Casey Anthony Release In Less Than 1 Week - Your Thoughts?

For those of you who haven't been following the Casey Anthony trial, take a moment to catch up on it (NYTimes, Wikipedia, and the Associated Press).

According to Nancy Grace, "The devil is dancing tonight."

Long story short, the judge was only able to sentence Ms. Anthony to the 4-year maximum and fine her $4,000. Due to time already served, she'll be out on the street in less than a week.

What do you think? Has the CSI effect decimated our chances at convicting those who are clearly guilty? Has the burden of proof to convince a jury become too high? What role does a defendant's race play in media coverage and jury convictions/acquittals?

What should be done? What, if anything, can even be done?

Leave your thoughts in the comments!

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Law School: Getting In, Getting Good, Getting the Gold | Ebook PDF

The vast majority of content here on LSAT Blog is, unsurprisingly, about the LSAT.

However, plain common sense tells me that just about all of you are considering law school.

As such, I asked lawyer/author Thane Messinger to make his excellent book, Law School: Getting In, Getting Good, Getting the Gold (Amazon), available to all of you for instant PDF download. He graciously agreed.

You can read this excerpt about personal statements from the book as well as this interview I conducted with the author.

***

At the moment, this 374-page guide to law school is only $6.97.

***

Here's a description of the book directly from the publisher:

Nearly all law school books steer students in the wrong directions: ubiquitous case briefs, extensive notes, "color coding," cramming, and bad behavior against other students. None of that is good, and none of that will work. At best it creates a needlessly negative environment for many if not most law students. More deeply, it feeds an environment seen later in unethical behavior towards clients and peer professionals alike. The focus in the middle of the book is in cutting half of the makework that passes for a "study" workload, yet leaving more time for genuine comprehension. This approach draws upon how real lawyers learn law; they can hardly waste time as law students routinely do.

No other book offers a method to study law, well, in less time, with a focused, realistic approach. This book, which builds upon rather than competes with these other titles, is written by an attorney and educator with decades' experience in learning law concisely, and it is this approach that will be so beneficial to law students.

Please note:

-This is a PDF available for instant download after submitting payment via PayPal. You can use Adobe Reader to open the file.

-If you're already registered with PayPal, the instant download link will be sent to your PayPal email address. Otherwise, it'll be sent to whichever email address you submit.

Law School: Getting In | Personal Statement Excerpt

The below excerpt is from Thane Messinger's Law School: Getting In, Getting Good, Getting the Gold.

The Perfect Personal Essay
Personal essays might be the only form of cruel and unusual punishment never raised to the Supreme Court. How to find your soul—and then package it just right—for some unknown admissions committee? How to do so when you’re busy enough with part-time jobs, classes, crushes, and the occasional all-nighter?

First, your essay cannot be rushed. You should, optimally, think about it for years. If you’re reading this while contemplating law school once you graduate college (or high school and then college), that’s time enough to think about what it is that’s important to you, and then how you might—with at least some literary flair—present that to a faceless group of senior law school professors, deans, and admissions officers.

What if you don’t have years? Well, this is hardly theoretical as most of us end up throwing something together in months, if not weeks. You must think of something unique. Not off-the-wall. But unique. This means unique to you. The admissions committee will have read, hundreds if not thousands of times over, about “Why I love the law!” and “Why me ’cause I’m gonna’ save the world!” And so on. Does this mean you should not say that you love the law or that you’re planning to save the world? Well, unless you have some way to convincingly explain that love, or that passion for utopia…that’s correct. You should not attempt a “standard fluff” essay.

You should also not read any book on “best” essays for admission to law school. The moment they hit the shelves, they become exactly the type of essays not to use. Why? Because admissions folks then see hundreds of essays that practically plagiarize. No, no, no.

I was surprised when I spot-checked some of these. The essays I read were such a turn-off that I would have been hard pressed not to toss the entire application into the Reject pile, regardless of the LSAT. This is deeply personal, true, but what they should see is a glimpse of your better self—or your not-so-better self, with some indication of self-awareness, critique, and general ethical value. In other words, are you a decent person? Not perfect. Decent.

What the admissions committee is looking for is some indication of what type of lawyer you will be—the type of person you are. While this might seem like a tall order—how can thousands upon thousands of essays be “unique”?—in reality it’s a taller order for them than for you. After all, you need to write just one.

