All-nighter before LSAT

[metzger]

   I pulled an unintentional all-nighter on Friday, the night before my first official LSAT test. I had been dominating on my LSAT practice tests, so I wasn't nervous. I just couldn't sleep. I think the situation was analagous to a "Seinfeld" episode I recently watched. After Elaine reveals that she has often faked orgasms, George begins to wonder whether his girlfriend is faking with him. He worrys so much about his performance that he becomes impotent.
 
  I think the same thing happened to me. I never think about sleep; I just set my alarm, get in bed and sleep eventually comes. On Friday, I was conscious of needing to fall asleep so that I would be well-rested for the test on Saturday. It didn't help that I was planning on waking up at 7 AM for the LSATs, when I hadn't woken up before 10 AM yet this semester. I tried to go to bed too early, and sleep didn't come. The blame for this, of course, falls squarely on me. I did no sleeping "prep". Like I said, 7 AM was several hours earlier than I had intentionally woken up for a long time. I went to bed at a different time every night this past week and didn't do enough to tire myself out on Friday.

  I contemplated flat-out skipping the test (how could I go without any sleep?) but then I discovered that the next test wasn't until June. I have no idea where I will be living come June and where the closest test center will be. I decided to give the test a shot, knowing that I could cancel my score if I bombed.

 Surprisingly, once the test started and the adrenaline began to flow, I had no trouble focusing or thinking straight. I breezed through the first two sections. The third (experimental) section was mind-blowingly easy. I am confident in my performance on the second LR passage as well. The RC section was the most difficult, but I still felt alright about it.

 I can usually judge reasonably well how I scored on the LSAT practice tests I've taken, and I'm hoping that is the case with this test, too. I would be shocked if I scored lower than a 172 and I may have scored as high as a 176/177 (depending on what the scaling is, of course). This matters for nothing except my foolish pride, but the high score at my school this year is 174. I really want to top that. Doing it after a night of zero sleep would especially sweet.

 My only worry is that in my sleep-deprived condition, what I thought were easy questions were somehow much more difficult than I thought.  If I were to re-take the LSATs, things could not possibly go any worse the night before. The problem is that I percieve myself as having done much too well to consider canceling this score. I'm just going to have faith in my test-taking abilities and cross my fingers that I'm not making a big mistake.

 

[Fidelio]

I worked out the day before the LSAT did a ton of cardio.  I think that helped me fall asleep so easily. 

[nowayman]

You should cancel Metzeger.  Seriously. 

There are just so many things that could have gone wrong. 

Have you ever seen one of those police videos where they pull a man over for a suspected DWI, and it just turns out the guy hasn't been to sleep in 52 hours?

["V"]

For my LSAT games section, I got freaked and froze for about 15 minutes. Then I focused and blizted through the rest faster than I had EVER gone through games (my weakest section). After the test, I figured I either got them mostly right, or had just 'thought' they clicked, and gotten them mostly wrong.

I went through the same thing you did. When my test came back, I'd only missed 2 in logic games. One of my all time high scores in that section.

It could have gone the other way though. But for me, the deciding factor was simply that I NEVER wanted to take the lsat again, so I risked it. Honestly, you have to get a feel for how you did, if you think you did great, I say keep it. If the nagging feelign that you were misreading question stems or such comes up though, I would suggest seriously considering a cancel.

My thoughts

[babu134]

Do not cancel!  I had been scoring in the high 170s in practice LSATs and was planning to go for a perfect score.  The day of the test I took a caffeine pill and could not concentrate during one section.  I predicted my score would be a 171--excellent, but far below what I had been hitting in practice.

When my scores arrived, I was correct.  171.  The point here is that if you have the potential to take a great test, as you do, your gauge of your own performance is probably accurate, and if you feel you're in the +175 range, you probably are. 

On a side note, I decided to party the rest of the year rather than take the test again.  And I ended up getting into Stanford, my first choice!  Everything worked out in the end.

[metzger]

You should cancel Metzeger.  Seriously. 

There are just so many things that could have gone wrong. 

Have you ever seen one of those police videos where they pull a man over for a suspected DWI, and it just turns out the guy hasn't been to sleep in 52 hours?

 I was a bit worried about that. I thought the test was going well, but what if my lack of sleep was distorting my perception of reality? 

 Anyway, it turns out I got a 177. 

 Sleep? Who needs sleep?

[metzger]

Do not cancel!  I had been scoring in the high 170s in practice LSATs and was planning to go for a perfect score.  The day of the test I took a caffeine pill and could not concentrate during one section.  I predicted my score would be a 171--excellent, but far below what I had been hitting in practice.

When my scores arrived, I was correct.  171.  The point here is that if you have the potential to take a great test, as you do, your gauge of your own performance is probably accurate, and if you feel you're in the +175 range, you probably are. 

On a side note, I decided to party the rest of the year rather than take the test again.  And I ended up getting into Stanford, my first choice!  Everything worked out in the end.

 Good advice. You turned out to be right.


 Stanford? Not bad, not bad at all. Congrats.

[uppitysquire]

Ah, what bad luck.  I guess not everyone can get a 180 like me, huh?  I wish it could be, but unfortunately that's not how the world works...makes me sad.

But I'll get over it. 

[nowayman]

You should cancel Metzeger.  Seriously. 

There are just so many things that could have gone wrong. 

Have you ever seen one of those police videos where they pull a man over for a suspected DWI, and it just turns out the guy hasn't been to sleep in 52 hours?

 I was a bit worried about that. I thought the test was going well, but what if my lack of sleep was distorting my perception of reality? 

 Anyway, it turns out I got a 177. 

 Sleep? Who needs sleep?

Yeah, I'm glad it turned out for the best.  You had me scared enough that I made to check up on someone I know nothing about a few weeks later, lol.  It was such a huge gamble.

Anyways, congrats.  Go celebrate.

[magnumalv]

way to go metzger.