We found some great articles from the first half of June. Happy reading!

June 2012 LSAT Release Dates (LSAT BLOG)
Did you take the June 2012 LSAT this week? If so, we know you’re anxiously awaiting your score. The scores from the exam are to be released on July 6^th but usually the scores are emailed earlier than scheduled. This post from LSAT BLOG provides trends in the score release date of the June exam from the past several years.

Best Books for Law School Students  (Goodreads)
Summer is a great time to engage in some leisurely reading! Goodreads has compiled a list of the books that pre-law and law students should read.

Law School Innovators (The National Law Journal)
The National Law Journal published a special report that highlights a few law schools, students, and professors who are pushing the boundaries of traditional education and legal theory.

5 Tips for Parents of Law School Applicants (US News)
Applying to law school can be just as stressful for parents as it is for students. This week, US News offers advice to parents on how to support their child through the application process

Want to Save Money? Try Attending ‘Fast Track’ Law School Abroad (ABA Journal)
If you’re planning on going to law school but cringe at tuition prices, check out this article from ABA Journal that offers some information about attending a ‘fast track’ law school abroad.

Experience life at the law firm through a summer associateship

Have you ever wondered what you’ll be up to during your summer vacations in law school? After a semester’s worth of reading, sleepless nights, and comprehensive final exams, it might sound preferable to relax on a beach with cold beer in one hand and a good book in the other. However, as a law student, your goal for these summers should involve landing a highly coveted position at a relevant law firm as a Summer Associate.

As a Summer Associate you will have the opportunity to network and establish relationships with a number of attorneys, produce writing samples, and leave with a solid set of references. If all goes well, your temporary office has the potential to become your place of full-time employment upon graduation.
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The many faces of the June 2012 LSAT taker

Remember not so long ago when the LSAT didn’t dominate your life? Can you even fathom a time when you weren’t driving yourself insane studying for this crucial exam, which has been weighing on your back like a 3,000 pound primate – a primate that you hoped would have disappeared yesterday after the final bubble sheet was filled in?

Unfortunately, in the now-very-real aftermath of the exam, the new weight of the results that are still weeks away make the 3,000 pound LSAT study gorilla seem weightless in comparison.

While there is no way to make the waiting any easier, there is a definitely something that all June 2012 LSAT test takers ought to do: sign up for our Free Live Online Review of the June 2012 LSAT, being held Live Online on Wednesday, July 11th at 8:00pm EST.

Taught by Manhattan LSAT co-founder and curriculum developer Noah Teitelbaum, this review session will deconstruct some of the more difficult questions from the exam, and will strive to address the ever pesky dilemma of whether or not to retake the LSAT.

Time management on the LSAT is an element of the exam that is as difficult to overcome as it is important to your score: very!

One of the toughest and most common struggles that LSAT test takers face is how much time to devote to each question and what to do when the

LSATtimer.com sells analog watches specifically for the LSAT!

second and minute hands on the clock are interfering with your ability to focus on the actual exam. Maybe you’re having trouble with which questions to attack first, which questions to skip, or when it’s time to take your best guess.

To help students conquer the challenges of pacing and time management on the LSAT, Law School Podcaster has released a new show that shares proven time management techniques and strategies just in time for June 2012 LSAT.

The show grants insight from four experts in the LSAT sphere, including one of our own resident LSAT gurus: Noah Teitelbaum, Director of Academics and co-creator of our curriculum.

Here are a few snippets of Noah-wisdom from the show, which can be listened to in its entirety on LawSchoolPodcaster.com:

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It only takes a few minutes browsing the Manhattan LSAT website to realize that we are extremely proud of our teachers. Not only are they 99th percentile LSAT gurus, but they’re seriously cool, too.

Exhibit B (see exhibit A):  Recently our Dmitry Farber was in Paris and partook in a little loose Jazz groove. That’s him on the mic.

Rock on, Dmitry. Rock on.

