It has been a whirlwind (crappy pun not intended) few days here in New York City as we deal with Hurricane Sandy and her aftermath. Thankfully everyone here at Manhattan Prep is OK — and we sincerely hope the same is true for you and your family.

As LSAC is located in rural Pennsylvania, they have been affected by the storm. According to their official twitter feed, @Official_LSAT, LSAC’s offices are closed due to power outages, and the release of October LSAT results may be delayed beyond the Oct 31st release date.

If you’ve been following this blog, you know that LSAC traditionally releases scores at least a couple of days ahead of their stated release date. For the first time ever, they may miss their stated score release deadline. The following was tweeted by LSAC at approximately 9:20am today:

“We still expect scores to be released by Thursday afternoon.”

LSAC also commented via twitter about December LSAT registration:

“We expect to be back online today. We will make sure you get registered for Dec. and will waive the late reg fee”

As for Manhattan Prep, we’re dealing with some loss of power at our headquarters in Manhattan. We’ll continue to monitor our phone lines and email inboxes remotely, but it may be a day or two still before we’re able to resume our in person courses in New York, Washington DC, and Boston. If you are a student in any of those clases, we will continue to keep you posted via phone and email. All other classes (live online or in unaffected cities) will resume normally. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact studentservices@manhattanprep.com/lsat/ or call (646) 254-6480.

Perhaps the cruelest part of taking the LSAT is the 3-4 week waiting period that test takers are subjected to before receiving their results from LSAC. It’s hard to imagine what the reason for this is, given that it is 2012 and the test is taken on a bubble sheet that can be easily run through a scan-tron machine. Being such a high stakes test, it’s no wonder why people waiting for their results will literally pull their hair out right around this time, when scores could literally be released any day now.

Any day now? Yes. While LSAC touts October 31st on their website as the day that scores will be released, past trends indicate that they consistently email scores out 3-5 days sooner than that.

The result of this imprecision is that October LSAT takers spend several days in a nervous stupor, constantly peaking at their inboxes through hand covered eyes to see if their results have arrived.

Guessing when LSAT scores will arrive is an imperfect science at best, but that doesn’t stop us from making our official prediction. In February of this year, LSAC cruelly released scores just one day before their listed release date. In July, they redeemed themselves by releasing scores 4 days early.

I’m very confident that October 2012 scores will be released either Friday (tomorrow) October 26th, or Monday, October 29th. I’m feeling optimistic today, so I’m going to go out on a limb and predict a score release of Friday, October 26th. Again, this is just a prediction — I don’t have any inside information. If I did, you’d all be the first to know. (Update: It appears as though my attempts to will the release of LSAT scores today was unsuccessful. I am as disappointed as you all are. Hopefully Monday is the day!)

Good luck to all of you who took this thing in October. Don’t forget to register for our free online review of the October LSAT, which will include explanations for the most difficult problems on the October exam.

The 3rd Edition Manhattan LSAT Strategy Guides

We are pleased to introduce to the world the newest (3rd) Edition of our renowned LSAT Strategy Guide series, on sale now in our store and on Amazon.

This time around we’ve overhauled our Logic Games Strategy Guide, nearly doubling its size. Like a geeky piece of cake that goes straight to the hips, we’ve added substantial bulk to our explanations, including hand written solutions for every game from PTs 40-66, simply because we love you.

So far the chosen few who have received advance copies of the LG book cannot stop raving about it. One forum user out there even admitted to wishing that they were still prepping the LSAT, just so they could read out new book. Yes, it is that awesome!

While the Logic Games Strategy Guide has been enhanced significantly, our Reading Comprehension and Logical Reasoning guides received simple face lifts and remain the basically the same awesome guides that they were in our 2nd Editions.

Hearing from a number of students and colleagues who sat for the October 2012 LSAT on Saturday, opinions on the exam’s difficulty seems to be initially

Before you embark on PT overload for the December LSAT, join our free Oct review session

mixed. Consensus seems to be that there were some pretty whacky games on the test, and and usual, we heard complaints about RC.  Some claimed this was an extremely challenging test, while others even through the “e” word (easy) around. This range in opinion is pretty standard in the aftermath of an LSAT.

As is the case for every released LSAT, we’ve got your back. Managing Director of Manhattan LSAT, Noah Teitelbaum, and curriculum developer Dmitry Farber are hosting a free online review of the October 2012 LSAT on Thursday, November 8th from 8-10pm EST**

Join Noah and Dmitry as they deconstruct some of the trickier problems from the exam and give advice on the all important question of whether or not to retake the LSAT in December.

