by StaceyKoprince Mon Aug 13, 2012 7:50 pm
I have no idea. The situation is too variable - some people have great mental stamina from day one and others don't.
But I will say that, even then, simply taking a bunch of tests is not the best way to improve mental stamina.
Use physical stamina as an analogy: If you're training for a marathon, you don't do so by running a marathon once a week - all you'd do is tire yourself out. There are a whole bunch of smaller steps that help you to train for everything, including the stamina aspect.
Pretty much the only time I'd say there's going to be a noticeable improvement *solely* from working on stamina is when someone describes certain symptoms that are signs of serious mental fatigue. (I'd read a paragraph and then realize I had no idea what I'd just read and had to read it again. I felt paralyzed, like I couldn't make decisions, and would just stare at the screen without doing anything. I started losing motivation and working faster and faster, just wanting to be done with the test.)
And if that's what happened, usually you'll then be able to see the results of this in the test data - finishing the section 10+ minutes early, a string of 5+ wrong answers somewhere that were NOT driven by having to rush because the person had used up too much time elsewhere, etc.
Stacey Koprince
Instructor
Director, Content & Curriculum
ManhattanPrep