Studying for LSAT in school Forum

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nickdrake

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Studying for LSAT in school

Post by nickdrake » Fri Feb 09, 2018 9:40 pm

I'm a senior at an ivy league university currently taking 15 credits. Two of my classes are seminars and require only one 20-25 page paper, but do have lengthy reading assignments for each session. On the whole, my course load isn't overwhelming but is still fairly demanding. Does anyone have any experience with prepping for the LSAT on top of a course load? Did you find it to be overwhelming or was it manageable? I have the option of beginning prep for the LSAT in the summer, and so I don't want to unnecessarily stress myself out if people have had largely bad experiences with adding LSAT prep to a course load.

Any thoughts or advice is greatly appreciated.

tqi3

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Re: Studying for LSAT in school

Post by tqi3 » Sat Feb 10, 2018 2:11 pm

If you lsat is not that urgent, you can at least get started; make plans and do as much as you can every day. Doing something is always better than doing nothing. And by the summer when you really have to hit lsat books, you would have had a much more optimistic mindset This is my humble opinion ;) Good luck.

blueprint-nick

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Re: Studying for LSAT in school

Post by blueprint-nick » Mon Feb 12, 2018 2:58 pm

You should expect to spend about 20 hours a week prepping in my op. If that sounds manageable with your course load rock on!

cityb101

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Re: Studying for LSAT in school

Post by cityb101 » Thu Feb 15, 2018 1:24 am

I imagine you're planning to take it in September? I would highly recommend *starting* now. I prepped for December primarily while in school (humanities major with similar course load from the sounds of it--lots of reading and writing), and it worked out well.In fact, I also studied partly during the summer when I was working a 40 hr/wk internship with a longish commute. I found it much easier to prep during the school year because I had more time to myself when I wasn't tired. If your school schedule is anything like mine, you'll have chunks of time during the morning and afternoon to study on some days. You don't need to set aside a huge amount--maybe 4 hours a week throughout the semester (taking a week or two off for particularly bad midterms or finals). Whatever you do, don't let this hurt your GPA.

If I were you, I'd get going on LG now. First, you'll need to get a solid grasp of basic LSAT logic. Then, collect LG from PT 1-35 or so and watch 7Sage videos online as you work through them. I don't think that being a liberal arts/social sciences major (I assume that's what you are given the course load you describe) absolutely guarantees you an easy time on reading comp or LR, but LG is generally the most difficult out of the gate AND the easiest to improve. It's a new skill that you'll be honing, whereas LR and RC will be somewhat dependent on your current reading habits--both good and bad. Also, drilling the logic through studying LG will get you familiar with it by the time you hit LR; (unsurprisingly given its name) you'll need it there too.

It'll feel great to have the LG locked down by summer. Then, you can focus on test-taking strategies and practice testing during the summer months. A lot of people claim that the LSAT is a test for which you can study just 2 or 3 months. I heard that a lot at my school, and I'm sure you will at an Ivy League. I don't buy it. I started with a high diagnostic (162), but taking it to the next level (above 170 consistently) was tough. My point is that you sound smart and motivated, but don't let that convince you that waiting until summer is your best bet. Slow and steady wins the race. You might end up scoring 175+ within a month or two of studying, but I think that's pretty rare, and it's an important exam. You'll also have a much more pleasant (and likely productive) summer if you're not cramming LG constantly. The games are actually sort of fun if you take your time with it!

Happy to answer any questions about my process

albanach

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Re: Studying for LSAT in school

Post by albanach » Thu Feb 15, 2018 1:52 pm

cityb101 wrote:I imagine you're planning to take it in September? I would highly recommend *starting* now.
I agree with the time commitments others have mentioned. A word of caution though - what's your GPA like? Don't do anything that would jeopardize that. You can take an extra year to master the LSAT, you cannot do anything to improve your GPA after graduation.

nickdrake

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Re: Studying for LSAT in school

Post by nickdrake » Fri Feb 23, 2018 11:04 pm

Thank you for all the helpful feedback! I'll take everything into consideration. My GPA is high right now and I certainly don't plan on jeopardizing that; it's far more important to me anyway.

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