It’s official — there’s less than a week until the LSAT! By now you should all be feeling pretty well prepared — after all, you’ve gotten the chance to check out tips to master the Logic Games, Logical Reasoning, Reading Comprehension, and Essay sections. We also filled you in on what to do if everything goes terribly wrong the day of the LSAT. But as your prep probably winds down, here are some last minute tips to make sure that you reach your full LSAT potential.

The day before the LSAT, you should try to relax.

A lot of times, especially as an undergrad, it’s tempting to cram for a test until the very last moment. But for the LSAT, that’s not the best idea. This test is less about information, and more about testing skills you have learned, so you might want to give yourself the day before the LSAT off. At the very least, don’t spend all day studying. Instead do an activity that relaxes you, whether that is reading, having a quiet lunch with friends, or some sort of physical activity. Just make sure that whatever you do is actually relaxing and won’t affect you on test day — for example, consuming any sort of alcohol is probably a pretty bad idea.

The day before the LSAT you should also get motivated. 

In addition to getting relaxed, it might also be nice to remind yourself of why you’re going through the craziness that is LSAT prep. Do whatever motivates you. Some LSAT experts recommend going through the website and looking at pictures of your ideal law school. It’s easy to forget that there is a light at the end of the tunnel, and that light is going to the school you want and having the career in law that you’ve been striving toward. Or motivate yourself with something else — maybe a great speech, or a letter from a loved one. Just make sure that you do something to remind yourself why you’ve been putting in this great, crazy-hard work over the past few months.

The day of the LSAT warm up your brain. 

You don’t want the first thing you do that day to be to take the LSAT test. Instead, try to warm up your brain a little bit by doing an easy puzzle or something similar. Sudoku is great because it requires similar logic skills to ones used on the LSAT. You obviously don’t want to exhaust yourself with anything difficult, but if you can get back in the routine of thinking in a logical way before you actually get there, that’ll make sure that you’re prepared when you actually sit down to take the LSAT.

The day of the LSAT have a good breakfast, but still follow your routine. 

It’s really hard to eat breakfast, especially if you’re nervous about something. But there’s really a lot of value in making sure that you’re well-fed before you go take the LSAT. It’ll wake up your brain, of course. But more importantly, it will keep your stomach from making weird rumbly noises during the test, and it’ll keep you from being distracted by your hunger during the LSAT.

That being said, don’t deviate from your normal routine too much. If you’re not a coffee drinker, don’t decide to drink coffee just to get some extra caffeine before the test in the hope that it’ll make you work faster. If you are a coffee drinker, don’t deprive yourself of your morning cup of joe. Just do what you’re comfortable with, and add in a little extra protein if possible.

On the day of the test, be early. 

No matter how you prepare to take the LSAT, make sure that you do everything that day a little earlier than you normally do. Get up earlier, leave your house earlier, everything. Don’t be too early, obviously, you don’t want to be at the testing site before it opens. Just make sure that you leave tons of time to get where you need to be. That way you don’t have to rush and feel stressed right before the test.

Good luck everyone — it’s been a long countdown to the June LSAT, but I know you’ll all do a great job! We here at Law Street are pulling for you!

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Anneliese Mahoney (@AMahoney8672) is Lead Editor at Law Street and a Connecticut transplant to Washington D.C. She has a Bachelor’s degree in International Affairs from the George Washington University, and a passion for law, politics, and social issues. Contact Anneliese at amahoney@LawStreetMedia.com.

Featured image courtesy of [Jayneandd via Flickr]

Anneliese Mahoney

Anneliese Mahoney is Managing Editor at Law Street and a Connecticut transplant to Washington D.C. She has a Bachelor’s degree in International Affairs from the George Washington University, and a passion for law, politics, and social issues. Contact Anneliese at amahoney@LawStreetMedia.com.

The post Countdown to LSAT: Last Minute Tips for the Home Stretch appeared first on Law Street.

It’s easy to worry about everything going totally wrong when you take the LSAT. Take a break from studying (and from checking out our rundowns on Logic Games, Logical Reasoning, and Reading Comprehension) and check out this list of things that could go wrong and exactly how to fix them.

