LSAT Diary: Early in the Game

This installment of LSAT Diaries comes from Lucy, who's in graduate school. In this diary, she tells us a bit about some of the obstacles she's facing in her LSAT prep, and how she deals with them.

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Please leave Lucy some encouragement below in the comments!

Lucy's LSAT Diary:

I've wanted to attend law school since a pre-law course in college six years ago. I graduated into what we now know is a very difficult economy in 2006, and have been working towards a much less expensive, related graduate degree and working and/or volunteering since college. I also got a paralegal certificate from the local community college, and have worked in the research side of this field, so I know for a fact I really enjoy law.

In the LSAT, I see an opportunity to confront a long-feared challenge, and prove to myself it is, with obsessive diligence, possible to do well. Like lawyers working away on cases, we're training against so many odds. Negative thoughts be gone. We can do this, but it's matter of constantly getting around practical and emotional hangups.

My goals are simple--teach, practice, and reinforce. I bought a study plan to help pace myself, and organize information in the practice books (recycled LSATs). I've absorbed many of the tips, and also gained proper respect for the test's challenges (which is another way of saying I've gotten lots of answers wrong). The prep is slowly helping, but of course, I get out of it what I put into it. I've tried to adopt a life of structure--where everything, or as much as possible, relates to the LSAT. This means I've cut down on surfing, free reading, and zoning out. In these plans, I've promised myself timed breaks. Unfortunately, life always gets in the way. Being ill over the holidays didn't help. Nor did something of a break-up. Family members make demands, or hurl comments at you. I hate to say it, but as I'm sure you've also seen, any setting can be distracting if you think about it in the right way. Here's my experiences in a nutshell, with my editorial thought bubbles on the side:

-Libraries (fun books everywhere; someone starts doing a group project; surfing)

-Coffee shops (loud music; inevitable meetings; group studying)

-Public transit (easy to zone out; lots of shifting; variable noise levels)

-Work (sparse; at my own risk)

-Home (generally the center of distraction--housekeeping, the phone, hyper dog, meals I must cook, surfing)

-Waiting rooms (often good, but very time-limited)

-Reading before sleep (already exhausted, usually too much so even for free/fun reading).

But I try, and I will make all these locations study-friendly (well, maybe not work, but everywhere else I can and must manage--I'll let you know). Day by day. I draw smiley faces next to correct answers, and circle the ones I get wrong.

I laugh at myself--me the English major, certifiable hater of standardized tests (grad school waived GREs in exchange for a good GPA) trying to get a handle on the LSAT. Here's the good news--if I can get a B in basic statistics, I can, in theory, understand LSAT concepts. Whether I can do so quickly (and accurately) enough in a test environment is another matter, but I'll keep you posted.

Photo by bobaubuchon