Breaking News on the LSAT: It Isn’t Going Anywhere
No need to rush, the LSAT is here to stay
When I was 22, I started studying for the LSAT in August and planned to take it in December. I’d just moved to New York after graduating from college, and I was working a few jobs to cover my bills: being a production assistant at a theater during the day, bar tending at night, and grading papers for a professor during my off time. On the weekends, I’d huddle in the corner of the 1.5 bedroom (1BR with wide hallway) I shared with two other people and try to learn logic games. I did my best to focus under these less than ideal circumstances, and gradually but steadily, found my practice test scores going up.
Then, in November, just a few weeks before the exam, my long-distance boyfriend broke up with me. When I called my mom crushed, our conversation turned to the test. AND HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO CONCENTRATE WHEN I’M SUCH A MESS?! I wailed, to which she replied, as if it took no thought at all: don’t. Postpone it.
At the time, this sounded like the dumbest thing anyone had ever said. Postpone it? I’d been studying for (two) MONTHS! I’d sacrificed nights out for this dumb test. I’d spent my half-hour lunch breaks smushed in a dingy dressing room on 42nd street trying to put M, G, L, and F in order as fast as I could before resuming work, i.e. delivering small paper cups of water to attention-obsessed actors. The truth was, I wanted to be done with the friggin LSAT. I told her this.
“Mary Patricia” (she calls me that), she said, “You don’t get dumber as you get older. You get smarter. You won’t be any dumber in a few months.” Huh.
The test was in two weeks. I wasn’t yet ready, but more importantly, I wasn’t in a position to become ready; I was in a position to buy a magnum of Yellowtail with my roommate and watch 24 for six hours, interspersed with recitations of my ex-boyfriend’s worst qualities. So that’s what I did, and when March came around, and I was ready to get back in the game, I started studying again. I took the test in June feeling prepared and confident, and that decision is one I’m glad I made.
This is all to say: if you’re not ready–if your life circumstances aren’t making space or time, literally or emotionally, for you to do your best on this thing–there is *so nothing wrong* with waiting to take it. Apart from real reasons not to postpone–and I’ve heard very few of those over the years–the “reasons” people give are often priorities that can be demoted as easily as they were promoted to primary considerations. I’ve heard:
“But I want to start school next year.”
“But I’ve already been studying and am sick of it.”
“What am I going to do for another year if I don’t start next year?”
Of course you want to start this year. Who doesn’t want to get their profession underway as soon as they’ve chosen what it’s going to be? The problem, however, is that because the LSAT carries so much weight, in the case of law school, being in a rush to take it can have extreme consequences for your career, not just in the short term, but in the long term. This isn’t news to anyone. Second of all, the beauty of postponing is that you can take a little break from studying (and should, if you’re that sick of it) and come back to it later. Believe it or not, you won’t have forgotten what you learned; in fact, the reprieve can be beneficial. Finally, not knowing what you’re going to do for a year can be a gift. During mine, I worked in HR at a non-profit, learned about employment policy, made a friend who became one of my closest, and wrote a play that, years later, was produced in New York. I don’t regret waiting, and so if you find yourself in a situation in which you know that postponing is what’s best for you–for your life, for your score, or both–my advice is: it’s okay. The LSAT will be there in October, and then in December, and then February, and so on. And by then, you’ll be wiser anyway.