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Wondering how to study for the LSAT? This article will go over LSAT prep tips, how to formulate a stellar LSAT study schedule and some frequently asked questions.
As an aspiring law school student, taking the LSAT is probably one of the first things that’ll pop into your head. However, taking the exam will undoubtedly open up more options for your postgraduate law career.
You might be wondering how you can best study for the test. This article aims to provide you with some valuable information on studying strategies for the LSAT and how to pass with flying colors!
The LSAT is a standardized test used for admission to law school. It tests aspiring law students’ critical thinking, logical reasoning, reading comprehension, and writing skills to determine their potential to succeed in their first year of law school.
How many sections does the LSAT have? There will be at least one reading comprehension and two logical reasoning sections on each exam. The unscored section can be either of these section types. You will have 35 minutes to complete each section.
The LSAT argumentative writing section is administered separately using online proctoring software. Students can write this section at their own convenience, as early as eight days before their test. They will have 50 minutes to complete it.
Effective preparation for the LSAT will ensure you make the best use of your time and maximize your chances of reaching your target score on your first try.
Your studies should be focused, consistent, and built on proven test strategies that will guide you toward a competitive score. Effective preparation will also reduce your test anxiety and increase your confidence, setting you up for success!
There isn't a definitive number of LSAT practice tests that guarantee success. However, completing a minimum of 10 complete, timed practice exams under test-like conditions is a solid foundation.
Getting ready for the LSAT isn't a universal process; it should be adapted to your study schedule and personal requirements. While some suggest taking many practice tests, too many can actually lead to burnout!
Start with a diagnostic test to determine how many LSAT practice tests you need. It helps you get familiar with the LSAT format, gives you a taste of the actual test, and establishes your baseline score.
Make sure to replicate test conditions with four sections lasting 35 minutes each and a 10-minute break between sections two and three. Your starting score matters; if you're close to your target, you'll need fewer practice tests, but more practice is necessary if you're far off.
Taking 30 or 40 practice tests doesn't automatically guarantee success. It can have the opposite effect.
You might hit a plateau, feel mentally drained, and even reinforce incorrect strategies if you're not working on improving your core understanding of the LSAT. Prioritize quality over quantity when it comes to practice tests.
Are you trying to find the correct number of LSAT practice tests? Here are some LSAT tips to help you decide:
Remember to take your last practice test no later than 48 hours before the LSAT. The day before the exam, focus on relaxation and positive activities to ensure your best performance. Quality and strategic practice with Juris Education is key to achieving your desired LSAT score.
Practice tests aim to mimic the LSAT experience closely, but they're not exact replicas. Here's how they compare:
While practice tests come close to simulating the LSAT, be aware that the real LSAT may bring unique challenges related to the test-day environment and stress levels.
An LSAT diagnostic test is essentially a practice test designed to help aspiring law school students assess their initial readiness for the Law School Admission Test (LSAT).
The LSAT is a standardized exam widely used in the United States and Canada for law school admissions. It evaluates skills like reading comprehension, logical reasoning, and critical thinking, all of which are crucial for success in law school.
The LSAT diagnostic test usually consists of questions and passages that closely resemble those found on the actual LSAT. Its purpose is to provide test-takers with insights into their strengths and weaknesses in the two LSAT sections, Logical Reasoning and Reading Comprehension.
By taking a diagnostic test early in your LSAT preparation, you can pinpoint areas that require improvement and devise a personalized study plan tailored to your needs.
Many LSAT preparation providers offer free or affordable diagnostic tests that can be taken online or in a simulated test environment. Once you have your diagnostic test results, you can use them as a starting point to create a study schedule and determine which specific LSAT areas need the most attention in your preparation.
There are several options you can choose from when deciding which diagnostic test to take. For your diagnostic, you should only trust reputable websites that can provide real past LSAT tests for you to use as your diagnostic. Ensure you can also receive your score and the correct answers after completing your test.
Some of our favorite diagnostic tests to take are the ones provided by LSAC, the administrators of the LSAT. If you have an LSAC account, you can access several free, timed practice exams that you can use as your diagnostic test.
Another excellent resource is Khan Academy. With Khan Academy, you can take a full diagnostic test, receive your score, and be given a general assessment of your strengths and weaknesses. Or, you can take an express diagnostic with several short sections with general recommendations but no actual score.
However, it’s important to note that none of these diagnostic tests can give you highly personalized recommendations and resources specific to your weaknesses and strengths.
But Juris can! The first step Juris takes in LSAT prep is giving you a diagnostic test to create a personalized study schedule based on your results. These LSAT experts know exactly how to boost your scores in each section to give you the results you need to get into your dream law school.
The first step you should take after completing your LSAT diagnostic test is to breathe and pat yourself on the back! You have successfully begun your LSAT prep and are headed in the right direction to get to your target score.