So, writing an essay about a childhood experience with, say, a grandparent’s involvement in a lawsuit and the impact that that had on you, and the reasons that affected your thinking about what the law should be—that might be more effective than a fluffy “I wanna’ save the world” (which is easy to read as “I really wanna’ make a lot of money but I’ll pretend to want to save the world”).

Now, don’t everyone write about your grandparents. It should be something unique. To you. Something that, while it might and should strike a chord in anyone who reads it, is intensely personal. No one other than the committee (and whoever you ask) will read it. As with the LSAT, this is something you should take exceedingly seriously, and it is something you should want to be proud of. It should be an essay that will knock your socks off when you find it in a box fifty years later.

It’s not much of an exaggeration to state that, aside from your LSAT score, your personal essay is the most important part of your application. It almost goes ahead of your GPA. Even with a stellar LSAT score and GPA, a bad essay will kill your application. And if there’s anything to save a mediocre LSAT score or GPA, it’s your personal essay.

As to asking others to read your essay, it’s common to ask parents, family, or friends to read your drafts. This is a mistake. Even if they are exceptional writers, they’re the wrong ones to give advice. First, they’re too close. That means they’re probably too subjective about whatever it is you’re writing. Second, they’re probably not from the academic or law school worlds, which means that what guides them might (and probably will) be different than what guides the admissions committee. Finally, they’re almost certain to be too gentle. Yes, that is worse. Unless they tell you “This is crap!” as a standard response to any situation (in which case see “they’re too subjective,” above), chances are they won’t tell you what really does need to be redone.

So who, then? Most likely, you should ask professors who have known you at least reasonably well, and you should make it clear that you want genuine criticism—and you should be prepared to take it. If you even start to talk back when they do critique your work, pinch yourself. Hard. If you can slap yourself without being noticed, do that too. You need help. And what you write will almost certainly not be good enough…not yet. This willingness to honestly review and then to revise is the essence of high-quality writing. You should accept with genuine appreciation a real critique, meaning a higher-order “This is crap…and here’s what you might do to fix it.”

The result should be an essay that you read, re-read, and re-re-read many times over, smiling as you wonder who on Earth wrote such a lovely piece. My goodness, how can they not let you in?

***

Check out Thane Messinger's Law School: Getting In, Getting Good, Getting the Gold for more.

You can also read more Law School Personal Statement Tips on the blog.

Excerpt/interview for LSAT Blog / © Thane Messinger 2008-2011

Photo by Allie Brosh / CC BY-NC-ND 3.0

Law School: Getting In | Interview

I recently interviewed Thane Messinger, author of Law School: Getting In, Getting Good, Getting the Gold.

Our discussion follows.

1. What are your thoughts on the importance of law school rankings?

Law school rankings have become almost a hypnotic focus among both students and administrators. Curiously, it is of only indirect (but serious) interest within the profession. It might thus pay to also look at just how legal employers view rank.

The law is an intensely status-oriented profession. Much has been written, and much is said (and not said) in everyday conversations among lawyers and law students, each of whom is aware of—if not consciously promoting—a pecking order of legal status. Less is said on why this is so. First, let’s get a few points out the way.

Are rankings meaningful? Yes, they are.

So they describe real differences among law schools? Yes, they do.

Should they be used to decide which law school to attend? Well, in true lawyerly fashion: yes and no.

To treat law school rankings as unimportant—whether out of ignorance or indignation—is foolish. Rankings do reflect qualitative differences between and among law schools. On the other hand, looking only to rankings is equally foolish, and treating law schools with rankings within a half-dozen places of each other as hugely different is simply nonsense. Both extremes set up a bit of a straw man, as few take either approach.

Still, it’s important to keep the value of rankings firmly in mind, as a decision about attending one law school or another can make a big difference. Moreover, as to the last point, it is quite common to use rankings to highlight close difference—But this school is three points higher!—rather than treat them as they should be treated.

Rankings reflect gross, not fine, distinctions, based on both objective and (hugely) subjective criteria with wide margins of error. So, comparing #12 with #37 or #37 with #92 are fair comparisons worthy of consideration. Comparing #12 with #16 is seductively easy—and qualitatively incorrect. Within a half-dozen, other attributes are more important.


2. I’m glad you’re bringing the practitioners’ view into the discussion. So what are some of these qualitative differences?

Law school is not just some combination of buildings, faculty, students, and graduates. Instead, a twofold reality heightens the sensitivity of lawyers to status. The first is the highly competitive nature of law school. The second is the highly risk-averse nature of law practice. These two factors combine to create a system that is nearly a caste system in its orientation and effect.

