Self-study
Hi!
I'm going to be retaking the LSAT in November, and I'm looking for a study buddy to practice with and to help hold each other accountable! I'm in Colorado, but have no preference for in-person or virtual. My last score was a 170, but I really would like to break through the 170s -- I'd love to study with someone with a similar goal!
My current study schedule is ~3 hours a day (roughly from 3 PM - 6 PM), with full PTs on Thursday/Saturday. I really want to hit that grind 🤞
I look forward to connecting with you! :)
Hi! I was in the same boat -- diagnosed with ADHD after my first LSAT, and this is how I managed!
What study habits or routines helped you the most?
If you already have a routine (like school or work), start studying the second you get home. Seriously. I would get home from school/work and give myself a "quick little break"... and never start studying, or start studying way too late in the day/night where mental fatigue and brain fog had already set in. I found it so much easier to just keep the ball rolling -- get home from school/work, then study study study until dinner, then enjoy the rest of my evening. Also, if you take ADHD meds, it made a huge difference to study while I still had them in my system and working effectively than late at night when they wear off! Studying with other people or in a different environment (library, coffee shop, etc) also helped a lot. When I studied by myself//at home, it would be so easy to get distracted! Having an accountability partner or just going somewhere else helped me focus so much.
Did you find drilling vs. full sections more effective early on?
I would swing wildly between drilling and doing up to 2 PT tests a day -- I think for this, it's whatever you have the motivation for. Motivation with ADHD can be so fickle -- make the most of it when you have it, and go easy on yourself when you don't!
How did you manage timing, burnout, or mental fatigue?
I agree with @thelittlebigstar -- remove social media and short form content from your life. Once I did that, I pretty much never got burnout or mental fatigue.
Any mindset shifts that made prep feel more manageable?
I'm not sure what timeline you're on right now, but something extra that helped me when I was a month out from the actual test was treating it like a non-negotiable job. I canceled pretty much everything 'fun' I had if it conflicted with my study schedule (which was irl job from 6-2pm, study from 2pm-7pm). So I had a pretty boring month, but it paid off (172).
Also: treating it as something fun! I started thinking about it as a puzzle to figure out -- there is a right answer, and we have all the pieces we need to find it! This helped a lot, and now, post-studying, I find that I actually miss the LSAT. This shift also really helped with burnout -- it wasn't something that was tiring anymore, but something that was interesting and fun-challenging (instead of just ohmygod this is awful-challenging)
Finally, for me, I didn't think extra time would help. I never struggled with time, and I thought that having an even longer test would just end up with me making more mistakes. I can focus for 2.5 hours -- I don't think I could maintain that focus for a minute more (so time accomadations). But obviously, that will be very different person to person -- just wanted to let you know what I ended up doing and why!