How long do you study? Forum

[washin34]

I'm interested in knowing this because I initially started off with intentions of studying 8-10 hrs everyday from March 12 until test time. I do study every day, but with all of the errands I have to run (almost every day), I'm usually only able to get in 4-8 hours each day. I feel guilty. I keep thinking that I won't have enough time to prep so I can get my goal score. I've been studying Linear games since March 12 and it clicked like last Friday. Now I'm on grouping and it coming around, sorta. I still have RC and LR and Pure Sequencing to learn. Do I have time? How long do you study? How often?

[Knock]

I'm interested in knowing this because I initially started off with intentions of studying 8-10 hrs everyday from March 12 until test time. I do study every day, but with all of the errands I have to run (almost every day), I'm usually only able to get in 4-8 hours each day. I feel guilty. I keep thinking that I won't have enough time to prep so I can get my goal score. I've been studying Linear games since March 12 and it clicked like last Friday. Now I'm on grouping and it coming around, sorta. I still have RC and LR and Pure Sequencing to learn. Do I have time? How long do you study? How often?

Sounds like you're studying plenty. Your target study hours is way too much, and you will get burned out or lose focus/concentration.

But it is hard to answer this question properly without knowing your PT scores as of now and your goal score.

[CMDantes]

You've been studying linear games for 8 hours a day since March 12 and it's just now clicked?

Given that progress, you may need more time to master everything. You've still got all the other types of grouping games, special games, LR diagramming for tough questions, and RC practice to get through. See how you are PTing at the beginning of May and consider taking the test in October.

I'm sure you can do it, but it's going to take a lot of effort. Studying eight hours a day seems highly counterproductive. Around the 4th hour or so, your mind is totally mush and you're essentially wasting valuable prep materials.

Personally, when mastering skills I've found that studying in 45-60 minute bursts highly effective. Study for an hour, go do something else for an equal amount of time, then come back and study for another hour. This way you give your mind time to think about other things before going back to the material, increasing the chance you'll actually learn it. This is purely anecdotal, obviously, but seems to be working for me so far.

Once the test draws near, I will switch to a more endurance-oriented study routine. I will have already mastered the necessary concepts and will then be working on speed and maintaining mental acuity all the way through section three and section five (where I seem to be the most tired)

Hope this helps, and good luck in your studies.

[Shrimps]

Studying eight hours a day seems highly counterproductive. Around the 4th hour or so, your mind is totally mush and you're essentially wasting valuable prep materials.

I hope your law school and your law firm will be as accomodating to your work habits as the LSAT.

[jpSartre]

Studying eight hours a day seems highly counterproductive. Around the 4th hour or so, your mind is totally mush and you're essentially wasting valuable prep materials.

I hope your law school and your law firm will be as accomodating to your work habits as the LSAT.

Haha...

[cLams]

How do you find 8 hours a day to study?! Do you work? When I was studying for the LSAT, I was working full-time and going to school full-time. Damn, maybe thats why my score wasn't so hot.

To answer your question, 4 to 8 hours is PLENTY of time considering you still have 2+ months to go. I also think that you should take breaks during your studying so you don't burn out completely. Good luck!

[CMDantes]

Studying eight hours a day seems highly counterproductive. Around the 4th hour or so, your mind is totally mush and you're essentially wasting valuable prep materials.

I hope your law school and your law firm will be as accomodating to your work habits as the LSAT.

I don't think the comparison works. I work 25 hours a week and take 15 hours of classes, so my LSAT study has to accommodate my ridiculous work habits and ethic. Law school and legal work, from what I've heard, is a little different from learning how to diagram games or how sufficient and necessary conditions interact. Further, I don't understand how my future schedule/work demands is pertinent to the argument that trying to smash LSAT skills into your brain over an eight-hour period isn't a good idea.

but OP, go ahead, study for eight hours a day. Let us know how it goes.

[chicagobullsfan]

I find just around 3 hours a day to be adequate. M-F, I get up early, go to the gym or go to work, do my usual 8:30 - 5:30, and then go straight to the library and hunker down from about 6:30 - 10, give or take half an hour of revising/updating/adding my "Plan of attack," then I don't look at the material again until the same time the next day. What I've found is a nice way to somewhat prep for RC, I think - during down time at work I'll open up an op/ed or something comparable and try to write down a summary of each paragraph as best as I can, noting any weaknesses in the argument. I will probably revise this as I go along.

