Someone’s coughing

Peaceofmind

When I was taking the September LSAT, there was one guy in the room that kept making this periodic noise of coughing-wincing. It wasn’t loud but was certainly distracting and he had been making that noise for quite a while.
I’m afraid that during the November LSAT, the chance of this happening will be higher since it’s cold now and many people might get sick but still come to the test. Have you guys encountered a similar situation like this and how did you manage to overcome the distractions and focus on the test instead?
TIA!!!

MissChanandler

You have to get used to testing in less than perfect conditions. Try doing PTs in coffee shops or libraries (like the first floor where people usually aren't as quiet). Or if those aren't an option, you can use the 7sage proctor app and set it to create some distracting noises.

BinghamtonDave

Try pt’ing in a public place, it might help by allowing you to practice blocking out distracting sounds.

Ideally, one should strive to have such a deep knowledge of the material that the possibility of annoying or distracting sounds being a deciding factor are greatly mitigated.

I’m reminded here of the inverse of the expression: a watched kettle never boils. The purpose of that expression is that if we wait on something, it might seem like it is taking forever.
Don’t worry about the possibility of a comparable sniffling/coughing sounds appearing on your November take, because the more you worry, the more you might look for a sound like that and so the more likely a sound like that will appear: an annoying heating system kicking on on a mid November morning for example.

I remember one time my wife and I went camping and we heard this really terrifying sound, it sounded like a child screaming. In the middle of the Catskills in the middle of the night! We were miles away from anyone else. It was a really bone chilling scream. One of the times in my life where I was really to the bone terrified and distracted from sleep: we both were. For the rest of the night we were focused on every crack, screech and wind gust in and around the cabin! The expectation of a sound that annoyed/frightened us made us super aware of all sounds!

Spoiler: it was a bobcat making that sound, we asked someone and google’d bobcat screams, exactly the same.

Know the material like the back of your hand, have target times you hit for your test day and focus on engaging the material on a deep level. There could be annoying sounds, but they’re not going to bother you because they aren’t a surprise and you know the material!

David

tekken1225

General background noise is, as long as it is not too loud, that's okay.

But when somebody makes those repetitive tics or sounds, like the OP mentioned, throughout the course of the test, it is indeed maddening. It's not unlike the proverbial nails on the chalkboard sound, it just gets to you. It is so annoying.

Lizadvocate

Correlation doesn’t necessarily indicate causation. Cold-> doesn’t necessarily mean more people will be sick & coughing!

Hopefully you laughed. Don’t psych yourself out! You have to get used to the idea that you won’t be able to control every factor in the environment that day. To prepare yourself for this, I highly suggest switching up your study areas. Don’t get my wrong-I love the silent level of the library but push myself to switch it up & go to a coffee shop or even stay at home & study-just different places so I can constantly remind myself to block out different noises.

Good luck-hope that helps!

Pride Only Hurts

So I agree with what everyone else said. One thing I'll add is don't get discouraged when you're studying or drilling or even PTing in a public place like a coffee shop. It's difficult to concentrate at first but you really do learn to completely ignore distractions.

cqas190517

Something similar happened to me, but it was smell. Someone next to me smelled. Like they hadn’t showered yet, and it wasn’t a BO smell, but their natural body smell was just not jiving with my nose. It threw my whole groove off, to be honest.

Louislepauvre

During the July test the woman next to me frantically flipped her test book over and over again. She slammed it every 3-5 seconds on the table. It was insane. I asked to move. The room was pretty big, so I could get far enough away from her that it didn't bother me anymore. But, then the proctors gathered right behind me and whispered about it for a solid five minutes. It did mess me up for that section. Going into the November test I'm having the mindset that no matter what happens I'm focusing on the questions. Chances are, something is going to happen that's not ideal. That's just life. You just have to keep focusing on what you have to do. Also, if you have some sort of obsessive thinking disability, you could ask for distraction accommodations, and be able to take the class alone in a room.

studyingandrestudying

Someone on a thread once mentioned raising their hand and saying "Please stop talking" and they were quiet after that.

Ari_Gold180

Assuming that you have a smartphone, download the 7sage and take some practice tests. The app has a feature that will act as a proctor for taking practice tests and will time you and give you the break for each sections. Within this feature, you can adjust a setting for how many distractions you would like to be played while taking the practice test and basically it is noises of people coughing and pencils scribbling as well as pages turning. If you take it a couple times, maybe it could help with you becoming normalized to those test day distractions. Best of luck!

Peaceofmind

Hey thanks for all the advice guys! Yea I would def try to practice taking PTs under less than perfect environments. Let’s stay strong for November all together:)