ from full length test taking in the sense that there is greater liberty for breaks, not necessarily timing all questions etc.).

[WaltGrace83]

I'm wondering what strategies to employ in order to increase mental endurance. Admittedly, Im not at the stage where endurance is a top priority, but Im worrying about it and the worry is interfering with my prep.
Are full length exams 1-2 a week enough to increase endurance? Or should endurance be incorporated into regular practice by completing so many questions per session (which would differ from full length test taking in the sense that there is greater liberty for breaks, not necessarily timing all questions etc.).

You don't have to take full length PTs to do this. Just prep for 1:45 straight, take a 15 minute break, and then prep for 1:10 - just like the test.

[Pneumonia]

Yeah don't prep in short bursts, and try to do back-to-back PT's once or twice. That helped me a lot. Cut down on tv and Internet too.

[InPursuitOfaPassion]

I'm wondering what strategies to employ in order to increase mental endurance. Admittedly, Im not at the stage where endurance is a top priority, but Im worrying about it and the worry is interfering with my prep.
Are full length exams 1-2 a week enough to increase endurance? Or should endurance be incorporated into regular practice by completing so many questions per session (which would differ from full length test taking in the sense that there is greater liberty for breaks, not necessarily timing all questions etc.).

You don't have to take full length PTs to do this. Just prep for 1:45 straight, take a 15 minute break, and then prep for 1:10 - just like the test.

Thanks! I was actually curious though if full length testing would be sufficient (I.e. enough) to increase mental endurance or if doing longer drilling sessions is necessary? My problem is that im currently trying to nail my approach to the questions under time pressure, but if I do too much of this in one shot my mind becomes too muddled with an overload of info and I feel as though I didnt take away as much from the session as I could have had I done less and concentrated on a particular weakness more.

Maybe alternating between longer drilling sessions and shorter ones throughout the week would work?

[birdlaw624]

I think I've seen people recommend taking 6 section PTs (cambridge offers 6 section PTs so there must be some demand for them). I would make sure to include an experimental section in your PTs as you get close to your test date so you know what it feels like to take a 5 section test.

[Straw_Mandible]

Take this for what it's worth: When you're a serious runner training for a 10K, you don't just run for 6 miles and then stop. You have to establish what we call an endurance "base," which requires that you do at least one long run of 15+ miles on the weekend, and a sprinkling of 10-12 milers during the week, along with your quick interval training on the track and strength training in the gym. Without those extra long runs to build up your endurance base, you might be able to make it through a 10K without dying, but you are very unlikely to perform at your best.

My point is this: Yes, you're training for a 3.5 hour "race" of mental stamina and acumen. On game day, you will not have to survive any more than the proverbial 10 kilometers. But if you want to perform at your highest potentiality, without losing focus or steam during the final stretch, you should be training for lengths of time that greatly exceed that 3.5 hour mark. This is why I am a huge believer in doing focused endurance training for the LSAT--where you throw on 2 or 3 extra experimental sections, or do back-to-back PTs and then jump straight into blind review. If you're worried about endurance, you should be going through great lengths to build up your base. Treat it like you're training for a 10K.

[Christine (MLSAT)]

In my last two weeks or so before the LSAT, I shifted my focus to be more on overall endurance, and to do that I actually took 7-section exams. I know that sounds a bit excessive, and in all honesty it may have been. But since the real deal is 3-break-2, I wanted to increase both parts, and do 4-break-3. I also did immediate review of those exams after a short break.

I think it helped me, because I was then *extremely* comfortable with the length of the exam. The adrenaline rush affects different people in different ways, but it's common for that to take a lot of energy out of you. The result is that you end up tired sooner on the real exam than you did in rehearsal. I didn't want to run any risk of petering out on a section 5 RC (god forbid).

Now, I absolutely do not recommend starting this sort of extreme endurance training very far ahead of the LSAT. This sort of exercise is great for building up endurance, and it's essentially terrible/inefficient for building up comprehension or fixing logic errors. This is only a reasonable choice for the final stage of your LSAT training.

What you should be doing now is pushing yourself just slightly past your comfort zone in time. If your brain shuts down at the 1.5 hour mark, set your clock to 1 hour and 40 minutes. You're absolutely right that you won't get much out of those last 10 minutes, but think of the study session as a two part training: the first 1.5 hours (or whatever) is to build your comprehension, then you are sacrificing the last 10 minutes as a sheer endurance building exercise. Make sure that whatever you go over in that last 10 minutes when your brain is mush gets treatment again in the next study session.

