How long did you guys actually need to study for IMSA? Sharing my 8-week plan

Just passed last month, so I can tell you that 8 weeks is genuinely enough if you're consistent — I did almost the exact same schedule you're describing. The 90-minute weekday sessions are actually better than marathon cramming on the weekends in my experience. Retention just holds better when it's spread out.

One thing that made a real difference for me: I stopped treating the quantitative methods section like something I could power through with memorization. IMSA leans hard on applied problem-solving, not just definitions, so I had to actually work through practice problems until the logic clicked rather than just reading over the material. That shift probably added a week to my prep but it's what pushed my score over the line.

Also don't underestimate the last two weeks — I used them almost entirely for timed mock exams and reviewing why I got things wrong, not learning new content. By then you either know it or you don't, and drilling the reasoning gaps is way more efficient than trying to cram anything new. You've got this.

Just passed mine last week, so this is fresh. Eight weeks is actually pretty solid if you're disciplined about it — I only had about six weeks and it was tight. The 90 minutes on weekdays thing is real, but I'd say the weekend session matters more than people think. That's where I actually made connections between topics instead of just grinding through problems piecemeal.

The thing that genuinely moved the needle for me was doing timed practice under realistic conditions about three weeks out. I'd been doing untimed review and felt confident, then sat down for a full simulation and completely bombed the pacing. Spent too long on the algebraic reasoning section and ran out of time at the end. Doing an imsa practice test with a timer running — no pausing, no looking stuff up mid-question — exposed exactly where my weak spots were and I still had time to fix them.

One specific thing: don't neglect the data interpretation questions. I underweighted those in my prep because they seemed easier, but they're deceptively tricky when you're already fatigued toward the end of the test. Good luck with the plan — two months is enough.

Quick update from me — took a practice set last night and pulled a 74% on the imsa/questions/ratios proportions and percentages section, which honestly wasn't where I expected to land after two weeks in. I've been doing about an hour each evening and it's starting to click. Still shaky on a few concepts but the repetition is helping way more than I thought it would.

I'm booked for mid-September so I've got about six weeks left. Your 8-week plan actually sounds really solid for working full-time. I didn't start that structured and kind of wish I had, so you're already ahead of where I was. Keep us posted on how the longer weekend sessions go.

Eight weeks is actually solid if you're consistent — I passed with a similar timeline working evenings. The thing that made the biggest difference for me was ditching the "read everything" approach and focusing almost entirely on the two sections that trip most people up: contract law and the agency relationship stuff. Those alone probably account for close to half the questions, and the wording on the exam is sneaky — they love asking about implied vs. express authority in scenarios that sound obvious but aren't.

Concrete tip that actually moved the needle: I stopped highlighting and started writing out one-sentence "rules" for each concept in my own words. Like not "fiduciary duty — see chapter 4" but "a buyer's agent owes confidentiality even after the transaction closes unless disclosure is required by law." That forced me to actually understand the edge cases instead of recognizing buzzwords. Did that for about 20 concepts total and drilled them until I could recite them cold.

Also — your 90-minute weekday blocks are fine, but don't skip the longer weekend session even if life gets busy. That's when you want to simulate real exam conditions: timed, no phone, full sections back to back. Stamina matters more than people realize, especially toward the end of a 150-question paper when your brain is already fried.

Eight weeks is actually pretty solid for IMSA if you're strategic about it. The thing that made the biggest difference for me was front-loading the actuarial mathematics section in the first two weeks — not because it's the hardest, but because everything else kind of builds on that foundation. I wasted time jumping around topics early on and had to circle back constantly.

One concrete thing: stop reviewing material you already know. Sounds obvious, but I spent way too long re-reading chapters I was comfortable with because it felt productive. After week two, switch to pure practice questions and track which specific subtopics you're getting wrong. For IMSA that usually ends up being mortality tables and premium calculations — those trip up almost everyone. Make a running list of your missed questions by topic, not by date, so you can see actual patterns instead of just "I studied Monday."

90 minutes on weekdays is enough if you're not spending 20 of those minutes warming up and easing into it. Jump straight into questions first, then review concepts only for what you got wrong. Saves a ton of time and honestly retains better anyway. Weekends are where you should be doing your full practice exams under timed conditions — at least one full sim every other weekend starting around week four.

Eight weeks is honestly what I did too, and I'm working full-time so I get the squeeze. I'd do maybe an hour on weeknights and just grind on Saturdays. The math sections tripped me up early on, especially the ratio and percentage stuff, but drilling through sets like imsa/questions/ratios proportions and percentages 3 helped a lot once I stopped rushing and actually checked my wrong answers.

You're not behind. Two months is plenty if you're consistent. The weeknight sessions feel brutal after work but they add up faster than you'd think. I didn't touch the reading sections until week four and still felt ready by test day, so don't stress about doing everything perfectly in sequence.

Eight weeks is totally doable, honestly. I studied for about the same amount of time working similar hours and the thing that made the biggest difference for me wasn't grinding more questions, it was slowing down every time I got something wrong and really asking myself why that answer was wrong, not just checking what the right one was. Like, if I missed a question about medication interactions, I'd force myself to understand the actual mechanism before moving on. That habit alone cut my repeat mistakes in half by week five.

The wrong answers are designed to trip you up for a reason, and if you don't understand the reasoning behind why they're wrong you'll just keep second-guessing yourself on test day. Your 90-minute weekday sessions are enough if you're spending at least a third of that time in review mode rather than just burning through new questions. Saturdays are where you build momentum, so I'd treat those like mini exams. You're not behind at all.