How to be mentally prepared for the law entrance tests?

Are you a law aspirant? Are you just starting off with your preparations or have you reached an advanced stage in the preparation cycle? In either case, it’s crucial to be mentally prepared for the law entrance tests. Your total health, which creates the foundation for your future success, depends on your mental wellness. 

Now comes the even more crucial part. How to prepare to be mentally prepared for the law entrance tests? In his book “ Wealth for All: Living a Life of Success at the Edge of Your Ability,” Idowu Koyenikan says, “Opportunity does not waste time with those who are unprepared.” Today, Oliveboard, will help you with a detailed blog on how to take care of your mental health while preparing for law entrance tests.

Why is being mentally prepared for the law entrance tests important?

Indian competitive examinations, more so, the law entrances, are heavy tollers on mental health. Mental health is integral to your overall health, which lays the groundwork for your future success. Close to 1 lakh aspirants appear for highly competitive entrances as mentioned in the table below –

Exam	College
CLAT	22 NLUs (except NLU Delhi). Note – Some other colleges & universities like IPU, Private colleges like NMIMS, etc., might accept the CLAT Scores.
AILET	NLU Delhi(Some other colleges might accept the score)
LSAT	Jindal Global Law School, NMIMS, IFIM, etc.
SLAT	Symbiosis Law School (Pune, Noida, Hyderabad)

Even in these entrances, the range, and substance of the examination differ as follows – 

Exam	English Language	Quants	GK including Current Affairs	Legal Reasoning	Reasoning	(-)ve	FM
CLAT	28-32	13-17	35-39	35-39	28-32	0.25	150
AILET	50	0	50	0	50	0.25	150
SLAT	12	0	12	12	24	0	60
LSAT	24	0	0	0	68	0	480

Taking care of the overall well-being thus becomes essential when it comes to preparing for any competitive examination, especially law entrance tests. More so, for law school entrances, calibrating your mental health to its optimum is crucial. After all, “The one who has a healthy mind has an easy breath.”

How to be mentally prepared for the law entrance tests?

As per the CDC, mental health includes our emotional, psychological, and social well-being. It affects how we think, feel, and act. It also helps determine how we handle stress, relate to others, and make healthy choices. Thus, for a fully functional brain and mind, you have to take control of your entire well-being. Let’s begin!

Get adequate sleep 

Yes! That is our first response to how to be mentally prepared for the law entrance tests. You see, sleep is crucial for several brain processes, including the communication between nerve cells (neurons). It is more difficult to focus, concentrate, and respond quickly when you are sleep deprived because you are unable to build or maintain the neural connections in your brain that allow you to learn and make new memories. According to neuroscientists, sleep is restorative, whereas sleep deprivation lowers your resistance to stress and harms your brain.

Your next natural question could be how much you should sleep every day. This actually depends on your age and needs. The average amount of sleep that teenagers get is between 7 and 7 ¼ hours. However, they need between 9 and 9 ½ hours (studies show that most teenagers need exactly 9 ¼ hours of sleep). To be mentally prepared for the law entrance tests you need to have a well-rested brain in a healthy body. 

Let’s focus on a healthy body next.

2Es – Eat healthy & Exercise

Gómez-Pinilla, a UCLA professor of neurosurgery and physiological science, who has spent years studying the effects of food and exercise on the brain, says that diet, exercise, and sleep have the potential to alter our brain health and mental function. 

Food is like a pharmaceutical compound that affects the brain. Brain synapses and several molecules related to learning and memory are adversely affected by unhealthy diets.

Exercise has health benefits because it lowers insulin resistance, reduces inflammation, and triggers the release of growth factors, which are chemicals that have an impact on the health of brain cells, the development of new blood vessels in the brain, and even the quantity and survival of new brain cells. Exercise, also, indirectly enhances mood and sleep quality while lowering stress and anxiety, all of which will help you be mentally prepared for the law entrance test.

Don’t shut yourself off

Contrary to popular beliefs in India, shutting yourself off from your friends and family during your exam preparation phase does the opposite of getting you mentally prepared for the law entrance tests. You plunge wholeheartedly into the enormous maelstrom of studies, tests, findings, adjustments, and then more studies and exams. Great! However, because it is a maelstrom, you will quickly become exhausted. 

The first few months will be spent getting used to your new schedule, managing the steadily growing workload, and learning how to live in the new environment. However, as you get into your groove, things will eventually start to become a little boring and a lot taxing. Your good friends and close family can instead serve as your personal cheerleaders. They can pick you back up every time you think of quitting. 

Having said that, they can indeed be a source of distraction too. This is where your judgment, as to whom to cut off and whom to spend time with, will make a real difference. Create your own “safe space.”

Don’t discard your Hobbies 

We understand that you would want to be a lawyer next. And that you don’t want to “waste” your time anywhere other than with your preparatory materials, mock tests, and such. However, you understand that you are never wasting your time on hobbies. Rather, they are your well-deserved time off from the real world. They are your go-to places and help you maintain a balance in life.

Research shows that people with hobbies are less likely to suffer from stress, low mood, and depression. Activities that get you out and about can make you feel happier and more relaxed, thus ultimately helping you become mentally prepared for the law entrance tests.

Top Tip: Practice Affirmations

We are sometimes our own worst adversaries. We frequently show others kindness, compassion, and empathy. However, we are really harsh on ourselves. Self-defeating ideas and thoughts can prevent us from reaching our goals and lead to self-sabotage. You can employ mantras or sentences that are positive affirmations to alter your thought patterns. They assist you in replacing false beliefs with accurate ones. They can also assist you in altering your cognitive processes.

Know that a positive affirmation cannot bring about change on its own. However, they can aid in your attempts to alter your behavior, boost your self-esteem, and realize your objectives, both personal and professional.

Here are some positive affirmations you can stick to your wall and read aloud every day –

“I am making great progress in my study plan.”

“I will continue to learn and memorize the law.”

“I am a dedicated learner.”

“My life will go on no matter what result I get.”

“My parents love me no matter what.”

“I will make a great lawyer.”

“I will always try my hardest.”

“I will grow in whatever I do.”

These were all the suggestions from the top of our mind for getting you mentally prepared for the law entrance tests. Stay tuned to Oliveboard for more. Ciao!