To Study or Not to Study?
Don't just role the dice. Consider your situation and make a smart decision about when to start prepping.
Now that June LSAT scores are in, there are a number of you who are planning to re-take the test in October. It’s almost the middle of July, and you’re asking yourself when you need to resume studying—now? August? September? It depends on how prepared you were for June. Which category do you fall into?
1. You were totally prepared. You took a course, had a tutor, or studied on your own, but regardless, you were confident for good reason. You were consistently hitting your goal score on full-length, timed prep tests, and you’re pretty sure the reason for your unsatisfactory score on the June LSAT has more to do with anxiety or an external factor (bad proctor, bad fish, bad break up) than confusion about the difference between “necessary” and “sufficient.”
You are okay relaxing a bit before you pick up a pencil again. In fact, it may do you some good. My advice? Get some distance from the test and re-open the books in August. It’s possible that The Hunger Games is just what you need, if that’s possible for anyone, ever.
2. You prepared, but you know you could have been better prepared. Maybe you knew the question types but sometimes forgot strategy. Maybe you had inconsistent approaches to logic games or never figured out why reading comp sometimes went well and other times didn’t.
You are smart to get back in the swing of things soon, but this doesn’t necessarily mean starting from the beginning. Assess your strengths and weaknesses in light of your June LSAT, then make a plan. What do you need to learn? What do you need to brush up on? Your schedule should leave you with some flexibility in late September for mixed review (full timed sections and full practice tests).
3. You were only prepared if prepared means not. You did okay on the prep test or two that you took a week before the exam. Or you took a course last fall and went to half the classes (but didn’t finish the homework). You were hoping for a miracle which, sadly, LSAC doesn’t dish out very often.
It’s time for you to shake the sand off the beach towel, slip on your flip-flops, and head to the hotel business center to sign up for an LSAT course. If that’s not an option for you, get your hands on some study materials ASAP and start reading. Like an entitled girlfriend, the LSAT likes people who know what it wants before they show up at the door. Your time to figure that out is short.