Weekends, I've been having trouble doing more than 3 hours a day. I may try to do 3 hours, followed by an hour break, then another 3 hours. But yeah, I find it sad how my life has become a little routine. I started going to the gym regularly, usually immediately after my study sessions, so that has helped a lot in terms of de-stressing, and I've tried to start eating right and all that too.

But damn if my already non-existent social life hasn't taken a major hit. Oh well. Hopefully this will all be worth it!

[makingwaves]

I find just around 3 hours a day to be adequate. M-F, I get up early, go to the gym or go to work, do my usual 8:30 - 5:30, and then go straight to the library and hunker down from about 6:30 - 10, give or take half an hour of revising/updating/adding my "Plan of attack," then I don't look at the material again until the same time the next day. What I've found is a nice way to somewhat prep for RC, I think - during down time at work I'll open up an op/ed or something comparable and try to write down a summary of each paragraph as best as I can, noting any weaknesses in the argument. I will probably revise this as I go along.

Weekends, I've been having trouble doing more than 3 hours a day. I may try to do 3 hours, followed by an hour break, then another 3 hours. But yeah, I find it sad how my life has become a little routine. I started going to the gym regularly, usually immediately after my study sessions, so that has helped a lot in terms of de-stressing, and I've tried to start eating right and all that too.

But damn if my already non-existent social life hasn't taken a major hit. Oh well. Hopefully this will all be worth it!

I do about 3 hrs a day too, but not 7 days a week. I've been trying to make more of an effort to make it to the gym every day and i've noticed that its helping me de-stress too... sound body, sound mind!

[jetlagz28]

Studying eight hours a day seems highly counterproductive. Around the 4th hour or so, your mind is totally mush and you're essentially wasting valuable prep materials.

I hope your lawl skool and your law firm will be as accomodating to your work habits as the LSAT.

There is a difference between the LSAT and legal analysis/research.

[JUmpJUmp]

OP- if it took you THAT long to get a handle on logic games, and you feel that you need to study 8 hours a day to do well on the Lsat, then perhaps you should consider another career path. No disrespect, but if you find the Lsat (and especially the logic games section) immensely difficult, you may have an extremely trying time in law school (ie working all day nonstop just to keep up with classmates). If your predilections do not lie with logical analysis and reasoning, law is not a very good fit for you; despite the legal profession's recently romanticised portrayal in popular culture.

Now, if you're confident in your ability to do well without much studying (and you have a high aptitude in logic), and are studying excessively just to ensure a top score, I would advise you to reduce your study hours. Like a logical person, you should do a marginal benefit analysis (recognizing that the law of diminishing returns is present). After a certain number of hours of studying and familiarizing oneself with the test, one receives little or no benefit from additional studying. If anything, overstudying in the weeks before the exam may leave you mentally exhausted and unable to focus. Just relax a little, and try studying for just an hour or two a day; using the remainder of your time much more efficiently.

[Richie Tenenbaum]

OP- if it took you THAT long to get a handle on logic games, and you feel that you need to study 8 hours a day to do well on the Lsat, then perhaps you should consider another career path. No disrespect, but if you find the Lsat (and especially the logic games section) immensely difficult, you may have an extremely trying time in law school (ie working all day nonstop just to keep up with classmates). If your predilections do not lie with logical analysis and reasoning, law is not a very good fit for you; despite the legal profession's recently romanticised portrayal in popular culture.

Now, if you're confident in your ability to do well without much studying (and you have a high aptitude in logic), and are studying excessively just to ensure a top score, I would advise you to reduce your study hours. Like a logical person, you should do a marginal benefit analysis (recognizing that the law of diminishing returns is present). After a certain number of hours of studying and familiarizing oneself with the test, one receives little or no benefit from additional studying. If anything, overstudying in the weeks before the exam may leave you mentally exhausted and unable to focus. Just relax a little, and try studying for just an hour or two a day; using the remainder of your time much more efficiently.

