I’m speaking in terms of weeks and months. The next two test dates are in June and September.
Assuming I sign up today and start studying today, would an intelligent, hard-studying, excellent test-taker be able to make a good score by June? Or should I go for September and give myself plenty of time to bone up?
Yeah, I’m thinking about law school because my journalism degree got me jack-all-shit for a career. Feh.
I see no reason why you shouldn’t be ready by June. Personally, I took one practice test a week before, and that was it - but I like logic puzzles, and so I was already well prepared for that section.
I think the barbri stuff goes 6 weeks? It is worth it.
“Study for the LSAT” is kind of an impossibility, due to the nature of the test itself. About the best thing you can do to prepare is to take past exams as practice. Take 'em under timed conditions, to simulate what the test itself will be like. When you’re done, score yourself, and figure out not only what answers you got wrong but why that answer is wrong.
The section most people seem to freak out about is the “games” section. If you can, find a few books on logic puzzles, or look up some logic puzzles like this one on the web; they’re excellent practice for the kinds of questions that’ll be in that section.
I took intensive Kaplan for a month (2 classes a week and on Saturday) and plenty of practice tests in my spare time and my percentile number had a 9 in front of it when all was said and done.
I mainly took it for psychological insurance- so I didn’t have to wonder every time I saw a hard problem, “What if I took Kaplan? Would this then be easy?” But it was worth it- I picked up some good strategies to help beat the test.
Diagram your logic games, dude.
If there’s one piece of advice you take away from this thread, it is that.
You don’t need to study for it, other than lightly to familiarize yourself with the types of questions and the general methods for eliminating really stupid possible answers. 
I took the LSAT twice (I had to go back to McGeorge a second time after dropping out like an idiot two years earlier, and they had changed the format), and both times I managed a score in a percentile with a 9 at the first digit and at least an 8 in the second digit. I don’t know if there are any studies to support the concept that you can significantly improve your score on the modern LSAT through Kaplan or some other method. I would doubt it, because it’s mostly a pseudo-intelligence test anyway.
This thread (“Good LSAT prep book?”) may help. I’d give you my advice, but frankly I don’t remember exactly how I prepped, nor do I have a clue what my score was. I did manage to get into law school, though, and I’ve done okay since then.
Good luck. Law’s kind of fun, sometimes.
I did pretty what you’re thinking about - studied by myself starting in May, and then took the LSAT. I earned a 160, which is okay, and got me into a law school I like, but wasn’t a great score. I suspect that if I’d taken a prep course, I’d have gone up at least a few points, because they’d have made me learn the logic games tricks that I never bothered learning. You’re probably better off taking a course over the summer, and taking the test in september, than trying to rush things.
I’d say take a few practice tests and see how you do. Some people are good at the kind of logic and reading questions they give, in which case studying a month probably won’t help more then studying a week would. But if you find that sort of thing is tough for you, then I’d say doing a butt load of those sort of questions till you get a better feel for them and can get through them quickly might be worth it.
I took a few practice tests a few days before the exam. Otherwise, I didn’t study at all. I got a 169, which was good enough to get me into the law schools I wanted to go to (I didn’t want to leave Los Angeles).
However, if I had to do it again, I’d have taken a prep course. I didn’t realize at the time how much weighting the LSAT has in the application process. I don’t think they would have even looked at my application at Harvard.
Oh, now. . . . That’s the route I took, too. Be glad you have a journalism degree. And be glad you’re going to law school and make some actual money.
Now about studying for the LSAT: do not take the exam without having studied! And do not consider just taking old copies of the LSAT exam as preparing yourself. You’ve got to learn the strategies. One already mentioned is that you should diagram the relational logic questions.
Another is that you should optimize your time by knowing when to hold them, and knowing when to fold them: in other words, the optimal balance between sticking with a difficult problem, or moving on to other problems instead. Which choice, in the end, will give you more points? It’s a question of speed vs. accuracy. You should take a diagnostic test to see where your strength is on that question. As Peterson’s LSAT prep book says,
I see that the next LSAT is on June 11, which is good, because I recommend at least a seven-week prep period. The test prep manual I used was Peterson’s, and I think they did a great job.
Good luck!
McGeorge isn’t so great a law school that I’d be listening to that advice 
There is a technique to solving each type of question on the LSAT. Once you learn those techniques, it’s not that hard, however you need to be able to do them quickly.
You might want to explore the possibility that it was grades, not LSAT scores that made McGeorge the school of choice. 98th Percentile is not shabby no matter where you go.
A C+ average in college from being an idiot, on the other hand, doesn’t get much of a look from U of M or Boalt or even Hastings 
I have not personally taken the LSAT. But standardized test taking is a learned skill. Like most learned skills your performance will improve with practice. So it would be of great benefit to take a few practice tests.
It’s still dumb advice to not prepare for a test like that.