What this LSAT study plan covers

The LSAT is a timed, multiple-choice exam assessing logical reasoning, analytical reasoning and reading comprehension. Some administrations include analytical reasoning in the form of logic games. There is also an unscored experimental section and a separate writing sample.

The exact administration details, registration requirements, available test dates and current section arrangements can change. Check the official LSAT and LSAC websites before you build your final calendar. This plan focuses on the skills that remain useful across administrations:

  • identifying conclusions, premises and assumptions;
  • translating conditional rules accurately;
  • separating what must be true from what could be true;
  • eliminating answer choices with explicit reasons;
  • reading dense passages for structure rather than isolated facts; and
  • maintaining pace without spending too long on one question.

The plan below is designed for six weeks. It assumes about 8–10 hours each week, divided into shorter sessions. If you have more time, add questions and review to each session rather than doubling the amount of new material.

Before week 1: set up your baseline

Use one untimed session to learn the question types and one timed diagnostic session using current official-style material. Do not treat the initial result as a prediction. Its purpose is to show whether your first problem is accuracy, timing, question recognition or reading method.

Create an error log with these columns:

Field What to record
Question and type For example, strengthen, flaw, must be true or main point
First answer The option you chose under the time limit
Correct answer The option supported by the stimulus or rules
Reason for error Misread task, invalid inference, rushed reading or timing
Repair The rule or habit you will use next time

Review every missed question, including questions you guessed correctly. A correct guess is not yet reliable knowledge.

Week 1: learn the tasks and build a clean method

Target: 8 hours

  • Session 1 — 90 minutes: Learn the major logical reasoning tasks. For each question, identify what the prompt asks before considering the answer choices.
  • Session 2 — 90 minutes: Practise finding the conclusion, premises and assumptions in short arguments. Write a one-sentence argument core for each question.
  • Session 3 — 90 minutes: Study conditional language: if, only if, unless, whenever and none. Translate each rule, then practise its contrapositive.
  • Session 4 — 90 minutes: Complete a reading-comprehension set untimed. Label the passage structure: main point, viewpoints, evidence, contrast and purpose.
  • Session 5 — 2 hours: Review errors and make a short list of recurring traps.

Do not start with speed drills. If your interpretation is wrong, faster work simply produces more wrong answers. Your first target is a repeatable process: task, structure, inference, elimination.

A due queue should separate boards rather than hiding all revision in one list. A queue on this topic ends up looking like this:

Due today
Logical Reasoning — Argument Structure18 due
Conditional Logic11 due
Reading Comprehension — Passage Maps7 due
Analytical Reasoning — Ordering GamesClear
This due queue shows which LSAT revision boards have cards waiting today.

Use the queue for short retrieval sessions. If a card asks you to identify the conclusion, answer before checking the back. The purpose is not to recognise familiar wording; it is to reproduce the method without help.

Week 2: logical reasoning accuracy

Target: 9 hours

  • Session 1 — 2 hours: Complete 15–20 logical reasoning questions untimed, grouped by task type. Review each answer choice, not only the correct one.
  • Session 2 — 90 minutes: Work on assumption, strengthen and weaken questions. State the argument gap before looking for the answer.
  • Session 3 — 90 minutes: Work on flaw, role and parallel reasoning questions. Describe the argument’s structure in neutral terms.
  • Session 4 — 90 minutes: Complete a timed set. Mark questions where you are uncertain, even if you finish.
  • Session 5 — 2 hours: Review the timed set. Classify each error as comprehension, logic, answer-choice comparison or pacing.

For every logical reasoning question, use this sequence:

  1. Read the task stem carefully.
  2. Locate the conclusion and the evidence supporting it.
  3. State the missing link or required inference.
  4. Predict what a correct answer would do.
  5. Eliminate choices that answer a different question or make a stronger claim than the stimulus supports.

The board should contain the source concepts, not broad reminders such as “do more logical reasoning”. It should make the specific distinction available when you need it. A board on this topic ends up looking like this:

LSAT Logical Reasoning and Conditional LogicStudy
Six-week study plan — core methodsLogical Reasoning and Conditional Logic4 sections · 3 columns
Argument structure6 due
  • Conclusion — the claim the author is trying to establish
  • Premises — statements offered as support; evidence is not automatically the conclusion
  • Assumption — an unstated link required for the premises to support the conclusion
Elimination checks

Reject an answer for answering the wrong task, contradicting the stimulus, adding an unsupported assumption or using an extreme quantifier without support.

Conditional rules4 due
  • A → B means A is sufficient for B; B is necessary for A
  • Contrapositive of A → B is not-B → not-A
  • Do not reverse A → B into B → A
Task distinctions3 due
  • Must be true: true in every permitted case
  • Could be true: true in at least one permitted case
  • Strengthen or weaken: change how well the premises support the conclusion
This study board organises the LSAT logic methods used in the first two weeks.

Keep an “invalid leap” list. Examples include treating a sufficient condition as necessary, assuming two entities are different when the rules do not say so, and selecting an answer because it sounds plausible rather than because it is forced by the text.

Week 3: analytical reasoning and formal set-ups

Target: 9–10 hours

Analytical reasoning may appear as logic games on some administrations. Prepare for the material included in your administration, and check the official information rather than assuming that every current test uses the same section arrangement.

