Is anyone studying for the LSAT full-time? Forum

[mrhaart]

This question is intended for anyone currently studying for the LSAT (presumably for either June or September) -- Are many of you studying full-time (e.g., 6 hrs+/day)? Every time I come on these forums, it seems people are pulling off amazing study feats in short amounts of time (e.g., "I just finished reading over the Bibles in 2-3 weeks and am currently drilling" and reading over Manhattan's guides). I only work part-time, but hell if I can chug out more than 1-2 chapters a day. Obviously there are tons of factors that play into respective study time and utility - individual potential, current "grasp" of the material, reading comprehension & speed, etc. but it seems those on TLS are of a different breed altogether.

For those of you who are working/interning/in school either part-time or full-time, how do you manage to muster up enough energy to get in some productive, quality study time? Do you have a rigid day-to-day schedule (e.g., work 9am-5pm, LSAT prep 6pm-9pm) or does it change depending on when you can actually find time? I do most of my studying over the weekends and I'm assuming many of you do as well, but I still feel like I'm "behind" those who are able to study for it full-time.

Thanks

[Lightworks]

I had class from 3-7 MWF, and 4-6 TR, so I would block out 8-1 every day for schoolwork/LSAT. If your schedule is bit more random, it might be trickier, but I think most people do better with several short sessions (provided they can stay motivated) than with massive blocks. I find I'm more productive and consistent if I stick to single 4-6 hour sessions.

It will take a while to build up stamina, but stamina is critical for the LSAT anyway. Don't go cold turkey into 5 hour daily study sessions.

[manillabay]

This question is intended for anyone currently studying for the LSAT (presumably for either June or September) -- Are many of you studying full-time (e.g., 6 hrs+/day)? Every time I come on these forums, it seems people are pulling off amazing study feats in short amounts of time (e.g., "I just finished reading over the Bibles in 2-3 weeks and am currently drilling" and reading over Manhattan's guides). I only work part-time, but hell if I can chug out more than 1-2 chapters a day. Obviously there are tons of factors that play into respective study time and utility - individual potential, current "grasp" of the material, reading comprehension & speed, etc. but it seems those on TLS are of a different breed altogether.

For those of you who are working/interning/in school either part-time or full-time, how do you manage to muster up enough energy to get in some productive, quality study time? Do you have a rigid day-to-day schedule (e.g., work 9am-5pm, LSAT prep 6pm-9pm) or does it change depending on when you can actually find time? I do most of my studying over the weekends and I'm assuming many of you do as well, but I still feel like I'm "behind" those who are able to study for it full-time.

Thanks

I've done most of my studying while in school. I do it mostly on the weekends (10-15 hrs at least). I try to study 1-2 hours a day per weekday. This is extremely variable depending on exam schedules, etc. Whenever there is an extended weekend or break from school, I get a lot done. This has worked pretty well for me this semester (and the end of last semester when I started). This summer I'll be kicking it into high gear with pure LSAT 6hrs/day.

[objctnyrhnr]

I devoted an entire summer to it, full time, spent all my savings, lived at home, and it was the best hours-to-$$$ investment I have ever made in my life.

[Lightworks]

I devoted an entire summer to it, full time, spent all my savings, lived at home, and it was the best hours-to-$$$ investment I have ever made in my life.

This a great point. A couple months of hardcore prep can save you hundreds of thousands of dollars AND give you a much better chance at landing a great job.

If you can't buckle down for that...

[Jeffort]

Think of it this way, in addition to testing your reading and reasoning abilities, the LSAT also tests how serious you are about wanting to go to law school and how hard you are willing to work to achieve goals since high LSAT scores typically require a lot of dedicated hard work and personal life sacrifices over a long period of time to achieve.

It acts as a nice filter to not only weed out people that don't have the necessary academic skills/abilities for LS, but also people that lack the types of long term motivation/drive/work ethic/goal driven/hard working/determined personal qualities required to perform well/succeed in LS and beyond in the legal world. Many people every year give up on LSAT prep long before they've put in enough time/effort to achieve their true max potential score/settle for a mediocre score because the level of extra dedication and personal sacrifices in their life that would be needed to put in more prep time outweigh how badly they want to achieve whatever LSAT/LS goal they originally started with. Long term goal oriented hard work is desired and rewarded by law schools and the legal world when students do it and do it well.

That's really the main stuff LS's are trying to figure out about applicants from grades, LSAT scores and soft factors when making decisions, which ones are smart AND hard working enough to thrive in the rigorous and very competitive LS environment where the potential rewards can literally be millions of $$ and everyone there WILL try really hard 24/7 to get it and beat out others? Many people have the smarts for LS but just aren't cut out for the harsh, constant hard work, super competitive environment where everyone is trying their best every single hour of every day of every week for three years straight to 'win'.

If your current schedule only allows a pretty limited amount of hours per week for quality LSAT prep it's not the end of the world, you just need to adjust your timeline goal to a later LSAT administration date to give yourself enough time to reach your target score. Many people that work FT or have FT school schedule or whatever that prohibits more than 10-20 hours of LSAT prep a week end up achieving their goal scores by just doing a much longer term prep plan to get there such as 6-8 months instead of 3-4 months for example.

Just be flexible with your timeline and make your target score your goal, not a designated administration date when you would like to hit your potential and be done with the test since it might take longer than you expect at the beginning. In short, don't give up if you don't get to your target score by your first targeted administration date, lots of people don't and have to postpone and/or re-take to reach their goal and successfully do so every year.

[surf]

In my last semester right now. Only taking 3 classes, one day a week. No job.

Just finished the Trainer. Doing about 3-4 hours a day, 5 days a week. Some days I'm more focused than others.

Plan to take the Sept test. Starting on LG Bible next week.

[Mauve.Dino]

Retaker here.

I work full-time, but I'll usually try to fit in some logic games during breakfast, at least. After work, I'll do more games and a few LR questions (LR is my strongest section).

Right now, I'm going through the LSAT Trainer again, and I'm about a third of the way through the Manhattan LG book (again).

The weekends are crucial for me, since that's when I can dedicate the most time to studying and taking PTs.

My problem is that--for some reason--it is so freaking painful for me to do RC review, and it's the one section I really need to focus on.

[birdlaw624]

I'm a retaker as well shooting for a 170+ on the June LSAT.

I work full time too and this is basically my schedule for a week. LG is my strongest section so I do 4-6 of those a day at lunch so I'm able to maintain my skill level. After work I go to my UG library and drill either LR or RC for 2-3 hours depending on how I'm feeling. On Saturdays I take a PT in the morning and review. Sundays are light review or light drilling at most but for the most part I just relax.