1 Month to Prepare for the LSAT? Here’s Your Study Plan!

Assuming you aren’t taking a prep course, but are familiar with the PowerScore LSAT Bibles, the plan below should keep you on track for the test. This also presumes you can allow for 20-25 hrs of LSAT studying each week.

Thing To Do Now

1. Register to take the LSAT. Most registration deadlines have already passed, but you may have one last chance to meet the late registration deadline.
2. Obtain at least 8 practice tests released no earlier than 2005, other than the ones you’ve already taken. Having a hard time figuring out which tests are which? Check out our Comprehensive Law Services LSAT Publication Identifier List.
3. If you haven’t done it already, purchase the PowerScore LSAT Bible Workbooks. These are specifically designed to reinforce the concepts you are already familiar with and provide a great way to practice each section individually without burning through practice tests. As an added bonus, the workbooks contain complete explanations of each question or game, which is crucial if you are to learn from the mistakes you make. It’s (almost) like having a tutor design a set plan for hundreds of difficult questions and games.

Week 1

1. Take two (2) full practice tests that you haven’t seen before. Make sure you take at least one of them under timed conditions. You can take the second one untimed, which will help reveal conceptual weaknesses you need to improve on.
2. Create a Word document or an Excel spreadsheet in which you will list every question you miss on your practice tests. Thoroughly review each test and enter any mistakes you made in your spreadsheet. Identify the type of question it was, and explain, in a few sentences, what made you choose the wrong answer. An entry should look like something like this:
   • December 2006, LR 1, Q1: Main Point. The correct answer is (D), I chose (A). Chose the opposite answer due to competing viewpoints. In the future, pay attention to competing viewpoints in Main Point questions.
3. If you are having trouble understanding the logic behind certain questions, visit our LSAT Discussion Forum and get your questions answered by the experts.
4. Assuming you are familiar with the PowerScore LSAT Bibles, re-read the chapters reflecting the types of questions or reasoning paradigms you seem to be struggling with.
5. Delve into the LSAT Bible Workbooks, beginning with the Workbook covering the section of the test you did worst on.

Week 2

1. Finish the LSAT Bible Workbooks by the end of the second week.
2. Take two (2) full practice tests that you haven’t seen before. Make sure you take both under timed conditions.
3. Continue listing the questions you miss in your Excel or Word file.
4. Based on your performance on the last four practice tests, consider purchasing the Advanced LSAT Logic Games Course or the Advanced LSAT Logical Reasoning Course. Both courses are taught by industry experts and completely deconstruct the elements that make certain games or LR questions difficult. The trick is to become familiar with these ideas long before test day, so you can put our methods into practice and make them your own.
5. Take the Advanced LSAT course that covers your worst section.

Week 3

1. Finish the Advanced LSAT course.
2. Take two (2) full practice tests that you haven’t seen before.
3. Thoroughly review each test and enter any mistakes you make in your Word document or spreadsheet.
4. Examine all the mistakes you’ve made up to this point. Do you see any patterns? Are you missing a lot of questions with conditional reasoning stimuli? Numbers and percentages? How about Undefined Grouping Games? Or Science passages? Keeping track of where you constantly trip up will help you streamline your studies.
5. Return to the Bible trilogy, the Workbooks, and the sections of the Advanced LSAT course highlighting the types of questions and games you are having trouble with.
6. If you notice persistent patterns of mistakes that you cannot fix with the self-study guides, ask for help on the forum or consider purchasing a few hours of tutoring. A tutor should not only be able to explain what you are doing wrong, but also help you fix the problem. Tutoring is not cheap, but the benefit usually far outweighs the cost, given the enormous value in salary potential of even a 3 or 4-point increase in your LSAT score.

Week 4

1. Take two (2) full practice tests (ideally from 2011 – 2013) that you haven’t seen before. Take both tests at the beginning of the week.
2. Thoroughly review each test and enter any mistakes you make in your Word document or spreadsheet.
3. In the 3-4 days before the test, review your Word document or spreadsheet and re-do every question in it, paying particular attention to the flawed logic that led you to choose an incorrect answer the first time around.
4. The day before the test, relax! Do something that makes you happy and don’t worry about the LSAT.

The Day of the Test

1. Eat a wholesome breakfast!
2. Do a few logic games to get your brain revved up.
3. Get to the testing center early.
4. Destroy the LSAT!