Really trying to get into a routine two months before test day. I usually do 3 hours in the morning and 2 hours at night. I also sprinkle in some off days, around one a week. For those of you who study 5+ hours a day, do you study all at once or do you separate it into two chunks like me? Just curious.
Also, what time of day do you guys usually study? I find that my mind is much clearer in the morning. Studying in the afternoon/night is so damn hard since there are so many distractions from the day.
And lastly, what do you guys do to avoid distractions/interruptions while studying? Right now I leave my phone on airplane mode but I still usually check up some stock quotes/news once every hour or so. I really need to learn to just shut out everything, but it's difficult. Technology was suppose to make things easier but these days I feel it's a major burden/distraction.
Comments
And yeah, I usually split up my days. I may PT in the morning or afternoon and then BR later in the day or even the next day. Not easy to sit still for more than 3 hours!
I usually find that I'm much more productive in the morning. But I'm very much a night owl too so it's really easy for my to stay up and do work then but I find that I'm not as productive. If I'm on my A game, I find that I could go a few hours of straight work and focus. I take little breaks here and there. If you have a hard time focusing-- check out the Pomodoro technique-- could help up your productivity (obviously change it up based on your needs)
I try to get at least one PT per week done on Saturday morning around 9AM going through my test day process. Same breakfast, same wake up time, same amount of caffeine, same amount of water, etc. Using that process helps me judge if I'm needing to use the bathroom during the test block. It does involve drinking less water the night and morning before the test, at least for me. I do that PT at a place that isn't home, typically the lounge at work, and am considering going to the library.
As far as eliminating distractions, I try to limit the influence of the outside world. If I'm drilling questions from this site, I don't have Facebook open, my phone is on silent and face down, and if there are dogs barking or an external noise distraction-I put in ear plugs. If I'm doing a PT or drilling from a paper source, I turn off my computer monitor and speakers, and then do the same thing with my phone.
If you're finding that you get distracted easily, it might be beneficial to take more breaks. If you can convince yourself that in 60, 90, 120, etc minutes you can do whatever you want, I think you'll be more likely to be focused during that block.
I've found that I study best in the morning. I swear, for the first two months I was studying, I was all over the place. I've gotten a lot better by studying in the morning. When I was studying in the afternoons, I was hitting PT scores of 139. I was freaking out. I started studying in the morning a few weeks ago and, recently, I've hit a PT of 150-153. Trying to dig myself out of this plateau before the August LSAT. Right now, I studying between 4-6 hours a day and I cut each section into maybe two hours. (i.e. LG for 2 hours and LR for 2 hours) I do NOT do all three sections a day! For me, that resulted in serious burnout and meltdowns. So, now, I focus on about two sections a day. I always involve LG, because that is where I need the most work.
To all of those who took the July LSAT recently, I'm sure you crushed it just as much as the those who took it in past months! And, to my fellow August FLEX takers? We've got this!