How and when do you study when you're in school + working part time? Forum

[foodlaw]

Hellooo! I'm just starting my last semester of my senior year and I already see a really busy schedule coming up. I'm taking 16 credits, working 10+ hours and am involved in extracurriculars. My goal is to PT high enough to take the June test (only averaging 10 hours of study a week though) If you guys have a similar workload, how are ya'll doing it?

P.S. been actively studying June-midAugust and took a break from late August-December...

[KMart]

when i had time i booked basically a month of cramming for the exam. during my retake, i lowered my weekly studying average but spread it out. if you're very busy, you want to lengthen the amount of time you're studying for to get the same amount of hours. if you're taking in June, you should be able to get there with just a few hours a week. Perhaps 6 on the weekends and 4 during the week?

[Voyager]

I worked full time when prepping (40-50 hours a week)

I studied 2-3 hours every weeknight and ~10 hours over the weekend, broken into 2 and 3 hour sessions.

So 20 hours a week total.

[poptart123]

I worked full time when prepping (40-50 hours a week)

I studied 2-3 hours every weeknight and ~10 hours over the weekend, broken into 2 and 3 hour sessions.

So 20 hours a week total.

This. I shot for ~18-20 hours a week. About hour every weekday in the morning I would do two sections. I would review them in the evening for an hour. This is ~10.

The rest I would make up for on the weekends with a full test each Saturday and a review on Sunday.

[Voyager]

Yeah. But let's be clear: those were serious study hours. No tv. No distractions. Didn't just do problems to "put in the time". Actually had a plan for each session.

[LSRAT]

I worked full time when prepping (40-50 hours a week)

I studied 2-3 hours every weeknight and ~10 hours over the weekend, broken into 2 and 3 hour sessions.

So 20 hours a week total.

I did something similar. Simply, you find time. Studying over the lunch break, using your weekend as study time, sacrifice things that aren't as important. You can do it.

[TexasENG]

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[foodlaw]

Thanks for the study breakdown. Makes me realize how much harder I need to work.

Quick question: did you guys cut out friends during your LSAT prep? Did you have to sacrifice your social life?

[studystudystudy]

Kind of going through the same issue... I'm a junior working 20 hrs a week at a firm and doing 14 units at school. Also using 7sage and started in January, shooting to sit for June. It's exhausting. I go to school MWF and work TThF. I basically just try to do as much as I can. Some days I don't get any LSAT studying in because I figure if I am mentally SPENT, then how much am I truly going to accomplish and how much information will actually be retained? 7sage schedule has me at 19 hours a week, approx. I've basically arrived at the conclusion that I can only do as much as I can, because you obviously don't want to sacrifice your grades since those are a priority as well... LSAT can be postponed. But, if you figure out an efficient system, please share!

Re the friends question... Basically. I am in a long distance relationship right now so it's also slightly time consuming getting the almost daily talks in. But that's basically it. Work, school, study, study LSAT, & sleep...ish. Still working on the sleep portion.

[Voyager]

Thanks for the study breakdown. Makes me realize how much harder I need to work.

Quick question: did you guys cut out friends during your LSAT prep? Did you have to sacrifice your social life?

"cut out friends"?

Friend, we are talking about 3 months of prep, max. Your friends will be fine.

Also, on the weekends you are probably doing 3-4, 3 hour sessions. That leaves plenty of time to make sure your friends are still alive.

But yeah, your social calendar gets curtailed. Seems like a good trade off on an exam that will pretty much dictate how much money you can make when you graduate law school.

[foodlaw]

Thanks for the study breakdown. Makes me realize how much harder I need to work.

Quick question: did you guys cut out friends during your LSAT prep? Did you have to sacrifice your social life?

"cut out friends"?

Friend, we are talking about 3 months of prep, max. Your friends will be fine.

Also, on the weekends you are probably doing 3-4, 3 hour sessions. That leaves plenty of time to make sure your friends are still alive.

But yeah, your social calendar gets curtailed. Seems like a good trade off on an exam that will pretty much dictate how much money you can make when you graduate law school.

