Carnaval!

So the past few weeks have already made for an incredible experience!

The first day here in Maastricht was awful, trekking around the city on foot with two
heavy bags. If I had kept on top of my email earlier, then perhaps I would have signed up
for the service that gets a student with a car to pick you up from the train station… but
alas, I didn’t see that e-mail until after the deadline! So Day One was a bit of a disaster,
as I tried to find where I needed to be, and my arms grew at least two inches longer! I suppose there are worse deadlines to miss, though – like the LSAT registration or withdrawal dates (hey, this is an LSAT blog, right?).

I’ve discovered this lovely phenomenon known as Carnaval. For those of you who don’t know, Carnaval is essentially an enormous party before Lent. In the south of Netherlands, Carnaval is a HUGE deal. Read more

Rick Santorum sure has made some controversial remarks lately. But are they logically sound? Regardless of your political leaning, it pays to know how to evaluate the pieces and soundness of an argument. For this week’s post, I’ve plucked a few Santorum gems to help you review logical reasoning strategy. Can you identify the question types, below? Better yet, can you answer them? Answers after the jump! Read more

World, meet St. John.

St. John (yes, that is his real name!) is a Manhattan LSAT self study student who will be spending the next several months studying (cough cough) in the Netherlands. In addition to having the time of his life in Europe, St. John is preparing for the June LSAT, which he will be taking somewhere over there.

Lucky for us, St. John has agreed to share some of his adventures on our blog.  So without further ado, I give you the first installment of our ‘Student Dispatch’, by guest blogger St. John:

Away We Go

Hello World! My name is St.John (pronounced sin-gin), a junior at the University of Connecticut (pre-law honors, economics, philosophy, etc), and although I’m sure most of the readership of this blog is not interested in my resume, if you’d like a copy of my CV I’ll send it to you! The reason that I’m writing for the Manhattan LSAT blog is that over the next six months, I’m going to be studying in the Netherlands. I also plan on studying for (and taking) the June LSAT while I’m here, using the Manhattan LSAT curriculum to prepare. I will likely be taking my exam in Europe somewhere(there is not a testing center in the Netherlands!), and I look forward to sharing tales of my trials and tribulations along the way with you all. Read more

This past weekend, I had the pleasure of spending an evening with the Manhattan LSAT crew. In case there is any lingering doubt as to our nerdiness, let it be known that–at a bar–we collaboratively (1) calculated our life expectancies (mine was 71, for the record–though a psychic once told me 87, which I’m sticking with because I find her more credible than scientific probabilities), and (2) held an impromptu haiku competition.

The latter activity inspired this week’s post, in which (get ready) I will publish for the first time ever read, seen, or experienced, my original LSAT haikus. Whether it refreshes your memory of test strategy, triggers horrific flashbacks, or inspires an ill-informed decision to ditch law school and become a mediocre poet, I hope you enjoy. Some feedback on which is best, or a few poems of your own are strongly encouraged!

On Logic Games:
Xavier is in
only if Olga is out.
The boat is quite small.

On Reading Comprehension:
The author agrees
that the passage is too long.
Fire the editor.

On Logical Reasoning:
O, argument core!
Premise. Conclusion. What else?
Gap. Blank. Missing. _______.

On the essay:
Alas, dost though read
the essay? A fallen tree
no one hears fall, it.

Mary Adkins is one of Manhattan LSAT’s 99th percentile rock star instructors based out of New York City. She’s also available for Private Tutoring, both in NYC and Live Online.

T-2 days until the December LSAT. For those of you who are going to take the plunge, we’ve got some last minute tips for you. There are many great nuggets of advice in that article, so definitely check it out if you’re wondering what the best use of your final hours might be.

This post, however, focuses on a very specific piece of advice for your LSAT day. We’ve written in the past about the relatively new LSAC policy which requires test takers to present photo ID upon entering their testing center.

Amazingly, LSAC has posted a litany of unintentionally hilarious photos on their website as example of what type of photo is NOT acceptable on test day. How is one to resist poking some fun at this?!

Here are my favorites of the unacceptable photos:

“Head too big” is the heading on this one. If only the LSAC really did deny test takers who suffered from an inflated ego – or people with mustaches.

Artistic types need not apply.

Phillies fans are out of luck..

The family portrait is frowned upon as well. Save it for the Holiday card!

