How do you improve your concentration? Forum

[lawperson17]

Hi everyone! I've just started to take preptests in my LSAT studying journey but I find it incredibly difficult to concentrate. I end up reading the stimulus 3-5 times and doubting myself. This in return causes me to become really anxious and rush through the remaining questions. I would really love some advice from top scorers on how to build confidence in my answers and improve my concentration.

Also, I think it might be partly due to the background noise. I've been taking the preptests at Starbucks to build a tolerance for the background noise, but I think it's doing more harm than good right now. Please help!

[lawperson17]

I've been thinking of taking the first few preptests untimed. Do you think this will be effective? I think I'll still have the issue of having to read the stimulus 2-4 times to fully comprehend the material though

[jfiaff]

Yes, I would recommend taking untimed tests in the beginning. Focus on accuracy and getting to know each question type. Speed will come naturally after you've gotten more familiar with the test.

[forum_user]

Hi everyone! I've just started to take preptests in my LSAT studying journey but I find it incredibly difficult to concentrate. I end up reading the stimulus 3-5 times and doubting myself. This in return causes me to become really anxious and rush through the remaining questions. I would really love some advice from top scorers on how to build confidence in my answers and improve my concentration.

Also, I think it might be partly due to the background noise. I've been taking the preptests at Starbucks to build a tolerance for the background noise, but I think it's doing more harm than good right now. Please help!

This is a terrible idea--all you're doing is wasting prep tests. Come test day, are you going to be distracted by conversations about all the bars someone got drunk at the past weekend? Absolutely not. You'll be surrounded by other people taking a standardized test. If you're extremely concerned about being distracted, take your test at a public/university library on a Saturday afternoon. Even that will be ten times as noisy as your testing experience will be.

If you're struggling with concentration, definitely try to minimize outside distractions for now. If you still find yourself getting distracted, literally just remind yourself to concentrate. Slow down and take your time so that you only have to read stimuli once.

[lawperson17]

Hi everyone! I've just started to take preptests in my LSAT studying journey but I find it incredibly difficult to concentrate. I end up reading the stimulus 3-5 times and doubting myself. This in return causes me to become really anxious and rush through the remaining questions. I would really love some advice from top scorers on how to build confidence in my answers and improve my concentration.

Also, I think it might be partly due to the background noise. I've been taking the preptests at Starbucks to build a tolerance for the background noise, but I think it's doing more harm than good right now. Please help!

This is a terrible idea--all you're doing is wasting prep tests. Come test day, are you going to be distracted by conversations about all the bars someone got drunk at the past weekend? Absolutely not. You'll be surrounded by other people taking a standardized test. If you're extremely concerned about being distracted, take your test at a public/university library on a Saturday afternoon. Even that will be ten times as noisy as your testing experience will be.

If you're struggling with concentration, definitely try to minimize outside distractions for now. If you still find yourself getting distracted, literally just remind yourself to concentrate. Slow down and take your time so that you only have to read stimuli once.

Thank you forum_user for your blunt input!

[W->T->F]

In addition, I do not think it is a bad idea to practice with background noise but only if you have mastered (or at least begun to get a handle on) the material (by the way anyone know the contra-positive of my previous sentence/conditonal?).

[Barack O'Drama]

Forum_User makes a good point on wasting PTs. You have to make sure you learn the fundamentals at least before moving on to full-timed PTs. I'd start slow, focus on accuracy, stamina, concentration!; then move on to timed sections. So, for instance, start with 2 sections timed. Then 3. Get comfortable and do 4, and eventually add an experimental.

Don't worry about simulating test noises and all that until you have a solid understanding and hone in on your concentration skills.

Good luck!

P.S. If you're taking in September/December join us in the threads! Great advice and a good place with kind folks to keep you motivated and ask any questions you may have. There are some great posters there that are Pt'ing in the high 170s who have given me so much excellent advice.

[mcat4life87]

Hi everyone! I've just started to take preptests in my LSAT studying journey but I find it incredibly difficult to concentrate. I end up reading the stimulus 3-5 times and doubting myself. This in return causes me to become really anxious and rush through the remaining questions. I would really love some advice from top scorers on how to build confidence in my answers and improve my concentration.

Also, I think it might be partly due to the background noise. I've been taking the preptests at Starbucks to build a tolerance for the background noise, but I think it's doing more harm than good right now. Please help!

Hi lawperson17, many top scorers read the stimulus or parts of it multiple times to make sure they fully understand it. So it's not unusual at all to need to reread. But make sure each reach is slow and careful---don't move on to the next line if you know that you have no idea what the line before it meant. Take the time to reread the line before it and then proceed.

You mention "rushing through the remaining questions". Please do not do this; you don't need to do every problem right now. Just do as many as you can with FULL CONCENTRATION and guess on the ones you don't get to.

