One year to prepare for the LSAT. Advice? Forum

[bigern247]

After reviewing posts for almost a month now, I have decided to take the plunge and ask my first question.

A little background:
I currently have a B.B.A. in Insurance and worked for a reputable company for about nine months before deciding to quit my job and go to work for an attorney with less stress in hopes to give me more time for law school prep. Due to some financial obligations I will not be able to start school until August of '12, so I have more than enough time to prepare for the LSAT (1 whole year before attempting my first test). Unfortunately my GPA is extremely lack luster (2.64).

I know that due to my ridiculously low GPA I will need to do well on the LSAT to even think about getting into a good school. I would love to attend Louisiana State University. Reason being I am from LA and will more than likely be in LA for a while and it is the best school I have a chance of getting into in LA. (not saying much). And even better I would love to get some $.

I guess my question is: Due to my low gpa, is Law school even an option for me, and how realistic is my goal of LSU with or without $. Also, I have a year to study before my first attempt on the LSAT. For those of you who have taken it, how should I study and how would you have studied if you had this much time?

Sorry not a T14 discussion but thx for the help.

[TTH]

Masturbate furiously for nine months, then start prepping according to PithyPike's method in the LSAT forum when your three months out.

[RickyMack]

ask for suggestions in the LSAT prep forum?

[cigol]

If I had to go back and do it again, I would read a lot of newspapers and magazines before even looking at an LSAT. Subscribe to Time and maybe some sort of science magazine, then read a couple of opinion articles from a newspaper online everyday. This will get your brain going for reading comp and logical reasoning. For the games, I'd start playing the tile game rummicube. It makes you move pieces around and visualize various combinations in your head. Do these things for 8-9 months and not even think about the test until 2-3 months before.

[bigern247]

Moving post to LSAT Prep forum. Thanks for the advice so far.

[alexyoshi]

seconded on the reading advice. more people lose points in RC than they should. NYT, economist, atlantic, newsweek ...... if you have the time/capacity, take a look at a basic logic book or course. otherwise i wouldn't do anything LSAT related until 3-4 months beforehand at the earliest.

[BigA]

i wouldn't do anything LSAT related until 3-4 months beforehand at the earliest.

Why does everyone say this? I've been studying 6 months now. I feel like it only could have helped.

[savesthedayajb]

i wouldn't do anything LSAT related until 3-4 months beforehand at the earliest.

Why does everyone say this? I've been studying 6 months now. I feel like it only could have helped.

Burn out.

[alexyoshi]

diminishing returns

[shock259]

I've been going for about 4 months and I have felt various periods of burnout, but nothing too bad. I'd say start giving it a glance and take a few practice tests at about 4 months, then gradually pump up your study. The nice thing about starting that early is you can take a week off without really hurting yourself if you start burning out after 2 months.

[BigA]

Burn out.

Yeah, I've heard a lot that this happens to people during months of studying. Funny, I've never experienced this in 6 months now. Maybe it's my comeptitiveness or something that never makes it hard for me to continue going.

diminishing returns

This is true. However I've reasoned that is worth it to keep studying even to the point of increasing one LSAT point per couple hundred hours!

[RickyMack]

Yeah, I've heard a lot that this happens to people during months of studying. Funny, I've never experienced this in 6 months now. Maybe it's my comeptitiveness or something that never makes it hard for me to continue going.

my burn out experience wasn't a lack of will to study. i did a 6 month study for a retake (original score 156), i was completely driven to study with no desire to do anything else BUT study. i decided to be unemployed for that time period and did 8 hour days of studying and i was enjoying it comfortably testing 165+. however, i peaked at 174 then the very next score dropped to 151. needless to say this was 2 weeks before the test date and i was considerably freaked. i ended up scoring 157, which at least wasn't a drop.

thing is, both our stories are purely anecdotal so it's not to say you'll suffer my fate. just wanted to share an experience of burn out that shows the effect of mental fatigue. i most likely didn't take adequate rest from studying.

[Knock]

Yeah, I've heard a lot that this happens to people during months of studying. Funny, I've never experienced this in 6 months now. Maybe it's my comeptitiveness or something that never makes it hard for me to continue going.

my burn out experience wasn't a lack of will to study. i did a 6 month study for a retake (original score 156), i was completely driven to study with no desire to do anything else BUT study. i decided to be unemployed for that time period and did 8 hour days of studying and i was enjoying it comfortably testing 165+. however, i peaked at 174 then the very next score dropped to 151. needless to say this was 2 weeks before the test date and i was considerably freaked. i ended up scoring 157, which at least wasn't a drop.

thing is, both our stories are purely anecdotal so it's not to say you'll suffer my fate. just wanted to share an experience of burn out that shows the effect of mental fatigue. i most likely didn't take adequate rest from studying.

I doubt that a drop from 174 to 151 is a result of mental fatigue. A score drop of that much is only possible if you have a less than solid grasp of the concepts tested on the LSAT. You most lucky got extremely lucky on a test that played to your strengths, then the exact opposite on the next test.

I would say 4 months is an optimal time-frame based on my own personal experience, but it depends on what else you have on your plate besides studying. And 8 hours a day is definitely too much, ~4 is plenty a day, enough time for a 5 section PT + review (depending on your raw score and how many questions your missing that need to be reviewed).