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Are You Ready for the June LSAT?

BPPandrew-lsat-blog-ready-for-june
The June 2015 LSAT regular registration deadline is May 1, 2015. That’s a week from today. For those of you who haven’t registered yet, you might be feeling a little hesitant to pull the trigger. After all, the test is roughly six weeks away, and it seems like there’s still so much studying to do (or at least it did to me). Is it even possible to tell whether you’ll be ready by test day?

There are definitely a couple of ways to know if you’re not ready:

1. You haven’t started studying yet.
I know barely anyone who didn’t start studying at least two or three months before the test and got the score they wanted. These are the same test-taking savants who got perfect SAT scores without studying at all. If you’re this kind of person: congratulations. Also, this post probably isn’t for you.

2. You’re hopelessly behind on your study schedule.
When I say “hopelessly behind,” I don’t mean that you missed a few days. “Hopelessly behind” means that you set yourself a six-month study schedule, and you still have four months’ worth of work to do in six weeks. If this is you, you should probably hold off until the October LSAT. In the meantime, figure out what caused you to get off track, and take the necessary steps to remedy it so that you can effectively study for the October administration.

The following, however, are not reasons to push back your LSAT administration:

1. You haven’t hit your target score yet.
Six weeks is a lot of time, believe it or not. Many students find that the techniques they’re learning start to click in this last six-week period. Plus, there are still question types you may not have learned how to approach yet. Your score should continue to go up in the month leading up to the test.

2. You’re not feeling confident.
It’s okay not to be confident at this stage of the game. As I said before, there’s still a long way to go between now and test day. As you do more practice problems and exams under actual test conditions, you should start to feel more confident. Also, there’s a certain underlying level of nerves that, quite frankly, never goes away. It doesn’t matter if you take the test now, or in October, or in 2020 — you’re probably always going to feel a little nervous about it no matter how much you study.

If you’re truly on the fence, it’s probably wise to register for the June administration. You can always withdraw closer to the test date, and the only thing you’ll have lost is a little bit of money. Or, if you take the June LSAT and don’t score as well as you had hoped, you’ll be able to take the test in October knowing what the test conditions are actually like, and you’ll still have plenty of time to apply to law schools with your October score. Since most schools focus on your highest LSAT score (rather than averaging your scores, as they used to do), you’ll have a relatively stress-free second bite at the apple.

Good luck, and hang in there!