Overthinking? Forum

[WeightliftingThinker]

I recently completed a timed PT in a quiet room. No one was inside except me. I scored high.

I attempted another timed PT in a quiet room with other people. Someone typed on their laptop while another ingested food. Some people moved around while someone else chuckled at times. Simply put, there were more distractions. I ended the exam early, noticing I comprehended the stimuli on the test slower.

Where should I really study? Common sense says the room with no distractions, but I'm concerned I'll be so used to a quiet room that come test day, the movement of even others' papers could be a distraction.

Thanks for any input.

[Deardevil]

Being inside a soundproof chamber is the ideal test location.
But on the actual thing, you never know what's gonna happen;
there are testers bombarded with construction or other noisy interference, so I'd say definitely practice with a variation of distraction.
A library should be good since it sorta emulates what you'll be facing: minimal noise is expected, but loudness is still not 100% guaranteed.

[Alexandros]

PT (and study, if you wish) somewhere with mild distractions. Good idea to switch up the environment too. You want to be used to taking the LSAT somewhere with other people around.

[cherrygalore]

I take my PTs in the most distracting places I can find haha. I figure if I can do it under those circumstances, no matter what happens on the actual day I'll be abled to stay focused.

[Blueprint Mithun]

I recently completed a timed PT in a quiet room. No one was inside except me. I scored high.

I attempted another timed PT in a quiet room with other people. Someone typed on their laptop while another ingested food. Some people moved around while someone else chuckled at times. Simply put, there were more distractions. I ended the exam early, noticing I comprehended the stimuli on the test slower.

Where should I really study? Common sense says the room with no distractions, but I'm concerned I'll be so used to a quiet room that come test day, the movement of even others' papers could be a distraction.

Thanks for any input.

I think taking preptests in a library or other decently quiet public space is a great way to get more used to distractions, especially if it's an unfamiliar space where you haven't worked before. You're not going to feel as comfortable in your testing center as you do at home, so it's important to be ready for minor distractions.

[Nonconsecutive]

Early on I would PT in as close to your ideal conditions as possible so you're more focused on the learning the material at a core level rather than simply applying your foundation to questions you haven't previously encountered.

That said, once you have the foundation, moving to less ideal study environments can be quite nice.

For instance, during my administration there was construction RIGHT OUTSIDE our windows on the roof, complete with hammers and grinders. It was horrendous, but I don't think it affected me that much in the end because I'd done a few PTs outside of a coffee shop near a busy intersection complete with trucks pulling out from a nearby factory.

That's a pretty bad scenario, and I'm fairly sure a lot of people in the room wrote LSAC about it because I later got an email about our center and the noise, but the point was I had prepared in a pretty crap environment, so when the day of turned into a crap environment, I wasn't really that phased. But don't start in the crap environment.

[Mikey]

All you can do is practice more around distractions. I can do a section or PT with minimal noise around me and it not affecting me, but it comes with practice. Now if there's construction or something going on, I'll lose my shit.