The Role of the Goal: Part I of II
Goals are important when it comes to LSAT preparation. First we’ve got to make them, then we’ve got to stick with them.
This week and next, I’ll be talking about these two processes.
10 (3) Goals You Should Set, No Matter Who You Are
1. Put your phone away. You can’t resist checking to see who texted. You just have to send that one email. You only need to map the tapas restaurant now so you will know what train to take there after you finish doing this practice test. Or would be doing, if you didn’t keep checking your phone.
Trying to study the LSAT with your Droid or Blackberry buzzing (or silently existing) next to you like trying to do yoga alongside a tiny man whispering, “Don’t clear your mind!” (I’m not sure why he has to be tiny, but he does.) Leave the phone in the other room–or just across the room–and you will practice better, which means you’ll score better. Are you really going to let your cell phone be the reason you end up at a lower ranked school? Harsh, but true.
2. Turn off the music. I get that music aids studying for some–though I remain skeptical when most students tell me this. Even if it does soothe your mind into a calm recepticle for inferences, you don’t get to bring U2 with you to the test. Or Chopin. Trust that you can focus With or Without U2 (zing!).
3. Re-do hard questions and grill problem areas. A student recently told me that she didn’t do all her logical reasoning homework because she’s bad at it and better at logic games. “So I didn’t finish,” she told me. I’m sure no one reading this has done that. Just like I’m sure none of you has ever skipped the machine at the gym that’s hardest for you even though it’s on the circuit, or broken up with someone over the phone instead of face to face. We avoid hard things. It’s human nature. But you have to fight that tendency.
Be your own LSAT personal trainer. Assign yourself the work that sounds least appealing. Re-do hard games . Re-read hard passages. Watch course recordings and labs on conditional logic if that’s your Achilles’ heel. Set the goal of working on your weaknesses, and as we say in class, you’ll see the biggest gains. (In my next post I’ll discuss ways of doing this once you’ve set the goal.)
4. Did you actually put away your phone?
5. No, really.
6. Yes, I was serious. Does this read like sarcasm to you?
7. You’re doing such a great job of not putting away your phone!
8. Pretend Anthony Weiner is going to tweet from your Twitter account if you don’t hit “off” now.
9. There you go.
10. Now get to it!