LSAT Diary: Reviewing After Test Day

This installment of LSAT Diaries comes from Kinish, who's serving in the military overseas. He took the October 2011 LSAT.

In this LSAT Diary, he talks about applying the lessons of the military to his LSAT preparation strategies.

If you want to be in LSAT Diaries, please email me at LSATUnplugged@gmail.com. (You can be in LSAT Diaries whether you've taken the exam already or not.)

Please leave Kinish some encouragement and advice below in the comments!

Kinish's LSAT Diary:

I’ve been meaning to write an LSAT Diary for quite some time now, but for the past six months I’ve been deployed overseas and I seldom have adequate time to read the blog, let alone study for the LSAT. I made it happen, though. Now that I’ve been home for the past few weeks and the October 2011 LSAT is over, I thought I’d provide everyone with a few observations from the perspective of a military officer and law school hopeful.

Obviously, my line of work requires my full attention at unpredictable times and under a wide variety of circumstances that are unique to my line of work. That being said, I decided that I wouldn’t let that stand in the way of pulling off the best LSAT score I can. I can say with conviction that I decided quite a few years ago that I wanted to go to law school in order to one day transfer to the JAG corps and continue serving in the military. I’ve been in uniform for about 12 years now and I can honestly say that I can’t imagine my life as a civilian. The military really suits me and I have yet to wake up in the morning unable to stomach going to work or looking myself in the mirror.

I was a cadet at a military academy before being commissioned as an officer, so I knew in advance what it was going to take to apply myself to preparing for this important test. From my experience both personally and professionally, everyone is capable of achieving their goals if they choose to. Performing to one’s potential requires focus. Exceeding one’s potential requires one to accept a considerable helping of constructive criticism in addition to pure drive.

Success on the LSAT requires that a serious test-taker go even further and self-criticize without resorting to self-deception. Deep down, I know I’m not as smart as everyone else, nor am I especially predisposed to pulling off great marks on standardized tests like the LSAT. But I’m smart enough. Not only that, I’m smart enough to get through law school like everyone else and contribute to the legal profession in my own way. Limiting beliefs have the only effect of dissuading otherwise capable people from carrying out their dreams and ambitions. I’ve met people that pulled off amazing marks on the LSAT yet have avoided filling out applications for admission because they still question their abilities in relation to others. Deep down I always smile because I know I won’t be competing for admission with one of these people.

As all of us wait for the results to pour in, I’d just like to say that no matter what happens, I’m planning to sit the December 2011 LSAT regardless of my result on the October LSAT. Truthfully, even if I was accepted to Harvard, I’d still choose my local university over the Ivy League…This is partly due to the fact that I’m Canadian and our law schools, despite being few in number, are all Tier 1 in the American sense of the term. I’m shooting for law school admission and not academic glory. But the rest of you should! This is my second attempt at the LSAT, and I can say unequivocally that I credit Steve’s LSAT blog with not only my success in rocking the LSAT, but in honing my resolve to pursue my dream. I really feel that the sense of common purpose I derived while following Steve’s blog helped me stay motivated and block out all the distractions that managed to wrangle me away from my preparations.

Expect an update from me in the near future that provides a more detailed account of this particular saga of my life. In the meantime, I recommend that those of you who wrote the exam and feel that you might need to sign up for the upcoming December exam take a page from the military and write a letter to yourself to be opened on Saturday, December 3rd. In the military, we call it an “After Action Report”. You should describe, in your own words, EVERYTHING you can remember about Test Day. What time you woke up, what you ate for breakfast, what the test booklet looked like, the spaciousness of the test room, how you felt you did on each section, etc….Leave no stone unturned! You’ll appreciate it when December 3rd comes and you’re that much more familiar with the process when you enter the test centre. Nerves can seriously affect your performance and it’s in your best interests to alleviate this problem right away!

Photo by bdorfman