Things to Stay Clear of on Test Day

As we close in on the October LSAT, I thought I would share our usual tips to keep you on track as game day draws near. What’s that you say – you’re not sure if you are ready, willing, or able to take the October LSAT?  Before you go pushing the panic button, make sure you are making all of the proper considerations about which test administration you should take.

If you’re full steam ahead for the October exam, here is some advice for the final hours that our Managing Director, Noah Teitelbaum, wrote for our good friend Ann Levine on LawSchoolExpert.com’s blog:

1. Focus on the main event. Right about now we see on our LSAT forums  lots of questions about unimportant topics and students freaking out about the hardest LSAT questions in written history. Rare question and game types are rare! If you find them tough, that’s not a big deal. What is important is that you are able to get the easy and common ones correct without wasting too much time, leaving you enough time for the rare question or game. And, games are generally more consistent today than in days of yore, so don’t freak out if you think CD game or the Zephyr airlines game is hard – they were! Focus on capitalizing on your strengths, not trying to do an emergency patch-up of a minor weakness. Read more

The inner workings of the new Manhattan LSAT Tracker

Cue trumpets…drum roll…da,dah! Ladies and Gentleman, esteemed members of the international community, we are pleased to announce that we’ve just finished updating our LSAT Tracker. LSAT pandemonium in the streets; children shouting for joy; dogs and cats finally getting along. Woo-hoo! Wait, what’s that? You don’t know what the LSAT Tracker is? It’s our fancy spreadsheet you should use to analyze your LSAT results. After you take a practice test, slide in your answers, hit a button or two and voila, you’ll find out what’s what with your strengths and weaknesses. As one person told me, “the Tracker tells me in detail how I suck!” (I assure you she improved). One great thing about using the Tracker is that it doesn’t reveal the correct answer if you get something wrong. That way you can go back and look at the question again without knowing what answer you should have chosen – that’s a lot more useful than simply going back and saying “oh, yeah, it is (D)!”

What’s new about this new Tracker? For one it includes a lot more tests. This Tracker covers PrepTests 46-72 (including the June 2007 LSAT, which you can find on our LSAT proctor page). It also has more detailed analysis of each section. As we all know, more graphs = more fun.

When you click on the input tab you’ll notice that the exams are not in chronological order – they’re in the order we assign them in our class. But, it’s fine to use it in any order you like. Also, we threw PT51 & 52 in their own section. Those two LSATs are stupid and deserve to be isolated to protect the other LSATs from them. Or, we use those two LSATs in our class a lot, so our students can’t really use them as authentic practice LSATs since we’ve taught the heck out of a lot of those questions (we’re sorry PT51 & 52, it’s nothing personal, we had to do it to some LSATs).

So jump in: the new tracker is located in your free Student Center – register now! Just note one thing: we’re releasing this in beta version. We want to hear from you how to make it better. So, please, please post your feedback on the LSAT Tracker forum thread. We will listen – even if it’s about how it sucks, in detail.

With less than a month to go before the October LSAT, I have noticed an increase in the number of students who call and ask for advice on which LSAT administration they should be setting their sights on. Many of these students are concerned about their readiness for the upcoming October exam, and are fearful about what postponing until the December exam will do to their admission prospects (timeline wise) for the Fall of 2012.

Legend has it LSAC decided on its four implementation months by tossing a marble on a rotating Mayan calendar

While there is something to be said for taking the June or October LSAT and applying earlier in the rolling admissions cycle that law schools use, I want to be very clear about my advice on this: it is far more important to maximize your potential on the LSAT than it is to apply early!

Ann Levine, President of LawSchoolExpert.com and author of The Law School Admission Game: Play Like An Expert has reiterated this point time and time again on her blog.

I can certainly understand the tendency of a prospective law school student to want to get the LSAT over and done with – and their applications in as early as possible – however rushing to take the test before you are truly prepared is an error in judgement that will ultimately hurt your application, since the LSAT is factored so heavily in to your admission decision.  If you have been preparing for the October LSAT and are not yet where you think you can be score wise, then you should embrace (not fear!) the prospect of postponing your exam until December.  Remember, LSAC has relaxed its policy on postponing registration for the exam, making it more convenient for students to choose a course of action that will benefit them the most in the bigger picture.

When it comes to the February LSAT, it is a different story entirely.  Taking the February LSAT will not allow you to apply for law school admittance for the Fall of that same year.  While there is nothing wrong with taking the February LSAT if you’re ahead of the game (scores are good for five years), all February LSAT takers should be aware that the February test is not released, meaning you will never have the opportunity to review which questions you got right or wrong, which can be a real bummer when you’ve put so much in to preparing for the exam.

If you’re one of the many students who has been preparing for the October LSAT but are not quite feeling like you are where you can be score wise, you should strongly consider setting your sights on the December exam.  We still have a few online courses (and courses in select cities) yet to kick off that have schedules catering to December LSAT takers.

Is the LSAT driving you mad? It has been known to have that effect on people. However, before you seek some form of professional help, check out our FREE public LSAT Class led by Brian Birdwell: Zen and the Art of LSAT.

Brian Birdwell, one of our 99th percentile rock star instructors, is worth the price of admission (okay, so it’s free, but seriously check him out!). He is the LSAT equivalent of the Dos Equis Guy. How many people do you know who have rode on a scooter for 70 miles in the pouring rain in Malaysia, sandwiched between a Thai kickboxing champion and an English hip-hop artist, or sold a million dollars worth of watermelon in 6 weeks? He just may be the most interesting man in LSAT prep.

As if hanging with Brian weren’t enough, what you’ll get out of his class is worth clearing your schedule for. Here’s how it works: you sign up and submit questions that you would like to see Brian cover during the session.  Brian will sort through the submitted questions and teach as many as time will allow.

Bring your friends, bring your neighbors, even bring your shrink if you want; Brian Birdwell is dishing out LSAT peace of mind for the rock bottom price of $0.00.