LSAT Test Day: What to Expect, How to Deal

With the June 2016 LSAT just one week away, prospective law school students who are taking the test have almost all their preparation behind them and are now thinking about the big day. No matter how many practice tests you have taken, the experience of taking an LSAT in a true test environment -- with dozens of other future lawyers and the pressure to achieve good results -- will effect almost everyone to some degree. Here are some common psychological roadblocks you might encounter during next week's LSAT and how to overcome them.

These experiences are very common; no test - taker should expect to go through an entire real LSAT without encountering some difficulty. The secret is not to avoid these situations altogether but rather to deal with them effectively when you do encounter them.

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-- External distractions: Taking an exam in a room with dozens of other people is very different from taking a practice test in a controlled environment. With many individuals in a room, there will always be white noise, whether from writing and erasing or turning pages. You should also expect a palpable sense of urgency and nervous energy in the room, especially at the beginning of the test.

Although there is not much you can do about white noise, be aware of the vibe in the room and do not succumb to it. You should expect to enter the test room feeling nervous, but do not let others' nervous energy compound your feelings. Stay focused on your own mindset, the questions in front of you and answering those questions. Do not get swept up in anticipating others' feelings.

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-- Loss of focus: As you have no doubt experienced in practice tests, taking a complete LSAT -- including the experimental and writing sections -- in one sitting requires a huge amount of sustained focus , even with the 15-minute break. In fact, it is nearly impossible to be as focused as you need to be for the entire test.

Knowing that you will almost certainly los e focus at some point, prepare to combat it. First, be vigilant about when you are losing focus. Second, give yourself 10 - 15 seconds to gather yourself and refocus. Because of the LSAT's inherent time crunch, people are often reluctant to give themselves even 10 seconds of breathing room. But just a few deep breaths and a self-reminder to refocus is often the best use of your time if you fatigu e or can't concentrate .

Another strategy to combat lost focus is to use your break time wisely. Try your best not to think about how the first three sections went -- instead , calm your mind, rest and relax so that you are fresh and ready for the second half of the test.

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-- Doubt: Even if you are scoring nearly perfect on practice tests, you will almost certainly face moments of doubt as you take the real LSAT. These moments tend to take two basic forms: You feel that you made a specific mistake on some part of the test or you are experiencing a more nebulous doubt about your preparedness or how the test has gone so far.

In the first case, test -takers frequently get hung up on difficult problems, often by allowing perceived difficulty with one question affect subsequent questions. Harping on yourself by thinking you got a question or string of questions wrong can affect the rest of the section. Once you have answered a question, do your best not to think about it again -- unless you have time to revisit it at the end of the section . Make your best effort on difficult questions and then move on to the next .

If you feel more general doubt about your preparation or how you are doing, use a similar tactic: Focus only on the results you can achieve in the next 2 hours, 20 minutes or 2 minutes. Your preparations for the test are irrelevant now; the only relevant factor is how you approach the questions in front of you. Maintaining a forward-focused mentality in both cases will help combat any doubts you may have during the test.