When should I start studying for the LSAT?

This is one of the most common questions I receive from students, prospective students, and even parents of prospective students. How long does the LSAT take, start to finish, in order to get me into law school? How long will I need to prep? Life is busy! It's important to give yourself enough time because, inevitably, school or the holidays or family commitments or anything else will get in the way. So plan for the unexpected when you're undertaking a months-long commitment. That means, usually, that you should start studying for the LSAT earlier than you otherwise would, just in case something comes up.

Another caveat: This is different for everyone. Of course. Everyone learns differently and implements information differently. For some of my students, prior studying means they have a good foundation and need less time working with me. For others, prior LSAT studying means they need to unlearn unhelpful processes, which can take extra time. Like I said, amount of time needed to reach goal scores is very individual. This is especially true for the Logical Reasoning section, though it applies to Reading Comprehension as well.

There are four components that can minimize the amount of time you need to prepare for the LSAT.

How to speed up your LSAT studying:

1. Try your best not to use too many methods for solving LSAT questions. If you try to learn and understand every approach out there, your processes of thought will be overly complicated, meaning you'll do too much, think too much, and generally feel lost when approaching questions.

2. Be intentional when you're studying. Don't solve based off of intuition. Always use intent, process, and method through every step of every question. If you find yourself forgetting to use your correct process, stop working and come back at a later time when you can focus more intently on your process.

3. Don't add in the clock until after you understand the process. You need to know how to answer LSAT questions before you start timing yourself. Otherwise, the clock will force you to rely too much on intuition, and you'll find yourself building bad habits.

4. Don't skimp on the basics. You need to understand the simple aspects of the LSAT, such as identifying a conclusion, before you can implement difficult tools and processes. And it will cost you time in the long run if you try to move past those foundational aspects of the LSAT before you truly understand them.