All kidding aside, here’s the nitty gritty in terms of what you need to have with you on test day in terms of photo identification:

• The photograph must be clear enough so there is no doubt about your identity.
• It must be no larger than 2 x 2 inches (5 x 5 cm) and no smaller than 1 x 1 inch (3 x 3 cm).
• Your face in the photograph must show you as you look on the day of the test (for example, with or without a beard).

Good luck on Saturday!

The Kitty Shuffle

I know I’m supposed to be blogging about the LSAT, but it’s Monday – you’ve just found yourself drooling on top of PT32 (that French and Russian Works game is tough!) and you’re feeling out of touch with the world. Let me help you put things into perspective.

Go and buy Dancing with Cats – my friends just gave it to me as a housewarming gift. Here’s an excerpt:

“Other cat dancers I’ve talked to on the Web use heavy metal, Techno, and World Beat. One guy says he uses Marley to build up such strong vibrational levels in just five minutes that they last for days. But you have to be careful; sometimes the energy is so powerful I worry about overstimulating my aura. At those levels, an unstable etheric oscillation could collapse into an astral vortex and suck my spiritual reserves into a state of negative sub-matter.”

Yes, indeed. Here are some other great pics of people who dance with cats. Take a break, grab a kitty for a twirl to some Marley – but be careful…

At Manhattan LSAT, teaching is what we do.  We’re passionate about helping our students reach their LSAT goals, because at the end of the day, that’s what it is all about: our students.  With that in mind, we are happy to debut a new ongoing segment of our blog: The Manhattan LSAT Student Spotlight.  Every so often we will conduct a live interview with one of our alumni in order to share their experiences with current students.  Their insights on law school, LSAT prep, and life in the field of law can serve as valuable advice for many of you.

Our first alumni interview is with Adam S., soon to be a 2L at Georgetown University.  Adam made time for a phone call with us a few weeks ago:

M LSAT: What is your educational and career background?

AS: I went to NYU and I was a philosophy major.  I graduated in 2007.  I went to public school before that in Maryland.

M LSAT: How did you come to choose a career in law?  Did you choose your Philosophy major with that in mind?

AS: I didn’t have any inclination first of all when I came to college.  I just simply didn’t know what I wanted to do for a year.  I was undeclared when I came in and I decided on philosophy after taking a philosophy class that I liked a lot.  Sort of the word among philosophy students is law school the reason why you do what you did.  I think I got the idea from that, from hearing what other philosophy majors were saying.  I did a substantial amount of research myself.  I spoke with as many people as I could about the practice of law, about law school itself.  I spoke with people who are lawyers now, people who are in law school now, people who are no longer lawyers because they didn’t like it.  Ultimately I thought it would be the right thing for me. Read more

The Law School Admissions Test and jazz. What do the two have in common? Gilad Edelman.

We all knew that Gilad can teach – he’s funny and wickedly smart. But last week, Gilad blew us away by revealing his other talent: the sax. It was dark, it was smoky (well, not really, NYC banned cigarettes – you now have to go to Jersey to smoke), and it was awesome. As one of Gilad’s true fans, I was super excited to see that he can play like a champion, because it’d be really lame for Gilad to try to impress the ladies with his perfect LSAT score. (Remember that initial scene in The Social Network?).

Watch him play and then sign up for his course.

If you want to see me seriously mangle some Bob Dylan tune on the guitar, please privately e-mail me. J

On To The LSAT!

For those of you who just walked across the stage – particularly those who managed to do so without face planting – we salute you.  Graduation ceremonies are the important culmination of 4+ years of careful study, even if it may have been in the art of carousals, the opposite sex, and parental money laundering.  In honor of all the new graduates out there, we have themed our latest Logic Games Challenge around the pomp and circumstance of the season.

Try out the easy or hard version of our new logic game, submit your best answer explanation to our forum, and you could potentially win a fabulous prize (either $200 off a course, or some books) from us.  Prizes are given to the best answer explanation for both versions of the game, as well as to one randomly selected participant.  So far, only 33% of respondents to the hard version of the challenge have been able to answer all of the questions correctly.  Do you have what it takes?

They are letting them in to law school younger and younger these days..

Browsing the headlines of the law school related world today, I came across a very interesting report from CNN. It tells the story of a law student in Spain who took his parents to court in an attempt to force them to resume paying his allowance of $588 per month.

And you thought you really stuck it to Mom and Dad that time you came home 4 hours after curfew!

In a fortunate decision for the well being of the human race, the judge ordered the man to find a job and leave his parents house within 30 days.