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Comments
I remind myself that I've seen everything 100 times before. I take it one 35min section at a time. I take breaks when I feel like the words are blurring on the page and I remind myself that this isn't the end all be all of a test.
I've slowly built myself up in endurance. Started with one 35min section at a time. Then once I got comfortable, moved to two, then three, then four and finally full timed PT's. I still get tired, J.Y. still gets tired. This test is designed to drain you. It's how well you prepare yourself for it that really matters.
Diet and exercise just give you the physiological boost to keep it up. They're just as important!
If you mean stamina for taking full timed practice tests, I find your stamina builds over time from doing them repeatedly. At the beginning I had little stamina for a whole test, and now it is a lot easier.
As for other things, I do Muay Thai martial arts training which I feel builds both physical and mental stamina. I also meditate, which is a highly under-rated way to build mental focus
Yup, healthy diet, plenty of exercise, and enough sleep.
Aside from that I think @"vanessa fisher" hit the nail on the head when she said that stamina also builds over time. I feel like cultivating discipline was also instrumental for building up your stamina. I never check my phone/email when I'm studying for the test, for instance.
@"Alex Divine" yeah ditching my phone during practice and review was a big one for me. I also de-activated my Facebook account which really helped. Not only for stamina, but I've seen huge improvements with my attention span.
Also, I"ll add that one thing I also think helps is forcing yourself to stick with a hard question in blind review and go over and over it until you have 95% confidence in your choice. Just speaking for myself, but I've found really spending that time to go through the questions, especially when it is tedious, is really valuable for building that stamina and also seeing exactly where you went wrong or how you are going right in your reasoning. Seems simple, but it actually took me a long time to do this fully. I'd often BR the same day as doing the test and not do as deep a BR as I could cause I just wanted to get it done and move on and was tired. Shifting that has helped a lot.
I did Prep test 77 recently and game 3 was seriously the hardest game I've ever seen. I literally sat with it the next day for 4 hours trying ways to work it out until I got it. It seems like a waste of time, and why not just listen to J.Y's explanation, but it really helped me break a mold in my mind and forced me into a patience I didn't know I had. This isn't unsimilar to how we train in Muay Thai, just mental instead of physical. You are always trying to push your edge of discomfort just a little bit in order to expand your capacity and endurance.
Anyways, my 2 cents
A lot of great advice above but as some who is just starting to find the ability to sit for hours at a time and study here is my advice:
-Get out of your comfort zone. When i'm home, i'm all about snuggling with my animals and Netflix. Find a coffee shop, spot in the library, or just in general good study space. Quieter then a restaurant but with some noise so that you build up tolerance. My LSAT had a cougher.
-Stay hydrated. I always try to drink 2-3 bottles worth of water while i'm studying. Staying hydrated helps you fight headaches and dry eyes.
-Pack snacks - healthy ones. I'm useless if i'm hungry. Genuinely, always have been. I pack a sandwich, some fruit, or granola bars for every study session.
-Podmoro method is your best friend.
-TAKE BREAKS. I can't say this enough but your brain can't immediately implement a theory. It needs a processing time. I try to work through the videos on a particular theory and then take a break to read the discussion boards. Just a few minutes. Or go to the bathroom, finally check my text messages, etc. You get the idea. Take a few minutes and then jump in to the practice problems. Even your computer doesn't download information immediately.
-Stay active. Make sure you get your heart pumping every day you study. I tend to try to work out right after I study. It really breaks up the stress you can start to feel and I don't stop till I'm not stressed any more. Some days a 20 minute jog kills the stress, other days I'm there for 45 minutes. Regardless, I always go to bed feeling calm.
-Get sleep. Seriously, it's not overrated. Sleep-less Studying is useless.
-Ditch the social media. If anyone is genuinely offended you aren't checking their facebook/twitter every day, ditch them too.
-Set reasonable expectations. Everyone starts off with this notion they can study for 5-8 hours a day and you really can't. Stamina takes time to build. So make a check list of what you want to get done every day based off how long you can actually get done. As for today, I knew I really only have energy for about 4 hours worth of studying in a row. So I made a check list of about 4 hours worth of material. Nothing is better then checking everything off your list (Well, maybe a 180).
eating healthy and exercising definitely can help with stamina
also, doing 6 section PTs (3 sections--break--3 sections) can help with stamina as well. they will make a 4 section or 5 section PT feel like a joke but you just have to get used to them at first.
I agree with most of the above, but rather than Mikey's six section PT's I prefer back to back four section PT's (4 section break 4 section) so I get two gradeable tests. Either way, the principle is that you become used to doing sections, when you are slightly tired, when you are disappointed with how one of the earlier sections went, ect.
I've been doing some of them in the eating area of my library where there is always at least some background noise and the chairs are exactly the same as at my test center.
I thought I had dealing with distraction down, but got distracted when during my last PT a group of older people sat at the table next to me and read and discussed news headlines. I thought about trying to PT there at the same time again to get used to it, but it's probably not a distraction I'll face on the real test.
I was going to try to regularly exercise, but injured my ankle and so have only done ankle balance exercises instead of running like I'd initially planned. I don't think that has hurt my PT average though. I recommen exercise for yourself more than for your LSAT score.
As far as food, I'm awfully inconsistent. Some days I don't eat until 6:30pm and have two practice tests and do some tutoring before then. Others I wake up and eat a small breakfast. Obviously, it would be ideal to be more consistent with youf eating habits than that, but it doesn't seem to hurt or help my scores when I eat.
Most of this stuff is just icing on the cake. If the LSAT exhsusts you it is because there are still too many questions that you find hard. If you are constantly straining for about 3 hours you are going to be tired. If like me, logical reasoning becomes easy for you then all of a sudden you are only straining for half the test. As you get better with the questions you paradoxically need the stamina you build from studying and PTing less.
Wow, you must be young
I could never go a full day without eating without it severely effecting me. It may hit you as you age 
I never used to eat breakfast or have lunch until much later in the day. When I told my doctor, he warned me that is could permanently damage your glucose production and lead to anxiety and a plethora of other mental and physical problems. Now I literally force myself to eat something in the morning.
@"Alex Divine" yeah I can't stress enough the importance of food. It's literally your body's fuel. I think you can get away with it when you are young (oh the stuff I put my body through in my early 20s
), but it catches up with you eventually
Have something to look forward to doing at the end of a full test. Like going to the movies or something. Or, if you're really not feeling it, think in terms of doing up to at least the 15 minute break. You may find afterwards that it's not that big of a deal to just do two more sections. Also sometimes you may just not be ready to take it right that minute. I usually sit down with everything I need, as if I'm about to take the test, but just take my time and play with my phone until I feel more comfortable and ready. Key is to do nothing else but be on my phone even if it takes an hour.
I love this idea! I have so much more energy and motivation if I schedule something afterwards. It could be something simple as ordering dinner from a place I like or having plans to hang out with a friend.
train yourself to run on a treadmill for an hour nonstop with speed, it really helps to improve your stamina for the exam
Mind Body connection? I might have to try running a bit more and check this technique out!
you will get super tired but then you will find yourself sitting through an exam much more easily
Yep, I'm in my early 20's. I'm a KJD.
But, what I was hoping September would get from my post was...
That obviously we all should eat, get good sleep, and generally prepare for the test intelligently. But, we can do well without being at our peak or being perfectly physically prepared.
So planning a breakfast and snack is good, but if you leave the snack in the car don't cancel the test. Go to sleep early the night before, but if you can't sleep don't worry about it.