Next, try looking at your score from an improvement standpoint. Don’t fixate on your first score; fixate on getting to your final score!
Analyze your diagnostic test and review the correct answers so you can see where you went wrong. Try to re-do the questions you got incorrect to continue honing your own problem-solving methods.
Lastly, assess your level of need and explore the resources available to you. If your baseline score is way off from your target, you may want to consider working with an LSAT expert to help you get to your score with as little hassle as possible. If you’re close to your target goal, you can begin self-studying and focusing on your weaknesses.
Your diagnostic test should only be the first of several exams you complete during your studies. Customize your subsequent exams! For instance, if you’re struggling with reading comprehension, do two of these sections per practice exam rather than just one.
Taking an LSAT diagnostic test is absolutely worth it! Not only will you begin gaining confidence in completing the LSAT under time restraints, but you’ll also be working smarter, not harder.
By taking a diagnostic test, you can figure out which areas require more improvement and which ones don’t, which will help you create a personalized study schedule that will actually get you to your target score!
A diagnostic test can also keep you motivated, especially when you see yourself moving further away from your original score and closer to your end score!
Here are some tips to consider before you write your exam:
While you may feel like you need all the time you can get to ace the LSAT, cramming in practice questions the night before your test can have the opposite effect. Try your best to get a good night’s sleep to be well-rested for your test and ensure your brain is working at optimal levels.
If you can’t seem to fall asleep the night before because of your nerves, consider doing an activity that calms you instead of using these extra hours to study. For instance, you may want to read a good book, watch your favorite comfort movies, or cook your favorite comfort meal.
You’ll already be stressing out plenty on test day, so do your best to minimize your stress the night before.
Part of the beauty of being able to write your LSAT in the comforts of your own home is you can make your testing area a safe space! To make this a familiar and safe space, consider completing your LSAT prep in the same room, with the same materials.
Get rid of any distractions in your room, turn up or down the AC to a comfortable level, and pretend you’re simply writing another practice test, just as you would have already done multiple times within the same space!
Ensure there are also no prohibited items in your room before test day.
To avoid any extra stress or delays on test day, ensure all of your testing equipment works beforehand. Double-check that your computer, webcam, mic, and internet are all working properly.
Try to stick to your normal routine on the day of your exam. Don’t skip breakfast! You want to be in the most clear-headed space while writing your exam. Food is brain fuel and will give you the energy to complete the three-hour test to your best abilities!
If you skip breakfast, you may also get hungry during the almost three-hour testing period, which can distract you or make you uncomfortable, which will ultimately mess with your psyche and could cause you to perform poorer on the LSAT.
While your LSAT score is an essential part of your law school applications, doing poorly on it is not the end of the world. Do not attach your worth to this score; it doesn’t determine your potential to become an excellent attorney.
Do not let a score that’s lower than anticipated discourage you! Use it to modify your studies so you can increase your score when you retake the exam.
There are many paths to reach your ultimate goal of attending law school; some just involve more twists and turns! But you will get there if you continue trekking and pushing forward.
Practice is the most important part of LSAT prep. Give our LSAT pop quiz a try to help you get started on your practice!
While the LSAT will be administered online in the comfort of your own home, you won’t be able to get up to grab anything once you begin your test. So, to ensure you’re prepared for your test, here are the top five items to bring to your LSAT:
Writing the LSAT is tiring work! With the amount of stress you’ll be under and the amount of brain power you’ll be using to write the exam, you’ll likely need to refresh yourself during the exam. You also don’t want to risk getting thirsty during the test because chances are you’ll fixate on it, and it may distract you!
You’ll have to identify yourself before you begin your exam. Ensure your ID is up-to-date and not expired.
Remote test takers are permitted to have six (6) blank sheets of scratch paper. The paper may be lined, unlined, or graphed. Students testing at the digital center will be provided three booklets of scrap paper.
Ensure you wear comfortable clothes when you write your LSAT! Again, people tend to fixate on discomforts in stressful situations, so you don’t want to wish you were wearing different clothes halfway through your exam.
While you’ll undoubtedly feel uncomfortable writing the proctored exam regardless, your clothing comfort is something you can control!
These aren’t tangible items you can bring to the exam, but it’s important to go over some stress-management methods before writing the LSAT! Whether it be taking deep breaths or closing your eyes for a quick second, figure out what you can do to persevere when you get to tough LSAT questions or feel like you’re running out of time!
We’ve gone over what we believe you should bring to the LSAT, but if you’d like to bring more items, here is a comprehensive list of LSAC-approved items you can have with you during test day:
You don’t have to bring all of these items with you during your test (except your ID). Go through this list and assess which items will make your LSAT writing experience easier.
