Before I took the LSAT, I repeated a little mantra to myself: “I will not get distracted. I don’t care if the person next to me hacks up a lung. I don’t care if someone’s using a jackhammer right outside the building. I don’t care if the power in the test center goes out and I have to bubble in the dark. Nothing can faze me.”

I think it helped. People study for this test for so long that they sometimes act like perfectionists about something they can’t control: the world. I know you want to take the test in ideal conditions, but you won’t. You’ll have a crappy proctor, or a distracting neighbor, or a flickering light, or a really itchy foot. Something will go at least slightly wrong. Accept that in advance and promise yourself to do your best anyway. Go in with the attitude of a Spartan. It doesn’t matter what the world throws at you. You’re going to calmly, methodically, do your job.