Hi there! I notice my biggest hurdle is my brain is impatient and I jump ahead when reading instead of taking my time. I have the biggest success doing thing like the games, but I need to improve as much as possible and I notice it affecting my scores, any tips are welcome!
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I've done two things the last couple weeks that have reallyyy helped my ADHD and studying. One being removing social media/short form content from my phone - it was just absolutely killing my attention span. I also started reading an interesting novel in the morning and at night. The practice of sitting there and making myself continuously read for a long period of time definitely built up my stamina to read RC/comprehend LR. I would also say practicing boredom in my everyday routine helps SO much. When your brain isn't constantly focused on the next immediate dopamine hit the test becomes a lot more bearable. (All of this has been hard but definitely paid off)
@Stacmay Cutting out short form content was huge for me too! I noticed an immediate score jump and just feel way more confident working my way through questions.
For me, I think the thing I have been practicing is just deliberately forcing myself to read slower. It sounds obvious/dumb, but if I tell myself to slow down to the point where I can articulate the meaning of the sentence I just read, it's my tell that I'm going slow enough to understand. You can speed up from there, but don't sacrifice your understanding! It is going to feel like pushing through a brick wall at first, but I actually noticed that my sections (especially LR) actually got faster when I started doing this, probably because I wasn't trying to re-read the stimulus over and over again to understand what it is saying.
I found using the highlighter makes me engage more/ slow down. For LR, I highlight the conditional indicators or the MC in the passage, which helps me keep track of premises and conclusions. Once I got more comfortable with the material, my eyes stopped glazing over. Need to find alterative dopamine hit, until you start getting the the correct ACs, then it becomes rewarding.
Hey!! ADHD has been my biggest hurdle, but I promise you it's not something that will hold you back. You just need to learn how your brain works.
When I started, I was the same way. I got impatient and rushed. I recommend trying to read a sentence, then stop, rephrase it, and keep going. Forcing yourself to rephrase will help you slow down, but it will also improve your understanding.
Also, read for fun. I have pretty severe ADHD and dyslexia, and reading a fun book outside of LSAT prep completely changed my ability to slow down and read on the test.
As hard as it is, deleting social media like TikTok and avoiding Reels really helped because my brain stopped being so used to constant, fast-paced gratification.
I was also granted stop-start breaks on the exam, and I really recommend applying for those. With ADHD, if you can lock in for a few minutes—whether that's one passage or five questions—then take a short break and let your mind wander, you'll often have much better focus by the end of the section.
Hi, fellow ADHD student here! If you are medicated, stay on top of your medication routine, especially if it helps you focus. I also recommend studying with zero distractions. I hide my phone or make sure I turn off notifications until I am done studying. I take breaks in between such as walking around my neighborhood. For RC, I would read books or articles and make sure I was building my stamina for sitting and reading over long periods of time. I also would switch up where I would study. Some days in my room, some days in the living room, some days outside. It helps kind of with the 'boredom' aspect of my brain and my fear of falling into a routine. Personally helps with helping keeping the brain active. Hope this helps.
addy, accommodations, hovering my cursor over the words when I start reading ahead (not all the time, just to refocus), and allowing myself 5 seconds to deep breathe when my mind wanders. Better to refocus than to plow ahead and get the next 5 wrong. No tiktok. Moving my body during the breaks in PT and before. Writing out some rules to remember 15mins before I take a PT.
identify what exactly is making you wanna jump ahead. Is it the time running? Just so much abstract words that appear like word mash? Or a combination of many things? Knowing this can be helpful to know what to focus on fixing first.
If it's time, build conceptual understanding that it becomes your second language. When someone comes at you with a causal flaw, you should be able to recognize it immediately.
If it's abstract writing, and for me, this was harder to identify. I thought all hard level questions were all the same. But no, when they start talking about morals and economic nonsense, i genuinely start losing focus. So figure out how to visualize it by relating it with things you already know about the real world. The LSAT does not want you detached from your own experiences even though at times it may feel like it. So rely on your knowledge about moral values and how the economy works in the real world. Or whatever it is you struggle with.
These are some tips i can think of. Slow down at first. And good luck with the reading because there's a lot of reading. All the time. :)
Apply for accomodations
Wow!! All these comments are so helpful! Thank ya’ll! I most certainly agree with the short term media and love the idea of reading a book for fun! Most certainly need to get back in the habit!
Get on addy and apply for accommodations , it changed my life.