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.
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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.
A) That you don't have to be an alumna
That professionals will be watching over both the students and your child.
@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!
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!
@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.
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