Most Strongly Supported LSAT Blogs

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.
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If you took the test on Monday, I feel for you. You’re probably still suffering from some mulch-induced PTSD. The whole thing may have been a rather harrowing experience. That’s normal. That’s the LSAT. But did it really go poorly? Is it time to cancel your score?

If you’re thinking about canceling, you should be pretty certain that it’s the right thing to do. Tons of people walk out of the testing center feeling like they were just run over by a recycling truck. Really, almost everyone has a general feeling of impending doom after taking the test. But just feeling bad about the test isn’t enough reason to cancel. I’ve had so many students who thought they did terribly, but ended up not canceling and doing incredibly well. Could this be you? Well, it depends on why you think you did terribly.
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Hello to all of you out there who are in the trenches of LSAT preparation. You have a week and a half before test day, and if you are taking the actual LSAT at Pepperdine on June 7th, then I will see you there. I will be the guy in the nose and mustache disguise in an attempt to throw off my tens of fans across the Southland. Imagine that one of your professors told you that an exam was still 11 days away. Plenty of time, right? Alas, as you have heard, the LSAT is not like other exams in college. They say you can’t cram for it, because it tests a skill and a specific way of thinking and not a set of facts or concepts. I tend to agree with this sentiment, but I also think that 11 days is an eternity. As Rubin tells Josh in Road Trip, “I can teach Japanese to a monkey in 46 hours.”

If you have not been attending class or doing the homework for these last 2 or 3 months, you are not going to just “learn the LSAT” between now and June 7th, and if you do, then you shall be forever known as Doogie Howser, J.D. However, if you have been working hard and have a good grip of the main concepts, I think that big strides can still be made. If you are feeling demoralized, well, suck it up, skippy, and let’s start getting down to business. Some sacrifices will need to be made over the next week and a half. Here are my top five:
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Yesterday was the last day to postpone your June LSAT date, so as of today you’re officially in it to win it. By this point (three weeks from the big day), you should have been studying a lot, and have hopefully seen some significant improvement. That’s awesome, but there’s no reason to think that the improvement is over. Three weeks is a lot of time, during which you can continue to raise and stabilize your score. A few things to keep in mind, though, as you head forward:

Make your practice realistic.
When you were actually learning how to do everything, you may have practiced in little bits here and there without any real structure. That now needs to change, if it hasn’t already. The test is a three-hour marathon of death, and you practice should be the same. When you’re taking a practice test, it should be somewhere close to 1:00 p.m. if possible (roughly when you’ll take the test). The test should of course be strictly timed, and done in a testing-like environment. Dealing with the pressure that comes from timing and distractions takes practice. And don’t take extra-long breaks during study sessions – you have to learn how to go strong for hours at a time. Even when you’re doing practice that doesn’t involve taking an actual test, it should be done in long, uninterrupted sessions, and also outside of your comfort zone (university libraries are generally a good way to go).
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You are literally minutes away from the actual LSAT. Thousands of minutes, of course, all of which make up 32 days (now change your underwear). As your instructor likely told you as you prepared for Practice Exam #2, there is plenty of time to improve your score, and that some scores will actually decrease at this point in the course. If you’re like me, these claims were met with distrust and seemed to be part of some sort of reverse psychology technique designed to preemptively ward off the freaked out students. It’s a good thing that the LSAT rewards this type of paranoia and extreme skepticism. You’re on the right track, congratulations!
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Taking your second practice exam while studying for the LSAT can be a daunting experience. Your first score can be laughed off as the result of not knowing a thing about the test, a sleepless night, a particularly bad episode of LOST (e.g. all of the last season’s episodes), or any other number of reasons. But by the second LSAT, you presumably know what you’re doing and the score really counts, right?

As Lear once said to Goneril (the best STDesque literary name of all time): That way lies madness. If you’re taking your second practice LSAT with over a month to go until the test, then you definitely should NOT be fixated on the score. There are important things to learn from a second practice exam, but what it means for your final LSAT score is not one of them. This is because you’re taking a test without knowing all of the methods for all of the questions, so it’s not a good representation of your final score. In fact, we at Blueprint LSAT Prep find it’s normal for student scores to go down for practice exam 2, then rebound after they’ve learned how to approach every type of question.
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I haven’t had television broadcast into my home for about five years. Don’t worry, I’m not one of those self-righteous “Kill Your TV” jerks. I have an LCD and waste as much of my life in front of it as any other obese American; it’s just that I switched to watching everything on DVD a long time ago. If you couple that with Netflix Watch Instantly, you really won’t miss cable at all. The things you do technically miss out on (news and sports and being able to watch TV shows when they come out) should really be viewed differently (sports should be watched drunken in a bar or not at all, if you still watch televised news you’re probably not reading this because you’re elderly and afraid of computers, and watching TV shows back-to-back is a million times better than having to wait weeks or months between episodes – it took me days, not years, to realize that Lost was going to turn out to be really, really stupid).
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If you want to apply to law schools this coming fall (2010) to enroll next fall (2011), then you probably haven’t taken the LSAT yet. If you’re a junior who wants to go to law school right after graduation, then you’re in this boat. If you’re reading this, and planning this far in advance, then you’re already a step ahead of most people. But when to take the test? June, October, or December?

Technically you have four options, because you could take the February 2011 test and still apply for enrollment for Fall 11. But this really isn’t your best bet. A lot of schools won’t even allow you to apply, and those that do will generally say that it certainly lessens your chances of getting in and getting financial aid. You can make the February test work for you, but it is a last resort of sorts, so I’m going to take that off the table for this discussion (I should note, though, that if you’re not applying in the same year that you’re taking the test, then there is nothing wrong with the February test).
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Last week, I explained to you how my LSAT score of 180 was a terrible burden to bear, but in so doing, I failed to explain how I attained that score. So now, dear reader, I present to you my patented, fool-proof, 100% guaranteed method for LSAT dominance (only 3 easy payments of $99.99 $39.99). How can I guarantee it will work? Well, I’ve never been one to brag (at least not to strangers), but my method has a perfect record – it has consistently delivered 180s 100% of the time, every time (and you’d be a fool to argue with results like that).

But rather than just share my method (much too practical and plain), I’d like to enliven the discussion (and simultaneously stroke my ego) by talking about the most interesting man in the world, myself (damn you, Dos Equis). I am going to share my story for the first time – a tale of luck, laziness, and determination – a trifecta of conditions that together wove their way into a perfect storm of LSAT mastery. That’s right, my score was more a product of circumstance, rather than a singular manifestation of my awesomeness.
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Three years ago, I took the LSAT, and the memory stays with me like all the halcyon days of yore. Here’s a rundown of how I spent my time the weekend of the LSAT. As an added note, I took the test on the only day in the last eleven years that UCLA has defeated USC in football. A plan to take the LSAT every December has been proposed.

Disclaimer: This is mostly true. As it is a mostly-true story about my life, I recommend absolutely none of the actions taken by me.
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