[wooslider slide_page=”countdown-to-lsat-worst-case-scenarios-how-to-fix-them” slider_type=”slides” thumbnails=”default” order=”ASC” order_by=”menu_order”]

Happy studying, and don’t worry, if anything goes wrong, remember this list. Because we here at Law Street totally have your back!

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Anneliese Mahoney (@AMahoney8672) is Lead Editor at Law Street and a Connecticut transplant to Washington D.C. She has a Bachelor’s degree in International Affairs from the George Washington University, and a passion for law, politics, and social issues. Contact Anneliese at amahoney@LawStreetMedia.com.

Featured image courtesy of [Firesam! via Flickr]

Anneliese Mahoney

Anneliese Mahoney is Managing Editor at Law Street and a Connecticut transplant to Washington D.C. She has a Bachelor’s degree in International Affairs from the George Washington University, and a passion for law, politics, and social issues. Contact Anneliese at amahoney@LawStreetMedia.com.

The post Countdown to LSAT: Worst Case Scenarios & How to Fix Them appeared first on Law Street.

As the clock ticks down to June 9 — LSAT test day for the next crop of prospective law students — your stress level is probably increasing exponentially. I get it. Well, OK, I don’t totally get it. I went to graduate school and took the GRE, which is admittedly NOT the same. But I can certainly still feel your pain. We’re not just patting giving you a thumbs up and wishing you good luck as you march into the test room, though. We’ve got five actionable tips for you to incorporate in your preparation from our resident LSAT guru, Nick, who (lucky for you) has actually walked the walk.

If you’ve already been through the LSAT and have must-read tips to live by for your fellow budding lawyers, tweet us @LawStreetMedia with #LSATPrep. Let us hear ’em!

1. No prep book is as good as a prep test: Prep books can be good to know the basics, but often they don’t use actual past LSAT questions, and there just is no substitute for practicing on real LSAT questions. The LSAC sells previous LSATs by the bundle. There are now more than 70 previous LSATs to work through. Save the latest tests for last.
2. Start slow and build: Don’t worry about timing at first. I repeat: don’t worry about timing. It’s far more important to understand the fundamentals of logic first. And by ‘understand,’ I don’t mean that you generally know how conditional works. I mean: you can contrapositives, negations, and spot necessary and sufficient conditions practically in your sleep. Speed comes from not having to think too hard about the easy questions. That will free up time to tackle the harder questions.
3. Drill, drill, drill: Even though it seems tedious, and it is tedious, the more you practice, say, using the contrapositive, the easier it will be when you’re actually working through a game. Again, the goal is not to have to think about basic operations.
4. Set a schedule and stick to it: We don’t all have eight hours a day to spend studying for the LSAT. But if you want to improve your score, you need to set aside time to work, preferably at least an hour a day. Students, even very bright students, tend to forget the basics if they study sporadically. You can generally also squeeze a bit of studying into other parts of the day. For instance, consider doing a few LR questions on the subway during your commute to work.
5.  Hang in there: Studying for the LSAT is a long, hard slog for basically everyone. Your score will likely go through some ups, some downs, and some plateaus. So don’t get discouraged. To my mind, the most important skill on the LSAT is the one that they can’t teach in prep books: persistence.

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Chelsey Goff (@cddg) is Chief People Officer at Law Street. She is a Granite State native who holds a Master of Public Policy in Urban Policy from the George Washington University in DC. She’s passionate about social justice issues, politics — especially those in First in the Nation New Hampshire — and all things Bravo. Contact Chelsey at cgoff@LawStreetMedia.com.

Featured image courtesy of [Dvortygirl via Flickr]

Chelsey D. Goff

Chelsey D. Goff was formerly Chief People Officer at Law Street. She is a Granite State Native who holds a Master of Public Policy in Urban Policy from the George Washington University. She’s passionate about social justice issues, politics — especially those in First in the Nation New Hampshire — and all things Bravo. Contact Chelsey at staff@LawStreetMedia.com.

The post Five Things You Need to Know Before You Take the LSAT Next Month appeared first on Law Street.