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When is the best time of day to study for the LSAT?

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Avi Hegland-Fisher
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When is the best time of day to study for the LSAT?
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Scenario A: It’s 6:00am: time to study for your LSAT. No one is up yet in your house, so you get to grind fresh coffee beans and gather your toast in peace before sitting down for a short period of intensely focused test prep before class.

 

Scenario B: It’s 12:00pm: time to study for your LSAT. You woke up without an alarm, and studying is all you have on the calendar for the day. You’ve got your laptop and test books open to all the right pages and a very comfy chair calling your name.

 

Scenario C: It’s 6:00pm: time to study for your LSAT. You start your shift in three hours, but you slept all day while the kids were in school, so you should be good. You’re a night owl, and it’s happy hour. 7Sage and scotch, anyone?

 

Which of these sounds most like you?

 

Among the college-aged set, early birds and night owls work best from 9am to noon and 5pm-9pm, respectively. Generally, students perform better in the afternoon than early in the morning.

 

A study of university exam takers found that “peak performance occurs around lunchtime (1.30pm), as compared to morning (9am) or late afternoon (4.30pm).” However, that study also found these effects were much more significant for students taking STEM exams, a fact that could work in an LSAT taker’s favor, as, without logic games, the test lies squarely in the realm of the humanities.

 

Performance in high stakes assessments can be affected by air pollution, pollen exposure, summertime heat exposure, and temperature. Your attitude will also have an impact on your ability to test well, and a big data study found that people reported better mental health and wellbeing in the mornings, as well as in the summer.

 

The big picture here is that time does matter when you’re prepping for the LSAT: the amount of time you’ve studied, time spent per question, the time of day, the time of the year, all of it. Control what you can, but also accept that you can only control so much about the test day itself. Prime test taking conditions during practice tests don’t hit the same on game day. 

 

Ultimately, if you study hard and really know your stuff, someone can wake you up á la Michael McIntyre’s Midnight Gameshow and you’ll still nail every question. The best time of day to study for the LSAT is whatever time it is right now.



 

Check out our LSAT test prep videos on YouTube!

 

LSAT Reading Comprehension

LSAT Logical Reasoning

… and many more!