[stig2014]

Hi everyone! I've just started to take preptests in my LSAT studying journey but I find it incredibly difficult to concentrate. I end up reading the stimulus 3-5 times and doubting myself. This in return causes me to become really anxious and rush through the remaining questions. I would really love some advice from top scorers on how to build confidence in my answers and improve my concentration.

Also, I think it might be partly due to the background noise. I've been taking the preptests at Starbucks to build a tolerance for the background noise, but I think it's doing more harm than good right now. Please help!

What section(s) are you having a hard time concentrating on, OP? I'm assuming LR and RC? I went through a similar problem and found a couple of things very helpful in my prep.

1. When you're reading a LR stimulus, make sure that you are reading for a purpose. I think Manhattan LSAT and Mike Kim's LSAT Trainer do the best job of teaching you how to do this; so definitely check those out if you haven't. The basic idea is that you should be able to recognize what the role of each sentence is and how they combine together to form an argument. When you are reading for this purpose it becomes much easier to stay focused and read diligently.

2. RC is more personal, and everyone has different ideas about what helps. For me, reading through newspapers like the WSJ, The Economist, and op eds from the NYT helped me to become more familiar with writing like that found on the LSAT RC section. Whatever your strategy is for RC, stick to it. And once again, be sure you're reading diligently and with a purpose.

Hopefully this is somewhat helpful. And once again I'd strongly recommend the LSAT Trainer if you haven't read through it yet.

EDIT: Forgot to add my thoughts on answer confidence. Rather than feeling like you're selecting a correct answer, feel like you are eliminating all but one. It's a lot easier to prove an answer wrong than it is to prove one right. This also should speed up your timing.

[lawperson17]

Forum_User makes a good point on wasting PTs. You have to make sure you learn the fundamentals at least before moving on to full-timed PTs. I'd start slow, focus on accuracy, stamina, concentration!; then move on to timed sections. So, for instance, start with 2 sections timed. Then 3. Get comfortable and do 4, and eventually add an experimental.

Don't worry about simulating test noises and all that until you have a solid understanding and hone in on your concentration skills.

Good luck!

P.S. If you're taking in September/December join us in the threads! Great advice and a good place with kind folks to keep you motivated and ask any questions you may have. There are some great posters there that are Pt'ing in the high 170s who have given me so much excellent advice.

That's a great idea! Thank you

I've been lurking the September thread but I'm nowhere near my goal score to contribute to the thread

[lawperson17]

Hi everyone! I've just started to take preptests in my LSAT studying journey but I find it incredibly difficult to concentrate. I end up reading the stimulus 3-5 times and doubting myself. This in return causes me to become really anxious and rush through the remaining questions. I would really love some advice from top scorers on how to build confidence in my answers and improve my concentration.

Also, I think it might be partly due to the background noise. I've been taking the preptests at Starbucks to build a tolerance for the background noise, but I think it's doing more harm than good right now. Please help!

Hi lawperson17, many top scorers read the stimulus or parts of it multiple times to make sure they fully understand it. So it's not unusual at all to need to reread. But make sure each reach is slow and careful---don't move on to the next line if you know that you have no idea what the line before it meant. Take the time to reread the line before it and then proceed.

You mention "rushing through the remaining questions". Please do not do this; you don't need to do every problem right now. Just do as many as you can with FULL CONCENTRATION and guess on the ones you don't get to.

That's actually reassuring to hear!

[lawperson17]

Hi everyone! I've just started to take preptests in my LSAT studying journey but I find it incredibly difficult to concentrate. I end up reading the stimulus 3-5 times and doubting myself. This in return causes me to become really anxious and rush through the remaining questions. I would really love some advice from top scorers on how to build confidence in my answers and improve my concentration.

Also, I think it might be partly due to the background noise. I've been taking the preptests at Starbucks to build a tolerance for the background noise, but I think it's doing more harm than good right now. Please help!

What section(s) are you having a hard time concentrating on, OP? I'm assuming LR and RC? I went through a similar problem and found a couple of things very helpful in my prep.

1. When you're reading a LR stimulus, make sure that you are reading for a purpose. I think Manhattan LSAT and Mike Kim's LSAT Trainer do the best job of teaching you how to do this; so definitely check those out if you haven't. The basic idea is that you should be able to recognize what the role of each sentence is and how they combine together to form an argument. When you are reading for this purpose it becomes much easier to stay focused and read diligently.

2. RC is more personal, and everyone has different ideas about what helps. For me, reading through newspapers like the WSJ, The Economist, and op eds from the NYT helped me to become more familiar with writing like that found on the LSAT RC section. Whatever your strategy is for RC, stick to it. And once again, be sure you're reading diligently and with a purpose.

Hopefully this is somewhat helpful. And once again I'd strongly recommend the LSAT Trainer if you haven't read through it yet.

EDIT: Forgot to add my thoughts on answer confidence. Rather than feeling like you're selecting a correct answer, feel like you are eliminating all but one. It's a lot easier to prove an answer wrong than it is to prove one right. This also should speed up your timing.