As someone who teaches/tutors for the LSAT as well as someone who increased their score by 19 points by devoting a lot of time studying for the test I very much disagree with this statement. I have encountered some students who are simply held back with poor reading comprehension skills / very slow reading ability that make LR and RC a true nightmare for them, but the vast majority of students I have encountered do not seem to be limited in such a way. I believe for the average person significant studying time that is done well can lead to significant increases in score.

Of course it is never a wise idea to completely burn yourself out, especially closer to test day. But I think the attitude of "I've hit a wall, I should stop/slow down a lot" is a bad one.

I do agree with others in this thread that 8 hours a day can be a bit much and is likely to cause burn out. If you can do it and make sure that time is well spent, more power to you though.

[DivinerH]

As a non-native English speaker, I study about 10 hrs per day. (I'm a college student taking a semester off just to prepare for the LSAT) I begin studying 9 AM and finishes it around midnight.
Except some breaks during the day, ie. meals and little break every fifty-minute-studying. I strongly felt this is necessary for me because I have to spend extra time to memorize vocabulary and familiarize myself with dense reading materials. It had worked well, since my initial diagnostic score was well below 150 but recently I usually scored mid-150s and sometimes low 160s. (I've been studying about 3 months so far like that.) I only take a day off on Saturdays for a week.

Lots of people think this is ineffective, but I found it is helpful since LSAT isn't about memorizing meaningless pieces of knowledge, instead, getting trained for it like preparing for a tennis tournament. (I may be making a false-comparison but I do believe both have the same nature, as when you learn to play tennis, at first it seems really complicated and difficult to learn how to swing your racket correctly to hit the ball, but once you got used to it after many years of training and practice, you don't even need to think about swinging it but just react to oncoming ball. FYI, I am a national amateur tennis champ so I know how is it like to set a aim and practice for it.)

My point is, once you push yourself a lot, your brain will fit to it. Then your attention span and time you can focus will extend naturally without sacrificing effectiveness.

[washin34]

I'm interested in knowing this because I initially started off with intentions of studying 8-10 hrs everyday from March 12 until test time. I do study every day, but with all of the errands I have to run (almost every day), I'm usually only able to get in 4-8 hours each day. I feel guilty. I keep thinking that I won't have enough time to prep so I can get my goal score. I've been studying Linear games since March 12 and it clicked like last Friday. Now I'm on grouping and it coming around, sorta. I still have RC and LR and Pure Sequencing to learn. Do I have time? How long do you study? How often?

Sounds like you're studying plenty. Your target study hours is way too much, and you will get burned out or lose focus/concentration.

But it is hard to answer this question properly without knowing your PT scores as of now and your goal score.

PT 33
Section 1 LR (-17)
Section 2 RC (-12)
Section 3 LR (-16)
Section 4 LG (-14) Raw 42 Score 142
My goal is 160. Is this unrealistic?

[CMDantes]

I'm interested in knowing this because I initially started off with intentions of studying 8-10 hrs everyday from March 12 until test time. I do study every day, but with all of the errands I have to run (almost every day), I'm usually only able to get in 4-8 hours each day. I feel guilty. I keep thinking that I won't have enough time to prep so I can get my goal score. I've been studying Linear games since March 12 and it clicked like last Friday. Now I'm on grouping and it coming around, sorta. I still have RC and LR and Pure Sequencing to learn. Do I have time? How long do you study? How often?

Sounds like you're studying plenty. Your target study hours is way too much, and you will get burned out or lose focus/concentration.

But it is hard to answer this question properly without knowing your PT scores as of now and your goal score.

PT 33
Section 1 LR (-17)
Section 2 RC (-12)
Section 3 LR (-16)
Section 4 LG (-14) Raw 42 Score 142
My goal is 160. Is this unrealistic?

I would say by June your goal is pretty unrealistic.

[hellokitty]

I'm interested in knowing this because I initially started off with intentions of studying 8-10 hrs everyday from March 12 until test time. I do study every day, but with all of the errands I have to run (almost every day), I'm usually only able to get in 4-8 hours each day. I feel guilty. I keep thinking that I won't have enough time to prep so I can get my goal score. I've been studying Linear games since March 12 and it clicked like last Friday. Now I'm on grouping and it coming around, sorta. I still have RC and LR and Pure Sequencing to learn. Do I have time? How long do you study? How often?