  • Session 1 — 2 hours: Practise ordering, grouping and matching set-ups. Write every rule in a compact form.
  • Session 2 — 2 hours: Make deductions before attempting the questions. Look for fixed positions, restricted pairs, blocks, maximums and minimums.
  • Session 3 — 90 minutes: Complete local questions that add a condition. Apply the new condition before using the global rules.
  • Session 4 — 90 minutes: Practise “could be true”, “must be true” and “cannot be true” questions separately.
  • Session 5 — 2 hours: Redo missed games from a blank page, then compare your set-up with the original.

For each game, use four headings: game type, rules, deductions and question work. Verify a proposed arrangement against every rule. A diagram that works for most rules is still wrong if it violates one restriction.

At the end of this week, start a two-pass habit. On the first pass, take questions where the set-up and deductions are clear. On the second pass, return to questions requiring more casework. Do not let one difficult question consume the time needed for several answerable questions.

Week 4: reading comprehension and mixed practice

Target: 8–10 hours

  • Session 1 — 90 minutes: Read one passage untimed and map its structure in five lines or fewer.
  • Session 2 — 90 minutes: Answer detail, inference, main-point and function questions. For each answer, identify the passage support.
  • Session 3 — 2 hours: Complete a mixed logical reasoning and reading-comprehension set under timed conditions.
  • Session 4 — 2 hours: Review every wrong or uncertain answer. Separate a passage-reading error from an answer-choice error.
  • Session 5 — 2 hours: Complete an analytical reasoning set or additional logical reasoning work, depending on your weakest area.

For reading comprehension, avoid turning the passage into a collection of quotations. Track the author’s position, changes in viewpoint, disputes, examples and the purpose of each paragraph. When an option is attractive, ask whether it answers the precise task and whether the passage supports its full wording.

A review picker can direct the next lecture or revision session towards the section producing the most useful correction. The picker for this week might look like this:

New lecture
How long have you got?5 min10 min15 min20 min
Logical reasoning — assumptionsAnalytical reasoning — conditional deductionsReading comprehension — viewpoint structurePacing and skipping

Logical reasoning — assumptions · Struggling — 9 of 20 recent questions were wrong, and three errors came from treating a necessary condition as sufficient

Suggest lectures

Use the hottest section for a focused explanation, then immediately answer a small number of related questions. Listening or rereading without retrieval will not show whether the method has transferred.

Week 5: timed sections and deliberate pacing

Target: 10 hours

  • Session 1 — 90 minutes: Complete one timed section. Record where you were at the halfway point and which questions caused delays.
  • Session 2 — 2 hours: Review the section without a clock. Identify questions that became straightforward once you stopped investing in an unproductive route.
  • Session 3 — 90 minutes: Practise skip-and-return decisions. Leave a brief reason for each skipped question, such as “two options remain” or “set-up incomplete”.
  • Session 4 — 2 hours: Complete another timed section in a different area.
  • Session 5 — 2 hours: Review and update the error log.

Pacing is not simply reading faster. It is recognising when a question is not yielding enough progress. A useful rule is to make one concrete move before continuing: identify the conclusion, write the conditional chain, locate the relevant paragraph, or test an answer choice. If that move does not narrow the problem, flag it and continue.

Do not change an answer merely because it feels difficult. Change it when you can identify a specific textual or structural reason that another option is better.

Week 6: consolidate and rehearse

Target: 8–10 hours, adjusted to your official test arrangements

  • Session 1 — 2 hours: Complete a full practice sequence using the current official guidance for your administration.
  • Session 2 — 2 hours: Review slowly. Build cards only from errors that are specific enough to test.
  • Session 3 — 90 minutes: Drill your three weakest task types, mixing familiar and unfamiliar material.
  • Session 4 — 90 minutes: Practise reading instructions, checking your process and moving on from a sunk-cost question.
  • Session 5 — 1–2 hours: Light retrieval of core rules and error patterns. Avoid a large new topic immediately before the test.

Use your final week to improve reliability, not to collect impressive-looking resources. Your review should answer three questions:

  • Which task types do I misidentify?
  • Which deductions or argument links do I regularly miss?
  • Which timing decisions cost more marks than they save?

The final plan should also include practical checks against the official website: test-day requirements, permitted equipment, technical arrangements, writing-sample instructions and any current section information. Do not rely on an old timetable or an unofficial summary for these details.

How to measure progress

Track accuracy and process separately. A higher percentage is useful, but it does not explain whether the improvement came from understanding, familiarity or luck. Each week, record:

  • accuracy by question type;
  • accuracy when untimed and timed;
  • number of questions left incomplete;
  • number of correct guesses;
  • average review time per missed question; and
  • the three most common error labels.

A good review cycle is: attempt, mark, explain the correct answer, explain why your answer failed, write a narrow repair rule, then retest that rule later. If the same error appears twice, convert it into a retrieval card or a short drill rather than adding another general note.

The most valuable habit in this LSAT study plan is to justify every choice from the given text or formal structure. That habit connects logical reasoning, analytical reasoning and reading comprehension, while also protecting you from plausible but unsupported answer choices.

How MySummaries helps

MySummaries lets you build boards from your LSAT notes and turn the board into retrieval cards, focused audio explanations, written practice and marked review. For this plan, use one board for each major skill, attach missed-question explanations to the relevant section, and review the due queue before starting new timed work. The result is a record of what you can justify reliably, not just how many questions you have attempted.