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I love your initiative but I think it would be best to wait until you are closer to taking it. I'd just focus on doing well in college for now and enjoying senior year!
If anything it will hurt you. there are only so many tests and so much practice material, if you exhaust all of those long before your exam you most likely won't do as well as if you just waited till mid sophomore or junior year. BUUUUUUT if you wanted to, practice reading dense material. Make a conscious effort to read quickly and understand it. This will pay dividends on this exam and its a skill you can work on in the years prior. Also, not sure what your major is, but I highly recommend you take some some tough natural science courses or at least try to read on your own for a few reasons. 1) knowing science will help put many of the passages and LR stimuli into context, which in my opinion, is very helpful to understand and quickly parse out structure. Also, a few tough natural sciences may help your transcript look a little more interesting. Good luck!
GPA!!!!!! Your only concern if you want to go into law.
College GPA!!!!!!
Super stressing this
GPA!!!!!!!!
As someone with a cumulative 2.7gpa I am seriously weakened when applying to law schools.
DONT BE ME!!!
Maintain your GPA, that is your one and only concern for the first two years of college!
This. Also, maybe take a basic logic course in college.
don't late drop any courses. they will be reflected as Fs on your LSAC GPA.
Hey buddy. It appears I'm singing to the choir here, but I agree. At this point what you have to worry about is getting AND maintaining a high GPA. I would also take a couple logic classes. I took one in my undergrad and it really helped me get the fundamentals for this test. Then starting your junior year I'd say, you can start thinking about the LSAT. Best of luck and remember to enjoy college! It's an awesome time.
Great advice here already, and I totally second everything. Don't study for LSAT yet, but there's definitely plenty you can be doing. As mentioned, nurture your UGPA.
I'd also add to be sure to build and maintain close working relationships with a few professors. Find a few you really like who are really engaging, and take every class they offer. Visit them during office hours every chance you can come up with a reason to. Join any clubs/organizations/projects they're involved with. Have them direct your senior project. These profs will be important mentors during and beyond undergrad, and they will be able to write you great LORs.
You can also be thinking about softs. If you can publish, that would be excellent! Take advantage of whatever honors projects your university offers. That's a great way to work towards getting published.
I'd also recommend a few years of work experience after college. This will not only be great for your law school application, it will provide you with a lot of perspective that I know I lacked coming right out of school, and which is a part of the reason why law schools love to see it so much.
What major are you considering? Do something you're passionate about, something that deeply interests you. And remember that at the end of the day, your GPA will matter much more than your course load. So as impressive as double majors/multiple minors are, an easier 4.0 will serve you much better than a hard won 3.5.
Sure, why not? Just passive studying would be nice. Its actually a fun test to study for. But don't over do it, your UGPA is of the utmost importance right now.
I wouldn't start actually studying. However, if you aren't somebody who's already in to things like sudoku (and especially if you lean more English/history than STEM), maybe try some logic games! Not the ones from LSAC, but there are apps that you can get on your phone. But remember: study materials are limited…do NOT start burning through actual LSAT logic games yet.
Otherwise, as many others have said, focus on your GPA. Don't just take tons of easy classes, but be mindful of your GPA when you choose them and--if you haven't already chosen a college--when you make that choice. For instance, if you are dead-set on a prestigious law school (which could very well change--college often has you switching majors and career trajectories multiple times), University of Chicago and other UG schools known for tanking your GPA might not be your best bet. Same goes for choosing your major--if you don't want to go to medical school or be an engineer, don't take a bunch of those classes unless you know you can do well. Take courses in a subject you love--you'll do better and you'll enjoy your time. Law schools would rather see good grades than an unusually hard major with bad grades, so don't feel obligated to take classes that put your GPA in jeopardy.
This is only true if your school considers dropping late in the semester to be punitive (shows up as WF on your transcript). I have 4 withdrawals (grade of W) and none of them were even factored into my LSAC GPA. That is LSAC's standard policy: Ws are categorized as "unconverted credit." The classes don't even appear as attempted credit. WFs, however, are counted as failing by default. Make sure to check LSAC's policy for your specific school though, as I have heard of LSAC counting non-punitive withdrawal as WF from certain schools (although this should not be the norm).
That being said, I would definitely not recommend withdrawing. Use it as a last resort only (eg. a grade lower than B is inevitable or the class is hurting your performance in other courses). All of my Ws were in "extra" classes that didn't count towards my graduation requirements, but I still regret them.
