A Tip on Beating Mid Section Stress

Lucas Carter

There is no worse feeling during a timed section than when you come across a difficult question, have trouble processing it, and feel like you should be able to answer it. You start to question why you can't do it, why your brain isn't working, thinking about the clock, and how you NEED to get this one correct and NEED to do so quickly. This stress can quickly compound and sometimes even render you staring blankly at the page wondering if you can ever do well on the LSAT.

This has happened to me many times during practice and unfortunately many times during real takes; it is not fun. So why does this happen? I think that we tend to take how we feel at the present point in time and assume that we will feel that way for the indefinite future. For example, when we come across a really tough question that we are not understanding, we tend to think that that feeling of difficulty and inadequacy will remain for the rest of the section, rest of our test, and ultimately the rest of our lives. This becomes a very scary prospect. When this is on our mind, it becomes nearly impossible to think objectively or rationally. The idea of hell is so scary because it involves the infinite feeling of suffering.

So, how do you prevent and effectively manage stress before it snowballs? First, know that it is going to be present. No matter how good you are at this test, there will always be very tough questions and ones which do not even come close to clicking at first. Stress and adversity are inevitable. I have found that the key is recognizing stress when it begins. Try to realize when your mind begins to feel uncomfortable and like a question has rendered you weak and powerless. Remind yourself that you have come across some adversity and that this is completely expected and normal. The difficulty that you are having now with this one question is not permanent and you can/will pop right back up for the next one. Move on to the next question with confidence and be ready to skip that one too if it does not click!

This takes practice, but try to recognize the stress/fear/doubt as soon as it arises, tell yourself you were expecting it, and that it will not shake you. When I am hit with stress during a timed section, I like to think "ahhhh there you are! I knew you were coming, but you will not trick me this time." During a timed section you will inevitably think that you can't or that your mojo isn't there, but I promise it usually is! In short, don't project how you feel in the present about a question onto the rest of the test!

The Great White Shark

Lucas, do you think this issue could be responsible for the difference between timed score and BR score?

Lucas Carter

@Stellaluna said:
Lucas, do you think this issue could be responsible for the difference between timed score and BR score?

For sure! Time constraints create a challenge to the test that is not present during BR; It is much easier solving questions with unlimited time to think and digest.

Michael.Cinco

Very good point Lucas!

I believe what you mentioned above is critical to delivering to your potential contest day. Being self aware of what you're feeling and being able to self regulate through the process will help you out tremendously. It's one of the things you have to manage intelligently during the exam so it doesn't get you.

In my experience people react to this kind of stress in predictable ways. I'll list some below along with strategies on how to deal with them.

1. They become combative:

We've been there, we run into a logic game, RC passage or LR question and for whatever reason we get fixated on it and sink a large amount of time trying to get it right. This is a losing proposition, the upside is a set amount of points but the extreme downside is that you are blowing valuable seconds or minutes on questions that you are already behind the 8 ball in with respect to getting the right answer.

Fix: have an exit strategy. A country should never go to war without a plan for how they're gonna get out of it, otherwise they would be fighting forever. You need to have an exit strategy for every LR question type, RC passage and logic game. They could be timing based (ie never spend more than ten minutes on a passage) or, more effectively they are very question specific. For example if I get hit with a flaw type question and after reading the stimulus 3 times I still cannot tell you what the flaw is, I'm getting out of there and skipping the question for later.

1. They become flighty. As pressure builds you feel the need and pressure to go faster which leads to mistakes.

Fix 1: have a good idea of what can actually make you faster. Hint: it's not usually about simply reading faster. The best way to get quicker at LR is to have a strong understanding of the stimulus, the best way to get quicker in LG is to have a strong setup and understanding to your game. And the best way to get faster in RC is to have a strong understanding of the important structural elements of the passage. Notice how I never mentioned the answer choices here? Diving into the answer choices/questions without the things mentioned above will not make you faster, it will just lead to more errors.

1. They freeze. You read a stimulus or game and all of a sudden your mind goes blank. You're stuck between two answer choices and cannot make up your mind.

Fix: once you recognize this is happening give yourself 5 seconds to breath and compose yourself. This could be hard to spot in the moment but becomes easier to do if you have a set process for how to tackle games, passages and LR question types. As soon as you stall on a specific part of that process you may be freezing.

Liah Afshar

When I'm hit with stress, I go through an awful downward spiral of thinking I'm not "smart" enough and putting myself down so much that I can no longer concentrate on the question at hand. Your post really helped me by reminding me that "hey.. you know what, everyone goes through this and maybe don't be too hard on yourself". Thank you! I really needed that today.

akitagogo

Hi 7Sage website managers, can we have a "save discussion" choice since there are sometimes really valuable information in the forum but we can't easily remember or access those posts once we close them out?? Or please kindly share if there is already a function like that on this page. Thanks!