YES! I have trouble concentrating on the LR and RC. Especially the RC. If RC is my first section, I feel really drained and anxious from the start. I definitely need to dedicate more time to drill this section

Thank you so much for your advice!

[zeglo]

.

[darthlawyer]

Forum_User makes a good point on wasting PTs. You have to make sure you learn the fundamentals at least before moving on to full-timed PTs. I'd start slow, focus on accuracy, stamina, concentration!; then move on to timed sections. So, for instance, start with 2 sections timed. Then 3. Get comfortable and do 4, and eventually add an experimental.

Don't worry about simulating test noises and all that until you have a solid understanding and hone in on your concentration skills.

Good luck!

P.S. If you're taking in September/December join us in the threads! Great advice and a good place with kind folks to keep you motivated and ask any questions you may have. There are some great posters there that are Pt'ing in the high 170s who have given me so much excellent advice.

That's a great idea! Thank you

I've been lurking the September thread but I'm nowhere near my goal score to contribute to the thread

dude theres no required score to post in a thread !

[Barack O'Drama]

Forum_User makes a good point on wasting PTs. You have to make sure you learn the fundamentals at least before moving on to full-timed PTs. I'd start slow, focus on accuracy, stamina, concentration!; then move on to timed sections. So, for instance, start with 2 sections timed. Then 3. Get comfortable and do 4, and eventually add an experimental.

Don't worry about simulating test noises and all that until you have a solid understanding and hone in on your concentration skills.

Good luck!

P.S. If you're taking in September/December join us in the threads! Great advice and a good place with kind folks to keep you motivated and ask any questions you may have. There are some great posters there that are Pt'ing in the high 170s who have given me so much excellent advice.

That's a great idea! Thank you

I've been lurking the September thread but I'm nowhere near my goal score to contribute to the thread

dude theres no required score to post in a thread !

Yeah! Come on downnnnnnn Besides, I honestly suck. 90% of what I post is just asking for help. But there's always going to be someone who is just starting out who you can help. Sometimes the best advice I have given is what not to do lol

[PhiladelphiaCollins]

I've had the same problems in the past, but what has worked for me, as redundant as this sounds is when force yourself to concentrate. It's easy to gloss over a stimulus and not catch yourself, but as soon as you begin to feel that way, start trying to focus 100%.

Again, reading this over and the gist of my post is "the key to focusing is focusing harder" seems a little circular but I found it works for me.

[amta]

stop drinking

[lawperson17]

I've had the same problems in the past, but what has worked for me, as redundant as this sounds is when force yourself to concentrate. It's easy to gloss over a stimulus and not catch yourself, but as soon as you begin to feel that way, start trying to focus 100%.

Again, reading this over and the gist of my post is "the key to focusing is focusing harder" seems a little circular but I found it works for me.

Thanks! I tried it out today and it worked!

[lawperson17]

I've had the same problems in the past, but what has worked for me, as redundant as this sounds is when force yourself to concentrate. It's easy to gloss over a stimulus and not catch yourself, but as soon as you begin to feel that way, start trying to focus 100%.

Again, reading this over and the gist of my post is "the key to focusing is focusing harder" seems a little circular but I found it works for me.

Thanks! I tried it out today and it worked to an extent haha!

[pattycake121]

Adderall

[darthlawyer]

Adderall

imo youre better off not depending on adderall (meth). its not sustainable, and on the law path youll need lots of concentration for a long time (maybe forever?)

there are better ways. and if you for some reason cant keep concentration long enough to go through with law (which is no big deal, all people are different), im sure youre really good at something else.

[Blueprint Mithun]

Hi everyone! I've just started to take preptests in my LSAT studying journey but I find it incredibly difficult to concentrate. I end up reading the stimulus 3-5 times and doubting myself. This in return causes me to become really anxious and rush through the remaining questions. I would really love some advice from top scorers on how to build confidence in my answers and improve my concentration.

Also, I think it might be partly due to the background noise. I've been taking the preptests at Starbucks to build a tolerance for the background noise, but I think it's doing more harm than good right now. Please help!

It sounds like you're taking full prep tests early on in your studies. If so, that's probably a mistake. You should learn fundamentals first, and that will allow you to read actively for structure, rather than passively for subject matter. With regard to LR, most stimuluses are arguments, and you should be reading for argument structure as well as prevalent flaws. You need to have the prevalent argument forms and flaws memorized and be actively looking for them like you're hunting them. This activity will help you stay on target, and it will also give you shortcuts to finding the right answer.

You have plenty of time to drill yourself under time pressure before the September exam. Use this time to learn the fundamentals, and then bring them up to speed later. This is true of all three sections of the test. You have to get familiar with the different things the test makers do (and there is a finite universe from which they never stray), and then you can confidently pick up on them when they occur.