If you cancelled your October LSAT score and you’re retaking in December, this here’s for you. And right away, here’s what needs to happen: change. However you tackled your LSAT prep last time around, it wasn’t enough. So things have to be different this time.

Different how? Well, it depends on what didn’t work last time. You need to look at the months of LSAT prep leading up to October’s test, and find out what went wrong.

For many people, one factor (often the largest) is time. Maybe you just need more time for LSAT prep to get you to your target score. Often people find their score to be going on a great upward trajectory, but it just didn’t get to where they wanted it to be in time. Studying for two more months will no doubt help. But really, really, really make time. Really. Make more time than you did last time. Make more time than you think necessary. It’s better to do too much LSAT prep than too little. And, aside from the burnout factor, there’s really no such thing as “too much” LSAT prep. Your score can always be higher. So make the time, come up with a study schedule, and don’t let yourself fall behind.

Another reason people find themselves cancelling on test day is because the test seemed way harder than their LSAT prep tests did. Well, the test wasn’t harder – the environment was. Taking the real test even after months of LSAT prep can be a harrowing experience. If you never took your tests in realistic testing environments, the real thing probably seemed like a hellish nightmare. This time, make sure you do your practice just like a test. Do work in unfamiliar environments with mild distractions. Have friends or family grudgingly proctor your tests. If you’re taking a class make sure to come to all proctored exams, rather than doing them at home alone. If you found five-section tests to be harder than four-section tests, take only five-section tests. If your practice is just like the test, you’ll be less likely to see a drop in your score.

If you found that your score wasn’t consistently increasing last time around, you might want to switch LSAT prep strategies. Maybe you need more direction. What did your LSAT prep consist of before? If you just took a ton of tests without much of a unified plan of attack, you may need more structure. Consider taking an in-person or online prep course, or getting a private tutor. Sometimes you just need an outside perspective to diagnose your problems.

No matter what, assess what your LSAT prep consisted of before, and what was lacking. Hone in on those aspects, and fix them this time around. Do that, while of course studying a lot, and you’ll make December really count.