My test day warmup and motivation worked!

Markmark

I felt like I over performed on last week's test and I'm typically a horribly slow starter. I wanted to share what I did that worked well for me.

The morning of the test I went on a jog, had a hearty breakfast, went over 10 LR questions at home and didn't grade them, ate lunch then got to the testing center about 45 minutes early.

After I got my parking tag I did my warmup in the car which included 1 of each of the following: MSS, Main conclusion, SA, NA, PmoR, weaken, strengthen, descriptive flaw. I'd already done all the questions before and I knew the right processes I wanted to get my mind into. I did 1 double layer sequencing game and didn't have time to do my RC passage but by that time I felt warmed up.

My motivation to stay focused and not get nervous for the test is a bit silly but it really worked for me. I made a deal with myself that when I reach my target score I want to buy myself a nice watch so I went in with the mindset of "today I'm going to earn my watch!" This mindset helped me stay aggressive in LR and not freeze or start slow like I usually do because I was focused on my goal and not letting myself get nervous.

The carrot on the stick approach really worked well for me, hope this post is useful!

DivineRaze

@Markmark Splendid! I do the same thing before a test haha. I jog, eat a nutritious breakfast, and go over LR, LG, and RC questions on my ipad in my car when I arrive at the testing place. I make sure I have some sort of goal to motivate me before I head in as well. I can attest that this definitely works!! I'm glad you feel confident as when I did this I hit my highest score so I'm sure you did great!

StayPositive

I like this approach - thanks for sharing! How did you select your warm up Qs? Did you pick easy/medium Qs? I'd like to try this but wonder/worry if I'll panic and freak myself out more or I'll pick Qs that I already know the answer to because I've done them. Thoughts?

Markmark

@DivineRaze said:
@Markmark Splendid! I do the same thing before a test haha. I jog, eat a nutritious breakfast, and go over LR, LG, and RC questions on my ipad in my car when I arrive at the testing place. I make sure I have some sort of goal to motivate me before I head in as well. I can attest that this definitely works!! I'm glad you feel confident as when I did this I hit my highest score so I'm sure you did great!

Haha that's awesome, we're so similar in these regards. Fingers crossed!! Did you ever meet your target score?

Markmark

@StayPositive said:
I like this approach - thanks for sharing! How did you select your warm up Qs? Did you pick easy/medium Qs? I'd like to try this but wonder/worry if I'll panic and freak myself out more or I'll pick Qs that I already know the answer to because I've done them. Thoughts?

I asked @Sami her thoughts on a warmup during her webinar this past weekend, if I remember correctly she does LR questions she hasn't seen in a long time and does not grade them, then does an LG and an RC for a warmup but tries not to overdo it.

I made my warmup document with 2 questions of each LR category I mentioned above so I can do 2 NA questions if I feel one isn't enough. When picking questions I tried to stick with generic 2-4 star questions, no curvebreakers just generic material. I chose questions I already knew the answer to for 2 reasons: confidence that I knew what was going on in the question and getting my brain into the process of properly working through LR.

For new questions in your warmup I don't recommend checking the answers. If you miss a question it could wreck your confidence. That said, earlier that morning I did run through 10 new LR questions but I did not grade them and I did them untimed.

StayPositive

Thanks!