LSAT studying and a baby?

dodo.podo

Hi there! I wanted to ask for tips from anyone who has studied for the LSAT with a baby around (or with a full time job that drains like a 4-month old). I took the LSAT in February and expect a score in the high160s (my last prep tests ranged from 167 to 172). My goal is 170+ on the actual exam. My husband is firmly behind me and my LSAT efforts (he used to be an LSAT tutor!) and helps whenever he can, but he has a full-time job, and the baby is my responsibility during the day (no relatives around). The problem is that once he comes back from work, I'm way too exhausted to do LSAT, and I feel like weekends are not enough at this point when I'm trying to break into the 170's. When I studied for the February LSAT, I went to coffee shops with the stroller, studied while the baby was napping during the day, and my husband took some time off to help with the baby towards the end. I now realize that while this was a productive time for me, I wasn't 100% focused and therefore made little progress after a certain point. What I really need is a 3-4 hours of quiet LSAT time every day, and the only way for me to get that is to take advantage of the evenings. How do you do quality LSAT work in the evenings/nights after a long day? Is it even possible? Any tips? I used to pull all-nighters in college all the time, but here I am at 24 and falling apart by 9pm.

Nicole Hopkins

@dodo.podo said:
I wanted to ask for tips from anyone who has studied for the LSAT with a baby around (or with a full time job that drains like a 4-month old).

Paging @Pacifico !

noobie1

Do you use the App on tablet or phone? Have you considered a part time day care? For example, my church offers a 2 or 3 day option (5 hours per day) daycare service for ~$200 a month.

I usually watch the curriculum using headphones so even if my baby daughter is crying, it's not too distracting. I've taken parts of 2 PT's downstairs while she was crying upstairs. You get used to it. It might even be beneficial training for possible test day noise distractions.

MConner16

I have a 4 and 2 year old. Most of my studying came when they were napping or in the evening. I had logic games and question sets in my car for when my husband was driving or when I was waiting in carpool. My pt's that I took at home were lower than when I couldn't hear kids. I think it helped me by practicing under the most distracting conditions.

dodo.podo

Thanks for the advice! I should look into daycare at the church. We live in the city and childcare otherwise is pretty expensive. Maybe I could hire a sitter for a few hours two-three times per week. Taking the LSAT is such an expensive enterprise! I like listening to LG explanations while doing other things (cooking, exercising, going for a walk with the baby, etc.). I think I mostly struggle with doing timed work around the baby. @noobie1 and @MConner16, so impressed you can do PT's with crying in the background. I've tried several times and I scored a few points lower than my average, so I felt like I was just wasting PT's.

MrSamIam

You may also want to look into nearby universities. I know my college used to offer an inexpensive daycare for children. Students had the opportunity to learn, while parent's could relax. If you do take that route, make sure:
A) That you don't have to be an alumna
That professionals will be watching over both the students and your child.

dodo.podo

Thanks @MrSamIam. I've already checked at the university where my husband teaches, and no childcare there, but I should probably ask around at other universities in the area (we are in Baltimore, so Hopkins might have something). I really wanted to avoid childcare and save some money while I'm still at home and not going to school/working, but studying for the LSAT is at least a part-time job.

dodo.podo

I am also trying to establish an earlier bedtime of 7-7:30pm, so I can start studying earlier in the evening.

Cant Get Right

Ok, this is probably really terrible advice, but this is what I did working full time+. Starting out, I'd wake up at 6, go to work, and then try to study before going to sleep for the night. Like you, I was just too exhausted by the time I reached my designated study time. So, I changed my sleep pattern. I started going to sleep immediately after work. I’d sleep from about 5pm - 1am. Then, I’d wake up at 1 and study until 6 am, then go to work. I was still exhausted, but the brunt of the exhaustion hit during work where I could handle it a lot better since work didn’t require the same level of intense mental concentration. It was a bit wonky, but I got 8 hours of sleep a cycle as well as 5 hours of quality studying time. You’ve got some obligations I didn’t have, so might not be a viable option for you, but it was the best I could come up with.

rachel

I am studying with children as well, but fortunately I have a few hours during the school day to focus, as they are all school-age. Several of you have mentioned listening to drills or logic games in the car; do you have apps that you recommend for this? I spend a lot of time driving my kids around in the afternoons, and I think they'd get a kick out of it! They enjoy reading the LR questions over my shoulder...

@dodo.podo I tried to get my kids down earlier at 4 months as well, and it was well worth it, even though I was working full-time and it limited my time with them in the evenings. From around that age up to about 12 months, we had a consistent 7pm bedtime. It took some effort to get naps to accommodate it, of course. Hopefully you'll have success with that, and can find some outside help a couple times per week, so you can feel on top of your studying! Good luck!