Is this right? Wrong question. I happen to believe it is foolish. Many others decry it. But the reality is that it is. To hope that we can wish it away—without substantive changes in how our profession operates—is simply that, wishful thinking. For our purposes, wishful thinking is worse than silly. It will set you up for failure, as it’s easy to mistake the “wishful” part for something approaching reality.

There’s a paradox in this debate, and that is that law practice has elements of egalitarianism that are almost the opposite of all of the above. In litigation especially, it is the nature of persuasion and of winning, and of a consistent superiority at both, that marks the superior attorney. The paradox comes in that one’s pedigree is of little importance in the real world of the courtroom (and even, for a corporate lawyer, boardroom)—but of great importance in getting there.

Even more, the airs of a fancy law degree, or of a superiority complex, can work very much against us. Few jurors like being condescended to, and as a result, many top litigators look as if they just arrived to the courthouse via Trailways. Quite a few affect a less-than-holier-than-thou appearance, so as to connect to the individuals who will ultimately, if indirectly, decide their case (and earnings). Even in corporate offices, while senior executives expect a pedigreed counsel (and get it), they generally prefer down-to-earth, let’s-get-the-job-done consigliere, not snippy bluebloods.


3. I can certainly agree with that. Law students are very, very smart, and it’s good to hear this advice. How does this tie in with the “name brand” aspect of rankings?

There are two ways to approach this: the “egghead” answer and the just-the-facts-ma’am answer. Law schools are status-conscious because of professors, and because of lawyers. Together—along with a society that knows only brand-name schools—these support a self-reinforcing structure built on status.

So who sets these standards? Law professors are an obvious starting point. But, because their worlds are generally focused in, well, law school, there’s another group that heightens this already-strong orientation towards status. That is the world of lawyers and law practice. Firms are populated with individuals who have attended law school, of course. The better the firm, the more likely its inhabitants have attended the top schools. But, in most cases, the experience with law school begins (and ends) there. As a result, the practitioner takes a nearly-monochromatic view of the law school world: there’s “my” school…and then there’s everyone else’s.

The “law schools for everyone else” are clearly worse than my school…unless everyone else “knows” that such-and-so school is better. Drats. So, if one attends, say, a well-regarded regional law school, its graduates will relish the ego-boost of admiration from others, especially if practicing in that region. What happens when someone walks in from, say, Stanford? Well, sure, that’s an okay school too. And so it goes.

How many law schools can most non-lawyers (or even lawyers) mention? Hmm. There’s Harvard, of course. And, oh yes, Yale, Stanford. Columbia and NYU, for those on the East Coast. And the Universities of [insert nearest states here]. See where this goes? Chances are most of us can name the top dozen or so schools. We could probably come up with another dozen, and if someone named a few others, we’d get those too. But two hundred? No way. Only one group knows even a substantial fraction of that total: those about to apply to law school. Even law school deans focus only on schools near and above them.

So, what that means is that the entire population relies on “name brand” and on “me-and-better” to decide status (above the general status of being a law graduate). This is one reason law schools have begun to spend serious money in branding—to improve name recognition among those who might apply (and, ahem, among those who might be asked by U.S. News and World Report.)

In short, there’s a very real emotional pressure to believe one’s own school is better than it is—and to help others to believe so too—and so there’s constant pressure to connect with those schools higher above. This, in turn, heightens the value of schools—geometrically if not exponentially—the higher they are. Winner take all.

It’s an academic version of what happens in locker rooms from junior high on. Perhaps it shouldn’t be, but it’s hardly likely that we’ll change this little aspect of our psychology. More to the point, what this means is that the law practice world—which accounts for the vast majority of lawyers—feeds the weight given to objective measures, which in turn are driven by standards such as how many books are in the library (and you thought measurements would stop), how much money is spent on faculty (of obvious interest to law professors), and professors’ own views of their world.

Professors deal with the same human emotion: the school they went to is best, while the others range from dreck to okay. And it doesn’t matter who you’re talking with. If they attended the University of Virginia, their many glories are front and center, and only schools clearly better than UVA are in The Club (i.e., the Ivy League.) In this sense, it’s like looking through the wrong end of a pair of binoculars: everything around what you’re looking at is squished to nothingness.