While we’ve mentioned what to bring to the LSAT, it’s equally important to mention what not to bring to the LSAT:
Here are tips on how to do well on the LSAT to help you increase your score.
Before you begin your LSAT prep, you must spend time researching the best resources to use. Do not only rely on the internet! You will be bombarded with numerous courses, prep books, and videos, all claiming to have the perfect LSAT tips to ace your exam.
While this will be a good place to start, you should also reach out to previous test-takers, law students, pre-law advisors, or other students planning to take the LSAT. Focus on the quality of these resources rather than the quantity.
It might seem practical to review several resources to learn multiple strategies for tackling the exam, but the majority of strategies in these books are very similar.
You should also choose resources beyond simply explaining how to answer common question types and select ones that provide you with actual hacks to cut on time or find your answer easier! Here are some fan-favorite prep books:
Try to use a diverse range of resources to best suit your learning styles. For instance, while prep books can help you learn popular question types, seeing how these questions are answered through video explanations can give you better insight into how to respond and diagram them most efficiently.
When improving your LSAT score, you must have realistic expectations of how long it’ll take! Unlike any other exam you’ve written, the LSAT will require adequate preparation to master.
As such, you should only embark on this journey if you’re serious about dedicating time and effort to studying. You should give yourself at least three months to research and extra time to retake the exam.
This also means eliminating distractions! Here are some tips on how to be an engaged student:
Implementing these tips into your studies will ensure you make the most out of them!
You wouldn’t skip out on work without repercussions. Not only would you lose money, but you might also get stern talking from your boss. When preparing for your test, some useful
LSAT advice is to be your own boss and be strict about following the study schedule you set.
Treat your LSAT prep like a job.
Take it seriously and dedicate several hours to your weekly studies. Here’s a quick suggestion guide to follow when deciding how many hours to study a week:
Remember, if you skip your study shifts, you’ll hinder your own progress. While you won’t lose money, you can lose points! Consistently missing study sessions will make it harder for you to retain what you’re learning, and you will see a decrease in your score instead of an increase.
As important as it is to use prep materials to learn strategy and understand each section of the LSAT, it’s equally as important to put this knowledge to use! Your score will unlikely improve unless you dedicate considerable time to practicing for actual LSAT exams.
You should take both timed and untimed practice exams. Begin with untimed exams to determine which LSAT strategies work best for you, and then complete timed exams to improve your speed.
To ensure your practice sessions are as practical as possible, you must review all your answers after completing each practice exam, especially the ones you get wrong. Rather than simply looking for the correct answer, try figuring out why you got the wrong answer.
Sometimes, this might mean redoing the entire question! Although this step will take a while, reviewing your wrong answers is vital to avoid repeating the same mistakes during your subsequent practice sessions and on test day!
You should also keep track of the incorrect questions and revisit them throughout your prep until you get them right. This tip is great if you’re wondering how to improve your test score by 10 points or more. When you implement this strategy into your test prep, you’ll see a drastic improvement in your LSAT score over time!
To piggyback on the previous tip, studying each section of the LSAT equally will result in less-than-optimal performance. You should understand each section of the LSAT but dedicate more time to rectifying your weaknesses than polishing your strengths.
You may struggle with analyzing and understanding lengthy reading passages or get stuck on the same logical reasoning questions. Regardless of your weaknesses, you’ll need to focus on fixing them to see the most improvement in your score.
We’ve emphasized the importance of rectifying your weaknesses, but we don’t want you to neglect your strengths when studying thoroughly. Even if you answered most RC questions correctly during your diagnostic test and consider yourself an expert reader, there is always room for improvement.
Regardless of how much you improve in your strong areas, it’s vital to maintain your strengths through practice. Your strong areas should essentially be easy points for you to score.
If all else fails and you’ve implemented all the tips in this guide, it might be time to seek external help. While most LSAT test-takers self-study and rely on self-paced courses or prep books, tutors can support you to push past a specific score.
Juris’ 99th percentile LSAT tutors know the ins and outs of the exam and can share the best tips to increase your score by 12 points! These experts will share their tried and true tips with you and ensure you know how to tackle the LSAT with as little hassle as possible.
As we mentioned, you must treat your LSAT like a full-time job. However, knowing your limits and taking a break when necessary is essential. You may only need a few hours, days, or weeks to reset and refresh.
This doesn’t mean you should take a break when you lose interest. You should only take a break from your studies if you’re experiencing the following:
If you experience these issues when studying, you must step back from your prep. As crucial as your LSAT is, your well-being should always come first for the sake of not only your sanity and health but also your LSAT score!
You will see the most improvement in your LSAT score when your brain and body have the fuel and energy to work to their optimal levels.
