When to start studying?

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• 1 Like

  10000019 Alum Member

  December 2017 3279 karma

  Unless you're easily maintaining a 4.0, I wouldn't worry about it during the school year.
  Keep that GPA high, try to get some stuff to put down on your resume, and if you have free time during breaks then you can get acquainted with the exam then.
  Check back in junior year, and ask for advice then.
• 1 Like

  Seeking Perfection Alum Member

  December 2017 4428 karma

  @morelljt said:
  When should I start actually cracking down and studying for the LSAT? I'm a freshman in college so I know I'm suuuuper early, but many of my friends are pre-med and they're discussing doing MCAT study sessions starting this upcoming summer.
  While I know pre-meds are typically pretty psycho (lol) it got me a little nervous. When is a good general time that I should start creating a study plan?

  I started junior year during winter break. It was enough time, but barely. I'm going straight through although it can be beneficial to take a break after college.

  Really, I don't think there is any reason not to start early. There are three section types, logic games, logical reasoning, and reading comp. The section almost everyone needs work on is games. They also eventually get sort of fun(like a Suduko or something) once you are good at them which can take a while.

  This site usually ends up recommending that people drill on the first 35 released real tests to save newer ones for practice testing later. In hindsight if I were you, I would obtain the first 35 tests (probably by buying and photocopying the games sections, but maybe just by printing them if you have the instincts of a pirate).

  Then I would start foolproofing them. Foolproofing is 7sages way of saying that you do the game watch the free 7sage video explanation of it and then do it again until you have everything about the setup and how to get the answers memorized. There is a video explaining it on the page with the free explanations. You then come back to it later(I went with a day and a week, but you might spread it out more if you start early) to check to make sure it is still memorized. Since there are only a handful of main types of games, getting really good at each variation of each type means that new sections seem familiar and easy. They use different words, but similar underlying logic. If you foolproof say one game each week day and maybe take and then foolproof one timed section of 4 games every weekend or every other weekend then by maybe the begining of junior year summer when you start studying in earnest for the whole test, you would already have thoroughly mastered what starts as most people's weakest section and occupies a huge chunk of their time and energy to improve.

  I would hold off on any serious prep for the other two sections until probably the summer before junior year since you might get better at the skills underlying them naturally in undergrad, but might recommend getting a subscription to something that you enjoy that is fairly densely written(The Atlantic or something) unless you are already reading a lot in your major.

  Obviously, at this point in your college career keeping up your GPA is more important than prep though like @10000019 noted.
• 1 Like

  Alex Alum Member ⭐

  December 2017 23929 karma

  @morelljt said:
  When should I start actually cracking down and studying for the LSAT? I'm a freshman in college so I know I'm suuuuper early, but many of my friends are pre-med and they're discussing doing MCAT study sessions starting this upcoming summer.
  While I know pre-meds are typically pretty psycho (lol) it got me a little nervous. When is a good general time that I should start creating a study plan?

  Looking back, I don't think it's ever too early to start. I asked the same question as a college freshman back in 2012; everyone told me it was too soon to start thinking about it and I should wait until I graduate and get some work experience.

  That's just what I did; however, now I find it incredibly challenging to find quality time to study and realized far too late that it can be much harder to achieve a high (read: 170+ score) than I imagined.

  Simply put, I wish I started sooner... I think starting your junior year is a good time to start creating a study plan. But if you find yourself having some free time or the desire to start prepping now, I don't think it's too soon. Even if you can only do 5-10 hours of prep a week, over a couple of years, you can get really good at this test!