Gobble Gobble: How to Study Over Thanksgiving Break
We know. Studying for the LSAT can be a drag, especially as the pressure mounts with a few weeks left until gameday. While the upcoming Thanksgiving break is certainly a welcome intermission in your LSAT course, it is especially difficult to have the exam looming over your head when everyone else is kicking back and eating turkey without a care in the world. So, what is an LSAT student to do?
Should you take a complete hiatus from LSAT studying these next 4 days? No. Should you prepare a stack of practice LSATs and lock yourself in your room with a 35-minute timer. Definitely not. This is why I have prepared the following schedule to guide you through Turkey Weekend 2010:
Thursday:
It will be tempting to do nothing LSAT-related on Thanksgiving. If you choose this route, it certainly doesn’t mean that you are heading to the Tijuana Tech School of Laws and Books, but it still isn’t advisable. You don’t have to go to a four-hour class. You don’t have to do a full length practice exam that will make or break your attitude during Thanksgiving dinner.
I would advise catching up on about an hour of unfinished homework and then doing 1-2 timed sections of your choice. This adds up to a little more than two hours of work. You’ll keep your mind somewhat in tune with the Blueprint methods, while simultaneously staving off any LSAT-related guilt. With timed sections, you’ll be able to see how you are stacking up against your goals for missed questions in each section, but you will avoid the obsession that comes with getting an actual score after a full length exam.
The best part? It’s only two hours of work, so suck it up. You will still have time to lose some money betting on the Cowboys, help out mom in the kitchen, or go shopping for 30% discounts at your favorite retailer.
Friday:
You are still likely going to be full from dinner last night. I know it’s kind of a corny cliche to talk about how full you are at Thanksgiving, but if you’re anything like me you eat a lot on this day. Like 4,500 !&^#$@-ing calories in one meal. It’s gluttonous and I apologize to no one. As far as your LSAT studying goes, I am going to prescribe a somewhat similar dose of catching up on homework and taking a couple of timed sections. You should even separate these sections out. Take a couple in the morning and maybe one later in the afternoon to see how you’re doing. Avoid taking a full length LSAT with a tryptophan hangover. You aren’t going to get accurate results. It would be like a tennis player playing a tough opponent with weights in their shoes. Gravy weights…
Saturday – Sunday:
I’m sure that the break has been nice, but it’s time to get back to ninja mode. I would use these last days to accomplish two very important tasks:
• Catch up on your homework. You get a breather while no new material or concepts are introduced. It’s definitely time to make sure that you are tackling your homework. The most significant difference between the student that sees a big score increase and the student that doesn’t is that one of these students made an effort to practice the methods in the homework. 48 hours is a long time, so if you are flying across country or just hanging out in your apartment, put some of these hours to use. We PROMISE that you will be happy that you did.
• Take one full-length, timed practice exam. We give you several supplemental exams, so close your eyes, point to one, and take it. This will give you some nice feedback about where you are and what specific types of questions you are struggling with. You can then pay special attention to these weaknesses over the next couple of weeks. It sounds like a short time, but you would be surprised at what progress can be made when you actively look at the mistakes you made and why you got certain questions wrong. In other words, don’t just look at your final, three-digit score — break each section down.
• Finally, you really should take some time to have fun with friends and family. This can be a nice mental-health break, but remember that spending time with loved ones and making some LSAT progress does not have to be mutually exclusive. Have a great holiday weekend everybody!