What do you do if you're sick and cannot read because of it?

fmihalic2

Hi everyone,

I have crippling allergies. My sinuses feel so heavy that I can hardly keep my head up. It even affects my vision. To make matters worse, I just ran out of my medication and have to wait until tomorrow to get it refilled. Obviously, doing trickier games when in this condition is probably not the best idea (I tried and failed miserably). You miss things that normally you would get, etc.

Is the move here just to wait until I have my meds? I'm itching to do more games and get even quicker with LR as I'm reading closer and selecting the correct answer with more ease each day.

It's frustrating that we're people and apparently aren't invincible.

tanes256

@fmihalic2 Hey! I have the same issues. Most times I just put everything away because it hurts to "see"! You won't be too productive during this time. If you know you'll get your meds soon just wait it out. A few days won't affect you, IMO. If you're trying to grasp something new with LR I would just forget about it until you're in your right mind. Obviously you can't just push the books aside everyday so if it becomes an issue and the meds aren't working you gotta seek additional medical help. This is one of the issues that forced me to push back my studies and taking this test a few times so you're not alone. I def understand! Hopefully you get your meds tomorrow and you'll be good to go! Good luck!

tringo335

Take a few days off and get some rest. Like @tanes256 said, it won't help to push through if you're not even retaining anything.

fmihalic2

Thanks for the comments friends. @tanes256 I will be getting my meds tomorrow, prescription is already in and will be filled by tomorrow, hopefully tonight! Today I'm just going to hang at the beach. I live in New Jersey so, 20 minute drive east and my feet are in the sand, at home I'm in pollen land with all of the farms and wooded areas.

The games to which I'm referring would be the well known 'highly unusual' ones. I still have over three months to prep and can do them now within JY's time suggestion and usually get -1 or -2 but these aren't normal, they are some of the hardest games of all time. I'm talking about the used and new CDs, Snakes and Lizards, Mannequins, etc. This morning I sat down to do Snakes and Lizards for the first time and that went no where because, as you put it so accurately, I could not see. In fact, in this moment I am operating mostly on muscle memory for my screen and keyboard are blurry.

With regards to LR, I'm done the curriculum and I'm in the -3 range mostly because I don't give myself enough time for the last 3 questions. So, for example, I will usually get around 22 of the first 23 questions right or something like that. However, throughout these questions I've noticed that I have an awful habit of "validating" my answer choice. I will read the stimulus while taking note of every word and making the necessary connections between the premises and conclusion, I prephase an answer and then, for some unknown reason I will reason all answer choices not once, but sometimes twice! Why? I don't know. So I'm getting myself out of that habit by just trusting my process. When I read the answer choices more than once when it's not necessary, I end up glancing at my watch at the end and say "OH SH*T!", 2.5 minutes for 3 difficult questions, here goes nothing. I then proceed to read the stimulus so fast that I get almost nothing out of it. This is not the move.

I've now done 3 timed/simulated sections with either people screaming in my house or my neighbor mowing their lawn and have scored -1, -2, -2. So I want to continue to do a timed section every other day or so in order to develop that consistency and confidence. We all do the curriculum and we "trust the process" (I'm a Philly sports fan, hope you get the reference) but until you do it yourself, it's hard to believe that you can be one of those exceptionally high scorers. Once you reach that level, the validation almost becomes an addiction.

I've been a bit prolix here but you know how it is when you don't have your meds.

Alex

Yeah, you got it. Wait for the meds. Not doing yourself any favors trying to put yourself through a day of prep that will end up wearing you out and being unproductive. A day off will probably will help you more anyways. Seems like you got some good advice above

fmihalic2

@"Alex Divine" I agree. It's funny, I was trying to do a really, really tough game and was struggling because I missed something that I typically would have caught without a problem simply because my eyes were half open. In addition, I felt awful. It's crazy how routine factors into the quality of each day of prep. For example, I always work out at 6:30 AM before beginning prep at 8:30 AM. If I don't get my work out it, I feel lethargic and mentally I am less athletic. To illustrate, if I get in my full workout and that same day I see a crazy game, I almost always conquer it immediately and emphatically. Without the exercise, that game beats me up big time for I feel different. I can't articulate the exact difference but surely there is a difference.