Haha thanks Voyager! I guess it all comes down to budgeting and optimizing my time. Appreciate your input.

[Voyager]

Thanks for the study breakdown. Makes me realize how much harder I need to work.

Quick question: did you guys cut out friends during your LSAT prep? Did you have to sacrifice your social life?

"cut out friends"?

Friend, we are talking about 3 months of prep, max. Your friends will be fine.

Also, on the weekends you are probably doing 3-4, 3 hour sessions. That leaves plenty of time to make sure your friends are still alive.

But yeah, your social calendar gets curtailed. Seems like a good trade off on an exam that will pretty much dictate how much money you can make when you graduate law school.

Haha thanks Voyager! I guess it all comes down to budgeting and optimizing my time. Appreciate your input.

GOOD LUCK!

[Rupert Pupkin]

Thanks for the study breakdown. Makes me realize how much harder I need to work.

Quick question: did you guys cut out friends during your LSAT prep? Did you have to sacrifice your social life?

"cut out friends"?

Friend, we are talking about 3 months of prep, max. Your friends will be fine.

Also, on the weekends you are probably doing 3-4, 3 hour sessions. That leaves plenty of time to make sure your friends are still alive.

But yeah, your social calendar gets curtailed. Seems like a good trade off on an exam that will pretty much dictate how much money you can make when you graduate law school.

Spot on! if you plan effectively and utilize your time well (wake up early etc) you should be able to have a "bit" of a social life and have a night to relax or do something fun for a few hrs.

[CMac86]

Be careful with burnout! I ran straight into burnout trying to do everything at once. So, I took about two weeks off, and eased back into it. I am focusing pretty heavily on logic games at this point (registered for the Feb 2017 test for my first take).

Here's my schedule from when I hit burnout/tried to fit in as much as possible. I was working 40ish hours per week, enrolled in 6 credit hours (I take classes via distance education, so my courses are 8 weeks long), and studying. I'm an active duty military musician, so despite having an awesome job, my schedule is not consistent. Times are listed in military time since that is how I tend to think. For anything over 12, subtract 12 and that is the time but PM. So, 1300 = 1PM.
0545-0600: Shower, Shave, Get Ready
0600-0745(ish): Study Block 1-this was typically reviewing or drilling question types.
0745-0800: Whatever last minute stuff I need to do to get ready for work.
0800-1030(ish): Work
1030-1215: lunch, study block 3-drill sections and problem types.
1230-1530/1600: Work
1615-1700: Dinner/relax
1700-1830: Study Block 3-drill sections or review lessons from 7sage, Manhattan books, etc. (swapped for course work if I haven't completed yet for the week)
1830-1900: Hulu/Netflix/talk to parents or friends.
1900-2000: Study Block 4-drill question types or review lessons
That schedule was a little bit fluid depending on my exact work schedule. Some days, my work day starts as early as 0730, some days it starts far later and ends even later (e.g. mustering for a gig at 1600 that doesn't start until 1930 and runs until 0100).

The schedule I have adopted since hitting burnout...I'm not in class right now (starts up next week), and my work schedule is a little more stable.
Similar to the above except I only complete and review ONE LG section before work.
The lunch block is spent typically watching 7sage lessons or reviewing from a book for 60mins with the rest of that time spent on relaxation.
Relaxation time is exapanded to 1615-1800.
1800-1900: Drill/Watch/review lessons.
1900-end of night: relax.

One of the big things that has struck me is that when I'm not extremely busy, I have a lot harder time sticking to a schedule.

[foodlaw]

One of the big things that has struck me is that when I'm not extremely busy, I have a lot harder time sticking to a schedule.

Hmm.. I feel like I'm sort of the same way! When I'm not busy, I feel like I have soo much more time so I end up wasting it

[connordalto]

My plan when I was working was pretty similar to others. FWIW I was working 12-14 hrs a day throughout the week with around a 45 minute commute each way. The key for me was to get into a specific routine and be very diligent to maintain it. Even a day of not doing it made the next day exponentially harder to get back into the groove.

