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Your Plan for the Last Week of Studying for the LSAT

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I recently started the process of training for a marathon. As someone who has never done much distance running, I’ve been doing my best to follow a set training plan. The plan generally involves one progressively longer run per week and several short to medium runs. However, in the final couple weeks, the training plan tapers off and the intensity reduces. This is especially true in the last week of training prior to the race, which has just a couple, shorter runs to get you ready for the big day.

If you’re taking the LSAT next week, you’ve arrived at the final week of your exam training. Up until this point, the curriculum has been pretty set, and its intensity has ramped up along the way. But, just like marathon training, you don’t need to push yourself at the close of your training process. This post is going to cover what you should do for your final week of LSAT prep.

First, you should take one or two practice exams. No more. And if you do well on your first test, you should probably just stop there. The more confident you feel heading into the test, the better. Now, from personal experience, I guarantee there will be temptation to go hog wild on practice exams. I took at least four in my final week of prep, including one the day before the exam, and it was a huge mistake. I scored the lowest on any practice test since my diagnostic on that final practice LSAT, and it shattered my confidence going into the exam. Overdoing it on practice tests is a recipe for disaster — it’ll burn you out and you probably won’t end up reviewing them in a meaningful way.

Second, you should focus on timing and you should drill questions that you have lingering concerns about. The more targeted your approach, the more likely you are to see meaningful improvement even in the last few days of prep. By this point in your prep, you should know exactly what holes need shoring up, and you should try to address those lingering deficiencies.

Third, you should prepare for the day of the exam itself. You should collect your ID, admissions ticket, no. 2 wooden pencils, analog timer, and snacks. You should plan your route to your test center, and you should make a short attack sheet of questions to get yourself warmed up for the test. On the morning of the exam, you want to have everything (that you can control) planned out in order to reduce the anxiety you’ll inevitably feel.

Finally, you should relax. There is very little that you can do the day before the exam to get your score up. Go to a movie, see some friends, read a book, and take it easy. You have permission to slack off, and you should feel no guilt in doing so.

Much like the physical anguish I’m experiencing during my marathon training, I’m sure there’s a good degree of mental fatigue setting in now. Just remember to taper off but stay focused on getting the most out of your final week that you can. Good luck!