Took my first actual LSAT today! Forum

[PJENNEWE]

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[trudat15]

Just work on getting good grades in college. You dont need 2.5 years to prepare for the LSAT.

[dr123]

Wait like 2-4 years to start worrying about the LSAT

[PJENNEWE]

I totally understand your point! However, I don't plan on doing very intensive studying. In the summer I may do 30 minutes a day and take a practice test a month.

[5ky]

Seriously. Don't.

[bp colin]

It's not just the total number of hours you study. How they're distributed can make a difference. Studying for, say, 300 hours in the three months prior to the test can be all that you need. But if you studied 300 hours over the course of 2 years, that wouldn't be nearly as helpful. The LSAT is a long, intense test, and only studying for short 30-minute sessions isn't going to do a whole lot for you.

[zanzbar]

I am going to challenge typical TLS thought here and ask what is the harm of him taking the summer off and just exclusively studying for the LSAT and sitting for the October exam. The only potential negative I can see is if something happens and he doesn't graduate on time or delays law school entrance until the score is invalid in 5 years. So I think if you have your mind made up and are sure law school is a big possibility right after college, and you are willing to dedicate 3-4 hours every day over the summer then you might want to really consider just getting this miserable experience out of the way.

[sch6les]

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[bp colin]

I am going to challenge typical TLS thought here and ask what is the harm of him taking the summer off and just exclusively studying for the LSAT and sitting for the October exam. The only potential negative I can see is if something happens and he doesn't graduate on time or delays law school entrance until the score is invalid in 5 years. So I think if you have your mind made up and are sure law school is a big possibility right after college, and you are willing to dedicate 3-4 hours every day over the summer then you might want to really consider just getting this miserable experience out of the way.

This actually can be a pretty good idea if you're interested in taking the test this Fall instead of in 2013. Getting through a few more years of college isn't going to necessarily make you more prepared to take the test (unless you're planning on taking a formal logic class). In fact, if you have a pretty light courseload now, but expect to have a pretty nasty Junior and/or Senior year, then why not study a whole lot and take the test early? I've had students who have done this, and they're always glad that they did. If you knock it out now, when you eventually apply you'll only have to worry about compiling your softs.

But do keep in mind that the score expires. If you wanted to take time off after undergrad, then that's something to think about.

[paul34]

...

[zanzbar]

I wish I had done it since I'm currently trying to balance studying for the June LSAT, a 40+ hour week internship, and an online class, but I sat myself up where if I do a horrible job on the LSAT (which has to be really bad since I probably won't retake even if I make a 155) then I can study all summer and retake in October.

[T6Hopeful]

It's not just the total number of hours you study. How they're distributed can make a difference. Studying for, say, 300 hours in the three months prior to the test can be all that you need. But if you studied 300 hours over the course of 2 years, that wouldn't be nearly as helpful. The LSAT is a long, intense test, and only studying for short 30-minute sessions isn't going to do a whole lot for you.

This. Plus, the reason I don't think you should start now is that I find practicing on anything other than actual LSAT questions silly. If you start now, you'll run out of those questions by the time you really need to be looking at fresh material... there are obviously a lot of questions, but when it comes time to go hard, you're going to be taking full-length tests often and those'll go quick, even if you're just say, "browsing" for 30/minutes a day.

If you really want to start preparing, I'd say your time is better spent reading and analyzing dense material (some people would suggest issues of the Economist and the WSJ) in preparation for dense RC sections and LR stimuli (not that the knowledge you'll learn in the WSJ will help you on the test, but it'll help you plow through blocks of text easier). If you don't do well on the games, they're pretty learnable, but it's harder to make a huge improvement in RC.