An important point: the less secure one is, the more important status is. I’ve seen lawyers almost visibly sizing each other up by their law schools. This happens more often among younger lawyers; this is a no-no among older and better lawyers. Indeed, after working with excellent lawyers from “lesser” schools—and poor lawyers from top ones—few senior attorneys get hung up on pedigree. Among law students, it’s often a one-upmanship about their LSAT or undergraduate school or, amazingly, prep school. I remember one attorney in particular who it seemed was thinking for a split second how to respond when hearing that a more-junior associate attended a better school. It was actually far better, and both were playing games with the other in terms of one-upmanship. It was a game both lost, by the way. Why a focus on this? Why can’t we just say “law school is law school” and be done with it?

Well, for one thing, it’s not true. For another, there’s that human element again. Once one has graduated, there’s a natural inclination to live in the reflected glory of that school. This can be for practical reasons (getting a job), or for ego-driven ones. (You went there!?) But still…why? Because our sense of self-worth, particularly for lawyers, is tied up with how we perceive ourselves as smart, and how much we depend upon others seeing us as smart. If we can reflect in academic glory, we feel the warm glow of that self-worth.


4. Another question I get asked a lot is related to whether there is a difference between the quality of material actually taught in different law schools.

Yes, indeed. The “Don’t Top Law Schools Teach Law Better?” question.

The answer? Nope. This used to be a common refrain among (you guessed it) graduates of the top schools. The accusation and assumption was that good law schools taught theory—the ability to “think like a lawyer”—while lesser schools taught mere mechanics of black letter law, like a trade school. This was often said (and written) with a proverbial sneer: a “real” law school taught manly law (i.e., theory), while piddling law schools taught sissy law (i.e., how to go to court).

Although this might have been true at one time, it is no longer. All law schools now teach the same law, the same way. The bulk of law professors come from the same background: Top 5 law school, top clerkship, a year or two at a top firm, and then on to an assistant professorship. Even the lowest-ranked law schools can get, with today’s job market, the same caliber of astonishingly pedigreed new professor. They have all sipped from the same well, and even “local schools” that have an interest to focus on the laws of that state now focus as well on exactly the same doctrines that the “big boys” do. And even if all their professors didn’t come from a Top 5 school, they all want to have come from one…so they’ll be even more sensitive to teaching “theory,” just like the big boys.

This prejudice carries forward in odd ways. One book states that “top J.D. programs require a lot of work.” Um, all J.D. programs require a lot of work. It’s just that they don’t require as much work as everyone seems to believe—and they certainly don’t require makework. Top or otherwise. So, if you’re going to go to one school over another, don’t let it be for this reason.

LSAT Diaries: Studying During Political Scandal

This installment of LSAT Diaries comes from Victoria, who took the June 2011 LSAT.

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.)

Thanks to Victoria for sharing her experience and advice, and please leave your questions for her below in the comments!

Victoria's LSAT Diary:

It's definitely hard for me to balance LSAT studying with three jobs, a full time course schedule (because I took the June LSAT, a lot of my LSAT studying took place at the same time as my regular academic obligations, plus my internships).

As for obstacles that stood in my way, a lack of money was definitely a problem. Because two of my jobs are unpaid internships, and the other is a minimum-wage IT job, I could never afford any fancy LSAT prep courses, or even the more expensive self-study tools (that is, buying many prep books, prep tests, etc.). As you can tell, the financial limitations were definitely frustrating...it's hard to hope for a really high score, when you can't afford more than half of the resources to help you do well on the test!

However, I tried not to let that dissuade, frustrate, or otherwise piss me off (much)--especially since I'm the type that prefers to study alone. I never understood the point of having study buddies, especially for something like the LSAT.

So I bought a few (and by a few, I mean three of each) PrepTests and LSAT study guides/books. During my free time at work, I would work on Logical Reasoning questions (always my strongest point) and during my lunch break, I would practice on Reading Comprehension (another strong subject for me, as a literature minor) and Analytical Reasoning / Logic Games questions (ugh, don't even talk to me about these monsters!).

Being the (sometimes) terrible summer student I am, I focused mainly on RC and LR (in my defense, these subjects cover 3/4 of the test, after all), and more or less tried to ignore AR/LGs' existence. (If I don't see it, it doesn't exist, la la la~) Also, in my defense (again), focusing on RC and LR really helped to boost my test day confidence--after all, if you're sure you can do well on at least 75% of the test, you won't freak out or have a breakdown in the middle of the test (in theory).

