2013 is very nearly over. That means the February LSAT is coming up fast.

The holidays might not have been the best thing for your February LSAT studies. If you’ve been warmed by the yuletide glow lately and not so much by the, uh, glow of the LSAT, that’s OK. There’s still time. It’s normal for the holidays to get in the way.

The key is to get back on your study plan now. Figure out where you are and what you need to get done, and start this weekend. All the good holiday stuff is over, anyway. The food is eaten, the presents are unwrapped, and the fruitcake is going stale. Actually, on second thought, the fruitcake might never go stale. Consider your return to LSAT studies as an early New Year’s resolution.

Sure, the LSAT isn’t quite as much fun as all the holiday shindigs you’ve been attending. But if you put in the work and get a great LSAT score in February, you’ll give yourself the best holiday gift of all: a big advantage in the law school admissions process.

The above assumes you made some progress with the LSAT before the holidays. If you were waiting until the New Year to get started with your LSAT prep, the news for you isn’t so good. A month probably isn’t enough time to prepare for the LSAT.

If you haven’t started studying yet, you might be better off looking at the June LSAT instead. That means you probably won’t be able to apply for Fall 2014, but you’ll have an early start on Fall 2015 law school admissions. Plus, you’ll get to take the LSAT in the afternoon, and you’ll get to see what you got wrong (the February test is undisclosed).

But if you do decide to go for June, don’t wait so long to get started. Figure out your study plan, and resolve to give your LSAT studies your all in the new year.

If you’re still going for the February LSAT, there’s one more holiday standing in your way: New Year’s Eve. You get to celebrate, but you’ll also have to keep your studies on track. Get some LSAT in on the 31st. Have fun that night, and give yourself the morning of the 1st off. But get some LSAT studying in on New Year’s Day; it’s important that you get the year started off right.