Initial Preparation for LSAT Forum

[centralfc]

Hello! I recently joined this forum and I'm blown away by the sheer volume and depth of resources provided to us. With that said, I have a fairly specific question that I hope you all can assist me with.

As an incoming junior, I was curious as to how I could best prepare for the LSAT without diving into a full-on, rigorous study mode. I still have two years and maybe three if I take a gap year prior to my LSAT. With that known, how could I start now? Which resources are best for my initial review of the LSAT? If I plan on scoring higher than 170, what would be my best course of action as it stands at the moment?

I have some free time on my hands this summer and would love to have more work during the academic year ( ). I appreciate your help in advance everyone!

- Eric

[meegee]

Your focus should be getting your GPA as high as possible.

If you find yourself with extra time on your hands during the summer, I guess you could start by reading The Economist, and other similar magazines/publications. The writing style in such articles will be similar to what you will be seeing in the RC sections. Reading such articles will, in my opinion, most def help you, but it won't be significant.

Other than that, I would suggest reading every single LSAT guide you can get your hands on. And then you can just start planning things out from there.

My suggestion would be to take at least 1 gap year between school. So if you plan on going to law school after one gap year, you would have needed to take the June exam after you graduate, which means you should start touching the LSAT sometime during your senior year.

Contrary to what some people say, I don't think there's anything wrong with starting your LSAT prep really early, like 1 year early. It just means you have more time, and you can move through it at a gradual pace. This also allows you to strike an easier balance with other things in your life, like school or work.

ETA: Work experience is invaluable. Sure, I guess it might give a slight, tiny bump in your application. But you should get work experience just because it helps you mature and grow as an individual.

[Louis1127]

As an incoming junior, I was curious as to how I could best prepare for the LSAT without diving into a full-on, rigorous study mode. I still have two years and maybe three if I take a gap year prior to my LSAT. With that known, how could I start now? Which resources are best for my initial review of the LSAT?

1. Take what you plan on doing and spread it out more

2. Use the search function

[gentlemanscholar]

When I have friends mention they are thinking about Law school I encourage them to take a practice LSAT early on, just so they can find out what they are getting into. You may realize that there is an area where you will need a ton of work, usually logic games. If you know this ahead of time, then your practice can be more focused. I practiced casually for about a year, then with a couple months till my test i was taking (or retaking) LSATs 5 days a week. Reading scholarly articles might familiarize you with the type of reading comprehension passages you will see, but I found that the tough part about the reading section is not comprehending the passage, but learning how to discriminate between tricky answer choices.