As I said, I took the June 2011 LSAT test, so I'm still waiting anxiously for my scores...so hopefully I'm not just blabbering on pointlessly. In any case, I have a very decent undergrad GPA (a respectable 3.7, hopefully a 3.75 or higher after my summer internships are graded), I am a research assistant for one of my major professors, I have tons of work experience and experience juggling many things at once (internships included), and I have a long record of volunteer/community services experiences.

All of my PrepTests put me in the very decent score range of 162 to 168--better than the score that would compare to my first choice law school's 75% percentile LSAT scores. I was feeling very good about my numbers, LSAT included.

That was, until June 1st. I won't go into details (as I'm sure that a decent Google search will fill you in on the details), but I somehow found myself being tagged in some very...odd Twitter posts. From reporters, and Twitter accounts for newspapers, tabloids, you know the kind. Apparently, because one politician follows me on Twitter (I'll leave you to guess whom I am referring to), I found myself in a media frenzy. I was getting emails, calls, all sorts of things from media-type people...all trying to get a quote or soundbite from me.

The next day, it escalated. I found my Twitter handle, full name, and even my picture (an old Facebook profile picture) being published online, and printed in newspapers and magazines. Needless to say, it was pretty damned difficult to focus on my last minute LSAT studying, when I was suddenly being implicated in some random, ridiculous political "sex" scandal. Luckily, by Saturday (or thereabouts), I decided I was over it. I was ignoring my Twitter account, locking down my Facebook, and screening all of my phone calls until test time.

Or at least, I tried.

The point is, despite a painful lack of money, somehow being implicated in the most ridiculous, lack-of-sex-involving political "sex" scandal this year, and being absurdly over-scheduled, I somehow managed to get through LSAT studying, the LSAT itself, and even the first part of the painful waiting game.

I suppose, after all of this, I should be grateful; after this, I should be able to take on anything! Law school, here I come!

Photo by tonythemisfit

Logic and Games

* Casey Anthony, sentenced to 4 years in jail, will be free in less than a week due to time already served. What are your thoughts? [NYTimes; The Guardian]

* Why law school is harder than undergrad. [Law School Academic Support Blog]

* Law firms poach each others' rainmakers. [NYTimes]

* Best Buy threatens NewEgg.com for creating a commercial that mocks them. [ABA Journal]

* Sketchy journalism practices lead Murdochs to shut down British tabloid News of the World. [Mashable]

* American Apparel has to pay $343,000 for supervisor's racial slurs against an employee. [Gawker]

When Is The Best Time To Take The LSAT?

Figuring out the best time to take the LSAT can be difficult, especially for those of you who are in college.

In this blog post, I give some advice for one blog reader who's having difficulty determining when to take the LSAT.

Blog reader Kim recently wrote to me with the following question:

I am currently a rising junior, and am pretty positive that I am going to take time off before going to law school. My question to you is when do you think I should take it? I was planning on taking 1-2 years off, so I could apply to a jd/mba program. However I am not sure when to take it or what I should do. I have started studying but if I have no concrete date I am working towards I feel lost.

Also, I am asking this so I can figure out which LSAT study plan of yours to buy!

My response:

You could study over the coming fall semester and winter break of junior year, take it in February 2012, apply to law school in the fall of 2013, and start law school in the fall of 2014 (this gives you a year off).

Alternatively, you can still take it in February 2012, apply in the fall of 2014, and start law school in the fall of 2015 (this gives you 2 years off).

You can also take it in June 2012 or October 2012 (the latter would give you the summer to study) and still apply in the fall of either 2013 or 2014.

Many law schools only consider scores from the past 3 years, but in any of these scenarios, you'd still be applying less than 3 years from your LSAT test date. By taking it early, you give yourself a chance to retake or postpone if things aren't progressing how you like or if you need more time.

In any case, I'd suggest the 7-month day-by-day study plan for you. This is the most comprehensive and contains recommendations regarding the use of the greatest amount of material. The plan is more useful for its specificity and detail than the particular day-by-day breakdown.

Hope this helps!

Photo by wallyg

New LSAT PrepTest PDFs Available For Download

Just wanted to let everyone know that the June 2011 LSAT (LSAT PrepTest 63), and out-of-print LSAT PrepTests 1-6, 8, and 17, are now available for instant PDF download through LSAT Blog!

LSAT PrepTests 39-62 (December 2002 LSAT - December 2010 LSAT) have already been available for download for a while - get them now if you haven't already!

Every exam available for instant PDF download through LSAT Blog comes with free Logical Reasoning explanations for both sections of the exam.

