It’s Spring Break… from the LSAT?

By on March 23, 2012 in LSAT Test Prep

Having just returned to my tame everyday life from sunny Fort Lauderdale, Florida- home of the chaos known as “Spring Break”- I can tell you that just about everything but “taking a break” was going on down there. Now, let me be clear: I was in South Florida for the wholesome purpose of spending good, clean, quality time with my family. However, while cruising (or, more appropriately, sitting in monster traffic next to) Fort Lauderdale Beach, I witnessed all manner of hedonistic recreation, from contests pitting Breakers’ binging and baring skills to shamefully reckless under-applications of sunscreen.

But hey, everybody needs a break, including those of us in law school (or pursuit thereof) and the legal field.… Read full post

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Updating Law School Applications

By on March 22, 2012 in Law School Admissions, Law School Admissions

If you have been placed on a law school waiting list or still have not heard back from some of your schools, now is the time to update your applications with any new information.  The easiest way to do this is by emailing the admission office of each school and you can also follow up with a hard copy in the mail if you choose.  Keep your updates brief, factual, and to the point.

Be selective in the information you send to the law school – only include information that was asked on the original application.  Always update contact information – especially if you are leaving a college address at the end of the semester.… Read full post

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The Form of Logic

By on March 21, 2012 in Logic Games, Logic Reasoning Section, LSAT Test Prep

Formal logic is a skill that is very important, and highly tested, on the LSAT.  Formal logic will appear in three of the four scored sections of the exam.  First, formal logic appears in almost every analytical reasoning, which is known as logic games, question.  Second, formal logic appears in a variety of question types within the logical reasoning section of the exam as well.

Furthermore, formal logic is a skill that a student can use one time, and then simply discard after taking the LSAT.  In order to “think like a lawyer,” a term you are likely to hear too often during you 1L year, you must be able to effectively apply formal logic to various laws and facts.  So, this learning this skill for the LSAT is just the beginning of your formal logic training and education.  This is likely why this skill is so critical for LSAT success, because after all, the LSAT is advertised as testing the skills necessary to succeed in law school!… Read full post

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LSAT Preparation Best Practices

By on March 19, 2012 in LSAT Test Prep

Practice is the key to achieving a top LSAT score.  The key to successful practice is in the details.  As you begin your LSAT preparation, test day should dictate how you study.  Build good habits and make sure you have developed a method so your test taking rituals are second nature by test day.  Details, such as what type of pencils to use, may seem insignificant, but making test day as seamless as possible is necessary to achieving the score of your dreams.  Assemble a LSAT bag of pencils, highlighters, erasers and pencil sharpeners and use it whenever you practice.… Read full post

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Life as a 1L: Supplements…Worth It or Not?

By on March 16, 2012 in Law School & Legal Life, Law School Admissions

This is what awaits you as a 1L…

Its mid to late September, you have heard other people mention terms like Hornbook or Treatise.  However, the people you likely hear talking about them are other 1L’s that have a brother, or cousin that has gone to law school and finished in the top 5% of their class.

So you start to wonder is there any validity to this.

You see, you are a in your first year of law school, glad you got in, but somewhat confused as to what it means to “Think Like a Lawyer”, and are starting to hear horror stories about how “different” law school exams are compared to other test in different professional schools, or undergraduate programs.… Read full post

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How to Avoid Law School Rankings Tunnel Vision

By on March 12, 2012 in Law School & Legal Life, Law School Admissions, Law School Admissions

Are you that guy?  You know, the guy who says, “I’m going to go to this law school which is ranked at #37 because this other school that I got into is ranked lower, at #56.”  Worse yet, are you that gal who says. “I can’t go to this school ranked at #12 – not when I can go to this other school ranked at #8.  After all, this other program is in the top ten!”

If either of these people sounds like you, it’s important that you take a step back and recognize that basing the decision to attend a school solely, and oftentimes, even primarily on its rankings – including the US News rankings – can be hazardous to your educational and career well-being.  There are many ways in which focusing too heavily on the rankings can come back to haunt you.… Read full post

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Accepted to Law School? Time for the Campus Visit!

By on March 8, 2012 in Law School & Legal Life, Law School Admissions

You have narrowed it down to two or three acceptances and have decided that you want to visit the campuses before you make your final decision.  My first suggestion is that you try and plan your trip sooner rather than later.  Not only because the law school will want your deposit in the upcoming weeks but because they will soon be preparing for finals and will not allow outsiders to sit in on a class.  You want to be able to see a class in action and have an opportunity to talk with both faculty and students before they go into finals hibernation mode.… Read full post

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LSAT Timing Strategies: To Speed Up… Slow Down!

By on March 7, 2012 in LSAT Test Prep

When it comes to standardized tests, the LSAT is one of the absolute worst about not giving you much time to work with.  For much of the test you only have a little over a minute, on average, per question, and sometimes even less when you factor in reading long passages or game setups.  For this reason it is absolutely essential that the test taker know how to best manage his or her time to ensure he or she doesn’t get bogged down within a section.  One of my favorite such strategies is the paradoxically named “slow down to speed up.”

Quite often a test taker believes the best strategy is to rush through the LSAT at warp speed to make sure he or she gets to everything.  While getting to all of the questions is a definite plus, going too fast can actually backfire.  Reading at a rate faster than what we are comfortable with often leads to just “skimming” the material, which can be very dangerous on the LSAT.  Two common repercussions of skimming are: (A) having to reread because you didn’t comprehend what you just read or (B) missing a little word that drastically changes the meaning of the material (you’d be amazed how important little words like “might” or “not” are on the LSAT).  If you are forced to go back and reread then you actually end up spending more time on something than if you’d just slowed down a little bit to begin with.  If you miss a word that changes the meaning of the material (like a “might” or a “not”) then the question or questions pertaining to it are most likely already chalked up as incorrect.  Not much point in getting to all of the questions if we aren’t giving ourselves an opportunity to get them right.… Read full post

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On the LSAT and in law school, Suffice it to say, this stuff is necessary – Part II.

By on March 5, 2012 in Law School & Legal Life, LSAT Test Prep

Last week I explained the basic, abstract concepts of necessity and sufficiency, let me show you a brief example of how they relate to law school and the practice of law.  On the first day of my criminal law class, my teacher called on some poor, terrified boy and asked him to stand up.  Ah, the joys of the Socratic method.  As the young man stood trembling, the professor asked him about the case, Proctor v. State, 176 P. 771 (1918), we were assigned to study.  In the facts of this case, Mr. Proctor was convicted of keeping a two story building, with the intent and for the purpose of unlawfully selling malt liquors.  The student, who was gaining confidence as he answered the professor’s litany of questions, recited the facts correctly and correctly stated that the Oklahoma Appellate Court vacated Mr.… Read full post

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Accepted! Now What?

By on March 2, 2012 in Law School & Legal Life, Law School Admissions

So the acceptance letter has come and gone, and the buzz and excitement is now turning to a bit of apprehension and anxiety.  Majority of 1L’s feel this way around the August and September months of their 1L year.

Here are a few tips that I can endorse, by trial and error.  The specifics to how you get through your 1L year, and the remainder of law school, change for each person, but the general destination is the same for all persons.

These are numbered based on what I would have liked to known, and what I feel would be most important to me now looking at it retrospectively.… Read full post

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