How to Study for the LSAT
As I said earlier, the LSAT is a skill-based test — and therefore a beatable one. But blindly solving random questions and taking random tests without a plan will just prolong your studying. It's very important to approach your LSAT prep with a plan you've made before you even begin. That said, as you study, you'll discover what works best for you, and it's important to adapt as you see fit. My goal in this chapter is to leave you with a plan that I think will be the most effective for most people.
There are two important aspects of this test that you need to study for:
- Correctness
- Timing
Correctness
Correctness refers to how many questions you are getting right in a given section. The best way to improve correctness is to master each question type. This means that as soon as you read a question stem, you should immediately recognize what type of question it is. Once you can do that, you will know what the question is asking you to do, what you should look for in the answer choices, and which answers can be instantly eliminated as incorrect.
That's why I've divided the LR chapters by question type. For each type, I'll teach you the basic framework you can use to approach it. Then, you will practice questions of only that type, with increasing difficulty, until you've mastered it. We'll do something similar for RC.
This is where you want to begin. There's no point working on timing if you can't get the questions right in the first place.
Timing
Once you've finished all the chapters and the respective drills, you should be in a position to answer any question thrown at you. That's exactly where you want to be before you start working on timing.
The best way — and frankly the only way — is to do full sections and full tests in a timed setting. The more you do it, the better you'll understand how to pace yourself at each part of the test.
Aim for one to two sections per day and one full test per week. In the beginning, you may take more than the allowed 35 minutes to finish a section. That is okay. That is expected. But as you do more sections, your timing will improve naturally.
To ensure a gradual and consistent improvement, there's one thing you need to do after every section or test: go back and focus on correctness again.
After completing a section or a full test, revisit it. Look at which questions you got wrong and try to solve them again — without time pressure. Many times you'll get the right answer on the second try, which is a good sign. But sometimes you'll pick the same wrong answer, or a different wrong answer, and that's okay too. Read the answer choice justifications on the platform to understand exactly what's wrong with each one.
Doing this repeatedly will get you to a point where you can instantly identify why certain answers are wrong when you encounter fresh questions, which directly speeds up your timing.
Below, I have a summary of what I have said so far regarding the plan for your reference.
Reviewing Questions
As you scroll Reddit, a lot of people will talk about redoing an entire section or test from scratch, without time pressure, to check whether you truly understood the correct answers or were just guessing.
In my opinion, this is the biggest waste of time you can do during LSAT prep. I don't see the point in revisiting questions you've already done once. Going back to review wrong answers is genuinely helpful, but redoing whole sections and tests again? I don't know a single person with the time or patience for that.
What I would also recommend is flagging any questions you are not sure of when doing entire sections and tests. Review these questions as well even if you got them correct. It could be just luck that you got them correct since you were not sure.
We will talk about how to review properly using the integrated Wrong Answer Journal once you are done all the lessons for logical reasoning so don't worry about this too much for now.
The Plan — Summary
LSAT studying has two parts:
Part 1: Finish all the chapters and learn how to approach each question type.
Part 2 (the longer part): Once you've done that, follow this schedule:
| Activity | Time Commitment |
|---|---|
| 1–2 sections/day + review of wrong and flagged questions | 45–90 min/day |
| 1 full test/week (don't review on the same day — your brain will be fried) | ~157 min/week |
| Review day for that week's test — wrong answers and flagged questions | 30–60 min/week |
This schedule is super manageable. If you look closely at the time commitment, it's no more than two episodes of a TV show a day and one movie a week. I'm sure you can handle that.
Lastly, as you review your work, you'll get your analytics and see which question types you're struggling with. Go back to the relevant chapter modules, reset the drills, and redo them for those question types.
Taking a Diagnostic
Before diving into the material, some people find it useful to take a diagnostic test cold, with zero prep, just to see where they are starting from. This is entirely optional, but if you want to do it, pause here, go to LawHub, take one of their free tests, and then come back and move on to Chapter 1.
If you would rather skip this and dive straight into studying, that is completely fine too.
One thing worth knowing if you do take a diagnostic: it is not particularly predictive of where you will end up. I know people whose diagnostic landed in the high 150s who plateaued in the mid 160s. I know people whose diagnostic landed in the low 140s who eventually cracked 170+. What actually moves your score is consistent practice over time, not where you started. So if you take a diagnostic and the number is lower than you hoped, do not let it get to you. We are going to improve it together.
Now that the logistics are out of the way, we can finally start actually studying for this test. We'll begin with Logical Reasoning.