After a person decides to become a lawyer, she soon finds out that she’ll be taking the LSAT. Hard upon the heels of this oft-dismaying fact is the realization that she has no idea how to prepare for the thing.

Enter Blueprint Test Prep. We at Blueprint Test Prep have been helping students study for this difficult test for over five years and are something of an authority on the ways to prepare for the LSAT. There are two. (We realize there might be more, but here are the main two).

Studying by Yourself

Let’s be honest: this option can suck since it’s you against the world. But it’s cheap. Which for LSAT classes, Chinese food, and some species of masseurs, can be a good thing.

If you’re going to study on your own, be sure to 1) acquire real questions and 2) make a plan that you stick to. Real LSAT questions cost money because they need to be licensed from LSAC. Some companies (not Blueprint Test Prep) get around this by selling books with questions they’ve written themselves. However, these are not representative of the test and should not be used.

As we at Blueprint Test Prep know all too well, it’s typically easier to be a slacker when you’re studying alone. Many are the freshman papers that didn’t get written because of a particularly good episode of Vampire Diaries. Whether you have your mom call you or your significant other beat you over the head with a Slim Jim™, take steps to hold yourself accountable to the schedule you’ve made.

Studying with a Class

Buying an LSAT course (like Blueprint Test Prep) can be a comforting thing—a fleece blanket in a cold house, a pillow on a hard counter surface upon which you are sitting for reasons known only to yourself. Test prep courses can also give you a study schedule as well as a class infrastructure to keep you accountable.

Such classes also make it easy to aggregate materials and provide a peer group with which to study. You also have a person to ask if you have questions. Finally, we at Blueprint Test Prep have also found that prep courses can offer emotional support (and the occasional free pizza).

Either Way

Whether you study alone or with a course, at Blueprint Test Prep we recommend allotting two to three months of intense study before the LSAT. This is because you need time to familiarize yourself with all the different types of questions, practice a method for approaching them, and then perform that method correctly under timed conditions by taking practice tests. This process isn't easy, but at Blueprint Test Prep we've found that with planning and determination, students can achieve the score they want.

Article by Trent Teti and Jodi Triplett of Blueprint Test Prep. Blueprint Test Prep offers live and online LSAT courses for students who want to learn to jet ski. And by jet ski, we mean go to law school. Blueprint Test Prep was founded in 2005.