Pacifico

I have a 22 month old and a 6 month old. The former was still in daycare when I started studying because I was still working 10-12 hour days in the Army. Fortunately as my contract wound down I had a lot of free time at work to study and that's how I flew through the curriculum, the Trainer and the LG bundle in about two months or so.

I started doing 1-3 PTs a week at the beginning of last summer, still averaging about 20-30 hours per week including BR calls and such.

After my son was born in August and I left the Army I became a stay at home dad and my hours dropped to about 5 per week which was pretty much just 1 PT and BR. I took October after sleeping maybe 20 hours that whole week and so I took December though that wasn't much better of a situation since my older son was having hardcore sleep regressions.

I've done every configuration imaginable to study while I'm actually taking care of my kids. I have worn them in carriers, kept them in strollers, walkers, jumpers, anything to keep them entertained. I've taken a whole RC section during a PT with my finger in my son's mouth because he wouldn't sleep at 2am and hated his pacifier.

The best piece of advice I can give you is to let the process take as long as it needs to in order to get you the score you need. I didn't need too high a score nor do I care much about scholarships since I have my GI Bill so I just needed to get into a law school and then I knew I was good. Figure out what you want to do, a good list of where you want to go with dreams/reaches/targets and especially safeties you would be happy to attend. Then study until you're hitting that target score or higher regularly. I actually wish I had had both kids with me to study because day cares are a cesspool of disease where kids get reinfected every three weeks and my son gave me a gnarly cold around thanksgiving that led me to having to sneak in 30 loose cough drops in my pocket that I took throughout the LSAT so I wouldn't have a coughing fit. Just figure out what works best for you and recognize that hours of direct parenting factor greatly into the burnout equation.

Feel free to hit me up if you have any other questions. Good luck!

dodo.podo

Thank you for the advice everyone. It helps to hear everyone's experience.

@JHAldy10 I was thinking maybe I could go to bed at 9pm, wake up at 5am and have 2 hours of study before the baby wakes up. Not ideal as you said, but may be better than what I'm doing right now.

@rachel we are working on the naps right now. Bedtime is currently 7:30pm and he sleeps until 7:30am with one waking around 4:30am. It would be great if he could sleep longer than 45 minutes during the day. Mr. Buttface is only taking 3-4 45-minute naps per day. I am trying to take a timed section for each nap, but it's not always easy.

@Pacifico can't believe you studied while taking care of a newborn and a toddler. The carrier turned out to be the best solution for me until Mr. Buttface decided he hated it at 3 months. I am starting to realize that I might not be ready to retake in June. Realistic expectations are a big part of studying for the LSAT (well, and everything else in life).

This is what I'm planning on doing starting next week, once I know my February score:

1. Find cheap child care for a couple of times per week. I checked the local church and there is no child care there, but I'm looking into some nanny-share options in the area. I hate that part, because the whole point of me staying at home with the baby was to be able to study for the LSAT AND save money on child care. Oh well.

2. Continue moving bedtime earlier and earlier until it's 7pm. Try to increase nap duration (well, do some research on whether that's possible), and aim to do a section each time he naps.

3. Go to bed at 9pm after a brief dinner and interaction with my poor husband. Maybe do some light LSAT work in bed before going to sleep (oh joys of being married to an LSAT learner!). Wake up when Mr. Buttface wakes up for a feeding (4-5pm), and do LSAT work for a couple of hours until he wakes up for the day.

allison.gill.sanford

I'm just so impressed with anyone balancing young kids and LSAT studying - you are rock stars.

mimimimi

Putting my 3-year-old son in daycare was extremely helpful, so I could do the timed PT uninterrupted. When he was at home, it never worked. He would ring the doorbell when I was in the middle of a section and that drove me crazy. The good thing about babies is that they are not running yet. I guess the difficult part is to find 3.5 hours to do the PT. I think you need to divide your studying into different parts and find best ways to accomplish each part.

p.s. I did my reviews with my son playing by my side. Sometimes he sat on my lap and watched JY's game explanations with me

lsatings

@JHAldy10 said:
I’d sleep from about 5pm - 1am. Then, I’d wake up at 1 and study until 6 am, then go to work. I was still exhausted, but the brunt of the exhaustion hit during work where I could handle it a lot better since work didn’t require the same level of intense mental concentration. It was a bit wonky, but I got 8 hours of sleep a cycle as well as 5 hours of quality studying time.

This was going to be my exact suggestion. I'm working full time now, and with my schedule + the exhaustion I just tend to wake up a good 5 hours before my work day, get some coffee in, and do timed sections (or timed tests). Then, after work I sit in a local Starbucks and just review the sections + blind review.