Practice Test Anxiety!

ilovethelsat

Hi All!

I’m planning to take the January test. I’ve already postponed several times (I’ve been postponing since June) and want to finally get it over with. I’ve been studying consistently for quite a while and have jumped from a 148 to 165+. My goal is 170+ and I think I still have room for improvement (especially because I just recently started properly BR-ing everything, even doing written explanations for my thought process). I’ll be graduating from a top 10 undergrad (with a 3.94 GPA) in May and then plan to take a gap year to work and apply to law school next cycle during my gap year. I went through the 7sage curriculum but also did Powerscore Bible stuff, had a tutor, and took a class. I’ve been doing lots of drills and now have recently moved on to individual timed sections. On the sections, I’ve averaging -0/-1 on LG, -2/-3 on RC, and -4/-5 on LR. I think that’s pretty good and am able to focus quite well during individual sections. However, whenever I have to take a practice test, I freak out. I find any excuse to postpone it and then when I actually sit down to do it, I feel incredibly anxious and unmotivated. I’m trying to do 6 section practice exams now in order to build up endurance, but I’m not sure if that’s the right approach. Maybe I’m just burnt out...any thoughts or advice? Similar experiences? Should I take the March test? Thank you!!

theLSATgrind2017

Have you thought about building up to a practice test? You stated you can get through a section. Maybe you could try getting through two sections and then build up to five.

I had the same problem.

Ohnoeshalpme

I understand this. You have to force yourself to take the PT - I promise you can do it. I expect that you have some ego wrapped up in your score. If so, you gotta cut that out. It doesn't help you. The best solution that I have for this is to take a PT every Saturday morning, starting at 8:30. Build your routine around taking that PT, no exceptions. Once you build up that schedule, you need to stick to it and over time you will start to feel better doing it than skipping it. You will also break down some of the anxiety and fear associated with full length tests which is crucial to have going into the test. Additionally, try meditating before the exam, and then start immediately after the meditation. Once you get the ball rolling, and stop thinking about how long it's going to take, you'll get sucked into your routine and you'll coast along until the break.