When exploring how to improve LSAT scores, the final strategy to discuss is one of our last-minute LSAT tips that should be implemented during the final weeks of your studies and on test day. This strategy involves a realistic understanding of your strengths and using them to your advantage.
As much as you practice and try to rectify your weaknesses, there will always be questions or a section you struggle with the most; this is normal. To ensure it doesn’t cost you too many points, you should answer questions based on difficulty rather than their chronology.
Instead of answering the LSAT questions in order, you should quickly skim all of them and see which ones you can answer the fastest. Then, move on to the more challenging questions and guess any you don’t have time to answer. This is one of the most critical LSAT test day tips to keep in mind for good time management!
Grasp the nuances of conditional reasoning, including sufficient and necessary conditions. These concepts are fundamental to logical reasoning questions.
Invest time in understanding how conditional statements function and their implications in argumentation. Understanding these principles will improve your performance on related LSAT questions.
While diagrams can help visualize relationships for conditionals or sufficient vs. necessary questions, don't rely on them excessively. Instead, focus on understanding the underlying logic behind the arguments. Train yourself to analyze arguments without relying solely on visual aids, as this skill is essential for success on the LSAT.
Train yourself to recognize common logical fallacies and flaws in arguments presented in logical reasoning questions. Understanding these flaws is crucial for selecting the correct answers and strengthening your reasoning skills. Regular exposure to argument analysis and practice identifying flaws will improve your performance in this section.
Mark key information in reading comprehension passages to serve as guideposts when answering questions. Highlighting essential details and main ideas during your initial reading can help you locate relevant information quickly when revisiting the passage.
This strategic approach aids in efficient passage navigation and improves overall performance in this section.
It takes around four months to study for the LSAT. You can prepare for the LSAT in one month, but this isn’t recommended.
Consider all of your obligations to determine the best study schedule. Students who can treat their LSAT prep like a full-time job typically study for around three to four months, and those who can’t may need six or more months. Take a look at our free downloadable LSAT study plans article or use our LSAT Study Schedule tool below!
Now that we’ve gone over some tips on how to prepare for your LSAT and things you might want to consider before scheduling your test, we’ll go over any questions you might still have in preparation for the LSAT.
It takes approximately four months to study for the LSAT. Depending on your comfort level with each section, you might require more or less study time.
The best way to study for the LSAT involves creating a structured study plan, practicing consistently, and focusing on skill development rather than content memorization.
One year is more than enough time to study for the LSAT, and in fact, might be longer than optimal for most students. Most study periods last 3-6 months, with a total of 150-300 hours of dedicated preparation.
Contrary to popular belief, you absolutely shouldn’t cram material in the final weeks before your test date. With the right study schedule, you should feel confident in your abilities by this time. Use this time to rectify and drill any existing weaknesses and wrap up your final practice tests.
When building your study schedule, be mindful of your application deadlines, commitments, and capabilities. Be realistic, but consistent. Don’t overbook yourself, but ensure you’re dedicating enough hours to your studies each week!
Staying motivated during your LSAT journey is essential, and one effective strategy is to celebrate every milestone, regardless of its size. Whether it's a mere one-point score improvement or the moment when tricky questions start making sense, take a moment to acknowledge your hard work and progress.
Additionally, it's crucial to strike a balance between your studies and personal life. Allocate time for activities you enjoy so that you aren't solely immersed in your study routine. Lastly, remind yourself of the ultimate goal you're working towards, keeping your vision of success in mind as a constant source of inspiration!
Whether or not you should self-study for the LSAT is completely up to your discretion. You will have the best understanding of your study habits and how you learn. While it’s much more affordable to self-study for the LSAT, it requires a high level of self-discipline, time management skills, and introspection if you are to do it successfully.
If you’re someone who is easily distracted or needs guidance as you study, then self-study may not be the best option for you–which is completely okay! Taking the LSAT is one of the most important steps on your path as a lawyer, so don’t shy away from asking for help if you need it.
Four months to study for the LSAT should be an adequate amount of time. If you’re self-studying for the LSAT, however, it is recommended to start much earlier to give yourself enough time to ease into your study routine.
Two months can be enough time to study for the LSAT, depending on your starting point and your LSAT score goal. If you’ve taken an initial timed practice test and determined that your base score is close enough to your goal score, then you might be able to get away with two months of LSAT study time.
LSAT prep courses are definitely worth the investment if you have the resources to take one! Finding a great LSAT prep course can take a lot of the guesswork out of studying for the LSAT, keeping you accountable and on track with your progress.
Personalized LSAT tutoring is also a highly effective option if you want to reach your goals more efficiently.
With enough dedication and hard work, you can successfully study for the LSAT by yourself. Just know that it will take an exceptional amount of discipline and work to do so!
Former Head of Northeastern University's Pre-Law Office, Northeastern University
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