When I had visualized my test taking marathon day, I had pictured the test proctors being middle aged schoolteacher types, making an extra buck on their summer vacation. I arrived at my assigned room at Northwestern to find 2 female Northwestern Law Students as proctors. They had on short shorts and flip flops. You know the shorts that are so short the inside of the pockets are hanging out a few inches? Classy.
The company that administers the LSAT has a lot of very specific rules about what one can and cannot bring into the testing center. On the absolutely- forbidden-and-grounds-for-kicking-you-out list is a cell phone. You cannot bring it to the testing center. Period. After checking in, I was sitting in my seat waiting for the test to begin, and a girl came up to the front to check in and what do you think was in her hand? Her iphone. What did Miss Proctor say to her? “Make sure your phone is turned off.” Are you joking me? Why bother having rules if you’re not going to enforce them?! And you better believe that girl was on her phone in the bathroom during our break. What about grounds for dismissal do they not understand?
And in true Chicago form, you could hear construction noise in our testing room. At the very beginning, while the rules were being read, ironically, a test taker raised his hand and asked if they were going to be able to get the construction to stop for the next 3 1/2 hours. Miss Proctor went to the office to ask, and came back to tell us that “No. We can’t do anything about it.” Fabulous.
The construction noise wasn’t constant and it hardly bothered me. Only one time did I have to plug my ears to block it out. What bothered me significantly more were those dang flip flops. The proctors seemed to walk around the room a lot. I don’t know if a lot of people needed to be escorted to the potty or what, but flip-flop-flip-flop up and down the stadium seating lecture hall. SO Distracting. I just paid $160 to take this test, I think you could put on some shoes and some pants while you’re at it.
Enough grumbling about the testing conditions....you want to know how I did....well let’s just say I left the testing center very disappointed in myself. No PR for me. I guess it just wasn’t my day. I heard a test taker in the hallway that day say, “I’ve taken the lsat before and it was NOT this hard last time!” It really was no fun and really hard. What I would have given for 10 extra minutes with that test. I guess I had nerves? I didn’t really feel nervous but I found myself having to continually remind myself to go, go, go faster. You see the lsat is designed with more than you can accomplish in the time you are given. I had practiced for that. Big time. And yet, my brain knew, this is the real one. These answers really count today. Pick the right one! My brain wanted to go slow even though I had trained and trained and trained to keep my pace swift and light. And the game section. Oh the game section. I had improved SO much and worked SO hard and it did not go well. I was so sad about that. Why had I paid all that money for that boot camp class, only to find myself floundering during the test? Arrrggghhh. I was glad it was done and also sad, because I knew I would not be happy when I got my score a month later.
As Brian and I made our way to get a Chicago hot dog, he said to me, “Madelyn, I am so proud of you. I don’t care what score you got. You did it! You worked so hard and you took the lsat! And I am so proud of you!” I felt about a million times better. The load of expectation had been lifted and I was free to enjoy the rest of my night, celebrating my awesome mentor’s career.
I’ll wrap up my marathon retrospective tomorrow!!!
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