**Note: the last few of these review sessions stretched on long in to the night.

Think of your LSAT Prep as Oil for the Machine That Is Your Brain

Neuroscientists at the University of California-Berkeley have published a study that suggests that heavily training one’s brain to develop sharper reasoning skills (sound familiar?) can can fundamentally reinforce tangible connections between neurons in areas of the that are used when thinking and reasoning.

The study focused particularly on LSAT students, since you all are essentially training yourselves to be better at reasoning. Allyson Mackey, a graduate student in UC Berkeley’s Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute who led this particular study, says “What we were interested in is whether and how the brain changes as a result of LSAT preparation, which we think is, fundamentally, reasoning training. We wanted to show that the ability to reason is malleable in adults.” The findings of this particular study led by Mackey supported this hypothesis.

Silvia Bunge, associate professor in the UC Berkeley Department of Psychology and the Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute adds “A lot of people still believe that you are either smart or you are not, and sure, you can practice for a test, but you are not fundamentally changing your brain. Our research provides a more positive message. How you perform on one of these tests is not necessarily predictive of your future success, it merely reflects your prior history of cognitive engagement, and potentially how prepared you are at this time to enter a graduate program or a law school, as opposed to how prepared you could ever be.”

Scientists, prelaw students, and educators the world over should be very excited by this discovery; it is encouraging to know that when trained properly, the brain – like any other muscle in the human anatomy – can be made stronger and more powerful. Study on, my friends, study on!

Source: University of California – Berkeley. “Intense prep for law school admission test alters brain structure.” ScienceDaily, 22 Aug. 2012. Web. 23 Aug. 2012.

In the northern hemisphere some people throw parties during July that mimic Christmas celebrations. Parties may include Santa Claus, ice cream and other cold foods, and gifts.

The wait is finally over! The June 2012 LSAT scores are in and are currently being sent to test takers via E-mail. The curve was -10 for a 170, -27 for a 160, and -46 for a 150. For some, today may feel like  Christmas in July, as your stomach fills with fluttering butterflies and and your heart starts racing just before you unwrap what Santa LSAC has brought you this year.

If you were a good boy or girl, did your prep work, and received the score you were hoping for, congratulations! It’s time to celebrate the holiday with a party or a happy dance. For those who would rather have a lump of coal than your June 2012 score, proceed by first taking a look at our Retake Manifesto to decide whether it is worth your efforts to reregister for the exam. If you are set on retaking the next available exam, be aware of some of the upcoming dates and deadlines pertaining to the October 2012 LSAT.

On a final note, remember to sign up for our Free Online Review of the June 2012 LSAT on Wednesday, July 11, 2012 from 8:00-10:30 (EDT). Two of our 99^th percentile teachers will be reviewing and analyzing some of the most difficult logic games from the June exam.

Need to talk more about your June 2012 LSAT score? Leave a comment below, tweet @manhattanlsat, or email StudentServices@manhattanprep.com/lsat/.

Merry LSAT-Christmas to all, and to all a good score!

As the month is coming to a close, anxiety levels are sure to be on the rise for those who took the June 2012 LSAT. If you turned to Mary’s advice for playing the waiting game, we hope that painting your apartment or manufacturing your own drama has brought you some relief. Here at Manhattan LSAT, we have invented our own waiting game, where the goal is to analyze previous trends to try to figure out which day the June scores will be released.

According to LSAC, the scheduled date for the release of the June 2012 LSAT scores is July 6, 2012. However, if we look at the score release dates from the last eight years, there is a possibility that you will know your score by this time next week! Read more

The February LSAT scores starting trickling out via email this afternoon. How do you feel? We can usually group February LSAT takers in to the

If your February LSAT scores didn't make you as randy as you were hoping, there's still time to crank up the mojo for the June exam

following groups:

• I took it, I rocked it, I’m done with this nonsense forever!
• I took it, I did OK but I might be able to do better
• I took it, I bombed it, please help!!

To Infinity, and Beyond!

Two of the more common questions asked by future LSAT takers are: 1) “When should I begin studying for the LSAT?”  and 2) “How long does it typically take to prepare for this exam?”

The answer to these basic (yet extremely important!) questions provides a ‘jumping off point’ for folks and helps them plan their lives (or lack there of) during the months spent prepping for the LSAT.

If you are planning to take the June 2012 LSAT, I’ll save you the drama of the rest of this post: it’s time to start studying now! Get started with a diagnostic test. This will give you a great sense of where you are, although you should not get discouraged if you score well below the national average (151) your first time. If you don’t know much about the exam, you should read our intro guide or attend one of our free workshops (available in NYC and Live Online). For the rest of you thinking a bit more long term, read on…

Read more

Fresh from the M LSAT Lab of Geekyness, an infographic with loads of info on the February LSAT, including what you can and cannot bring with you. Enjoy, and good luck on Saturday!!

Are You Ready for the February LSAT?