It’s easy to lose motivation when you spend hour after hour after hour struggling through LSAT test material that all seems to be the same, and only seeing a few points improvement for all your hard work. To keep motivated, consider the following:

Consider the LSAT a motivation test, not an IQ test.

By learning the basics of logical reasoning, learning strategies on how to take the LSAT test, and doing plenty of practice on real LSAT tests, you can improve. There are no shortage of people who have improved by ten to thirty points. As such, tell yourself that the LSAT is testing how much you truly want to attend law school — if you really want to attend, then you’ll stick through the process and improve your score.

Expect score improvements to occur practice

Once you have finished an LSAT class or book, you have much of the needed information to complete LSAT questions. However, you likely do not have the mental endurance and/or timing/pacing skills to do well on the LSAT. As such, don’t be surprised if you finish an LSAT class or book, take a practice test, and discover that your score actually decreased from a practice test that you had taken before the LSAT book or class. Although this is highly frustrating and can hurt your motivation, recognize that before you complete a class or book, you likely completed a large number, perhaps all, of the questions but with a relatively low percentage of those that you attempted correct. Now that you have LSAT skills, you have slowed down and are taking significantly more time per question, and thus actually attempted much fewer questions, but, of these questions that you actually attempted, you likely have a much higher percentage correct than you did previously. Now, you need to build up your mental endurance and adjust your timing/pacing to maximize your score.

Appreciate each point

Improvement on the LSAT tends to go slowly. So, if you take a practice test and your score improved by a point – celebrate! Keep at it and you will see gains.

Plan in advance

You should plan to spend about two to six months studying for the LSAT. Too little time will likely result in insufficient time to learn all the strategies and to adequately practice. Too much time will likely result in frustration and boredom. Avoid both by figuring out when the best time for you to take the LSAT.

Take a break

If you work on the LSAT every single day, you’ll start despising the task. You should plan to take at least one day per week when you do not even think about the LSAT. Preferably, you will have two LSAT days followed by one break day. On your break days, do not think about the LSAT at all. If it creeps into your mind, shove it out. Politely ask your friends, family, and associates to not even bring the subject up on those days. Forget about the LSAT completely for a day.