Once you start to feel comfortable with 1hr40min, up it a few minutes more. Increase in small steps, and realize there is an ultimate ceiling in the end.

[The LSAT Trainer]

Enjoying the discussion and just wanted to add some suggestions --

1) Work to habitualize a certain level of focus

A lot of students cause trouble for themselves by drilling a bit more casually than pt'ing, or pt'ing a bit more casually than how they would take the actual exam -- then, under pressure, their level of focus changes, and suddenly they start solving problems differently, and get exhausted more easily. Try to make it a habit that every time you solve any real LSAT q, you try to get the same absolute level of focus, just like the real exam.

2) Seek flow

(I imagine a lot of you are already familiar with the concept of flow but if you aren't please look it up if you are interested) In my personal opinion, flow is absolutely essential for high-level LSAT success (for high-level success in any intellectual endeavor, actually). Various issues -- time pressure, sense of self, the consequences of the exam, etc. make it very hard to get into your flow. Creating effective habits (#1 above) can certainly help with flow, but there are other ways in which you can encourage flow as well.

3) Try to minimize decision fatigue

Making a decision is kind of like a mini-workout for your brain, and during the course of the exam you are forced to make a lot more difficult decisions -- very stressful decisions -- than you normally make during your everyday life. And just like, when you get tired, your running form or shooting form starts to get messy, so too do your decision-making skills.

Obviously you need a ton of training to build up endurance -- but another suggestion I have is to try to do as much as possible to see the exam as a bunch of little challenges, rather than one big challenge -- that is, as much as possible, try to stop thinking about a q when you are done with it (even if you've marked it as one you might return to) and try to train yourself to not think about a section when you are done with it. By the time you go into the exam, make sure your section strategies are practiced enough so that you don't have to think about them -- ideally, you don't have to waste a lot of time or energy thinking about the section or test as a whole -- ideally are always able to just focus on the q in front of you, and when you are done with it, you are able to move on to the next challenge.

If you are in the middle of the fourth section, and can't get over a killer problem from the second section, know that this is essentially wasteful thinking that is tying up a lot of your mental energy. The more "compartmentalized" you can be, the better. I like to give myself a few seconds break after every game or passage, and I like to think about LR sections as mini-sections 5 q's (so that I check my time etc every fifth q and then "reset"). During the break in between sections, when everyone else is playing back the section they just performed (thinking about all the important decisions you just made, decisions you can't go back and do anything about anyway, is a pretty terrible thing to do for your decision fatigue), try to relax your mind and go into a ten second fantasy about hawaii, kate upton, whatever, then go into the new section telling yourself it's a brand new challenge -- silly tricks, but if you can fool yourself with them, they can help mitigate the impact of decision-fatigue --

As always, longer than I wanted, but hope that helps -- MK

[InPursuitOfaPassion]

Thank you for all of the responses. There are a lot of great take aways from this thread. First and foremost, I'm going to start increasing my study sessions by ten or so minutes beyond what I can handle so far so that I gradually increase endurance while nailing down my strategies. I will definitely be adding extra sections to practice tests so that the actual exam feels like an easy jog instead of an asthma inducing long distance sprint for my life. I will also try to manage my thoughts throughout practice so that I'm focusing more on the question at hand and not wasting energy on how I felt I did with other questions or whether or not I will fulfill my law school dreams (which really is an issue with me).

Thanks again!

[Psingh]

Yeah don't prep in short bursts, and try to do back-to-back PT's once or twice. That helped me a lot. Cut down on tv and Internet too.

+++11111

Completely cut out TV and stupid facebook and instagram. I can actually feel them making me stupid and they train your brain for valuing instant gratification.

[Pneumonia]

Yeah don't prep in short bursts, and try to do back-to-back PT's once or twice. That helped me a lot. Cut down on tv and Internet too.

+++11111

Completely cut out TV and stupid facebook and instagram. I can actually feel them making me stupid and they train your brain for valuing instant gratification.

As much as this hurts it is true. I already don't have social media and only watch a modest amount of television, but I still found cutting back to be really helpful. In TLS1776's guide to a 180 he advocates avoiding media entirely which I found to be unnecessary for me, but then again I didn't get a 180 so YMMV.

[mjr.don]

I subscribed to NY Times daily email. If you open the tabs in incognito, you don't need a subscription. Then I would read some NYT for 1.5 to 2 hours straight. I can't say for sure, but I feel this helped me maintain focus during RC, at least. Especially when my graded RC on test day was section 5...

This is not a solution to mental endurance, but can be a useful and informative supplement.