Madison, WI (Brogden Psychology Building)

blueyayfree

Test Center Facilities:
Test is in a large lecture hall, with the old-school wooden seats and desks that fold down from the seat in front of you. Usable desk area is around 14 (width) by 16 (height). The size of the desk isn't wide enough to fit the whole width of the test booklet when it's open. Answer sheet therefore has to be underneath the test booklet. At first this really irritated me (upon scouting out the location beforehand), but I did a few PT's where I forced myself to keep the answer sheet under the test, and it is really easy to adjust. I do advise practicing that at least once if your test center is here (or anywhere with tiny-ass desks).

Bathroom facilities were easily accessible. No long lines for the guys.

There are water fountains just outside the test room if you don't want to bring your own water bottle. I didn't because I knew there were the fountains.

Noise level was not an issue at all.

I parked in a nearby public ramp (Union South Garage, enter on E Dayton St). It cost about 7 dollars. I don't think there is any free parking nearby. Madison is not great in that regard. Although I imagine most test takers are UW students so they just walk. I would have ridden my bike if it wasn't super cold. There are a bunch of lots nearby the building, but they are heavily populated with very aggressive signage. I did not take any chances.

Left-handedness wouldn't have been an issue, I don't think. If you're left-handed and you can sit in an old-school college lecture hall and be okay, you'll be okay here, too.

One final note: I'm 6' 1" and weigh around 195, and the combination of the height of the seat bottom off the ground and shape of the seat itself caused my legs to fall asleep and go partially numb. Not cool at all. But my test taking posture is insanely tense; I essentially hunch over the booklet with my face like a foot away. Those of you who share my proportions but are able to employ a more relaxed posture will likely not have any issues. This problem did not in any way affect my performance. It was just super uncomfortable. I still can't believe anyone ever thought designing in seats like that was a good idea.

Test Day:
I think there were about 40-50 of us there, but I could be off by +10-20. Either way, there was a long line that almost stretched outside for the check-in process. The wait wasn't long, however, and the checkin and seating process was fairly seamless. Don't be afraid to go use the bathroom or get something to drink if you see everyone lining up. I saw other people do so and they were fine. I wish I had gone to use the bathroom.

Testing started at 9am on the dot, if I remember right.

Proctors:
All UW Madison college students from what I could tell. All were competent and friendly with the exception of the most important one, also known as the person who makes announcements and keeps time. She would just start talking with no concept that the room was loud with people speaking and that she was a small girl sitting behind her laptop way in the front of the lecture hall on what is essentially a stage. This wasn't really a big deal for the announcements/instructions phase; in fact, I found it calmed me down a little bit to sit there and judge her. Wry animosity helps reduce stress for me, I guess. This was, however, an actual issue with the time keeping. This girl would just jump into the next section without even taking a beat, and that includes starting up again after breaks. I know there isn't supposed to be a break or pause or anything, but she would just sort of mutter behind her computer screen "turn to section blah and start working now" without any pause or warning. It made getting into the next section stressful and jarring, notwithstanding the rush to reset the watch. And this is all in reference to how the proctors on the 7Sage app make the announcements; I'm not saying she was bad compared to me taking my time during a practice test. That being said, again, like the chair issue I described above, I don't think this affected my performance at all; it really just bothered me in principle. I find it frustrating and vaguely insulting that something like this could have messed up something so important, where you need every bit of marginal performance gain you can get, and may very well have done so for some of my compatriots on test day. LSAC: please don't let awkward, quiet, apathetic people who hide behind their computer be your main proctor. It's not that hard.

Overall:
I enjoyed myself. It was fun to write an essay by hand; haven't done that in a couple years. I'm glad I never practiced nor looked at the writing prompts for the essay sections -- it really made the LSAT into an exciting experience. And it reminded me of college finals being in the old school lecture hall (I graduated UG in 2013). Aside from the proctor issue (which I imagine is unlikely to repeat itself) and my perhaps rare issue with the seating, the location was fine. Bigger desks would be great, obviously, but if you practice a few times you get used to it no problem (I literally taped the area of the desk onto my table at home and took practice tests in that area - it's as simple as that to practice).

This was February 2016.