When's the ideal time to start preparing for the LSAT's? Forum

[s.thizzy]

I have heard many many answers to this question and I have decided to take it up with the pros. When is the ideal time to start preparing for the LSAT's? My brother says to start Junior year, but I am assuming he says this because he is now preparing for the MCAT's. My best friend says to start the beginning of sophomore year, but thats because his sister is a Government/Poli Sci double major who is starting to study for the LSATs. My parent's say study second semester of freshman year. So when should one really start? I know most of you guys would say earlier the better but shouldn't one wait until the stress of freshman year is over?

[kkklick]

6 months.

[iphone7]

Three months is about a minimum, but it is typically recommended that you start earlier in order to get in LSAT mode for a longer period of time. 6 months of studying typically gets someone to their potential. Doing more than 6 months is dangerous because it could lead to being burnt out.

[bport hopeful]

Start at the beginning of your Junior year or in the middle of your first semester of your junior year. Take the June LSAT. God I wish someone had told me to take the June LSAT.

[Eliyahu7]

I didn't start studying for the LSAT until three months after finishing college, or nine months before my administration. That being said, I can only imagine that balancing school-work with the LSAT would have been a little bit more of a challenge. Granted there are a lot of people who do just that and are very successful, but I found my circumstances to be much more preferable. Remember that your grades are also going to be crucial, so I would definitely take that into consideration.

This aside, I think the more important question you need to ask yourself, rather than when to start studying, is how you plan on studying; are you going to take a prep course, what materials do you plan on using, etc. From there you can plan accordingly.

Additionally, bear in mind that there are in fact a limited number of legitimate practice tests, and prep materials out there. If you start using those too early you may exhaust your resources. For that reason, if you really wanted to get a head start during your first two years of college I would suggest taking a course in logic, or something to that effect. I think you would find that to be immensely beneficial.

[iwanta170]

3 months, but if you take a class make sure you also get plenty of timed practice tests in

[2Serious4Numbers]

about 12 hours and 22 minutes ago... better get crackin

[s.thizzy]

any specific study guides I should invest in?

[Pleasye]

any specific study guides I should invest in?

Pithypike's study guide is stickied in this forum

[Flips88]

In utero...


but really 4-6 months is fine depending on how quickly you pick up on things.

[kpuc]

Depends on when you want to go to law school. Right after college or with some time in between? I can't recommend during which college year you should start studying, but as for a length of time, I'd say 4 months is ideal. The first month should be used to get familiar with the 3 sections, and 3 months should be used to go through every one of the 60-or-so PTs.

[kkklick]

I wrote the LSAT 3 times, while starting to study in April. I studied on and off until early December so about 7 months. I didn't hit my peak until about mid-November, so it does take time. I suggest studying hard for a while then taking a few weeks off to let it sink in.

[iceland]

60 days before the test date. It was the perfect amount of time for me. Naturally, I could have studied longer, but with diminishing returns. I rarely took a day off, and studied for a minimum of 2.5 hours per day.

Of course, YMMV.

Good luck to you!!

[RockinJosh]

60 days before the test date. It was the perfect amount of time for me. Naturally, I could have studied longer, but with diminishing returns. I rarely took a day off, and studied for a minimum of 2.5 hours per day.

Of course, YMMV.

Good luck to you!!

I agree with this. You can start as early as you want, but you're going to want to make solid, lengthy commitments each day (as in, many full-length tests). That is hard to sustain for months at a time. I'd maybe start in a little later, but block off more daily time. It will be intense, but worth it.

[pb1093]

Yesterday

[TLSanders]

Depends on what you mean by "preparing". If you mean direct LSAT prep, 3-5 months before your administration. One thing to keep in mind about the LSAT is that the specific skills you practice to improve your score will rust if not exercised...which means there's little benefit in beginning direct preparation until you're at a point where you can continue largely uninterrupted right up to test day.

However, if you have the opportunity to take classes in formal logic and critical reasoning in advance, and if you can train yourself to read dense materials efficiently, picking out the key themes and structure without getting immersed in the details, you'll already have a leg up, and those are skills that will serve you well in law school and the practice of law as well.

[hjag]

6 months is ideal. While I hit a plateau for a long time after 2-3 months, a few months later my former peak became my new plateau.

Beware of burn out, and don't underestimate the importance of "days off" in your studying regiment. It really helps you perform better when you do get back to studying. When I stopped eatingbreathingpeeing LSAT and began to do more things for leisure (watching tv, hanging out with friends, reading for fun), my preptests came out better.

[NYCcops]

It all depends on where you are starting from and what you want to achieve. I know one person who got a 165 without one second of studying. I also know a girl who studied for 6 months religiously and got a 155. The ideal amount of time has been said to be 6 months, but in my opinion 3 months or even less will work. There is not that much to cover.

[arism87]

I studied for 3-4 months but not particularly thoroughly- in retrospect I would have probably started earlier since I was working full time and wasn't putting much time into it.

As far as study guides and whatnot, honestly I don't think anything beats taking old tests- and lots of them.

Good luck!

[Royal]

Six months affords plenty of time, but it can be done in four months. Also, for reference, it's singular LSAT, not LSATs and definitely not LSAT's.

This forum is an excellent resource. Also consider Powerscore material. Good luck.

[3ThrowAway99]

It all depends on where you are starting from and what you want to achieve. I know one person who got a 165 without one second of studying. I also know a girl who studied for 6 months religiously and got a 155. The ideal amount of time has been said to be 6 months, but in my opinion 3 months or even less will work. There is not that much to cover.

I think there's a lot of merit to this answer. I think how you are practice testing (i.e. scoring on practice tests) and what your goals are (both in terms of score on the test itself and what schools you hope to have a shot at) should be taken into consideration. I think probably at least six months of fairly serious study is probably helpful for most people, but it may take a lot less, or IMO it could take more to get to your peak goal.

I also think the answer re: starting studying for it during 1st semester of Jr. year and taking the LSAT the following June before Sr. year is really good advice (assuming you're coming up on your Jr. year).

[pkrtbx]

I am writing June '11 and have casually worked through two of the Bibles since the summer but am now making my serious study plan:

How far in does the switch from untimed to timed sections usually take place? I am going overseas to visit friends in late February and am finding it hard to anticipate whether I can be ready to make the switch by early February or if waiting until mid-March is too late. I would otherwise be shooting to go timed in mid Feb, but I don't want the major schedule/time zone disruptions of my trip to mess things up right as I've made the change.