Can I Reasonably Prepare for LSAT within 6 Months? Forum

[scifiguy]

Hi. Trying to figure out how much time a "normal" person would need to prepare for the LSAT and do very well guys. At the risk of sounding arrogant , I'd like to score a 180. heh heh. I always believe it's best to shoot for the moon!!

So if I want to take the LSAT next June, would that mean that I should start studying this January? I will have only 3 college classes compared to my usual 5 next semester, because I'm doing an honors research program where I will spend time writing an original thesis and that will pretty much clear my whole plate next semester (I'm purposely dropping other stuff to do this, because I might want to do Ph.D. and want to do a good job on this honors thesis). Other than my honors research seminar, my other two classes are kind of easy. I purposely chose an "easier" load.

So, out of curiosity, how much time do you guys think a person would normally need to study for the LSAT? I think the shortest I heard was 3 months of intense study. The longest I heard was 9 months to 1 year I think.

Thoughts?

[scifiguy]

Don't knwo if this helps either, but I'm a philosophy major and have had formal logic before.

I have heard the LSAT has some of that on there, but I'm not sure how much. I got an A in my formal, symbolic logic class. Will that speed my progress any?

[cloudhidden]

I'd say get your feet wet with the test soon. Take a PT or two, read LRB and LGB, read the MLSAT strategy guides, check out the study schedules on this thread, etc. Then get a study plan together for the new year. If you have the time you might want to have gone through every released question but this certainly is not necessary.

[JDeezy]

You will absolutely have enough time. There are countless "schedules" out there to guide you in formulating one that works for you.

I spent 6 months studying, I won't even give my schedule because it changed throughout and it is all about what works best for you, but my one piece of advice would be don't get stressed/burned out too early. Just keep making steady progress.

[RCinDNA]

Don't knwo if this helps either, but I'm a philosophy major and have had formal logic before.

I have heard the LSAT has some of that on there, but I'm not sure how much. I got an A in my formal, symbolic logic class. Will that speed my progress any?

They will definitely help. I hated my formal and symbolic logic classes during college since I thought they were pointless - talk about something coming back around to smack me in the head years later. Conditionals, biconditionals and contrapositives form the backbone of many of the question types on this test. I basically had to re-learn a lot of this knowledge on my own in order to get into the 160-170 range for this test.