The LSAT is a crafty and subtle foe. Substantially more complicated and nuanced than the SAT or GRE, it requires a focused approach with robust training in the fundamentals followed by a great deal of fine-tuning and practice under timed conditions (our students typically take around 20 full-length practice tests). Further, most students benefit greatly from an “LSAT personal trainer” with not only a deep mastery of the content but also a strategic approach to helping you plan and adjust your study plan and holding you accountable so that you until the end. The near-unanimous verdict of our students is that a one-to-one LSAT program is worth the investment of time and money because of how richly it pays off in terms of admission, scholarships, and potential advance in lifetime earnings.

For best results, you should allow three months minimum, and possibly as many as six months. A more precise way to look at the question is in terms of hours: since the average LSAT study program is 200-300 hours, you should divide that range by the number of hours per week you can comfortably invest in LSAT prep to determine how many weeks your program should extend.

Once you know what your score goal is, we’ll take a baseline score (either from a previous official or practice LSAT or from our diagnostic) and pinpoint as precisely as possible how many hours are appropriate. Some figures for reference, estimated conservatively: 30 hours of tutoring tends to yield about a 7-point increase; 50 hours, 11 points; 75 hours, 15 points.

The LSAT is scored on a scale from 120-180; what defines a good score depends on your goals. Here are some common median LSAT scores for incoming law students at:

• Liberty University 151;
• George Mason, 162;
• George Washington (GW), 165;
• Georgetown, 168;
• UVA, 169;
• Yale (#1 in the country), 173.

Thus anything from the 48th to the 99th percentile might be an appropriate target for you, depending on the tier of law school you have in mind. We can help you assess your opportunities and develop an ambitious but realistic score goal with a path to get there.

The LSAT cannot be taken more than three times in two years, so timing and expert preparation are especially important. The LSAT is offered in the spring and in the fall. Most students take the test in the fall prior to the following year’s deadline for law school applications and begin preparing as soon as they know they will be taking the test.