Self-study
I originally had a lot longer to study for the LSAT, but life happened and I have a lot less time that I thought I would have. I am currently studying for about 3 hours a day, 6 days a week (on top of working full time). The lesson portion of my study plan is 6 weeks long and the practice portion is 8 weeks long. I've already been doing the lessons and will be set to start the practice portion on July 6. My first diagnostic test was a 152. I'm aiming for something in the 160s if possible.
Is this enough study time to meet my goals? I'm a little worried I'm going to get burnt out doing so much studying on top of working full time, but I feel like I'm out of options. I would really like to keep my Sept 2026 LSAT date. Do I need to just lock in for the next three months and keep doing what I'm doing? I've been strictly following the study plan and curriculum. I haven't been doing anything extra.
Thanks!
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3 comments
@AsemanShahsavand makes a great point about avoiding burnout! Once you get to the practice blocks, you might find that it feels repetitive to do lots of drills/sections for hours a day on top of full time work. Instead of trying to maximize the number of drills at that stage, you can instead do a smaller number of drills, but really make sure to review your work carefully through blind review, a wrong answer journal, and watching question explanation videos or reading the written explanations. This will make each hour of your study time more rewarding, because you'll be prioritizing quality over quantity. It can also help you avoid burnout because it's less repetitive. You'll be mixing timed practice with untimed review, writing journal entries, reading explanations, and watching videos, which is super important to keeping you engaged. And don't feel bad if you're not sticking to your original schedule. The study plan is there to serve as a recommendation, but if you can't complete everything in the plan for a given day, you can always modify it to suit your schedule and energy levels!
I think you'll have a better idea once you finish the curriculum lessons and take another PT! Pushing through the curriculum is a great idea for now. If you finish the lessons and start drilling by July 6th, you'll have around 2 months to practice before the September LSAT. While this is a bit of a time crunch, it's not impossible by any means. Once you finish the curriculum and take another PT, you'll have a better idea of how far you are from your goal.
Avoiding burnout is also very important, especially once you start drilling. I find that drilling tends to be more mentally tiring than doing the curriculum lessons, so watching for signs of burnout will be really important then. If you feel like 3hrs a day on top of your full-time job is not sustainable for you, don't push it! Getting burnt out can lead to worse results than you would have had if you decreased your study load. As another comment mentioned, make sure to prioritize your mental health, and focus on the quality of your studying rather than just quantity. Doing 2 hours of focused practice will be more productive and healthier than doing 3 exhausted hours!
Hope this helps, and happy studying!
I was in a similar position with the 3-4 hours daily plus working... but the burnout started to impact my physical and mental health after a few months of that. I pivoted from that method and now I only do one LR section a day and one RC passage a day (like an hour if you include time to review). It has made me physically and mentally feel better and it is helping a lot with comfort in completing full sections (and seeing the patterns of sections). I took the June test last week and am not necessarily scoring at the range I wanted, but I will retake it until I have the score I want. All this to say, my advice is to protect your mental health and wellbeing! If that means taking more time do it. :)