Pookie's LSAT advice

[V]

Pookie and Casper:

Thanks a bunch much for the helpful tips!   

[clora]

I totally agree with Pookie about practicing a section or two in the morning before the test.  It's so hard to keep the pace that you really need a warm-up to remind yourself.  Stay away from the really nervous people waiting anxiously outside the testing center.  One guy was so worked up I started to get worked up.  I also recomend mildly dehydrating yourself in the day or two before the exam to avoid the having to pee during sections.  I know it's not healthy, but it's a once in a lifetime kind of thing, right?

[writter]

go for a 10 mile run the day before the test.  There is nothing as important as a super-refreshing night's sleep.  Plus, hard core exercise causes you to wake up extra alert.

[vagrant]

go for a 10 mile run the day before the test.  There is nothing as important as a super-refreshing night's sleep.  Plus, hard core exercise causes you to wake up extra alert.

ROFL!  If I went for a 10 mile run the day before the test, they'd would have had to put me in the hospital.

[TDPookie1]

go for a 10 mile run the day before the test.  There is nothing as important as a super-refreshing night's sleep.  Plus, hard core exercise causes you to wake up extra alert.

ROFL!  If I went for a 10 mile run the day before the test, they'd would have had to put me in the hospital.

i'm with vagrant.  go on a 10 mile run if that's something you normally do.  don't do anything that's totally new for you.  if you don't normally drink coffee, don't start on LSAT day.  if you don't normally eat breakfast, well, start eating breakfast so you'll be used to it on LSAT day, because you really shouldn't be hungry.

[A.J]

I want to add to Pookie's list although it might actually be on there already (I couldnt get through the whole thing).

Stay off LSD as much as possible on Friday.  Last go round people were so nervous and so worried that I think it spread to other takers.  Dont psych each other out this time at least!

If you cant stay off LSD, just make sure you dont visit the LSAT board.  In fact, dont even talk about the test at all.

I am going to spend all day friday f-ing around making recordings with a friend of mine and then come home and watch the state 3A highschool football game, as per Pookie's advice.  Well, she didnt explicitely tell me to do this but, you know what I mean.

[jaxon]

i would advise you take large quantities of fish oil in the months before the test, also.

[LSATGuru]

One addition:

I brought my CD Player and rocked out to some Billy Joel during the break.  A lot of people will want to talk about the test, questions from the first 2 sections, etc...  This can be VERY bad for your following 2 sections. 

I immediately plugged in my headphones and started listening to music the second the proctors told us to put down our pencils.  I went to the bathroom, took a leak, and then just walked around and stretched out my legs.  I didn't turn off the CD player until they started handing back the tests.  I'm not claiming there's a direct causal relationship here, but I ended up only missing one on the games section where before I normally would miss at least 3 or 4.  I think being relaxed after the music helped me quite a bit. 

I highly agree with pookie about practice questions.  I had my mom drive me to my test site (about an hour away) and I did Logic Games Bible drills here and there, strategized, etc... When I got to the testing center I did about 15 LR practice questions.  I highly recommend only doing a clean copy of questions you've done before and got right, and not doing "new" questions and then checking to see how many you answered correctly--this will be counterproductive.  I also did one reading comp. passage just to get my brain into "long-range" mode.

I ultimately ended up scoring right within my normal band (161 - 164), and I was very happy I did so.

Good luck to all of you.

someone asked me for advice for the december LSAT today, and i started typing out what i feel like i've typed out 20 times before.  i made this one really comprehensive, and then decided to save it in a word document so i'd never have to type it from scratch again.  anyway, thought i'd post it here since it's less than a week before the december LSAT.

my LSAT advice

first, some day before advice: relax, do something fun.  and tiring, so you can fall asleep the night of.  my sister took me out for a day of girl stuff (got manicures/pedicures, went shopping for hours for graduation dresses, etc.)

