After living, eating and breathing the LSAT for the last couple of months, it is finally over! But I am not sure how I feel about it and I am not certain that I did the absolute best that I could. I may cancel my score and retake it in December or I may await my score and then decide if a retake is necessary.
I need to think about it carefully before I do anything. It is apparently a very common phenomenon to feel as if you did not perform as well on the actual test as you had been doing on your practice tests. The deadline for cancellation is the end of next week, so I will take my time and consider it from all angles. I will keep you informed as I go through the decision-making process.
By the way, I should point out that I am not even close to being the only one suffering this very same anxiety. The LSAT Prep forum over at TopLawSchools.com is full of people who are begging one another for advice and reassurances about the cancel/retake decision.
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But before we get into that, I will give you a rundown of the test experience itself.
Even though the testing center is located within 30 miles of my house, I decided that in order to perform my best and to insure that I didn’t arrive late for some reason, I should spend the night at a hotel near the university. My wife drove down as well and we had a nice relaxing dinner (that is to say, as relaxing as it could be given that it was the night before one of the most important tests I will ever take!)
Anyway, after dinner, she left to go home while I turned on the TV in the hotel and tried to just relax in preparation for getting a good nights sleep. I am amazed to say that I actually managed to get to sleep around 11:30. But it was a fitful sleep which was fueled by my anxiety. I am not usually susceptible to stress, but this test is important!
The test was scheduled for 9:00 AM and I set the alarm clock for 7:00 AM. When I got up, I took a warm relaxing shower that I stretched out for a full 15 minutes. Emerging refreshed, I ate a very light breakfast and drank a few sips of Mountain Dew. These last points are important because I have heard numerous horror stories about people having to retake the LSAT because they had to leave the testing room to go to the restroom during a section which pretty much guarantees that you will not have time to complete that section.
I dressed in light slacks with a short sleeved shirt that I covered with a light jacket. My thinking was that dressing this way would allow me to be comfortable with almost any temperature I encountered in the testing room.
Around 8:00 AM, I checked out of the hotel and drove the short distance to the university. Pulling into the same parking lot from Wednesday’s scouting trip, I was pleased to see that I had been right. With it being Saturday, I was able to park almost at the door of Warf-Pickel. As I got out of my vehicle, I could see a few others who were obviously there to take the LSAT as well. I say obviously because we were all carrying our LSAC regulation clear-plastic baggie containing our ticket, pencils, erasers, sharpener, snack and ID. The LSAC regulation are very clear on this point; this is all you are allowed to bring into the testing room except for a silent wristwatch.
I also noticed several test takers who burst from the doors and began an animated discussion with the others standing there. I knew even before I came into earshot that they had seen the sign on the 4th floor and were wondering if they needed to move to the other building. I quickly told everyone there to ignore the sign on the 4th floor and instead to proceed to the testing rooms indicated on the front doors. This alleviated the concerns of those there, but apparently, several test takers had left earlier in search of the new building. I never found out if they made it back in time. I told you that the site visit was important!
As I made my way to the third floor where I was to take the test, I found a hundred things to worry about. I had read horror stories about people having to take the LSAT on tiny desks such as might be found in an elementary school. What if the room had these? Or what if the lighting was poor or there were other distractions? The testing environment is more important than many people realize!
As I walked into the room, my worries melted away. I was taking the test in a well-appointed and well lit room with large tables. Each test taker was able to have an entire table to themselves! Wow! I couldn’t have asked for better.
As each of us were admitted in turn, the proctor would check our ID and our ticket, thumb-print us and make sure that we had nothing other than the items allowed by LSAC. I was amazed by the number of people who showed up with backpacks and other items that were prohibited. These people were sent back to their cars to drop off the prohibited items, or, as the time for the test to begin approached, allowed to leave the items on the floor in the hallway.
Another variation on the LSAT horror story is that of the incompetent or inconsiderate proctor. Once again, fortune smiled upon me. My proctor took her time, explained everything we needed to do very clearly and gave us ample time to prepare each section of our test booklet before moving on to the next step.
And then it was time for the first section to begin. “Anything but logic games!” was the mantra I repeated over and over in my head. As you may recall from my earlier postings, logic games is the section that I have struggled with the most during my preparations for the LSAT. I was certain that as long as I could do any other section first to get me started, that I would be able to handle the logic games when they did appear. But this was not to be. Lady Luck, who had favored me so much, now turned her fickle back; logic games was my first section.
Pausing only to set my watch, I waded in and began diagramming (thank you Powerscore!). Everything was going well, but I realized that I was taking more time per problem than I should and this increased my anxiety. The last 2 questions of the 3rd game were very difficult and I made the strategic decision to move on to the 4th game and come back to them if I had time. I was still diagramming the 4th game when the proctor gave the 5 minute warning and my heart made a valiant bid for freedom by banging against my ribcage so hard that the person at the next table must have heard it. When my watch showed 30 seconds remaining, I still had 3 questions from game 4 unanswered and the 2 from game 3 I had previously left unanswered. I quickly marked them all as D (your Powerscore books will explain this) and literally had time only to lay my pencil down when the proctor called time.
I felt like I had run a marathon and we had only taken one section! The good news, if there was any after having guessed at five problems, was that the hard part was behind me. I had never experienced any difficulty completing any of the other sections during practice so now I could relax and focus on getting all of the rest of the questions right to make up for my dismal showing in games.
The rest of the sections went as well as could be expected. I didn’t encounter anything that I felt uncomfortable with, so I should have been ecstatic but I wasn’t. My performance on games had virtually assured that I would score below 170 which had been my target and this knowledge ate away at my confidence and happiness during the entire rest of the test.
On a more upbeat note, I am happy to report that my light breakfast strategy worked exactly as planned. I was able to make it to the break without any undo discomfort from having to use the restroom. I know there were several there who expressed that they had been in discomfort for at least the last section and they knew that it had affected their performance.
I had been told that another component of the LSAT that is never given enough attention is the endurance aspect of it. I certainly found this to be true. After five sections plus the writing sample, I felt as if I had performed a days worth of manual labor and in addition, while completing the writing sample, the light breakfast finally began to catch up with me. I was suddenly ravenous! I couldn’t wait to get something to eat.
And suddenly it was over. The test booklets were handed in and we were free to go. In something akin to sleepwalking, I made my way to my vehicle, climbed in and started it. Without much conscious thought, I pulled out and drove about a mile down the road where I pulled into a Chinese buffet I had noticed the night before. A heaping plate later, I finally felt able to take stock of my performance. But any way you looked at it, games had been a train wreck. I had been forced to guess on five questions! If I missed the normal number I usually did on the other sections and none of the five D’s were right, then I almost certainly fell somewhere between a 164 and a 168 depending upon the scale for the test (more on this whole topic later when I will dedicate a whole post to it). And God forbid that the scale be as harsh as the one from the previous June!
As I left the restaurant, I was certain that I had decided to cancel and retake in December where I could finish the games section in record time and get those five questions back. But now I am not so sure.
This has been a long day and sharing it here has taken some time as well. I am going to go have dinner with the family and relax. I will post what I am thinking as far as the cancel / retake decision in a few days.
Until then, I can only say that I hope my fellow applicants and test takers did their very best today!
