Who this plan is for
This plan starts in mid-October and ends at the January LSAT, about 12 weeks out. It assumes roughly an hour a day on weekdays plus one longer weekend block. If you have more time, add a second drill session per day. If you have less, stretch the plan instead of skipping review. Review is where the points come from.
Week 1: Find out where you stand
Take a full diagnostic in one sitting. Timed. No distractions. Do not study first. You want an honest starting score.
Spend the rest of the week reviewing it. For every miss, figure out exactly what went wrong. A misread. A trap answer. A gap in method. Sort your misses by question type. That sorted list is your study plan for the next month. It tells you where your points are hiding.
Weeks 2-3: Learn the fundamentals
Before you drill hundreds of questions, learn what the test is asking. LR has about ten common question types, and each one tests a different skill. A Flaw question and a Necessary Assumption question can look alike but reward different thinking. Study the types until you can name what each one wants before you read the choices.
For RC, read for structure, not details. Ask two questions of every passage. What is the author's main point? What job does each paragraph do? You do not need to memorize the passage. You need to know where things are so you can find them fast.
Do short untimed drills of each type as you learn them. Accuracy first. Speed comes later. It comes on its own once the method is solid.
Weeks 4-7: Drill your weaknesses, still untimed
This is where most of the work happens. Take your miss list from the diagnostic and drill your weakest types in focused sets. Ten Flaw questions in a row teaches you more than ten random questions. Your brain starts to see the pattern.
Keep every drill untimed. Timing yourself before you are accurate just trains you to make fast mistakes. Review every miss the same day. Cover the answer, redo the question fresh, name the error in plain words, and log it by type. That log is the most useful thing in your prep.
End of week 7, take your first full timed test since the diagnostic. Compare accuracy by question type, not just your total score. Whatever is still weak gets priority next.
Weeks 8-10: Add the clock
Start timing your drills. Begin with generous limits and tighten toward real pace. If your accuracy collapses when the clock starts, that is normal. The method is not automatic yet. Slow down, rebuild accuracy on that type, then speed up again.
Take one full timed test every week or two, always in one sitting. Review it the same day while your reasoning is fresh. Between tests, drill whatever the test exposed. Your miss log should be getting shorter and more specific.
Week 11: Full tests and targeted repair
Take two full timed tests this week if you can, with at least two days between them. Your drilling between tests should be almost all weak areas now. You are not learning new concepts. You are turning what you know into points under pressure.
Week 12: Taper
Do not cram. Cut your volume in half. Review your miss log, redo a few old questions you once found hard, and do one light timed section midweek to stay sharp. Sleep matters more than anything this week, especially the last three nights. Students lose more points to exhaustion in the final week than to any gap in knowledge.
Day before the test: no studying. Go for a walk. Eat normally. Get to bed early. You did the work. Let it show up.
If you fall behind
Life happens. If you miss a week, do not double up. Just pick up where you left off. A plan you can follow beats a perfect plan you quit.
And if your practice scores are far from your goal with a month to go, consider moving your test date. There is no prize for taking the LSAT before you are ready. A later date with a higher score beats an early date with a score you wish you could redo.