Getting The Most Out Of An LSAT Study Partner

Are you searching for an LSAT study partner? In this post, we discuss how to find a good one and how to get the most out of your work together.

Do You Need A Study Partner for The LSAT?

You certainly don’t need a study buddy to do well. I was fine studying exclusively on my own, and so was Josh. In fact, I thing the people who can power through hours of lonely work are exactly the sort of people who are going to do well in law school.

I’m a little skeptical to begin with that most people are getting actual positive study value out of meeting up to work with someone else. If it just a social thing, that is fine! Just make sure it isn’t interfering with otherwise potentially good quality study time.

If you are going to work with someone, let’s make sure it is more of a help than a hindrance.

What Should You Do When Working With An LSAT Study Partner

I think the most beneficial time to work with a study partner is towards the beginning of you prep, when you are still working through LSAT prep guides & prep books, building a foundation of key concepts, and learning to recognize & attack different question types.

If one of you has a good handle on something, you can improve and reinforce the skill by teaching it to someone else. There is a popular saying going around that you learn 90% of what you teach. While this isn’t based on strong science, anecdotally, people do say they retain more of what they explain to someone else.

For me personally, I’m absolutely certain that teaching the LSAT has made me much better at it. You can get this benefit by taking turns to explain how something is done. The added benefit is this requires you to vocalize your understanding, which will reveal whether you really have a handle on it or not. Could you explain contrapositives well, inside and out, to a friend? If not, chances are you need work on it.

If you have a study buddy available, I would meet for a couple hours each week for the first month of your prep, discuss the things you have learned, and work on some problems that apply those skills.

It is also a good way for you slackers out there to make sure you actually do work in the week between your meetings.

Later on in your prep, when you have the concepts down, I think there is less value in meeting with a study buddy. However, reviewing tests together may still be effective for those who are still having trouble with certain question types. Usually, people have different weak areas, so they can help each other out.

Also, there is one idea that works with a study partner that I think is pretty cool: when doing a preptest review, don’t correct your own test. Instead, have a partner do it. Rather than telling you which problems you got wrong specifically, they can give you a range, like “you got one of the questions on this logic game wrong.” Then you have to figure out which it is. This kind of practice can help you reevaluate your thinking, learn to read more closely, and get you better at assessing whether you have true confidence in a right answer.

Finding A Study Partner

This can be the hard part. I think it is unfair to force your friend to take the LSAT just because you need a study buddy.

Forums like TLS can sometimes be helpful, but the hive-mind culture that pervades many of these forums often results in discussions dominated by uncritical conformity rather than collective intelligence. Even if the culture doesn’t bother you, it’s often hard to find someone who is truly serious about studying. It’s a harsh reality that most people who start out studying for the LSAT either don’t take it seriously enough to realize their full potential or they give up altogether. To avoid this, you might want to wait until you have seen your potential study buddy posting a bit and are sure they have a similar level of commitment. Again, if someone can’t study effectively without a study partner, chances are they won’t do much better with one.

If you’re looking for support, my number one recommendation would be to join the LSAT Mastermind Group. is our private LSAT mastermind forum. I’m consistently impressed with the incredible drive and commitment of our members. Generally, making the commitment to join something like the LSAT mastermind group weeds out the unserious people.

What is better, we tend to attract serious people who are committed to being friendly & supportive, rather than ones who want to troll and be haters. LSAT Mastermind Group members are smart, eager learners who keep each other motivated & encouraged as they drive each other to success. If you are committed to the LSAT, we invite you to join us and work with directly Josh, myself, and a small but passionate group of highly-motivated students.