@ErinThames Thank you, Erin! I completely understand how you feel. I remember experiencing the same thing early in my preparation—untimed work felt manageable, but as soon as the clock started running, everything seemed faster and more stressful. One thing that helped me was realizing that timing is a separate skill from understanding the material. It took time and repetition before the pace started to feel natural.

For me, gradually increasing timed practice rather than forcing full exams right away made a big difference. The more exposure I had to timed conditions, the less intimidating the clock became. I also found that focusing on accuracy first helped build the confidence needed to work more efficiently later.

It's completely normal to feel nervous before your first official administration, but remember that this is only one step in the process. The fact that you're already identifying timing as an area to improve puts you ahead of many people because you can work on it strategically. Keep building your fundamentals, trust the work you're putting in, and give yourself permission to learn from the experience. You've got this, and I'm rooting for you!

I definitely struggled with stamina and speed during my preparation as well, so you're not alone. First, congratulations on moving from a 139 diagnostic to a 159 untimed—that's a substantial improvement and shows that your understanding of the material is getting stronger.

For context, I earned a 170 on the LSAT (approximately the 97th percentile) and a 515 on the MCAT (approximately the 91st percentile). One thing I learned from preparing for both exams is that endurance is a trainable skill, just like logical reasoning or reading comprehension.

A few things that helped me:

1. Prioritize accuracy before speed. If you're scoring 159 untimed after only three months, I wouldn't rush the timing process. Speed tends to develop naturally when your reasoning becomes more automatic.

2. Build endurance gradually. Instead of jumping straight into full timed PTs, I would do one timed section, then two timed sections back-to-back, then three, and eventually a full exam. Treat focus like a muscle that needs progressive overload.

3. Review why your focus drops. When I felt mentally exhausted, it was often because I was overanalyzing questions. Thorough blind review helped me identify which question types I was spending unnecessary mental energy on.

4. Practice skipping strategically. One of the biggest breakthroughs for me was realizing I didn't need to solve every question in order. If a question felt unusually difficult, I would flag it, move on, and return later. This preserved mental energy for easier points.

5. Simulate real testing conditions. Once your fundamentals are solid, start taking sections under strict timing with minimal distractions. The discomfort is part of the training process.

6. Focus on consistency rather than marathon study sessions. I found that shorter, highly focused study periods produced better results than forcing myself through hours of exhausted studying.

The fact that you're not finishing sections yet doesn't concern me nearly as much as the fact that you've already gained about 20 points from your diagnostic. That's evidence that your understanding is improving. In my experience, timing problems are often easier to fix than comprehension problems because timing usually improves as pattern recognition becomes more automatic.

If you're already at 159 untimed after starting at 139, I would view your current challenge as an endurance issue rather than an intelligence or capability issue. Continue strengthening the fundamentals, gradually increase timed work, and give yourself time to adapt to the cognitive demands of multiple sections. Many strong LSAT scorers go through exactly the phase you're describing before timing starts to click.I definitely struggled with endurance early on, so you're not alone. First, going from a 139 diagnostic to a 159 untimed in about three months is significant progress. That tells me your fundamentals are improving, which is the hardest part.

I earned a 515 on the MCAT (approximately the 91st percentile) and a 170 on the LSAT (approximately the 97th percentile), and one thing I learned from both exams is that stamina is a trainable skill just like logical reasoning.

What helped me most was separating accuracy training from speed training. I didn't worry about timing until I could consistently understand why every correct answer was right and every wrong answer was wrong. Once my accuracy improved, I gradually introduced time pressure instead of jumping straight into full timed sections.

A few things that helped:

• Build endurance progressively. If a full section feels overwhelming, do 10 questions timed, then 15, then 20, then a complete section. Treat stamina like increasing mileage when training for a race.

• Review more than you test. Most score gains come from deep review. After every LR set, identify whether missed questions resulted from reasoning errors, rushing, misreading, or loss of focus.

• Practice active engagement. While reading a stimulus, force yourself to identify the conclusion, evidence, assumptions, and argument structure before looking at the answer choices. This keeps your mind engaged and reduces zoning out.

• Learn to skip strategically. High scorers do not necessarily answer every question in order. If a question is consuming too much time, mark it and move on. Returning later is often more efficient than fighting through cognitive fatigue.

• Simulate test conditions gradually. Once you're comfortable, start combining sections back-to-back. For example, do two LR sections consecutively before attempting a full PT.

• Focus on consistency, not speed. Speed is usually a byproduct of pattern recognition. As you see hundreds of arguments, common flaw patterns, assumption structures, and reasoning types become automatic.

Most importantly, don't be discouraged that you aren't finishing sections yet. A 20-point increase from 139 to 159 shows you're already making meaningful progress. In my experience, many students try to force speed too early. Building strong fundamentals first often leads to much larger long-term gains when timing is introduced.

If you're already scoring 159 untimed, I would continue prioritizing accuracy and gradually increasing timed exposure rather than rushing into full timed PTs before you're ready. The endurance and processing speed typically improve as your understanding becomes more automatic.