Top Law Schools

So I'm in my second year of college, doing well and planning to take the LSAT in June of 2015. (I know, a long way off) Going to take my diagnostic this coming weekend and go from there. I guess my question is, how early is too early to start preparing? I'm not planning to kill myself with 30 hour study weeks over 18 months from the test, but is there a good amount I should plan to do every week and just gradually increase it as time goes on? I've read some people saying that they felt that if they started working on it and then took time off they noticed a big drop when they started up again so I guess consistency is big. Also, I've seen some suggestions of just starting out with basic logical problems and such as opposed to hopping right into tests/going back over answers.

I guess it's kind of a dumb question and it definitely wouldn't hurt to start early. I'm a history major and my courses aren't a breeze by any means, but I find myself with spare time and I'd like to use it productively. Any scheduling ideas from you pros out there? Thanks in advance!

I think it's a good idea to start as early as you are. Like you said, try your best to be consistent to see the biggest payoff. If I were you, I'd particularly start with the LG section. If you begin on that early and do every real logic game out there multiple times you'll be acing that section by test day. I studied for almost 8 months and wish I had started earlier so that I could perfect the logic games section by re-doing games over and over til I got them down. One issue you'll want to keep in mind is that you'll want to save the most recent real PTs to work on in the months immediately before your test in 2015. Granted there will be several new PTs available between now and then, but I probably wouldn't touch PT 60+ until 2015. That will still give you plenty of material to work with (PT 1-59) over the next 14 months.

4 mos...TLS wisdom is 3 months, but many find that they need "just another week or two" to hit their score. Just my two cents from plenty of observation...you can be ready in 3, but I think 4 is much more comfortable.

As long as you need to.

It really depends on how well you study from the beginning, really.

BFlanagan wrote:4 mos...TLS wisdom is 3 months, but many find that they need "just another week or two" to hit their score. Just my two cents from plenty of observation...you can be ready in 3, but I think 4 is much more comfortable.

3 months is the minimum though.

Also consider personal schedule. 3 months might be fine for some. But I work 20 hour weeks, full time student, student leader etc so it took me a good 6-8 of off and on studying to really reach my potential.

You've got a year and a half until the test. It's nice to see you're concerned, but it's way too early, if you ask me. Take a diagnostic for the hell of it. Unless you find it morbidly difficult and end up with a score in the low 140s or worse, it's too early.

I s'pose you could space out your studying really well, but man, life's too short (and this test isn't THAT hard) to spend all that time dealing with the LSAT.

If I were in your position and wanted to really do my absolute best, I would:

1) Take a diagnostic sometime within the next few weeks, just to get an idea of where you are. The free one on the LSAC website should do; it's recent enough.

2) If LG is a big weakness based on that diagnostic, start doing daily sudoku or other logic puzzles. Don't do real LGs just yet, though.

2.5) If LG is easy for you, don't worry about the sudoku or logic puzzles too much and just focus on school (unless you happen to enjoy them...I do and actually still do them even though I'm done with the LSAT).

3) Work your ass off this year to get the highest possible uGPA you can get. Don't sweat the LSAT. Maybe take a logic class.

4) This coming summer (Summer '13), take another diagnostic.

5) Revisit these forums, and put together a study plan for the next year, from June 2013 to June 2014. Since you work 20+ hours and week and are a full-time student, I think a year is probably an appropriate length of time to be studying. If you can manage to do 20+ hours per week during Summer '13 (focused on understanding the test and increasing accuracy), that'll put you in a good place for the school year, so you can do something light like 5 hours/week (mostly focusing on getting a high GPA) until about a month before the test when you ramp it up to maybe 10-15 hours per week.

I'd enroll in a formal logic class at school, hopefully an advanced logic course the semester after, and any course that requires reading dense material. That could be a philosophy course, but could also be english, rhetoric, poli sci, history, etc. Since you're starting so far out, you have time to learn fundamentals. Don't start PTs or timed drilling (aside from a diagnostic) until you're 6-8 months away.

Listening to NPR (or other intellectual boring radio) in your spare time will help keep your mind sharp.