@jchamberlainf
Yea i think that is mostly right. But I have Ws on my transcript which are not counted as zero grades from that same institution because i withdrew within the allotted time frame (i think 2 weeks). My late drops are considered zero grades, however, because LSACs basic criteria is "did you attempt that course?" and a late drop typically meets that criteria. Those late withdrawals are not shown as Ws on my transcript but as WN which classifies them as late. They didn't affect my GPA but LSAC takes them into account because I made an attempt.
in any case, avoiding Ws is sound advice. Much better to plan your course load well than to research whether or not a W from your institution is punitive or not.
No no no no no. Don't look at stuff for the LSAT for a while. The VERY earliest you should be looking at the LSAT is maybe junior year if you're trying to take it and apply during your senior year to go K-JD. But even then, taking at least a year off after college before starting law school would be a great option as well.
I am going to agree with the choir here about waiting, but for completely different reasons.
I actually am applying as a KJD for Law School right now and feel a little short on LSAT prep time. I wish I had started earlier.
That said one of the reasons that I am applying as a KJD is that it is not clear what the role of the LSAT is going to be in Law School Admissions. If the move by Harvard, Northwestern, and Georgetown to accept the GRE spreads the LSAT could be close to irrelevant in 4 years. The opposite could happen too. Or a genuine two test environment could emerge.
But, it does not make sense to study for a test that may not be the test you will take for Law School Admissions. I'd recommend finding an easy major to 4.0 (easy to 4.0 doesn't just mean easy in an objective sense, but also engaging to you) and working or volunteering part time to get a sense of an area of the legal field which interests you.
If you have a 4.0 coming out of undergrad you might be rooting for the GRE to become the main test instead of retaking to try to counter balance your mediocre GPA with an exceptional LSAT like me.
(But take all that with a grain of salt. I didn't do any of it, wound up picking two majors that interested me, but had notoriously difficult grading curves, did okay, naturally did very well on the LSAT (a 172) without much studying, and worked jobs totally unrelated to areas of the law I wish to practice. Thanks to the LSAT and okay GPA I am still probably positioned okay for the Law School admissions game.)
That said if you end up deciding to go K-JD, I found that taking the LSAT early was nice. June isn't a viable option with studying for classes so I would take it the February or September of junior year. This gives plenty of time to study and retake like I am now.
I'd have to agree. I'm going into my senior year, started studying part time mid January of 2017 to take June 2017. Ha ha. Had no idea the beast of the LSAT. As everyone else has said, focus on your GPA. Find out study habits that work best for you. For all you know, you could change your mind in a year and find out you have 0 interest in practicing law! The options are endless. Something that I have done at my undergrad that I would highly recommend is for the general ed TAKE THE EASY ONES. Do your research on the professors. The hardest class I've taken at my undergrad has been World Civilization - 1500s in my first semester of freshman year (the dang registrar put me in the class). Had to write a thesis fresh out of high school. That was a big wake up call.
Try to get some internships in the areas you are interested in. This is what helped me realize I wanted to be an attorney. It also looks great on your resume. Join clubs, programs, honors societies when you can, etc. If you still want to ultimately apply KJD, I would start studying summer going into junior year so you have the flexibility to take the test early before senior year and still able to study part time with classes. However, by that time, who knows how many times the LSAT will be offered, digital/ hard copy, etc. Just focus on your growth as a student and put yourself in the best situation possible when it comes time to apply
I say no. Have a 4.0 gpa then take a year off and travel the world before you hit the books again.
Yeah, like everyone is saying, major in something that not only interests you, but in something you can get a 4.0 or close to it in.
I would recommend to start reading now. Like just start reading books recreationally. Like a whole book a week. Take a major that youre interested in and will get a high GPA in. If you're certain about Law school i would do philosophy, finance, or economics. Get involved on campus and see if you can get a job in the school paper as an editor or something. Find the teachers at your school that are lawyers and build relationships. You have plenty of time. Id suggest start studying in the fall of your junior year.
Also the GMAT is becoming more prevalent so things will most likely change in the next few years - I'm of the opinion that the LSAT will eventually be phased out.
I'd say no don't study but work on your soft skills and prep skills. Make sure you GPA is on point, begin doing summer internships at least the summer before your Junior year and like @"marvin.dike" said read, read, read. (I'd suggest The Economist and The New Yorker).