Self-study
Hi everyone, I started studying in January and have been having a hard time figuring out the right study plan for myself.
For context, I work full-time on the legal team at an incredibly busy startup and find it really hard to motivate myself to study after work. When I am studying, I don't feel like I am really retaining the information as well as I should be. I've also been struggling to feel like I am "doing enough". I'm often so burnt out from life that when I am relaxing, I feel so guilty for not studying.
Is there anyone else working full-time who is struggling to find a good study plan? How many hours is sufficient? Should I just focus on doing PTs and going through explanations and analyses of incorrect answers? Should I just follow the "comprehensive" schedule 7Sage creates?
I'm feeling really lost, unmotivated, and incapable. I registered for the June LSAT a few months ago, but now I am feeling like shooting for the 2027 school year is not even plausible.
3
6 comments
I am in a similar boat. I started studying in January and I am registered for April and June. I also work in the legal field and find it impossible to study after work. So, I aim for 30-45 min each morning before work, one PT on the weekend, and one day of rest. It isn't always perfect but, at least for me, consistency has been more important than duration. The guilt you feel is real, though. I experience it too.
Sidenote, I have a mentor who's moto for the LSAT is to make the most of what you've got. I don't want this test to consume my life, so I am going for the most improvement based on my diagnostic score instead of trying to claw at the T14 averages. That's just me, though. I know everyone has their own priorities. Best of luck to you, be strong, it won't last forever.
This happened to me last year. My firm was in back-to-back trials and I was completely burned out. I’d sit for an hour every day trying to study and feel like nothing was sticking.
In January, I signed up for the core curriculum. I don’t really follow the schedule exactly, but I make sure I get through all of it. I tried building the “perfect” routine, but my job is unpredictable and mentally draining, so strict schedules just don’t stick for me. What has helped is taking live classes during lunch or before i sleep.
I also cut back on the gym a bit. I deleted Outlook and Teams from my phone and started going into the office at 8 a.m. Once I hit my 6-7 billable hours, I go home, work out, and study. Some days... like today... I’m up studying at 5 a.m.
I’m not perfectly consistent yet, but I’m definitely learning more than before. And honestly, I kind of love drilling on a treadmill. I actually look forward to it sometimes. I tried to do the PTs weekly bi-weekly but i stopped because I didn't grasp the main concepts or foundations which the core curriculum and classes help with it. I am a lot less stressed now, work has not changed but I debunked it on a list of priorities.
I would unregister from the June LSAT and possibly aim for October or November. June should be your self-reflecting month in order to regroup and find out where you are. Then in June register for the fall exams.
I would also not do any PTs every two weeks simply just to get used to timing. I don’t mean don’t ever do PTs. But hold off on PTs for at least another month until you get your translations and answer anticipations down. This is because timing comes naturally from intuition. Working on timing is counter productive.
instead, focus on translations and memory retention. Try to retain the argument structure and its meaning in your own words, further anticipating the assumption or flaw, then wording the answer in your mind without seeing the answers. This alone will boost your time and you don’t need a PT to do it.
I would focus on doing 5-10 questions a day drilling these habits over and over. Review each question. Practice your own rewording. All you need is a good uninterrupted 2 hours.
Hey there! I work full time and am also doing my master's while studying for the LSAT. I plan to take the exam this summer (first time was in Jan. 2025 without ideal score). Like you said, it can be challenging to find time to study when you have mandatory/ full-time obligations.
In terms of a plan, I would say if you just plan to use 7Sage, go through their full course material. That should provide you with the foundation and they have drills in between which help you apply everything. Schedule-wise, I personally wake up super early to get in 1.5-2 hrs before work and then knock out another hour after. So main heavy lifting mental load when your brain is fresh and then light review at night.
Do not compare your process to others. I know people who only did 2 hrs a day for 4 months and others who did 6+ hrs/day and got the same scores. Figure out when you retain info the best (usually this means mornings) and then work studying around that time block. Unfortunately, that might mean for the duration of your prep you get up at 4:30am to get in studying before work at 9am. Everything is finite & you can absolutely do it.
I would do PTs every two weeks so you can get used to taking the exam under timed conditions. This is arguably the worse part of the LSAT. You have to be able to sit for 3 hours and the exam is designed to test your cognitive ability when you fatigue. So don't worry about massive jumps in between two weeks because you might not see any. Focus on getting comfortable applying what you learn under pressure.
Look back at your diagnostic/any PTs and analyze the heck out of it. What question types did you get wrong, what traps did you fall for, what were you supposed to be looking for, what's the strategy to attack each answer choice, etc. If you don't know, those are deficits that need to be addressed. I also felt overwhelmed not knowing what to do at first, but go through 7Sage schedule, do their program, then every single day drill 25 questions (you can drill levels 1-5 and do sets of 5 questions). Review, review, review.
Studying some subjects means internalizing a large volume of concepts that are individually quite straightforward. History and Biology are both good examples of this.
The skills tested on the LSAT -- especially the foundations -- aren't like that. You might pick up a fair number of them easily enough, but the ones that don't come naturally to you will often demand hours or even days to wrap your head around.
Sheer hours studied is a poor measure of progress -- many of these concepts (e.g. negating conditional claims or translating words like "unless") are hard enough that banging your head against them while you're groggy and burnt out won't get you anywhere.
Move methodically through the foundations maintaining a very high standard of comprehension, expecting to spend an inordinate amount of time in several places. Measure your success in the number of "aha" moments you have, where a difficult concept finally clicks.
It's impossible to know in advance how long achieving mastery will take you. You need to take your eye off the distant summit and focus on taking the immediate steps ahead with calm and comfort.