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Hey guys! I've been a long time lurker here on TLS and have come to really appreciate the opinions of most of those that post on these boards. Thus, I have come to seek your advice.

I am a junior at a top 25 private university with a 3.86 GPA (hoping to get it to a 3.9-3.91 by the time I send in my grades to LSAC *fingers crossed*) and will be applying to law school during my senior year (2013-2014). I am looking to apply to schools like Harvard and Columbia and thus need a 173+ to give myself even a somewhat decent shot at admittance. I have been studying for the LSAT on and off (mostly off) since June and was going to take the test in February. But school has really been tough this semester and it has been hard to balance my schoolwork and extracurricular activities well enough to find time to get in an hour or two of LSAT everyday. I have done LSAT work maybe twice since August and am a long ways away from scoring the elusive mid-170s score that I need to be competitive at my (and everyone else's) top choice schools.

The original plan was the study throughout the semester two or three times days a week for an hour each day. Then, after finals in December, I was planning on studying for all of winter vacation (5 weeks) and then for the first two weeks of school as much as possible until the Feb LSAT. However, as it is less than 4 months until the day, I am beginning to get cold feet about the whole idea. I was going to use October 2013 as a retake testing date (June would be too close to finals and December 2013 would be too late as I wish to have everything in by mid-October to give myself the best possible shot at acceptance), but I'm not so sure anymore for two reasons: 1. HYS prefer one-time mid-170s scores and supposedly average both LSAT scores if taken twice (is this actually true?) and 2. I feel like there is no way to prepare for the LSAT in a month and a half (I had a 155 stone cold diagnostic in June).

Should I take the test in February 2013 and again in October 2013 or wait until October 2013 and just go for it one time? What would be the better strategy when considering that my top choice would be Harvard?

Any advice on my situation or how to manage time into a busy courseload and extracurricular schedule would be appreciated. Thanks in advance for all of your help and I am really sorry for my rambling internet speak.

Cheers!

February is undisclosed, meaning you won't get any useful feedback on what you need to improve. Take June 2013, and use October as the retake if you need it.

Thanks for your response rinkrat. I know that February is undisclosed but I feel like all the PTs I will be doing before the test (and after the February test date should I decide to retake) should indicate my necessary areas of improvement quite sufficiently, although you definitely can make the case that the real LSAT is no PT and therefore should not be regarded as such in terms of how much feedback you can really attain from it.

I thought about taking it in June originally but my school's finals end mid-May which would give me two and a half - three weeks until the june test date...i feel like that's a bit too bunched up in terms of getting lots of PTs in. Plus the entire month of April and May would be spent prepping for finals and finishing up last minute assignments and the like. Burnout would probably set-in (it usually does for me by that time of the year) and despite the importance of the LSAT to my future, I am sure it would effect my ability to focus for long periods of time for at least a week or so after finals were over. It would be tough to find time to study for longer than an hour every other day or so until mid-May. I don't know if such a short period of legit study time would be enough to score that high...