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LSAT Prep Habits: The Do’s and Don’ts

BPPAnna-lsat-blog-first-week

Most of you have finished your first week of classes by now, so it’s a good time to talk about Do’s and Don’ts of habits. These will not be groundbreaking and will even be more along the lines of, “Well, yeah,” if you’ve ever been in school, but, with the LSAT, there’s no cramming the night before to memorize information, or spouting off some nonsense with footnotes in a paper. You have to know your stuff and how to apply it to rock the LSAT, so creating good habits are a must.

Do…make a set schedule for study days.
The LSAT is a timed test, so, even if you technically know how to do, say, Logic Games, you need to know it well, so you can execute each part as quickly as possible and get through each game. Having a set schedule ensures that you get the practice down to know each technique inside and out.

Do…your homework—all of it.
Not only does the homework ensure you get your practice, it helps you figure out any small gaps in knowledge or minor hiccups that could prove to be major issues later down the line (a point here and there…it adds up).

Do…go through each part of the procedures.
You might be tempted to “save time” by skipping one part, but how you feel practicing the LSAT is different from taking the actual test. For example, you might be tempted to not make a note of the author viewpoint in Reading Comprehension, because it’s always seemed super obvious. But, on test day, with adrenaline coursing through your veins, you might have a brief moment where you can’t remember the author viewpoint, and oh god, if I can’t remember the author viewpoint, can I remember anything else about the passage? You don’t want that tailspin.

Don’t…think you’re going to bomb the LSAT because you didn’t do so hot on the first practice exam.
You aren’t supposed to know anything on the first practice exam. That’s the whole point of the course. You’re going to improve—if you do the work!

Don’t…assume you’re a rockstar based on the initial concepts seeming straightforward.
The LSAT is not easy. The whole point is that there are different levels of difficulty in the questions to differentiate between law school applicants. You’ll still need to do the work.

This can all be summed into three words: do the work.