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What's the most common LSAT mistake?
LSAT Test Day Warm-Up Questions
"How do I prepare the warmup? Should it be done in the early morning before I head out? I heard the waiting time is long and no material is allowed in the test center."
That is absolutely true.
You cannot bring in papers. You cannot bring in books, booklets, magazines, none of that. So your printed and photocopied practice problems probably won't be allowed in with you. So the question is how and where do you do them? If you're taking the LSAT in a more urban setting, then you might have a coffee shop within walking distance or maybe a very short drive from your test center.
If you're taking the LSAT a bit farther from home, then you might plot out a spot along your route to stop off and do your practice problems. You might have to do them at home or in the car, and if that's the case, no big deal.
The value in the practice problems is simply that the first questions you're doing when you walk in on test day are not the actual problems that count. So if there's an hour-long gap between doing the practice problems and the actual ones, then that's okay. You're still warmed up to some degree and it'll be enough for you.
Now, what do you warm up with? You can warm up with a favorite logic game, a favorite passage, a favorite couple of logical reasoning questions. It doesn't really matter. You want these to be problems that you've done before so that you're not totally freaked out if they don't go well, and you also don't even necessarily want to score that.
This is not to measure yourself. This is not to get a sense of where you're at. This is just to get your brain a little bit fired up with a practice run before the actual thing. So don't overthink this. If you can't do it for some reason, it's not the end of the world. But, sometimes people score slightly worse on earlier sections because they're not quite warmed up yet. Don’t let this happen to you.
That is absolutely true.
You cannot bring in papers. You cannot bring in books, booklets, magazines, none of that. So your printed and photocopied practice problems probably won't be allowed in with you. So the question is how and where do you do them? If you're taking the LSAT in a more urban setting, then you might have a coffee shop within walking distance or maybe a very short drive from your test center.
If you're taking the LSAT a bit farther from home, then you might plot out a spot along your route to stop off and do your practice problems. You might have to do them at home or in the car, and if that's the case, no big deal.
The value in the practice problems is simply that the first questions you're doing when you walk in on test day are not the actual problems that count. So if there's an hour-long gap between doing the practice problems and the actual ones, then that's okay. You're still warmed up to some degree and it'll be enough for you.
Now, what do you warm up with? You can warm up with a favorite logic game, a favorite passage, a favorite couple of logical reasoning questions. It doesn't really matter. You want these to be problems that you've done before so that you're not totally freaked out if they don't go well, and you also don't even necessarily want to score that.
This is not to measure yourself. This is not to get a sense of where you're at. This is just to get your brain a little bit fired up with a practice run before the actual thing. So don't overthink this. If you can't do it for some reason, it's not the end of the world. But, sometimes people score slightly worse on earlier sections because they're not quite warmed up yet. Don’t let this happen to you.
myths of the LSAT Mindset
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LSAT Test Anxiety Strategies
I'm going talk a bit about minimizing stress because I'm always getting a lot of questions about this.
Stress, nerves, and anxiety - a lot of this comes down to our brain's natural fight-or-flight response.
And there's a number of ways that we can deal with this:
Stress, nerves, and anxiety - a lot of this comes down to our brain's natural fight-or-flight response.
And there's a number of ways that we can deal with this:
Meditation
One of them, and my favorite, is meditation. Specifically, mindfulness meditation, where you focus on one particular thing: your thoughts. As they arise, and as they pass.
One of them, and my favorite, is meditation. Specifically, mindfulness meditation, where you focus on one particular thing: your thoughts. As they arise, and as they pass.
Just noticing them, acknowledging that, and moving on. Even just five minutes a day of this, even just over the next three days or so, would have an enormous impact. And if you're going for a test date in several months, then it could have an even bigger impact because you'd have a longer period of time to execute it. I actually have found meditation enormously helpful personally, as well as in my LSAT career.
I even have a little Buddha statute to remind me to meditate:
You might consider the same, but of course you don't have to associate anything in particular with meditation. It does not have to be spiritual in nature, and there are other kinds of meditation as well. You could do meditation where you just focus on your breath.
Again, notice a theme there. Focus. You could also practice loving-kindness meditation where you simply wish well for other people. And you might think, “Why is that useful? Because I'm the one who wants to do well on the LSAT.” Well, part of why you're anxious is that you're focused so much on your own outcomes and the importance that this is for you.
