http://www.mndaily.com/articles/2005/09/12/65075/?print
LSAT veteran
Political science junior Khaled El-Sawaf is scared.
Like many pre-law students preparing for the Law School Admission Test, fear is growing as they realize the importance of the test.
...
No miracle will happen on test day, said first-year law student Mac Fadlallah.
If students aren’t achieving a desired score on their practice exams in the week prior to the test date, he advises them to postpone the test.
Fadlallah’s scores on his practice exams were slightly lower than what he wanted to get on the LSAT, and he said he thought, “Maybe on test day, I’ll take it more seriously and a miracle will happen.”
“I was absolutely wrong,” he said.
Well reading this article, and rumblings from other 0Ls has gotten me scared too. I started the practice tests last week, and realized that I couldn't even make it entirely through the sections within the 35 minute time limit. This is quite distressing. My study plan essentially went in 3 stages:
1. Work through the Barron's studybook sections for each section of the test. Take the practice test at the end of each section. (I didn't like the Barron's book and would advise using a different publisher.) My first practice test section garnered me less than stellar results, but I noticed that as I went along my test taking skills came back to me, and my practice scores improved rapidly and markedly from that first time out around the track.
2. Do the Daily LSAT Blog test questions, which are pulled from actual administered tests. This is a friendly little website (see link to the right) put together by former 99th percentile LSAT test takers. Diligently I worked through the archives up until the present day in spare moments grabbed from the day. Happily, I was rocking those, and felt like it was a breeze. I was going to ace this test.
3. Do the 10 Tests that I ordered from the LSAC in the final weeks before the test to solidify my skills. This is where things got rocky. Sure, I should have started on this phase a bit sooner, but hey nobody's perfect, and the last week time crunch is inevitable for everyone. No matter how prepared you are, you still think you're behind the 8-ball.
I hadn't been timing myself on the tests up until this point. What it comes down to is that anyone can ace the LSAT if it were not for the time limit. If you had unlimited time to work away on that perfect games diagram, or re-read passages to find the closest reasoning match, then yeah, you and everyone else taking the test would have no trouble finding the right answers. The problem is the clock. When I started timing myself, I couldn't believe how fast 35 minutes was going by! At first I was so freaked out about the timer ticking down, that I would waste precious seconds glancing at it every few minutes. This only served to make me more anxious, and that test-taker anxiety started to set in. I've never been a nervous test taker. Sure I've always preferred to write a paper over taking a test anyday, but taking an actual test has never bothered me in particular. This time its different. Aside from the Bar itself, THIS test will be the biggest one I've taken in my life.
And at this point, less than a week before the test, I am not scoring where I need to be--largely due to the fact that I've yet to be able to finish any section on time! Sure statistically speaking, guessing will give you a few right answers, but come on, I can't just guess on the last 8-10 questions! Argh. I need to quicken up and change my answering strategy in tonight's test and see where I lay. I've decided that if I can't make it through tonight, I will need to postpone my test until December...and that's a whole 'nother can of worms in terms of applying (not to mention the major software rollout during that time period on my work schedule).
Argh. The damn LSAT :(
2 comments:
Well? Did you take it?
CE, have you given up on your blog? Did you take the LSAT? Inquiring minds want to know! :-)
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