Any advice for a test taker with anxiety?

cfalohaa

Hi, so I finished the core curriculum and just did PT 36 time and in test day conditions. I usually do pretty well in practice with getting just 2-5 wrong. Today, however, I scored a 146.
During the test, I could hear my brother getting ready for work and my mom taking her lunch break. Its like the anxiety has heightened my senses to focus on those noises instead of the actual test. It left my mind blank when it came to answering the questions. I aim to take the LSAT Feb 2023, and now this has me second guessing everything I’ve done so far. Any tips from people who had similar issues?

ellemkay

I use noise-cancelling earphones to help with that, and I typically write my PTs at school, where I can book a private study room. If you don't have that, I would just go to a library and do that. Keep doing PTs under exam conditions, your score will slowly go up.
Not sure if you know but - for your actual test, you're allowed earplugs, too.

sh.francis

if you're already struggling with anxiety on test day I wouldn't use noise cancelling headphones for practice tests. not having something you're accustomed to may make you even more nervous on test day and you won't be able to use the headphones on the actual test. foam ear plugs are allowed.

my gf works from home and sometimes I'm distracted by her zoom calls so I always keep a pair of ear plugs on my desk just in case. interestingly, even just having them on my desk makes it easier for me to ignore noise because I know I can always choose to use them.

for anxiety in general I would try meditation. the head space beginner series is really helpful for reducing anxiety and helping you focus. if meditation is too much, simple breath work is also good. there's an app called ibreathe in the apple store. I picked up meditation and breath work when I was learning to free dive and it helps so much with managing fear and anxiety.

Cant Get Right

On my third official take, I had so much anxiety I was physically ill afterwards. I spent all day after the test on the bathroom floor--it felt like a really awful hangover minus the headache. So, I was feeling enormous pressure. In spite of such extreme anxiety, though, I managed to just eek out my 170 target score.

The trick is to managing anxiety is to refine your strategies and procedures so that each task you're actually working on is independently quite manageable. When approaching bigger, more complex tasks, it is easy to lose focus and become overwhelmed. The more distinctive tasks you can break the bigger stuff into, the better. For example, most people break an LR question into stem, stimulus, answer choices. That's a good start, but it's really only a good process so long as everything goes smoothly. A procedure that's only ideal so long as everything is going right is not what you want. It's exactly when things aren't clicking that we most need a refined, reliable procedure.

On my third take, I mostly had these procedures in place for LR and RC. I refined those quite a bit since, but they were good enough. For LG, I had never studied strategy or procedure. It was statistically my strongest section, so it just never felt necessary. The pressures of test day (which, of course, are way more intensive than a live PT) proved too much though. LR and RC pulled me through, but I went -6 on LG which is pretty bad for a 170 (and a -0.4 average in PT's). For my fourth and final take, I developed my LG and went -0 for the section, and held in LR and RC for a 176.

Just out of the CC, it's not a big deal. Way too soon to worry on your very first PT. Focus mainly on your BR for now. And once that's consistently where it needs to be, then it'll be time to shift emphasis to strategy and procedure.