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Related Discussions
How do you shake off a confidence blow during your PT?
vanessa fisher
Alum Member
Hey guys,
Was just curious how people here deal with confidence blows when writing PTs. I notice that sometimes if I struggle on one section during a PT (especially if it is one of the early sections), sometimes it is hard to shake the confidence blow and that feeling it can carry into the other sections.
I have some little techniques I do to work with this, but just wondering how others deal with confidence blows in ways that help them get up quickly after feeling knocked off center.
Comments
Hey, @"vanessa fisher" How about sharing your techniques? I had this problem on the June LSAT. I had an experimental games section that was killer, and it affected by motivation and confidence for the rest of the test.
that still happens to me but if I screw up an earlier section I just tell myself that I have to try twice as hard to ace the other sections to have a chance at a decent score. sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't lol. what do you do?
As an example, when I did PT 81, I was totally thrown by the first RC section when I hit the second passage and it threw my game tremendously. Mostly cause RC is also my strongest section. That feeling stayed with me the rest of the test. I still did ok, but would have done better if I hadn't let the feeling get to me and had just moved on
Something that's really hard for me personally is compartmentalizing my thinking, but it's what I had to learn to do in this situation. When I have a tough section, I take 10 seconds at the beginning of the following section to take a big, diaphragmatic breath in and out and repeat this little mantra in my head: "The right answers are in there and I can find them." Sounds super simplistic but just realizing that the sections can exist in their own vacuums and that of the five ACs, the right one is always there for me to find, I've helped quiet that voice in my head that tells me I'm going to keep screwing up just because of one tricky section. Have to kick that part-to-whole mindset that says just because we struggled on one part, we'll struggle on the whole thing.
I know that doesn't seem like much but it really helps me rebalance myself psychologically.
@uhinberg
My own techniques are to draw from my meditation practice. I do a lot of meditation and breathing exercises, which can really help in those moments. Also because meditation is about letting go of goals and results (good or bad), so it can sort of neutralize the mind. I find trying to think positively after a shitty section rarely works for me just because I feel like I'm lying to myself. So getting to that equilibrium mind of not good or bad can be helpful to dissolve the feeling a bit. But it doesn't always work. I find I'm especially vulnerable when it is a section I EXPECT to do well in, like RC, and then feel like I bombed it. If it was LG, I'd at least not be as surprised
@TheMikey yeah true. I guess we just do the best we can. Sometimes I'm able to move on, other times not as well. I guess this also depends on my mood that day
@"Maddie Distasio" Thanks for your thoughts on this. Yeah the compartmentalizing seems really big. I have a hard time with that. I do think the stopping and taking a few breaths before the next section is a good one. I often struggle to do that when I already feel I fucked up and then I start rushing other sections, which is where everything goes to hell
@"vanessa fisher" Tooootally feel you. Compartmentalization has basically always been my enemy haha The hardest thing for me was getting past the hurdle of playing mind games with myself like, "Oh shit, if I don't get X questions right in the next section, I'm screwed." That frame of mind was such a killer for me before I figured out some techniques that work for me. That's not to say it doesn't happen sometimes, but it happens way less often now.
You have to learn to love your weaknesses. When it rains, look for rainbows. When it's dark, look for stars. I've learned so much from the PTs I've bombed. I know I've done good on other ones and that I have more to learn. In the end, PTs are really only for that. Don't let the good ones take you too high nor the bad ones too low. I've become pretty zen when it comes to PTs. No emotional attachment is the way to go
This happened to me on the real thing last September. I got LG in either the first or second section and blew it. I estimated I ended the section at -6 which turned out to be exactly correct. On average, I go -6 for the entire test, so I was starting in an enormous hole and knew my prospects of scoring my average were pretty much blown and that to break 170 I could miss about 4 more questions for the entire rest of the test.
My immediate inclination was to adjust my strategies to be more careful in order to avoid any more errors. But that was a huge mistake and the rational part of me knew that--even if my emotions were briefly in control. After two or three questions of deviating from the strategies that had made me successful, I put my pencil down and had a little chat with myself. Rational me wasn't able to fully take charge for about another 10 questions, but I told my emotions that if they were going to get involved that they were just going to have to be uncomfortable. I forced my strategies upon myself, letting them dictate my actions no matter what I felt about it. Instead of asking "what do I do here?" I realized that I had answered every variation of that question 100 times before and that I'd determined the correct answer to each variation empirically. I trusted that, and I scored my 170.
When you take a blow, turn to your strategies for guidance. They are your life raft, they are tried and proven, and they will bring you through it.
Some great pointers here. I suffer from the same whenever I have a rough section (happened to me with RC when I sat in June). I also struggle when I come across a few tough questions in the first 10 on any of the sections. 90% of the time the first 10 questions are a breeze in LG and LR, so when I come across those sections where I have to circle 2-3 of those 10, I feel my performance slipping.
It helps me to assume that the questions / sections I abnormally struggled with will be questions / sections most other testtakers struggle with as well. And I hope beyond hope that this difficulty will be represented in a better curve.
THIS.
whenever I am iffy on maybe 1 question in the first 10 in LR, I'm like ugh. but if it goes to 2 or more I'm like "great, welp, I bombed this shiiiiitt" lol
Great points, thanks everyone.
@"Cant Get Right" I love your points on going back to strategy and anchoring oneself in that when emotions run high. Definitely solid advice, and congrats on how well you did despite the early hiccup in June.
@LSATiscoming and @TheMikey
You guys are definitely speaking to what I experience. And LSAT is coming I feel really bad for you that you wrote PT 81 in real time, that one slayed me.
But what I think is coming clear from all the points made here, and also my experience after doing a ton of PTs is that often when one hard section happens, the others aren't usually AS hard. Or there seems to be a variance in one section being a bit tougher that is balanced by other sections being a bit easier (thinking of PT 81 where LG was probably the easiest I've ever done, even though RC was a bitch). It seems this way with LR as well. Sometimes they throw in some really hard ones in the first 15 questions, but at the end of the day, the amount of "hard questions" is usually uniform across tests. So not getting discouraged when you have to skip upfront is probably rational and good practice.
Thanks for all your thoughts