And if you take a moment and you think to yourself, “Well, there's a lot of other people out there who need help too, and maybe it's worth focusing on that. And you realize that everyone taking the LSAT around the world, all of the tens of thousands of people, they're all stressing equally and my stress is just one little bit of that. And if I could raise all of them up, then maybe I've raised myself up too. If for no other reason than by reducing my own stress.”
So, that's another thing you could be thinking about. Practices like yoga, practices like just getting outside and taking a walk every once in a while. That could actually be enormously helpful as well to minimize your stress.
Relaxing
Now, if you don't feel you have the time to do any of this, that probably means that you need it more than anyone else because you're stressing so much. So take the time. You might even just want to take a hot bath, a hot shower, spend some time you're watching TV the day before. Relaxing the day before is crucial.
So if you're stressing right now, just take a moment to plan out what the day before the LSAT is going to look like for you. If it involves taking a hot bubble bath, go buy some bubbles. Go on Amazon and order them so that they'll be here in the next couple of days and you could actually put that little tip into practice.
You could go in and get a massage. You can schedule that now, have something fun to look forward to. And you could also do the same for after the LSAT.
For more, I've got an entire playlist focused on LSAT Test Day prep here -----> and several articles on LSAT Test Day prep here ----->
Again, notice a theme there. Focus. You could also practice loving-kindness meditation where you simply wish well for other people. And you might think, “Why is that useful? Because I'm the one who wants to do well on the LSAT.” Well, part of why you're anxious is that you're focused so much on your own outcomes and the importance that this is for you.
And if you take a moment and you think to yourself, “Well, there's a lot of other people out there who need help too, and maybe it's worth focusing on that. And you realize that everyone taking the LSAT around the world, all of the tens of thousands of people, they're all stressing equally and my stress is just one little bit of that. And if I could raise all of them up, then maybe I've raised myself up too. If for no other reason than by reducing my own stress.”
So, that's another thing you could be thinking about. Practices like yoga, practices like just getting outside and taking a walk every once in a while. That could actually be enormously helpful as well to minimize your stress.
Relaxing
Now, if you don't feel you have the time to do any of this, that probably means that you need it more than anyone else because you're stressing so much. So take the time. You might even just want to take a hot bath, a hot shower, spend some time you're watching TV the day before. Relaxing the day before is crucial.
So if you're stressing right now, just take a moment to plan out what the day before the LSAT is going to look like for you. If it involves taking a hot bubble bath, go buy some bubbles. Go on Amazon and order them so that they'll be here in the next couple of days and you could actually put that little tip into practice.
You could go in and get a massage. You can schedule that now, have something fun to look forward to. And you could also do the same for after the LSAT.
For more, I've got an entire playlist focused on LSAT Test Day prep here -----> and several articles on LSAT Test Day prep here ----->
LSAT Flawed Arguments Worksheet PDF
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Cracking the LSAT Mindset (free worksheet)
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LSAT Test Anxiety
Let's talk a bit about LSAT test anxiety. I want you to take a moment and think this through:
"What is literally the worst thing that would happen if the LSAT did not go well for you?"
3-5 years from now, you’ll look back and you’ll say, “My God, my LSAT this week, this weekend, went disastrously.” What would the consequences be? Walk through that.
Take a moment, think over some of these best-case scenarios and worst-case scenarios. Sometimes it turns out that the worst case scenario isn't as bad as it could have been.
I was talking with a student of mine recently, and she was putting herself under a lot of stress, and she was feeling a lack of motivation, and part of that was simply because she thought that if the LSAT did not go well for her, she would have to go back to college and get a second bachelor's degree in order to become a masters in social work.
I happen to know quite a few MSWs. So, I was able to set her straight and I was able to tell her, “Listen, it turns out that you don't need to change what you studied in undergrad and go back in order to have another shot and to go onto grad school in that area.”
It turns out you can major in almost anything and get a master's in social work! And she was dreading having to tell her parents that she'd have to waste four years of her life and get another degree. Turns out it was all in her head and she didn't need to worry about any of that at all.
If you'd like more, check out my YouTube playlist on test anxiety.
Biggest LSAT Myths
I'm making a list of the biggest LSAT myths:
-You can't improve at Reading Comp.
-The LSAT has nothing to do with law school.
-The LSAT is an intelligence test.
-Take a diagnostic test before studying "to see what to work on."
-Take a practice test every day and track your results obsessively.
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What are some other common LSAT myths?
use this law school personal-statement-writing strategy
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