Study Plan for April LSAT

NayNayNugget

Hey Everyone , Im currently working through the CC (I have done another program before so a lot of this is well needed review/reinforcements). I know that I won't be able to 100% complete the CC questions listed but I can do a good portion. I want to get a general idea of how I should be studying until April. I still feel like I’m lacking structure. To be fair, I work full time so timing has been a big issue of mine. Anybody want to share their weekly study schedule or bounce some ideas on what I can do to maximize my time. How often I should be doing PT's reviewing them? What should I target? I often find that I’m doing endless drills I’m not sure if that’s even the best way to go. Thanks in advance!

maxkruman

I work full time as well. I usually try to do a full 3 section exam (graded sections), and then the following night blind review it. I do a full 4 section exam on the weekends to build stamina. I use the third night to review the exam and repeat the same process over and over. I think doing timed sections is great too but definitely recommend timed sections because it helps you adapt to pressure

chriscampbell7687

Hey there! Unless you are absolutely set on taking the April LSAT, or are already scoring well/meeting your goals with your scores, I'd recommend taking the test at a later date. Working a fulltime job not only takes up lots of time, but mental energy as well. Sometimes you only have enough energy for one hour of really high quality studying. Its also important to note that you're likely not going to be improving a ton in the last week or two (usually due to stress) meaning that the effective time you have to study for the test is two weeks shorter than you think.

While working full time I've taken the LSAT 3 times (159, 161, 170), and only for the last one did I give myself a TON of time to study. This isn't a lot of time in a single day though. Weekdays were 1 timed section + review. Weekends were one 4 section PT on Saturday, and a full review on Sunday. I did this for 6 months and it paid off.

A common piece of advice that may apply here is to only schedule your test date once you are getting the PT scores you are satisfied with. Good luck o7

NayNayNugget

@chriscampbell7687

Thanks for responding back to me I really do appreciate it! To give more context, I started studying in August 2023 with a different program, I learned a lot but still felt that I wasn't improving. I changed my test from November (which I would have bombed in) to January to now April. I was told by people who have studied and are now in law school that I won't know how the LSAT really is until I have taken a real one so I went ahead to actually book the real exam because I felt that I wasn't placing real deadlines on myself. I know for certain I will be taking the exam over but I wanted to test my luck with LG since that is said to be the easiest to improve. I wanted to do it before they make the big change. I do understand where you are coming from as it is very tiring these days trying to stay focus and get through materials/ practice questions after a long day at work. It almost feels impossible at times. I will take the note into consideration regarding the next exam that I schedule for. I want to make sure that I do well and not over extend this journey. By August it would be a year since the start and I would hate to push back applying again.

Ultra_Instinct_LSAT

I also work full-time. I work 4/10s, so that gave me three days on the weekends to study. From Monday - Thursday, I aimed at studying 1-2 hours per day. I would take a day or two off during the week, usually Mondays and/or Wednesdays because I would study during the weekends. Then on Fridays (the day I anticipated taking the test) I would take a full PT. I wouldn't do anything else LSAT related that day. On Saturday, my main focus would starting PT review. I would only work on my review for about four to five hours to avoid burn out. On Sunday, I would continue my review in case I didn't finish it on Saturday. During the week after doing my PT review, I would try to focus on improving target areas, like LG if struggled with a particular kind of game. I mostly took three section PTs, but once I got closer to test day, about a month and a half out, I started taking four section tests to build stamina.

I would recommend putting together a schedule that can give you some sort of structure and that you can aim at following. I was usually flexible with my schedule because things happen, you feel tired, you get a busy work week, other responsibilities. So, if I couldn't get my one hour of studying before work, I would sprinkle little things during the day like a couple LR questions or a RC passage. Also, I had printed older PTs in a folder that I could just grab and practice with untimed whenever. My goal was to stay engaged.