You’ve put in hours of studying, completed practice test after practice test, and feel as prepared as you possibly can be for the Law School Admission Test (LSAT). Still, there’s always the fear that something could go drastically wrong the day of the exam, with all your preparation amounting to nothing. As someone who’s been there, I know that test jitters are very real, and can be very detrimental. Here are a few practical tips that helped me when I sat down to take the LSAT last June.
I would definitely recommend bringing snacks to eat during the 15-minute testing break, and maybe water as well (but make sure you pace yourself with the water—you don’t want to need the bathroom in the middle of the test!) Review the published list of items you can and cannot bring very carefully, since depending upon how lenient your test proctor is, you might be asked throw away anything not explicitly allowed (ChapStick, for example).
Make sure your pencils are regular, wooden ones—the Law School Admission Council (LSAC) does not allow mechanical pencils. I also brought one of those oversized erasers with me, as I found it easier and quicker to use than the smaller erasers attached to pencils. Because I never practiced with a watch, I didn’t bring one with me the day of the exam, but that was a matter of personal preference. Generally speaking, you should do your best to replicate the conditions you practiced in. So if you used a watch while practicing, bring a watch to the test!
Be very conscious of your timing. I know that for me, especially in the Logic Games section, I’d spend way too long on a single question because I knew that with enough time, I could eventually solve it. Since all questions are worth the same amount, it makes more sense to just move on from the super time-consuming ones, coming back to them later if you’re able. And remember, your score is determined by the number of questions you get right, not the number you miss (meaning wrong answers don’t count against you). So never leave a question unanswered—guess if need be! I’d recommend bubbling in random answers for the questions you skip as you go along, rather than waiting until the end of a section, since you might run out of time.
Above all, try to keep calm before and during the LSAT. Obviously that’s easier said than done, but at the end of the day, you’ve already put in the work needed to ace the exam, and doubting your abilities will only hurt your performance. Remind yourself that regardless of how well you end up doing, you are so much more than the score you receive on some test—even when that test is the LSAT.