If you’re an aspiring lawyer, then you probably know that the LSAT is one of the most important stages in your journey to a legal career. Getting the best score you possibly can on the LSAT will determine what law schools you get into, how much financial aid you receive, and even what kinds of internships and jobs you qualify for.
With so much on the line, many people devote several months, or in some cases even a whole year, to their LSAT prep. But not everyone has the kind of time. Sometimes people find themselves with only a few weeks to prep for one of the most important tests of their lives.
The LSAT is famous for being impossible to cram for. So if you don’t have that much time to prep, does that mean you should just give up and accept whatever score you get?
No! With the right approach, it’s possible to significantly improve your LSAT score in as little as a month. In this article, we’ll take you through the one-month LSAT study plan, so you can make the most of the time you have.
Step One: Push Back Everything You Can
If you’ve only got a month to study for the LSAT, you’ll want to give as much of that month to your test prep as you possible can. That means, yes, you should procrastinate. We don’t mean you should procrastinate your test prep—we mean you should procrastinate everything else.
Tell your friends you’ll be a bit less available for the next month. Trust us—if they’re true friends, they’ll understand. We know it’s hard, but postpone dating for a month, too. You’ll be grateful you did. If you can afford to take a month away from classes and work, that’ll go a long way toward opening up your schedule and your headspace for your LSAT prep.
Whatever else you normally use to procrastinate from work, you should try to minimize for the next month of your life. Accept that you’ll have to cut down on your video game and TV time, for example. That doesn’t mean you have to cut it out entirely, but you’ll appreciate it a lot more if you keep it as a reward for after your study sessions.
One thing we don’t recommend procrastinating, however, is taking care of your body. Exercise actually helps keep you energized. And make sure you get eight hours of sleep—you want your brain and your body in good shape for test day.
Step Two: Make a Schedule
Don’t just presume you’ll spend every spare minute studying. You should actually sit down and make a schedule, and do your best to stick to it. First, plan all the things you absolutely have to do besides study—that might include other coursework, your job, or your sister’s graduation party, for example. Then see how much time you have left.
It’d be great if you could devote 15-20 hours per week to your LSAT prep. But don’t just cluster all that into a day or two. Test prep is subject to the law of diminishing returns. After several hours, you’ll lose energy, and your brain won’t retain new information as well as it does in shorter, more regular sessions. Planning one four-hour session for every weekday would be an excellent way to make the most of your month.
Step Three: Start With a Diagnostic Test
Plan to take an official diagnostic test—and observe LSAT rules and testing conditions as closely as possible—so you can see where you’re starting from. An official diagnostic test will also help you determine which areas of the test you’re strong at and which require more work. As you organize your study approach, you’ll want to devote most of your time to your areas of weakness, but don’t neglect your stronger areas too. Shoring up your strengths will help make sure you don’t leave any points on the board come test day.
Step Four: Take Weekly Practice Tests
You should be taking an official, timed practice test every week over the month before your official LSAT test day. Official practice tests will not only help you keep track of your progress—they’ll also help you work on your time management skills, your endurance, and your ability to apply your learning to the actual testing format.
Step Five: Balance Timed and Untimed Practice
Time management is a crucial part of LSAT success, and you absolutely want to be foregrounding it in your test prep. This means you should regularly be timing yourself as you work on LSAT problems, both to measure your progress and to improve your ability to work quickly under pressure.
However, you also want to make sure you’re working on problems in an untimed capacity. Working on problems without a timer helps you build mastery of the subject matter. It lets you think more deeply and discover solutions on your own, which you can then work on applying with increased efficiency as you work on timed problems.
Step Six: Invest in Flashcards
There are many flashcard sets out there—including digital/app-based flashcards—with LSAT problems, passages, and logic games. Working with flashcards is excellent training for your brain and helps you embed more information more quickly. But the main benefit of flashcards is that you can take them with you wherever you go. This is especially important if you’re prepping for the LSAT on a time crunch. If you’re stuck in line or in a waiting room, having flash cards handy can help you turn dead time into productive time, allowing you to get the most from your one-month study plan.
Step Seven: Make Your Practice Time Sacred
Let’s face it—test prep can sometimes get a little boring. And if you’re spending as much of your time as possible prepping for an upcoming LSAT, you’re eventually going to find it hard to maintain focus. Still, you should try to do everything possible to keep your study time sacred. This means avoiding distractions, like phones, TV shows, and even most music (though some ambient/instrumental music can be a good study aid). Keeping your prep time free of distractions will help you remain more focused, embed the material more deeply, and practice your endurance before your actual LSAT.
Step Eight: Work With an LSAT Tutor
Just because you only have a month to prepare doesn’t mean you shouldn’t work with a tutor. An experienced tutor will be able to help you design an ideal study plan to make the most of the time you have. Whether it’s in-person or online, LSAT tutors will be able to translate the material so you can maximize your progress. They’ll also help you identify and target your weaknesses. MyGuru’s LSAT tutors have experience working with students across a broad range of skill levels and amounts of time to devote to their LSAT prep.
Conclusion
Of course, it would be ideal if you had six obligation-free months to devote to your LSAT prep. But sometimes life doesn’t work out that way. Thankfully, with the right combination of dedication and preparation, it is possible to make major strides in prepping for the LSAT in only a month.