Photo by ericejohnson

LSAT Diary: LSAT Prep Success Story

This installment of LSAT Diaries comes from LSAT Blog reader Kelly, who scored a 170 on the December 2010 LSAT!

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.)

Thanks to Kelly for sharing her experience and advice, and please leave your questions for her below in the comments!

Kelly's LSAT Diary:

Where to begin....

LAW SCHOOL? BUT WHY?

It seemed that in spite of a promising career in project management, I couldn’t help but get a giant pit in my stomach every time I heard about someone’s friend or cousin or acquaintance applying to law school or going to law school or graduating from law school or really, anything with "law" in the sentence. I couldn’t quite explain these feelings of animosity and jealousy when I myself had chosen against seven years of education out of high school, pursuing a technical diploma instead. But alas, the feelings remained, resurfacing on a regular basis.

In the spring of 2009, while I was completing a graduate certificate in Project Management to complement my current role, I perused the online programs at the University I was attending. To my surprise, I discovered a two-year online accelerated degree in Commerce. What a novel concept, I'd thought - a way to complete a degree, without committing to school full time or having to leave my job. And even if the law pipe dream never materialized, I’d have a solid business degree for application in a number of positions.

So, in September of 2009, at the age of 25, I began the two-year accelerated program with a few steps in mind. Step 1: Get grades worthy of law school admissions.

In the spring of 2010, after it became apparent that my grades were in the right zone, I emailed an advisor at the law school where I live (and the only one I was considering as I love where I live and had no intentions of moving away) to get the necessary details on next steps. I was surprised to learn that if I had any chances at the 2011 intake, I would have to get serious about studying for and taking the LSAT prior to February. So I registered for the December sitting, bought a thwack of books and tests, and off I went.


STUDYING

In the beginning, I practiced questions here and there casually between work and school and downtime, finding I enjoyed ‘solving’ the logic games and was fairly consistent in getting them correct. In late September, I sat down and took a practice test under timed conditions. To my surprise, I completely bombed the logic games, only finishing one and a half questions. Overall I scored somewhere in the 155-158 territory. Later, when I went back to finish the games section, it took me nearly 50 minutes to complete. I realized timed conditions put a whole new spin on things.

So from there, I practiced logic games, usually in bed minutes before I would fall asleep each night. I skimmed the pages, designing a system of diagramming for the games. Anywhere I found ‘free’ time over the next 3 months; I would do logic games, in my head, on post-it notes, on my iPod, anywhere I could find 10 minutes and some questions to practice.

Around the end of October, I started treating studying like work. Each evening when I wasn’t swamped with homework I’d try to do questions. As October came to an end, I started doing a complete practice exam twice a week. On Mondays - a day off from work and from school, I would do a timed test and practice sections throughout the rest of the day. As my studying progressed, my scores were generally between 162 and 166 with the odd 168.

Early on I’d decided that timing and the games were going to be the keys to increasing my score. I was fairly consistent on the reading comprehension as long as I took the questions in a quiet environment (trying to do reading comprehension while watching TV does not work, FYI) and read the question thoroughly without getting distracted half way down the page.

As for the logical reasoning questions, the only thing I studied was the section on parallel reasoning. I couldn’t quite wrap my head around not looking for the answer with the same words, but instead looking for one with the same concept. This was a couple hours of practicing and I’m still not sure I completely get that part. All in all, I completed over 30 practice tests and had another 30 that I did pieces of. I wondered at one point if I would actually run out of practice tests before test day, but luckily this wasn’t the case!!

Now, as another aside, somewhere along the line I had decided to tell no one, aside from my boyfriend that I live with, and my mom that I had decided to write the LSAT. And I certainly told no one I was applying to go to law school. For the most part, I enjoyed my job and didn’t want to set off any bells that I was considering leaving. I also didn’t find it necessary mentioning to my friends or family that I was considering this path. After all, I wasn’t interested in moving away to go to school and if my LSAT grade wasn’t oh-so-high or my grades for that matter, the whole point seemed kind of moot. What this meant though is that I was stressed and busy all the time and couldn’t really explain why to anyone! Late November with exams for school and the LSAT date looming, I experienced a few emotional breakdowns!


THE EXAM

December came and I printed tiny pictures of myself, filled out the forms for test day and packed a special care package in a giant zip lock bag. I felt like I was joining some top secret mission and I that was allowed was 1 tiny bag of jelly beans, 1 bottle of water, 3 tissues, 5 pencils and 1 granola bar. I had my boyfriend drive me to the test center the night before to make sure I knew where I was going. He also drove me the morning of. I wasn’t taking any chances. As I arrived at the test center, I was eerily calm. I had studied SO much that I actually wondered if I would even bother retaking it if I wasn’t happy with the grade. I wondered if I could possibly do more than I had done.

