How much studying is too much or too little little

Rushhourman

I usually study about 4 hours a day but some days I find it hard to do anything at all, is there a bare minimum I should be doing? If so what?

I take one day off a week but as I get closer to the exam I find myself burning out and no being able to study as much the next day.

Logician

I'd say the most important thing is to avoid burnout. If that means taking more than one day off a week, do it. If it means kicking it down from 4 to 3 hours a day, do it. Personally, after about 4 hours a day, diminishing returns begin to kick in and thats when I call it. However, every individual is different, some can study 8 hours/day 7 days a week and not get burned out. So my advice would be to base your decision on how you're feeling.

VerdantZephyr

Take more breaks. I should say that for most people you're not going to be able to effectively absorb content for 4 straight hours each day, especially if you're losing interest in it. Give yourself rewards for studying as well. Play a favorite song every half hour or spend five-ten minutes playing that game you like or have a coffee and chocolate break. Something to reward yourself and get that dopamine hit.

In education we talk about an affective filter which basically means if you're too relaxed or too uncomfortable you won't learn effectively. If you're getting really bored that means you're uncomfortable and your filter is going to be interfering with your gains.

I'll also say that I think for quite a decent percentage of people that less than 4 hours would be ideal. That's not true for everyone, some people might continue to get good studying done for 5+ hours a day, but I am confident in saying you need to break that up and that the same activity repeated for that long isn't ideal. Maybe that just means reading about the LSAT for half an hour, drilling logic games for an hour, and doing LR and RC for a half hour before reviewing old problems for another hour. Maybe it means doing an hour before your daily workout, an hour after, and an hour before and after dinner. We're all different in that respect but if you're forcing yourself to do these hours of studying no matter what each day even when you don't sense productivity and are unhappy you're not going to get the same results with the same effort.