In New York there are several companies that you can pay to provide you someone who will wait in line for you. But even in this ridiculous city, there’s nobody you can pay to do the waiting for you if you’re hitting refresh on your LSAC account, itching for your October LSAT score to be released. If you’d like to take an educated guess at when that’ll happen, here’s a list of past LSAT score release dates. On average they arrive about 4.5 days before the officially-sanctioned release date. It seems like the LSAT and airlines have hit on the same idea: set your arrival time late so that you show up early.

While you’re waiting, sign up for our October 2010 LSAT Review Workshop where we’ll review that LSAT and serve tea and cookies (if tea and cookies could be served live online).

Hang in there! That score’s coming any minute…

Let’s continue our personal injury saga that we began last week. After yet another break of a few days, we came back to hear opening statements – more or less what you see in the movies – followed by a few days of witnesses. The first witness was not officially called the King of Slips, Trips and Falls, but in essence he was. This man had more credentials about slips and trips than you, and I’m sure of this, can imagine exist. He has written the code for various policies on construction, he has taught classes, he’s been on TV (specifically his receipt of a national award was televised on 52 stations – that was really too much information!), and he’s board certified by everyone, and he’s run said boards. The jury was thoroughly over-impressed to the point of annoyance.

Similarly, we heard from a very certified doctor who told us in no uncertain terms that the plaintiff broke his nose and that it really, really hurt. What amazed me is how much these guys get paid. $7,500 to appear in court for less than an hour! These specialists show up in court cases all the time and make a huge bundle of money. That’s when I started calculating. If the plaintiff has these two expert witnesses – about $15,000 – the lawyers must be hoping to win a huge payment. Thankfully, the plaintiff doesn’t pay a dime to the lawyer unless they win the case. If they do, the lawyers take a huge chunk of the settlement. Wow – they were hoping to win hundreds of thousands of dollars. And this was for a broken nose and a twisted pinky.

It turns out, we learned from meeting the plaintiff, that he went back to work two days later, then flew across the world to get married. Now, he is able to do everything he was able to do previously – basketball, painting rooms, etc. So, what were we actually going to be paying for? Read more

Yeah, jury duty!

It happens to the best of us, and even to me:  I was called for jury duty last week and I had already used my get-out-of-jury-duty-for-free passes. So, off I went to the New York County Courthouse to wait out my two days of not being called to a case (I’ve done this before). But it turns out I was actually selected! While almost everyone there complained, it was actually a fascinating experience, and, among other things, it reinforced for me why the LSAT is so predictive of one’s performance in law school: it actually tests many of the skills that lawyers use (though, it became clear, not all of them).

It all began with Voir Dire – and if you’re a true LSAT geek, you are thinking of that one RC passage about Voir Dire and exposure to the media. Voir Dire is a fancy way of saying jury selection. The lawyers asked us questions and flicked us off the jury depending on our answers, biases, etc. We were quickly informed that this would be a personal injury case. That immediately made me think of those commercials – like Saul in Breaking Bad. Or this commercial. We were asked whether we worked for the subway — ah, someone got hit by a subway?! – and whether we knew some guy. And have we been in a personal injury case before? Oh, your mother was? What part of her body was injured? Oh, her nose…

It started to become apparent – some guy broke his nose on the subway. Ouch. Read more

It’s the Monday after an LSAT, so this is the question that’s filling the LSAT-universe. It’s not a pleasant discussion, but let’s get into it. Assuming that you just had a bad test day experience, here are a few considerations you should, well, consider:

1. Was this LSAT considerably different than your usual practice test experience? For example, did you only complete 3 games or RC passages when you usually complete 4? Or did you become violently ill?

2. Were you scoring comfortably within an acceptable score range on your last 2 – 3 practice tests?

3. What is the policy of the schools that interest you in terms of considering all scores, only your best, etc.

First things first:  if YOU KNOW you bombed the LSAT, then you should cancel (unless all your goal schools are firmly committed to only considering your best score).

Now that we have that out of the way, you should start with #3. Let’s say that you have 8 schools in mind. If 6 of them will look at all your scores, then that should steer you towards canceling and re-taking. Read more

While I spend 90% of my day in front of a computer, I have not yet dived into the world of e-books. But, probably you have! Even if you’re like me and you love the feel of the pages, and the gentle wear of a book’s spine, you should check out Anna Ivey’s e-book – The Ivey Guide to Law School Admissions. Not only is there some juicy advice in there, but Anna just told me that this book is a free download for the next two days! It’s first come, first served – there is a limit to the kindness of publishers!  Use the code LAUNCH and hop to it!

On October 11th, Atlas LSAT will officially become Manhattan LSAT!

Why the change?

Several years ago, Manhattan GMAT created a sister company to tackle the LSAT. To ensure that this new company developed its own reputation and developed its own LSAT-specific program, it was decided to run this new company separately and give it a distinct name. Atlas is all grown up now and is ready to take its place alongside Manhattan GMAT. We’ve also launched Manhattan GRE , and with three related companies it makes sense for us to have a shared name so people know who we are.

What’s going to change:

•    Our name
•    Our logo
•    Our e-mails (studentservices@manhattanprep.com/lsat/, for example)
•    Our website address (though we’ll automatically re-direct you to our new site, so no worries if your fingers memorized “www.atlaslsat.com”)

What’s not going to change:

•    Our focus on great teaching.
•    Our LSAT-specific curriculum.
•    Our LSAT-specific audition and training program.
•    Your account login, your access to all of our awesome online resources.
•    Our telephone number: 646-254-6480

Thanks to everyone who has been a fan of our company and referred us to their friends – and we appreciate you switching over with us to the new name. It’ll be sad to lose the cool almost-anagram of Atlas LSAT, but we’re excited to officially join the Manhattan prep family.

– Noah Teitelbaum

Managing Director

Manhattan LSAT!