Growing up in the information age, there is no limit to the ways in which we rely upon the internet for answers. For better (or often, for worse), we’ll pump things in to Google for  instant information on an endless array of topics.

If you want to laugh, and if you’re able to see your recent searches, go ahead and take a look at the last 5 things you Googled…go ahead, do it! A friend of mine (seriously, a friend, not me) recently sent out a very funny email to a bunch of old college friends listing the last 10 phrases he’d searched for on Google. Among some other extremely funny terms that won’t be as humorous to those who don’t know him were “why is my poo green” and “how to make white rice”. Read more

You may have heard the news. At the end of a decade of soaring law school application numbers, they’ve finally started plummeting. Over the past two years, there has been a notable dip in the number of people taking the LSAT and, accordingly, the number applying to law school. Interestingly, it turns out that the greatest decrease has been among test-takers scoring highest on the test. The smallest change has been among students scoring at the low end. In other words, the potential 170s are mostly the ones deciding to forego law school. The potential 150s (and under) are still showing up.

I have been troubled over the past couple of weeks by the chatter about why this may be the case. The popular consensus that has emerged: the smart kids are “getting the memo” that law jobs are few and far between, so they’re moving on to do other things. Then there the dumb kids, who just don’t get it. They’re still applying. Read more

MUST. TEACH. LSAT. At Manhattan LSAT, teaching is an addiction. Yesterday we had the honor of doing a free LSAT workshop for the Stern Business and Law Association at New York University. Mary Adkins gave a lesson on Logic Games, as well as anecdotes her experiences at Yale Law School.

At Manhattan LSAT, teaching is what we do. If you have a group of people who are preparing for the LSAT, holler at us! We’d love to give a free workshop complete with pizza and trendy Manhattan LSAT sunglasses (see photo).

You can help us feed the monster by emailing StudentServices@manhattanprep.com/lsat/ to arrange a workshop with your student group or professional organization.

When I was in third grade, a lot of the kids dreaded going to Sunday School because it was boring. I dreaded it for another reason. At eight years old, I had become deeply skeptical about the existence of God. (Okay, maybe not that deeply.) This was particularly inconvenient as I was the minister’s daughter at our Baptist church. I was not supposed to be an atheist. Especially not before I was tall enough to ride most roller coasters, old enough to drink caffeine, or able to multiply by six without using my fingers.

So when my Sunday School teacher passed around bright, green, half-page sheets with the heading “Proof that God Exists” at the top, I couldn’t read fast enough. Proof! Here was proof! Give it to me!

Under the heading were several lines. They read (something like):

1. God is the greatest thing that can be conceived.
2. We conceive of God.
3. It is greater to exist in reality than only in the imagination.
4. Therefore, the being of which we can conceive must exist in reality. (Otherwise, we could conceive of something greater, which is impossible.)

On the bottom of the page was a single name: Anselm. Forget Madonna or Prince. Anselm was my new celebrity crush. Read more

A fun thing about law school is that you get to debate, with your classmates and professors, hot button legal issues in real time as they arise in the media.

Earlier this week, senior editor at Slate Emily Bazelon (who also teaches fantastic op-ed writing workshops at Yale Law School, by the way) published an op-ed in the Times on how the application of civil rights laws has become too far-reaching. Young people who act meanly, but not violently, are being prosecuted under these broadly written laws and, in turn, receiving sentences that are disproportionate (she argues) to their offenses. (Here’s the full article).

What do you make of this?

No doubt, many of you engage in discussions about issues like this one outside of law school. Say, at your family dinner table:

Uncle Frank: Did you hear? Some kid got 10 years for using a web cam!

Aunt Lucille: What’s a web cam?

Aunt Gladys: He didn’t GET 10 years, Frank. He COULD get 10 years. Read.

Uncle Frank: Whatever! Just because he doesn’t like gays. He’s entitled to his own opinion.

Aunt Lucille: More potatoes, anyone?

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