Do you do pts even if you slept horribly? ?

lpadr009

I was SUPER ANXIOUS last night and slept a cr@ppy 5 hrs. Should I do my pt today? Or postpone till I have gotten more sleep?

harrismegan

Are you writing in October? Honestly I just had the same dilemma. Was supposed to PT today but I'm pushing it to tomorrow. If you're writing in October and you feel sub-par, I wouldn't. The last thing you want to do is PT when you don't feel ready (especially if you don't HAVE to), and get a score that might hurt your confidence. You want to be as confident and stress free going into October.
I know others might advise to take it because you won't get the chance to not take the exam next weekend if you've had low sleep. So it's your call! that's my 2 cents tho. You can always take it tomorrow!

Pacifico

To me it's not the sleep so much as how you're feeling. The one caveat to this is when you pass a certain threshold of no sleep where you can't be considered a rational actor. That point for me happens at about 36 hours without sleep and I took a PT last Monday in such a situation and felt awesome throughout the test and then when I did my BR I couldn't believe the ridiculously dumb things I was doing since I was essentially testing drunk. On the other hand I've gotten my best scores after 18+ hours of no sleep when I have tested at 1 or 2 in the morning.

For me, 5 hours is an eternity of sleep to get in one shot, but if it's not much for you and you don't feel good then don't waste a PT by forcing it. Get some rest and chill out with some LG or something to at least do something.

lpadr009

Thank you both very much

lpadr009

@harrismegan yes, october. I'm kinda scared I'll have this problem again Friday Oct 2 so I think I will take this pt

ddakjiking

I think you should do this at least once. Not everyone will have an awesome night of sleep on friday. I know I did during my past testing experience. I slept almost 2 hours less than my average and felt sluggish on the real thing.

This past monday, I had a rough night of sleep (not due to anxiety, just stupidly intaking caffeine/sugar sun evening) and ended up taking my last fresh PT. I made a few couple very stupid mistakes but scored within my avg range.

pizzaqueen

I actually purposefully take PTs when I'm not completely rested. I know that I'll have too much anxiety the night before the actual LSAT and won't be able to sleep much. Knowing this, I've been making sure my recent PTs mimic this particular test-day condition so I can learn to deal with it. I agree with @ddakjiking that you should at least try it once. If you do worse than usual, you can figure out what specific weaknesses manifest when you're tired. If you do just as well as usual, then you can have some peace of mind that a less-than-perfect night of sleep won't hold you back. During the June administration, I kept stressing out over the fact that I had gotten a bad night of sleep and I think being preoccupied with this played a negative role in my performance. For October, I know I'm capable of hitting an ideal score even if I've slept minimally.