Sounds like you're studying plenty. Your target study hours is way too much, and you will get burned out or lose focus/concentration.

But it is hard to answer this question properly without knowing your PT scores as of now and your goal score.

That's going to be really tough by June, but not impossible! Any chance that you can wait until October though?

PT 33
Section 1 LR (-17)
Section 2 RC (-12)
Section 3 LR (-16)
Section 4 LG (-14) Raw 42 Score 142
My goal is 160. Is this unrealistic?

[Knock]

I'm interested in knowing this because I initially started off with intentions of studying 8-10 hrs everyday from March 12 until test time. I do study every day, but with all of the errands I have to run (almost every day), I'm usually only able to get in 4-8 hours each day. I feel guilty. I keep thinking that I won't have enough time to prep so I can get my goal score. I've been studying Linear games since March 12 and it clicked like last Friday. Now I'm on grouping and it coming around, sorta. I still have RC and LR and Pure Sequencing to learn. Do I have time? How long do you study? How often?

Sounds like you're studying plenty. Your target study hours is way too much, and you will get burned out or lose focus/concentration.

But it is hard to answer this question properly without knowing your PT scores as of now and your goal score.

PT 33
Section 1 LR (-17)
Section 2 RC (-12)
Section 3 LR (-16)
Section 4 LG (-14) Raw 42 Score 142
My goal is 160. Is this unrealistic?

It depends. If you have already worked through the LG/LR Bibles then it might be unrealistic to expect to improve by that much by June. It isn't impossible though, but you should keep October in mind at least.

[Mickey Quicknumbers]

I'm interested in knowing this because I initially started off with intentions of studying 8-10 hrs everyday from March 12 until test time. I do study every day, but with all of the errands I have to run (almost every day), I'm usually only able to get in 4-8 hours each day. I feel guilty. I keep thinking that I won't have enough time to prep so I can get my goal score. I've been studying Linear games since March 12 and it clicked like last Friday. Now I'm on grouping and it coming around, sorta. I still have RC and LR and Pure Sequencing to learn. Do I have time? How long do you study? How often?

Sounds like you're studying plenty. Your target study hours is way too much, and you will get burned out or lose focus/concentration.

But it is hard to answer this question properly without knowing your PT scores as of now and your goal score.

PT 33
Section 1 LR (-17)
Section 2 RC (-12)
Section 3 LR (-16)
Section 4 LG (-14) Raw 42 Score 142
My goal is 160. Is this unrealistic?

I would say by June your goal is pretty unrealistic.

March 12 - April 4th, that's 23 days. You're studying lets say on average 5 hours a day. That's 115 study hours for linear games. Those are the gimmes of analytical reasoning.
1) may god have mercy on your soul for the music store sale game, not to mention the snakes game
2) unless you show drastic improvement early on for RC and LR (because LG doesn't seem like your thing), then I have grim hopes for your LSAT score


Edit: I'm going to call flame or blatant awful lie. Thinking about it. I spent probably a total of 30 hours studying specifically logic games to go from -8 to -0. there isn't 115 hours worth of material in the world to spend purely on linear games.

[CMDantes]

I'm inclined to agree that this is a flame.

If real, the OP has some serious thinking to do regarding law as a viable career path.

[washin34]

I would say by June your goal is pretty unrealistic.

March 12 - April 4th, that's 23 days. You're studying lets say on average 5 hours a day. That's 115 study hours for linear games. Those are the gimmes of analytical reasoning.
1) may god have mercy on your soul for the music store sale game, not to mention the snakes game
2) unless you show drastic improvement early on for RC and LR (because LG doesn't seem like your thing), then I have grim hopes for your LSAT score


Edit: I'm going to call flame or blatant awful lie. Thinking about it. I spent probably a total of 30 hours studying specifically logic games to go from -8 to -0. there isn't 115 hours worth of material in the world to spend purely on linear games.

I haven't studied anything but linear games. I may have an easier time with RC and LR. I have been studying the same games from PT 29-38 over and over.