Advice on LSAT Prep - timing and working full time

jaygaleone

Dear All,

I need some advice. I currently work in Big Law and I am struggling to find the time to study for this test. I am taking the February LSAT and would still like to go to school for the Fall of 2017. With that being said, I have rescheduled my exam twice due to my workload. Any advice on how one manages their time efficiently would be greatly appreciated. I really would like to go to Georgetown Law and know that I have a long shot for this admission cycle since most, if not all of the spots, will be already offered. Also, I am struggling with time when taking practice tests. I tend to freeze when I go and do timed sections. Any thoughts on how to handle time for studying and how to practice doing better while timing yourself will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

desire2learn

Take the LSAT when you are ready. Do not rush. Go to law school in 2018 or 2019. Take the time to do it right (unless of course you are already scoring 173). I'll post more advice later. Gotta run.

Sarah889

@jaygaleone said:
Any advice on how one manages their time efficiently would be greatly appreciated.

I completely know how you feel. I work for a law firm too and the hours and work load can be very demanding. Even when things are slower, there's no way I want to study for the LSATs after spending 8 hours a day reading dense legal documents--so trust me, I can relate to your struggle. I'll tell you what I have done and hopefully it will help you some.

1. Depending on the type of work you're doing, I listen to webinars while I work. Obviously I can't do this for substantive work like proof-reading or researching, but if I am assembling a binder or anything that does not require significant mental contributions, then listening to webinars is an awesome way to keep your mind engaged and excited to implement some of the ideas you pick up when you are able to study later.

2. Prioritize weekly preptests. Timed, 5 section PTs. I usually dedicate my Saturdays for this, but there have been times when I was called in to work on the weekends or I had weekend plans and I knew I wasn't going to be able to take one. I literally would pick a week day, force myself to wake up at 3am, come into the office before the work day began, find a conference room and take one. I've only ever done this about 3 times, because it is exhausting. However, I really try to not let myself make any exceptions. 1 PT a week (followed by extensive blind review--not necessarily in the same day of course), no matter what.
Side note: I also want to stress that, for me, I have to do this in the morning. Otherwise my brain is fried or something comes up and I have to stay late at work. If I don't do this in the morning when my brain is fresh, it just wont happen (effectively, if at all) for me. I do know some paralegals that I work with who take them after work, so it's not impossible. It just depends on you and what you can best handle with your schedule/mental efficiency.

3. Lunch breaks. I almost always utilize my lunch breaks to study. Not all the time, but more times than not. That's a solid hour of review and, if you do this every day (provided you're not too busy to take a lunch break), that is an extra 5 hours of studying each week.

4. One thing that I think is really important, at least in my experience, is not to make studying something that you dread. Don't come home at 8pm at night, dreading that you have to BR because you will not be able to maximize the benefits of you're studying process. Honestly, for me, I've learned that I cannot study at night (on my own anyways) and it is significantly more practical for me to go to bed at 8pm and wake up to study at 5am. You've just got to know yourself, but please don't put LSAT studying into the "Ugh...I'm working my entire life away" category because you will burn out and retain little.

Hope this helped with how to manage your time!

Regarding freezing while taking timed PTs--this is most likely because you are nervous of choosing the wrong answer choice and being disappointed in your score. At least, that's how it was for me at first. One tactic I sort of adopted was to take a PT, BR it on my own and with a partner, and not score it for weeks. I literally will leave my answer sheet in my test and not look at it until I am emotionally divested from the result. That has honestly helped me so much in my willingness to throw myself into a timed PT and do my best, without fearing the disappointment of a lower-than-expected score. After a few PTs and extensive BRing, I'm sure you will be able to gain confidence and fly through those questions much quicker.

Best of luck to you

Alex

@jaygaleone said:
I need some advice. I currently work in Big Law and I am struggling to find the time to study for this test.

@bswise2 nailed it!

jaygaleone

@bswise2 Thanks for this response! GREATLY APPRECIATED!

Sarah889

@jaygaleone No problem! I did just want to clarify one thing- if you decide to hold off on scoring your PTs, that doesn't mean that you shouldn't check the correct answers. I always go through with the correct answers after I BR the test. I just don't keep track of how many I got wrong and I don't actually score it until later. But I think you definitely want to make sure to check your answers (at least for LR) after BRing before you move onto another PT.

Just wanted to make sure there was no confusion there

J.Y. Ping

Great advice @bswise2 !

@bswise2 said:
I also want to stress that, for me, I have to do this in the morning. Otherwise my brain is fried or something comes up and I have to stay late at work. If I don't do this in the morning when my brain is fresh, it just wont happen (effectively, if at all) for me. I do know some paralegals that I work with who take them after work, so it's not impossible. It just depends on you and what you can best handle with your schedule/mental efficiency.

I suspect this is true of nearly everyone but it's not the case that nearly everyone recognizes it.

Also, PTing is super important but don't stick to a PT schedule for the sake of sticking to the schedule. You want to stop taking PTs if you're seeing repeated and similar errors. Drill, shore up that area of weakness and then resume the PT schedule. Otherwise, you run the risk of wasting good PTs.

desire2learn

The biggest thing that helped me with taking too long is to adopt the skipping strategies recommended on 7sage. There are some great webinars that cover this. Check them out. As part of my growth in skipping I had to stop trying to get 100% certainty (this is covered in many of the webinars) and just be okay with my "best" answer. Then, over time as I worked on my skills, I came to improve my ability to identify "best" answers. It takes a long, long time but if you implement the strategies for skipping and don't try to be perfect, then improve your skills bit by bit it will help alot!

Giant Panda

I am working full time too. Make things worse, I have to travel a lot, and sometimes international. I think I have a pretty busy life. But I think there is always ways to squeeze in.

In general, I think it is just super important that you begin to "like" LSAT.

Never make LSAT something that you have "TO DO", rather, keep it something that you "WANT TO DO" or "LIKE TO SHARPEN".

I don't think this is hard because just how useful skills that it offers.

And for fun, i sometimes write super complicated emails to my girlfriend or my cow-worker who I have a great relationship with.

In general, if you have fun, then you will always get time.

Back in high school when I was studying for SAT, I loved video games, dota because I am asian. And I always find some way to play it by finishing my HW early and finish my study with extreme high quality because I want to play that dota game. And I think it works in the exact same fashion.

In general, enjoy it.

Giant Panda

If it helps, I always believes our human brain is stupid and you can always brain wash yourself. So everytime when you are about to LSAT, I just try to make the environment extremely enjoyable-latte, M&M, and stuff. So yes, my brain is getting trigger in terms of associating LSAT with a very enjoyable feeling.