Studying for the LSAT: Stress Management

You need to maintain a sense of yourself aside from the LSAT. Don’t let preparing for the test become all-consuming; instead, decide what portion of your time you’re willing to dedicate to studying, and stick to that. When you’re studying, really immerse yourself in the material—no Facebooking in one browser window while doing practice questions in another! But when study time is over, make sure that it’s really over. Put your laptop aside, stow your books and notes on a shelf out of the way, and stop obsessing, at least until the next time you’re scheduled to study. Giving yourself permission to be more than an LSAT student will let you keep the sense of self that is crucial for your peace of mind.

It’s not enough just to limit your study time, though; if the rest of your free time is spent alone on the couch, watching reruns and trying not to think about the LSAT, you’re not really doing yourself any favors. Even as you work toward your law school goals, make sure you keep track of your non-law friends. Remaining grounded and involved in the world outside of the LSAT will not only help with your stress level; it will also keep your loved ones from throttling you, because believe me, no one who isn’t taking the test finds it nearly as absorbing as you do.  (Except maybe those of us who make our livings worrying about standardized tests!)

These things might seem self-evident, but just in case they aren’t: sleep, eat real food, and exercise. Sleeping is not an optional activity, nor is it the things that should get eliminated or cut back when you’re short on time. Most people need 7-9 hours per night, and getting the sleep that you need will make it so much easier for you to process and retain information. The same general idea holds true for what you eat. Food is the fuel for your body and mind, and if you want your brain to work hard for you, be nice to it; feed it something that doesn’t come out of a machine or a drive-through window. Would you put oily sludge in the tank of a fine sports car and expect it to run its best? No? Well, then why would you eat junk and wash it down with soda, and then expect your brain to function at maximum capacity?
And finally, take some time to work your body. Study after study has proven that exercise improves cognitive performance and minimizes stress. If someone offered you a pill that could do that, you’d probably snap it up. So do yourself a favor: slip on some running shoes and hit the pavement.

One great way to minimize your stress level and make the entire LSAT prep experience less daunting is to have a study plan and stick to it. If you’re not good with structure, taking a class or working with a tutor might be a good approach; if you’re more disciplined, you can work alone and get great results, too. But make a point of developing a roadmap of where you want to be and how you want to get there. Seek guidance from books or experts; there are a lot of great LSAT resources out there, including Kaplan! Don’t just grab a prep test and start blindly doing questions—make the most of your study time by going into it with a plan of attack.