LSAT study schedule: how many weeks do you need?
Most people need 10 to 16 weeks at 10 to 20 hours a week, about 150 to 300 hours in total. Take a timed practice test first. Within 5 points of your goal, 6 to 8 weeks can be enough. If you are 15 or more points away, plan 4 to 6 months. Spend the first weeks on skills, the middle on timed sections and the end on full tests.
The LSAT has four 35-minute multiple-choice sections: two Logical Reasoning, one Reading Comprehension and one unscored variable section, with a 10-minute break after the second. Scores run from 120 to 180, and the median of recent years sits around 154. The essay, LSAT Argumentative Writing, is unscored and taken online on its own, but your score is only released once it is on file. Since August 2026 most people take the multiple-choice part at a test center.
About two thirds of the scored test is Logical Reasoning, so a good schedule gives it about two thirds of your time. Hours alone do not move the score. Review does: for every hour of timed questions, spend about as long working out why each wrong answer was wrong. Leave room for a retake. LSAC allows five attempts in the current reportable score period (since July 2021) and seven in a lifetime, so pick a first test date that leaves a later one open.
| Weeks | Focus | Each week |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Baseline | One timed official practice test, set your target and test date, start a miss log |
| 2 to 5 | Skills, untimed | Logical Reasoning by question type 4 days, Reading Comprehension 2 days, review every miss |
| 6 to 9 | Timed sections | Four or five timed 35-minute sections, a full test every other week, blind review |
| 10 to 11 | Full tests | One or two full timed tests a week, drill your two weakest question types |
| 12 | Taper | One last full test early in the week, light review, the day before off |
- 1Take a timed official practice test on LawHub and write down your score.
- 2Subtract it from your target to size the schedule: under 5 points, 6 to 8 weeks; 5 to 15 points, 10 to 16 weeks; more than 15 points, 4 to 6 months.
- 3Count the hours you really have each week and pick a test date that leaves a second date open before your application deadlines.
- 4Split the weeks into three phases: untimed skills, timed sections, full tests.
- 5Give Logical Reasoning about two thirds of the time and Reading Comprehension one third.
- 6Review every timed set for as long as it took to do, and log each miss with the rule you will use next time.
- 7Take your last full test two or three days before the exam and keep the day before free.