NOT the day of: take a ziploc bag and put all your materials in it - pencils, erasers, one or two pens, your admission ticket, your ID (drivers license or passport; check your admission ticket for what other forms are acceptable), your timer, extra batteries for your timer, kleenex, your headache medicine of choice (i recommend excedrin tension headache for those headaches caused by stress), some little snacks (like candy bars and tic tacs).  set aside a bottle of water too; my proctors said we could drink water as long as they didn't see us drinking it.  dress in layers so you're prepared for any room temperature.  i wore drawstring pants since it can get uncomfy sitting in jeans for a long period of time.  if you're a girl, take whatever products might be required at that time of the month, along with some midol.

if you're not familiar with the test site, do a practice drive over there the day before.

all this week, get in the habit of waking up at whatever time you need to wake up on saturday, and go to sleep early.  i require 8-9 hours of sleep, so that's how much i slept for about two weeks leading up to the test.  also get in the habit of eating at breakfast, if you don't already.

allow enough time on saturday morning to eat breakfast and get ready and everything without rushing.  i would get to the test center SUPER early (like, an hour early) and sit in the car while you're waiting and do some practice questions (more on this in the next paragraph) and then just relax.

practice questions: ifound that when i took a test first thing in the morning, my first section was the worst because i was still warming up my brain.  so then i started doing a page or so of practice LR questions just to warm up, and my score instantly shot up to what it was when i took evening practice tests.  the day of the real test, i took a games section at home before leaving.  games were my best and favorite section, and i did the one from the blind diagnostic.  i got a perfect score, so it pumped up my confidence.  i drove to the test site and did some LR questions in the car, ones that i had already seen but i covered up the answer choice letters and ran through reasoning in my head.

what i wish i had done: one or two reading comp passages.  since i hadn't done reading comp in two days at that point, it would have helped me pace better.  what i suggest: do one or two reading comp passages that you haven't already done, BUT don't look at the correct answers afterwards.  if you get some wrong, you might get frustrated and go in with lower confidence.  and you probably won't learn anything new at that point.  just get your mind back in the 8:45 reading comp track.  if i had done that, i think my score could have been 1 or 2 points higher.  my first section was reading comp, and part of my problem was that i didn't pace myself well and finished just in time, whereas i had usually been finishing with several minutes to spare, which i used to review my answers once more.

when you leave your car to go into the room, leave your materials behind.  your prep is over, you've done all that you can do.  take a deep breath and walk in with confidence.  and kick LSAT ass!

best of luck!!

[writter]

go for a 10 mile run the day before the test.  There is nothing as important as a super-refreshing night's sleep.  Plus, hard core exercise causes you to wake up extra alert.

ROFL!  If I went for a 10 mile run the day before the test, they'd would have had to put me in the hospital.

i'm with vagrant.  go on a 10 mile run if that's something you normally do.  don't do anything that's totally new for you.  if you don't normally drink coffee, don't start on LSAT day.  if you don't normally eat breakfast, well, start eating breakfast so you'll be used to it on LSAT day, because you really shouldn't be hungry.

Ok, I guess I have to be literal.  I didn't mean that you should actually run for exactly 52,800 feet.  The point is that you should thoroughly exhaust yourself through exercise so that you will sleep well.

And even if exercise is not something that you normally do, I guarantee that exercising the day before the test will not be bad for you.

[BIG H2001]

I want to add to Pookie's list although it might actually be on there already (I couldnt get through the whole thing).

Stay off LSD as much as possible on Friday.  Last go round people were so nervous and so worried that I think it spread to other takers.  Dont psych each other out this time at least!

If you cant stay off LSD, just make sure you dont visit the LSAT board.  In fact, dont even talk about the test at all.

I am going to spend all day friday f-ing around making recordings with a friend of mine and then come home and watch the state 3A highschool football game, as per Pookie's advice.  Well, she didnt explicitely tell me to do this but, you know what I mean.

Yes, stay off of it on Friday.  Then on Saturday afternoon come back here and start frantically discussing questions and answers that you only have a vague memory of.  That will really help settle you down.