Hours per day ...

ebalde1234

Hey everyone hope everyone is doing well.

Wanted to get some feedback on how many days/hours per week I should be prepping for july ( I'm open to retaking in sept) but at most Nov 2018.

Currently registered for the july lsat.

Right now I'm putting in about 5 hours a day give or take - 6 days a week approx.

If I do any more will I burn out ? I've done about 6 PT's , went through CC multiple times, currently going through LR and planning on hiring a tutor for LG. Aiming to do about 2pts per week. After Pt's I review them as well.

My pt's range ( after prep) from 148 (lowest ) to 152 highest

Target score pref 155 , but Ok with 150 and above.

Additionally, how did you all balance between the sections to make sure you were giving them all enough attention.

paulmv.benthem

@ebalde1234 said:
Hey everyone hope everyone is doing well.

Right now I'm putting in about 5 hours a day give or take - 6 days a week approx.

If I do any more will I burn out ?

At this point, how would you say you're level of focus is at the beginning of your session? Of course, by the end of a prep session on a day our focus begins to wane, but I find if I'm beginning to have difficulty concentrating and comprehending text at the beginning of my study session for the day, then I'm starting to show signs of burn-out, and it's time to do a shorter day and something more restful.

This also has a lot to do with how you're prepping during each day. Are you primarily drilling, or are you doing some drilling but also carefully working through sections of the CC or spending time on the forum. The latter two, at least for myself, are less exhausting than the former.

If you're doing roughly 5hrs a day, can you give a rough description of what that would ordinarily include?

Always, it's important not to sacrifice quality of prep for quantity.

alyhobbs

Based on your study schedule I would assume you aren’t currently working. So 2 PTs a week may be okay but how thorough are you BRing? You gave your scores but what about BR scores? That’s really where you will see how you can increase your scores by finding weakenesses in your logic and understanding. Also have you started foolproofing LG? A tutor may be great so you can have more one on one but watching the explanations and foolproofing can also help. It’s all about practice and consistency.

You may not need to focus on balancing how much time you spend on different sections because you will need to focus on one or maybe even two over another. For example if LG is giving you a lot of trouble then you will want to give that section more time and foolproofing takes a lot of time. In fact I haven’t finished mine because I realized I needed to focus on RC more. LG is actually my best section so I decided to pause my foolproofing and work on RC and LR. I work full time so it’s harder to find time to focus on them all. However if you’re doing 6 days a week then you can break it up. Take 2 days for PTs 2 days for BRing your PTs and the other 2 days to focus on your weaknesses/foolproofing.

As far as burnout goes I have found that the less pressure I put on myself the better I feel even after hours of studying. All my time sent studying I tell myself is one step closer. Before I was so bent on taking the test now. I’m older and didn’t want to keep delaying starting Law school but in reality you have to take the test when you’re ready. Otherwise you risk a low score and a ton of pressure that leads to burnout and self-doubt and stress. You set your own limitations, you have the control to say I’m not ready. You can not force yourself to be ready no matter how much pressure you put on yourself. Sometimes taking a breath, stepping back and saying here are my goals, how can I get there, is how you can relieve the pressure, reduce burnout and stress.

Ohnoeshalpme

4 hours a day is a maximum for me. Even if I feel like I can do more, I cut it off at 4 hours. I am taking in September, however, so that changes my attack window. I think that we would all have a better sense of what you can be spending your time on and how much per day if you give us a breakdown of your sections - ie. -4RC -2LG -8LR -5LR.

Your plan of attack is going to be different based on the sections where you have the most trouble.