I had no idea what I was in for in terms of the three hour wait between the alleged start time and the actual ‘everyone is now signed in we can actually start’ time. As I watched people filtering into the room, hoping I wouldn’t have to pee before the exam started, let alone the halfway point, I rested my head of my desk. At one point I heard a fellow exam writer say to another “check out that chick sleeping on the desk,” and realized he meant me. But finally we started. Nerves became focus and I moved quickly through the first three sections, realizing very quickly that I had just completed the test section as the games were oh-so easy.

After the break I was startled by how hard the games section was. The next day when I read that someone on their way home from the exam had spent an hour throwing rocks through the stained glass windows of a church, I knew it wasn’t just me. But alas, an hour later, I was writing my terrible essay, thinking to myself how happy I was that part wasn’t graded, and like it had never happened, it was 4pm and I was leaving the center. I felt as dehydrated, a bit ill and my head felt as though I hadn’t slept in weeks. I went home, spent one day recovering and the next day began cramming for a final exam I had in 5 days for my degree.

December came and went. I spent a long, luxurious 7 days at Christmas intoxicated, and my grades came in the mail. Tears hit my eyes when I saw the 170 in the email. I was at work, where I usually am at about 7pm at night, working on homework after my work day is done, and it all just seemed worth it then.

So. Long story short:

Studying needs to be like work. Don’t fit it in when you have time. Schedule time to fit it in. Write one practice exam under timed conditions at least once per week. Write an exam under non-timed conditions at least once per week. Compare the two and determine where time is affecting you (and just do more questions to get faster) and where your skill is affecting you.

Photo by bobaubuchon

Logic and Games

* Apparently, there's a surplus of lawyers being produced in nearly every state. Study hard. [NYTimes via AboveTheLaw]

* Hot Coffee, a new movie about the McDonald's lawsuit, shows how one incident led to a campaign for tort reform. [AboveTheLaw]

* Tom Petty sends a cease-and-desist to Michele Bachmann, demanding that she stop using his song in her campaigning. [Gawker]

* Scholars hypothesize that logical reasoning abilities are an evolutionary adaptation. [NYTimes]

* Everything you ever wanted to know about the origins of online dating. [The New Yorker]

LSAT Diaries: June 2011 LSAT Test Day (Part 3)

LSAT Blog reader Jessica has written a series of LSAT Diaries chronicling her experience in the countdown to the June 2011 LSAT.

This is the 3rd of a 3-part series containing her story.

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.)

Thanks to Jessica for sharing her experience and advice, and please leave your questions for her below in the comments!

Jessica's LSAT Diaries, Part 3:

T-Minus Mere Hours

Today's LSAT is, in a lot of ways, the closing of a really horrible year for me.

This time last year I was having to give myself injections of blood thinners in my stomach because the doctor - by miraculous coincidence - found a massive blood clot in my abdomen. I was a walking pulmonary embolism, grappling with my own mortality, who just made the decision to go to law school. I printed my first practice test from LSAC and skimmed it at the pool, genuinely enjoying not thinking about strokes or bleeding to death.

But soon after I had gotten home, a uniformed police officer knocked at my door. My father had passed away suddenly on June 6, 2010. Just three days before his 60th birthday; just one week before Father's Day. My parents divorced when I was 3 and I'm an only child. There was no will. He and I were not all that close in my adult years. The entirety of his estate fell to me.

Over the next three months, two grandmothers and an aunt passed away. Then a dear friend committed suicide. My doctors find that I have a "resistance" to blood thinners; and thus, must take an abnormally high dose. But that significantly increases my risk of bleeding to death. I have to teach my daughter to explain how much and what kind of medicine mommy takes in case we get into a car accident.

I love to be humorous and light-hearted but this last year took a lot of that carefree blissfulness away from me. The LSAT gave me a place to focus my thoughts. I couldn't be mired in fear or heartache because I had to study, practice, etc. That blood clot can't kill me, I've put in too much time studying to die beforehand. I'm not going to quit because I know going to law school would have made my dad proud.

I'm going to do amazing on this test.



Lift-Off: Test Day
If I had a science, it would be based on the unfortunate combination Murphy's Law and the chaos theory. If there's any shit to be had, I'll be the one having it and it will be ridiculous. Here's how it went...

