I thought I would add one more tip to a previous posting full of tips for those about to go and take the LSAT: //www.atlaslsat.com/lsat/blog/index.php/2009/06/03/final-lsat-tips/

Bring some light warm-up LSAT material with you to the testing center. I suggest bringing some tough questions that you completely mastered.  Before you enter the testing center, just run through the questions one last time, toss the paper into the recycling bin and head to your room.  Don’t bother checking your work.  The reason to do this is that you don’t want to use the first section of the test as your warm-up.  You want your logical thinking already moving when you start section 1.  The brain is a muscle, so warm it up just like you would your legs.

And I stand behind my night-before-the-LSAT recommendation: Legally Blonde, 1 or 2.

Good luck!

For all aspiring lawyers, note the power of your profession: after LSAC filed its lawsuit, TestMasters agreed to pay its outstanding bill and the two parties decided upon a new fee structure.

The LSAC is very careful with how its material is used, but I will say that folks who criticize it for being focused on profit are ignoring a lot of factors.  First of all, the organization is not-for-profit.  Secondly, the cost of taking the LSAT surely does not cover all the costs the LSAC bears in terms of creation, protection and administration of their tests (and many who apply for fee waivers receive them).  Finally, LSAC is pretty generous in terms of allowing free use of its materials by pre-law advisors and those who are using LSAT questions in a community-service manner.  My suggestion: hate the test, not the test-makers!  (and pay if you use their questions).

If you’ve been following the news, you’ve probably heard about the TestMasters-LSAC lawsuit. Apparently, TestMasters has been sued by the Law School Admission Council (LSAC), the non-profit company that produces the LSAT, for breach of contract for unpaid use of LSAT questions.  According to the court papers, the owner of TestMasters failed to account and pay in a timely manner for his use of questions and now owes almost one million dollars in fees.  The owner has tried to work out a payment plan with LSAC, but the terms seems to be far from what LSAC is willing to accept.

Since LSAC administers exams to assess one’s ability to do well in law school, it should come as no surprise that they are careful about details!  All LSAT test prep companies must make an agreement with LSAC to use its questions. Interestingly, the questions used in PrepTests from many years ago cost less than  more current ones. That’s why some companies fill their books with old tests (and not to toot our own horn too much, but we use only very current exams). Anyway, here at Atlas we are extremely careful to account and pay for every use of official LSAT questions. Here’s one small example: our books and courses use real LSAT questions, but if you look at the chapters you can download from our site  //www.manhattanprep.com/lsat/lsat-books.cfm, you’ll notice that we swap out the real questions for ones we’ve written.

I want to assure our students that we’re very transparent and straightforward with LSAC. Now get back to work!

People often ask whether we offer a score guarantee and are sometimes surprised to find that we don’t.

Why don’t we do this?

1. Score guarantees are not what they seem. If you read the fine print about score guarantees, you’ll see that you have to do a great deal to qualify.  You cannot miss a single class; you must do all the HW, etc.

2. Everyone’s goal is different. What if your score improved one point – is that satisfactory?  What if you’re shooting for a 15 point gain and your scores rise only 10 points?  We want to help anyone who has not yet reached his or her goal, and is willing to do the work.  Finally, a 6-point increase means very different things for the person initially scoring a 150 and someone starting at a 169!  We specialize in people looking for top scores, and often they come to us already sporting robust numbers.

3. Improving isn’t hard. If your score doesn’t improve a few points after doing a series of PrepTests, something is off!  Exposure to the LSAT is in itself a way of improving your score.  Why guarantee something that is easy to achieve?  We guarantee satisfaction.

4. It’s a waste of time. Managing a score guarantee program generally entails a lot of work on the part of the student and the company.  HW needs to be checked, diagnostic tests need to be administered, etc.  Our first class is a class – not a diagnostic test to be used for score comparisons later – we are more interested that you practice once you have something to practice!

5. You need to do the work. There is an unavoidable fact about LSAT prep: if you don’t do the work, you won’t improve your score.  While our teachers are phenomenal and our curriculum is top-notch, you need to do the heavy-lifting.  We guarantee that we do our job, but we can’t guarantee that you’ll do yours!

If you find that you were unable to keep up with the class – if life got in the way – you can take our course again for $399.