So I just registered to take the LSAT...

Doesn't work that way - you have to cancel way before you see your score - or at least that's how it was in the old days, when on my first one I scred up the grid, figured out that it was experimental, kept the score, took it again & improved 5 points.

 

You can cancel your score within 9 days after taking it.

 

Yeah, that's how it still is. You get the score in three weeks, but you have to cancel within nine days.

You also better make sure you find out which section was experimental. It used to be that everyone had the experimental at the same time, and Kaplan would do a podcast where they would reveal it.

Last June, when I took the test, they changed it up and mixed up when the experimental was administered.

I couldn't even answer hardly any of my experimental questions (logic games). I quit halfway through them, figuring I would take the mental break and if it did indeed turn out to be real, I would just cancel my score.

I was able to talk to the people around me and figure out which logic games section they had been given, so I knew before I left the room that I was keeping the score.

Thus beginning the longest three weeks of my entire life.

 

tick tock

 

Well, I'm taking the test tomorrow. I'm definitely well-prepared, but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't at all apprehensive. But if I manage my time well, I should be fine.

And thanks to all who posted advice.

 

I am an LSAT tutor for GetPrepped on the side. Here is some quickie advice.

--For logical reasoning, spend the first 10 questions of a section looking for the right answer. Spend the final 10-15 questions eliminating wrong answers until there is only one left. Looking for the right answers in the first 10 saves time, but after that you are more likely to make a wrong guess.

--If time is an issue and you never took a formal logic course, skip the parallel reasoning questions (the ones where you have to choice the answer whose logic and style matches the example the best). Unless you are naturally gifted at them, they take up way too much time and they are very hard to get right anyways.

--For reading comp, skim the questions before you start reading the passage. It helps your brain focus on the stuff in the passage that counts.

Good luck!

 

Thanks PDB. I think I'm fine timewise on the logical reasoning and the reading, it's the analytical that gets me. In all likelihood, I'll end up doing 3 out of the 4 games, and try to get a couple answers on the fourth.

 

Sorry I missed this thread the first time. Good luck tomorrow -- you're going to do great.

If I read this thread earlier, I would have said what others have, that it's extremely important to do your very best on this test. Unlike what others said, I know that most schools weigh cumulative GPA as highly as LSAT as a factor. That said, you can't change your cumulative GPA easily, but you can change your LSAT score easily. It's worth studying hard for every extra point, because the school you go to matters a ton.

As for specialities, you should worry about that until you're already in law school. Do not choose a school based on specialty -- choose the best school possible that you get accepted into, unless that school doesn't have a national/regional reach and it's not in area that you're willing to live and work.

Once you get to law school, at the vast majority of schools you don't specialize at all, and most lawyers don't pick a speciality until after graduation (sometimes years after graduation). However it's helpful, especially in a down market, to have an idea of what you'd like to do and take some classes/write articles/etc in that subject area before graduation. It shows a genuine interest in that area of law, which employers value.

 

Waylon,
I was thinking about going to Border's or Barnes & Noble to buy the Princeton Review or Kaplan so I can prepare for the LSAT.
Any advice?

 

i'm not sure about that advice. i took princeton review in 2003. it was fine although my score dropped two points from the pre-test to the actual LSAT. i'm convinced that the reason was because i had too much anxiety about the test, not because of anything princeton review did to me.

now i''m a lawyer and the LSAT seems like a stupid and unnecessary barrier that's placed in front of future law students. unless you're heading to one of the top 20 law schools i'm not sure it matters where you go to law school assuming you don't have aspirations that are disproportionate to your law school. for example, if you're going to, say, thomas cooley school of law and you're dead set on a federal clerkship and a vault 50 ny law firm afterwards, you're fooling yourself. if you know in what city you'll practice, you can go to any of the law schools in that city and still get a job. there are graduates of your school in firms all over that city or state.

 

Buy these books:

http://www.amazon.com/Next-Actual-Official-LSAT-PrepTest/dp/0979305055/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1223077465&sr=1-1
http://www.amazon.com/LSAT-Explained-Unofficial-Explanations-PrepTests/dp/0974853356/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1223077442&sr=8-4
http://www.amazon.com/Ace-LSAT-Logic-Games-Prepped/dp/0974853364/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1223077442&sr=8-1
http://www.amazon.com/PowerScore-LSAT-Logic-Games-Bible/dp/0980178207/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1223077500&sr=1-2

Purchase link 1 and link 2 together. The first link is to a book of 10 actual LSATs and the second one is a book that goes through each question and explains why 4 of the choices are wrong and 1 is right. The second two links are both the best ways to master the games section and both use actual LSAT questions to do it.

Never use a book that does not use actual LSAT questions. There is a rhythm and feel for the LSAT that cannot be re-created. That is why Princeton and Kaplan are not as good.

 

Here is my defense of the LSAT: I think it actually uses skills that you will need in law school and will need as a lawyer. Take the reading comp section: law school (and being a lawyer) is all about reading large sections of boring, semi-academic writing and being able to analyze it. Undergrad tests rote memorization as much as it does analysis. The games section is very much about making connections that are not instantly obvious. And the law is all about logical reasoning. Making minor distinctions, which is what the arguments section relies on, is a hallmark of a common law system.

My advice on where to go for law school: decide where you want to practice (general vicinity) and go to the best law school you can that is in that vicinity. If you want to practice in Milwaukee/Chicago, you are much better off going to Marquette than Boston College, even though BC is 50 spots higher in USNWR.