<p>My S who graduated in May 2011 took the June 2013 LSAT and scored in the 99+ percentile using TempeMom’s approach. He started taking the full length practices under similar conditions to the tests in late February. He kept his tutoring job while he was doing it.</p>
<p>zoosermom’s suggestion of doing interesting things (not just booking it) (1) comes from one who knows about law firm hiring and (2) may help in the application process since so many law schools list the quirky experiences their enrolled students have.</p>
<p>It’s pretty unlikely those 6 months will matter much for law firm hiring. They definitely won’t matter for law school admission, except to the extent they affect the OP’s LSAT score.</p>
I disagree. It will be noticed. It’s fine to not be working an actual job or in school, but there can’t be a black hole in the resume. One of my all-time favorite attorneys (he might actually be God, I’m not sure) went back to law school two years after undergrad. He decided to move to a new city to make his life, attend law school and hopefully practice. He did take a few months “off” while he was getting moved and preparing for the LSAT. During that time he was a clown with a nonprofit. Yep a clown. It was on his resume and it was an incredibly positive at all of his interviews and the judge he clerked for still talks about it to this day. (Many judges have annual reunions). I’ve also known people who worked on campaigns, did trips with Habitat for Humanity. All sorts of things that weren’t “work” or school.</p>
<p>Getting a 173 on the LSAT is definitely much more difficult than passing the bar exam, no matter how difficult the latter may be. So it is perfectly logical to spend more time studying for the LSAT than studying for the bar. On top-law-schools.com, plenty of people have taken 4-6 months off to study full time, and they’ve done minor stuff on the side. Several have scored above a 170+ by taking several months off. And many have said they felt the Bar to be easier than scoring a high score on the LSAT since much of it is rote memorization and material that they learned in law school. </p>
<p>OP, if you can do some minor volunteer and club work, which you said you will be doing anyway, you should be fine. Just have something to put on your resume…it doesn’t have to be a job or something fancy. I took a similar approach four years ago, although I took four and a half months off instead of five/six (I had light volunteering- maybe 6-8 hours a week, played in a rock band, which I also put on my resume, and I enjoyed/relaxed the rest of the time I wasn’t studying for the LSAT). I scored a 171. </p>
<p>Also, studying for the LSAT doesn’t have to be miserable. I thought it was a pretty fun test- I treated it like a game. I would suggest to take a diagnostic test to see if you really need six months though, since you received a solid SAT score. For me though, I would say the 4.5 months pretty much full time was well worth it for my score. If your diagnostic isn’t what you feel it should be, then by all means, take six months off. </p>
<p>If you are privileged enough to afford to not work for six months, then by all means, go for it. </p>
<p>By the way, I would recommend you to make an account on top-law-schools.com and use the forums there. The users there are more in our generation and could see where you are coming from. </p>
<p>But it is true that in general, six months is a bit excessive, esp since you seem like a smart kid and a good test taker.</p>