This morning, I was full of nervous energy, so I spent a really long time getting ready. My makeup and hair look fantastic today. Whatever - walk the walk. I look smart; I am smart.

Even though I drive by Oglethorpe University almost every day, I somehow managed to miss the fact that the closest gas station must be franchised straight out of Compton and the only reason to go there is to get carjacked. Since that's not on today's schedule, I head a little farther down the road to the grocery store to get my 20 oz bottle of allowed beverage. No biggie.

I park extra far away in between an Audi and a BMW convertible with its top down. See, I have to carry all my stuff in a gallon-sized Ziploc bag to the test center but I am not carrying that baggie into the Kroger. I figure if someone's going to break into a car it'll either be easy-pickens BMW or the flashy Audi. And if you really want some travel-sized Kleenex and No. 2 pencils, well then I'm the car for you and it's your lucky day.

I step out of my car and immediately put my foot down in some gum. And by some, I mean ankle-deep in a puddle of gum. No wonder this person had to spit this gum out! It's entirely too much for a human mouth to handle! Good thing it's 900 million degrees outside and I'm wearing flip flops. Extra melty parking lot gum all over my shoe and my foot.

Then I have to walk super far to the store, to the back of the store - while getting at least 4 comments on there being gum on my shoe/foot - listening to a "sticky-sticky-flop" sound before having to wash my damn foot in the sink of the public restroom at Kroger. Gross. This better be the best damn bottle of water I've ever consumed.

Maybe I'll buy Smart Water...

So I get to Oglethorpe and instead of looking if there were any LSAT signs, I just follow the big bunch of cars in front of me. I mean really, what else could be going on here during summer break, on a weekday, at noon?

Random Native American Potty Festival is what (though, not really its title).

And everyone walked so damn slow! Hurry up Aimlessly Meander, I got a test to take! We're going to have a whole different interpretation of the Trail of Tears if you don't start utilizing the sidewalk instead of the middle of the street!

I make it on time. It's cool. I'm not freaking out. Cool as a cucumber. Which is good because I end up sitting next to some kid named Doug. Doug is wiggly.

There's a whole bunch of calamity about how to bubble in our names on the cover and our proctors had to call the admission council TWICE to sort it out. Doug says, "If we can't even fill out our names right, we're fucked on this test." Fair point, seatmate.

And it's go time!

I can't tell you anything about the actual test, except that it was long and hard. They make us sign a confidentiality agreement.

About 10 minutes in, someone left. At the beginning of Section II, the summer session psychology class next door started watching a horror movie. Know what doesn't create peaceful ambiance? Suspenseful music, screaming and crashing sounds. Nor the affect those noises have on Doug. It's not Godzilla dude, sit still!

2nd person just gets up and walks out.

....Seriously Doug, if you're having this hard of a time, maybe you should go too? Run screaming from the room for all I care, but just STOP BEING NEXT TO ME. Besides, every person out is a bump in the curve for the rest of us. Go Doug...

Oglethorpe doesn't allow their students to have hot water, which is sad since they also apparently don't allow their toilets to flush and I was feeling the need to be sanitary. Good thing Doug has Purell. I love/hate him.

Bad thing psychology class apparently is watching the horror movie's sequel.

And 3rd person leaves. Followed by a flurry of activity from the LSAC people regarding what happened. I think, it's not like I had time to listen to them. I'm trying to concentrate in spite of earthquake Doug and Murdermania Double-Feature. All grounds to cancel my score...but I have to know it! Curiosity kept the cat our of Georgetown...

I don't know how I did. I no point was I rushed. There were definitely 3-4 questions I had no clue about. Ironically, the writing sample may have been my weakest part because you're not allowed to be funny.

Guess we'll find out June 29th! [Ed: Likely sooner] Thanks for all the support!!!

Photo by lij

Logic and Games

* U.S. News may change its law school ranking methodology. [U.S. News]

* Arrested? LawyerUp gets you a criminal defense attorney ASAP. [NYTimes; Gawker]

* Supreme Court rules in favor of Wal-Mart in sex-discrimination lawsuit. [Politico; The Independent; NYTimes]

* You know that joke about how life in jail is better than life on the outside? This guy believed it. [Thought Catalog]

* Are you a fellow coffee addict? Turns out tea is worth looking into. [Lifehacker]

* Fun with over-analyzing text messages. [The Hairpin]