I gave up all personal time when I was studying and my typical day was:
5:30 AM - Leave for Work
6:15 AM - 6 PM - Work
6-7 PM - Commute home
7:00 - 7:30 PM - Eat while reviewing a section from the previous day.
7:30 PM - 8:30 PM - Review book material (I used the Powerscore books for all sections) / Drill section (I alternated sections every day)
8:30 PM - 9:30 PM - Take 2 sections from a PT
9:30 PM - 10:00 PM - Review first section from earlier session (I would save a section for the next day)

Also I would always take the section that I was planning on reviewing to work with me and would try to get some time for reviewing at lunch if possible. This helped out on the longer days at work that ate into my schedule.

On Saturday / Sunday I would do a full PT in test conditions and then review that material.

Brutal grind... congratulations on your dedication. Hope you did well.

[CMac86]

One of the big things that has struck me is that when I'm not extremely busy, I have a lot harder time sticking to a schedule.

Hmm.. I feel like I'm sort of the same way! When I'm not busy, I feel like I have soo much more time so I end up wasting it

Exactly. I had two weeks where I worked mostly half days. Instead of being hyper focused on LSAT, I felt like I hit burnout in the period leading up to that (working 40-50hrs a week, finals in two classes, and studying at least 5-6hrs/a day), so I ended up crashing and playing Xbox while barely touching LSAT materials.

[cm4998]

I'm still in undergrad as well (senior year, finishing up). I also had to prioritize since I was tackling a lot of stuff at once but you need to be careful because you'll burn out real quick. I've been studying on and off for about a year and a half, trying to make the jump from 140s to 170, and honestly, the only way for me to do it was to focus completely on the LSAT and on undergrad. I had to quit all other commitments like clubs and internships and only take 4 classes every semester to give myself some time.

I'm not saying break up with your partner, quit all life and friends to focus on the LSAT. That's a little extreme. Just quit pursuing other activities that aren't related to your law school goals. Most of the time, people are just trying to pamper up their resumes with extracurriculars and internships that actually take up valuable time in which you could spend studying. In the end, the most important and defining factor of your legal career is where you go to law school and the LSAT is your golden ticket. I know someone who even quit their job just to dedicate full time on the LSAT for a few months.

With a solid LSAT score, no other extracurriculars, activities, internships will matter. Study hard and reap the rewards. Had I not learned that lesson, I'd still be in the 140s. However, I've made significant improvements in my score and, although I'm not in the 170s, I'm getting there slowly but surely.

Quit the things that don't matter. Focus on the one thing that'll get you what you really want. Best of luck.

[waldorf]

Hellooo! I'm just starting my last semester of my senior year and I already see a really busy schedule coming up. I'm taking 16 credits, working 10+ hours and am involved in extracurriculars. My goal is to PT high enough to take the June test (only averaging 10 hours of study a week though) If you guys have a similar workload, how are ya'll doing it?

P.S. been actively studying June-midAugust and took a break from late August-December...

I was fortunate in that I was able to take one class online, self-paced during the semester I was studying (so basically, just worked on it whenever I had free time), and I purposely took some of my harder classes earlier in my undergraduate career because I knew I wanted an easier semester school wise when I would be studying for the LSAT.

I was taking 12 hours of coursework, had two leadership positions on campus, and waitressed 25-30 hours a week. I scheduled my classes in the morning and had basically no social life until the October 2015 test was over. (Started studying in April, really ramped it up in late July).

During the school year, I went to class 9 - 12 MWF, 10-11 TT. I work better when I stay up late and wake up late, so this was better for me than waking up first thing in the morning. Then I had my afternoons free to switch between homework and studying. Worked MWF and Saturday 5-11 + Sunday mornings. TT after lunch until bed were for homework and LSAT studying as were Saturdays during the days as were Sunday evenings. It was tough, and I had little to no social life, but it felt that much better once the test was finally over. For the month before the test, I only worked two nights a week. It was easier to do that as a waitress since I was making significantly above minimum wage. Took off work completely for the last week before the exam.