The September/October LSAT is typically the largest of the four LSAT administrations during the year. This is because students can do the bulk of their studying during the summer, when they don't have pesky interferences like classes or spring break as a distraction. Most LSAT classes for this test begin in early to late July and we often have students asking us in June what they should do before class begins.
To that end, I've put together a list of what students should and shouldn't do before the start of LSAT class.
1. Take a break
You won’t get another rest without the LSAT hanging over your head between the time your course starts and the October LSAT, so head out to Ibiza/Greece/7-11 now. Fine-tune your late night disco dancing, watch re-runs of America's Next Top Model while eating beef jerky—whatever you want to accomplish for vacation for the summer; now is the time to do it.
2. Don’t open your LSAT books
Particularly for a Blueprint LSAT course, the first classes are the backbone of the class. This means that if you start without the benefit of a teacher, you’re covering the most important material on your own, and probably not comprehending it as well as you otherwise could. For video course students, don’t open your lesson books until you do so with the videos.
Don't forget that if you start doing homework before your course begins, you’re tackling real LSAT questions without a solid method of approach. The probability of tackling them incorrectly is thus much greater than if you had sat through your lesson first. In the end, you’re just wasting real LSAT questions.
3. Don’t take practice LSATs
You definitely want to set a baseline LSAT when you begin studying so that you can chart your improvement. However, taking a bunch of practice LSATs before you have a grasp on the methods for approaching the different question types is a bad idea. While you will build stamina by taking tests, you'll also be building bad habits by tackling questions you don’t know how to approach correctly. By waiting to take your practice exams deeper in the course, you'll be able to use the LSATs to diagnose weaknesses in your approach to particular questions and build stamina at the same time. So lay off the tests for now.
4. Read dense, academic articles
At Blueprint we've found that most students are the most apprehensive about logic games when they first come to class. While logic games are difficult, they're also a very learnable section of the exam. Students often struggle with improving their score in reading comprehension, on the other hand. This may be due to the fact that students come to class believing they already know how to read, thus discounting the difficulty of the section. From here, they don't learn the best method to approach reading comp and subsequently don't improve.
The place to begin improving in reading comprehension is to understand what it is you're reading. Taking the time to read dense, academic articles from sources like The Economist or New York Times feature articles will provide a good foundation for reading comprehension. It is also something you can do before LSAT class that won’t interfere with your LSAT class study.
So don't forget to rest while you can and if you simply must begin studying before class begins, some good reading between episodes of that America’s Next Top Model marathon should suffice. Now go forth and be fierce!
by Jodi Triplett
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