Killing One Bird With Two Stones

It’s getting to be that time again. The time when you realize that the LSAT is LESS THAN SIX WEEKS AWAY, OH JESUS. That’s right, there’s a mere 40 days until the most important test you will ever take. But fear not, for 40 days is actually quite a bit of time.

If you haven’t started studying at all, you’re in a far from ideal situation. All is not lost – if you really hit the books now, and work for hours and hours per day, you can still improve a lot by the October 9th. But it’s not going to be easy. Unless you have overflowing rivers of time, you should strongly consider studying for December instead. If you could score significantly higher then, that would more than outweigh any advantage afforded by being able to apply early with an October score.

You probably didn’t notice, but just about a week ago LSAC rolled out a fantastic new service seemingly designed solely to increase your general levels of stress and discomfort. Now, in addition to getting letters of recommendations, you can also request… Evaluations! The world of pre-law let out an excited cry of “damn it, really? What the hell is this?” What the hell is this, indeed.

What They Are

An Evaluation, as it’s so creatively called, is something that’s being offered by LSAC, which schools can choose to accept or ignore. With evaluations, you have people judging you in a much more measured manner than they do with letters of recommendation. In multiple different categories, your evaluator ranks you on a scale ranging from “Below Average” (bottom 50%) all the way to “Truly Exceptional” (top 1-2%). There are thirty different areas in which you’re measured, including intellectual curiosity, trustworthiness, and motivation. There is a place for additional comments, so it’s not wholly quantitative, though that is seemingly the thrust of it. This is all done online by your evaluator. For the details, check out the LSAC site: http://www.lsac.org/JD/Apply/evaluations.asp.

Guess what? The rankings still sort of suck.

If the US News & World Report rankings didn’t already seem problematic enough, a few weeks ago Bill Henderson of Indiana University came to some conclusions that are a bit annoying, although not that surprising. Henderson is known for studying the rankings, and making models of the rankings to play with. Using these models, he was able to yet again show how these rankings are sometimes based on some crappy measures. Getting back to that in a second.

If you’re like me, and write an LSAT-related blog with a deadline that is nearly missed on a near weekly basis, you’ll know that one of the best ways to attack procrastination is by heading over to Wikipedia and hitting the “Random article” link. This hasn’t actually ever helped me write a blog, but it has been invaluable when it comes to finding ways to sit in a chair and not write.

I know, you were probably expecting a fantastic exploration into the origins and future of the American woodworking profession by way of a panda allegory, but there’s work to be done! Specifically, there’s work to be done by you. If you’re applying to law school this fall, you’re going to need more than just your October LSAT score. There’s much to be done, and you shouldn’t wait until after you’ve taken the LSAT to start doing it. If you do put off the other aspects of your application, you might not have everything together and your application sent in until well into December or even the new year. You definitely can apply at this point, but you really shouldn’t. The earlier you apply, the better your chances of both admission and financial aid. By taking the LSAT in October instead of December, you’ve got the magical opportunity to apply early, an opportunity which shouldn’t be wasted. If you apply by December 1st, you’re going to be applying before the majority of people. And if you can apply even earlier than this, so much the better. So here I’ve put together a list of the things you should be doing even while you’re studying for the LSAT.

It’s around now (about two months from the LSAT) that people in class start worrying about speed (if they haven’t been already). Almost everyone does this in some way or other, but allow me to just say that this concern is nearly always premature at this point.

Yes, the LSAT is all about time. Most people would answer the vast majority of problems correctly if they had an unlimited amount of time in which to do so. Unfortunately, this isn’t the way the test works. You’re given what seems like (and at first is) an extremely limited amount of time to do some pretty sophisticated stuff. If you were slow and careful with every problem, you wouldn’t finish any of the sections. This, clearly, will cause you to miss some points. So naturally you want to go faster. But, for now, not finishing sections is totally fine.

The LSAT is fast approaching. I know, I know, it’s actually over two and a half months away. And it might be hard to classify that as “fast approaching.” If you’ve only just begun studying, you still have plenty of time to master the test. You could even start a few weeks from now and, if you can put in the time, be able to fully prepare. But there’s one thing that, like doing your taxes and getting that lump checked out, you absolutely should not put off. And that’s signing up for the LSAT.

In the olden days of the test (i.e., a couple years ago), registering for the LSAT required less foresight. Even if you waited until six weeks before the test, you’d still be generally assured of getting a seat at a convenient location. Sometimes you could wait even longer.

The LSAT is an insanely hard test. Star Trek: The Next Generation is the greatest show of all time. So I started to think about what would happen if these two titanic worlds collided. This actually isn’t that implausible. By the 24th century, most of our standardized tests will have been rendered obsolete. Half the stuff on the MCAT will be irrelevant once we’ve got our hands on some of them sweet dermal regenerators and medical tricorders, and the GMAT will be useless upon society’s inevitable realization that business school is a scam and business students are hacks. But the logic of the LSAT is eternal. If you translated an LSAT into Greek and gave it to Socrates, he’d make it his bitch. So in a mere 350 years it will be just as efficacious as it is today, methinks.

So what would happen if the crew of the good old NCC-1701-D had to sit for the LSAT? First of all, on average their scores would be somewhat higher. Most of them went to Starfleet Academy (which is like the Yale of the future, but with better landscaping) and they all landed a job on the flagship of the Federation, so they’re not exactly a representative cross section of society. So I don’t want to hear a bunch of complaining about how there aren’t enough low scores. Not everyone can be Troi.

And so, without further ado…

If you think that standardized tests are a new phenomenon, then you think like somebody who is wrong about something. While looking for some good mail order cod, I inadvertently came across the Chinese Imperial Examination System. Which is pretty much what it sounds like. That’s right, kids. It turns out that standardized tests have been with us for over a thousand years.

This, the very first standardized test, began in its modern incarnation in the 500s. To put that in perspective, this was the century when Muhammad was busy being born. The exam was used to land sweet, sweet government jobs (a desire that transcends all eras and cultures, apparently). And passing it made you a bona fide badass. If you think the LSAT is bad, the passage rate was between one and five percent. I don’t find this terribly surprising, considering that I wouldn’t stand a chance at either the archery or horsemanship sections. But the exam also tested more standard-issue areas such as writing, math, taxation, calligraphy, and Confucianism. And while you guys might be bemoaning your three-hour nightmare that is the LSAT, these things lasted one to three whole days.

The cancellation deadline for the June test has officially come and gone. If you took the test and didn’t pull out yet, then you’ve got a score coming your way fairly soon. It’s actually scheduled to be emailed to you two weeks from today, on Monday the 28th, but if history is any judge, it might end up coming out a week from Friday. The fact that you have to wait up to three weeks for your score seems cruel, especially considering that it’s graded on a damn scantron. I know. The time between now and then can seem like an eternity, but you can no longer fret about whether or not you should cancel. The stones have been cast and there is nothing you can do anymore.