Deep breath. It’s not the end of the world, but it is surprising: LSAT testing center security has increased. Red Alert LSAT Geeks! LSAC now requires a full-body scan of anyone who enters the testing site. They will use the same equipment used in airports and all images will be reviewed by T14 law school graduates. Those who refuse the scan will be subjected to a hearty frisking. Not surprisingly, students are pretty angry; all of the test-takers from UC Berkeley have announced they will arrive in kilts and opt for the frisk.

No, no – it’s not that bad. But, it is slightly more inconvenient: you now need to bring a photo of yourself (along with your approved photo ID, your ticket, etc. – read about all of it on LSAC’s website). The picture must be of you within the last 6 months, and if right before test day you dye your hair, put your beard into dreadlocks, or pierce your forehead with a horseshoe, be sure to have  a picture of you with your new look. The photo needs to be no larger than 2 x 2 and no smaller than 1 x 1. Basically, get a passport photo. It’s definitely annoying – and what irks me most is that I now have to wonder whether people have actually gotten away with sending in an LSAT geek-double to take the test for them (or is the question, how many have gotten away with it?). Apparently, the usual photo ID and the affidavit that LSAC has you write in cursive were not enough to scare away evil-doers. (In case you’re wondering about the cursive requirement, studies prove that writing in cursive legitimizes a statement more than any other type of writing except for using Comic Sans.)

On a related ridiculous note, back in the 70s, a guy traveled the world using a passport in which he had replaced his photo with that of his dog. This speaks volumes for one of several things: the sense of security that existed in the world in the 70s despite the cold war, the theory that people look like their dogs, or the general state of that guy’s face or his dog’s.

So, off to your local drugstore for the picture. Say something witty as the camera clicks to bring a smile to your face as you prepare to destroy the LSAT on test day.

Ahh, Friday!   Even if your weekend is chock full of errands and preptests, you cannot tell me that the Friday air doesn’t smell a little fresher than that of its weekday brethren.

In that spirit, we wanted to share some more law school themed hilarity from the web:

Check out this music video titled “Law School State of Mind” set to the tune of Jay-Z’s “Empire State of Mind”.  Perhaps a cautionary tale?!

Even if you’re still an undergrad, these two videos from the hilarious and talented GW Law Revue might resonate with you.

The first is a “preview” about the horror of class without laptops .  This is right on the money. I once saw one of my ‘Psychology of Addiction’ classmates lose $750 in one lecture on pokerstars.com…

Ever shotgun a can of red bull in order to maintain your all night study session?  You’ll definitely appreciate where these guys are coming from.

Happy Friday!

Don't Get Left Out of the Admissions Equation

Remember the good old days of the SAT exam, when there was no such thing as taking the test too many times?  Didn’t do so hot the first time?  No worries, you could buy books, prep courses, private tutoring and acupuncture until you were where you needed to be score wise. In terms of the LSAT, though, students often ask: “Should I take the LSAT more than once?”

In the LSAT world, the policies of admissions offices are not nearly so cut and dry.  Some schools will indeed take your highest score, while others will take the average of all the LSATs you’ve sat for.  Other admissions offices we called claim to take a “Holistic” approach to reviewing your application (my guess is that this involves lots of yoga and meditation, but perhaps there is a different interpretation!).

Check out today’s post on JD Mission’s blog for a list of the top 15 schools and what their policies are.  JDMission is a law school admissions counseling firm that offers end to end admissions consulting services from a team of accomplished legal professionals and law school experts.

Apparently, everybody is writing a book these days. John Beer, our Chicago teacher-poet penned an award-winning collection of poems. And LSAC released another book of LSATs. These are the most current ones out there (I guess I could be referring to John’s poems, but I’m talking about the LSATs now). The nice thing about this is that all of these tests included a comparative passage in the reading comprehension section. It’s good to get more practice with this passage type. LSAC started using those in June 2007, so there aren’t  too many examples out there.

The other good news is that this is another way to study on the cheap! Since so many LSAT preppers are ramen-noodle fueled college students, let me outline a cheapo method for prepping for the LSAT on your own:

1. Buy some LSATs: 10 More… The Next 10… and, introducing…. 10 New Actual LSAT PrepTests w/Comparative Reading. (Only a lawyer could appreciate these gripping titles.) By the way, you can no doubt get most of these on Amazon for cheaper. Also, you can buy some pretty cool collections of questions from Cambridge LSAT – (if you go this route, you probably you won’t need the first book above, 10 More…)

2. Buy our guides. (And hey, go right ahead and save a few bucks and buy them on Amazon – let’s be real.)

3. Download our syllabus (you get free access to a syllabus and a bunch of online resources when you buy our books). Follow the directions. Stir frequently over medium-high flame.

All in all, this should cost you about $120. Then, if you need to, you can buy recordings of our classes for a couple of hundred. Boom, you’ve got quite an arsenal.

Anyway, congrats, LSAC! I will say that the covers are getting increasingly depressing, but let’s face it, this is the LSAT, not The Master and Margarita (my favorite book).

Tools of the Trade

At Manhattan LSAT we are constantly swelling with pride over the achievements of our instructors. If you’ve ever spoken with us about them, you’ve probably  noticed that we fancy them quite a bit! We’re lucky to have so many incredibly intelligent, talented, and downright fascinating individuals on our team.

A recent example of our collective Manhattan LSAT-instructor-coolness takes us deep in to the world of metaphor and rhyme. John Beer, a Manhattan LSAT teacher in Chicago, has recently been given the Norma Farber First Book Award for his book, The Waste Land And Other Poems, The Norma Farber Award is given annually to one exceptional poet who has published their first book of original American poetry.  John will be traveling to New York City in April to accept the award.

I’ve been treating myself to a healthy sized sample of these poems for the last week or so and have thoroughly enjoyed the experience.

There is even an entire section toward the end of the book called “Sonnets to Morpheus”.  Yep, that’s a Matrix reference!

We’re so incredibly proud of John. I would encourage any of you who are interested in poetry to check out his book, available on Amazon.

Harvard’s Stephen Burt has written a review of The Waste Land And Other Poems for bostonreview.net (scroll down a little ways until you see John’s name in the subheading)

Our last self-study group continue to do logic games together, years later.

Man is a social animal. And women are too, but more polite usually. And thus it makes sense that you might be hankering for a group to study with. Let’s face it: the LSAT might not make you feel so good about yourself, especially if it’s forcing you into a dark cave of untamed intellectual training. Have no fear. We’re psyched to put you in touch with some other LSAT geeks and let you get your prep on together.

We’re starting up a group in a weekend or two. You’ll all meet in an online classroom on Sundays (or more often if you like), work on assigned problems together, and one of our teachers will come and help out the group every few sessions.

This might be the motivation you’re looking for. (Or, perhaps this is how you’ll find your soul mate. And, if you do end up hooking up with someone in a serious way, bravo – you took LSAT prep to a whole new level – and you need to invite us to the wedding if you can get over your fear of commitment.) One of the benefits of this arrangement is that you end up having to explain ideas to other students (that’s a part of our classes as well).The other is that you are more likely to do the work if there’s a group that’s going to cheer you – or give you an awkward silence when you haven’t done squat.

We’ll assign you some HW, we’ll toss your group some surprise problems to work on, and we’ll mail out stickers (no, we won’t – grow up).

If you want to join up – shoot an e-mail to studentservices(@)manhattanprep.com/lsat/ and we’ll plug you in.

It’s going to be fun – and serious. And free to anyone who owns a shred of one of our books, self-study courses, or is a course student. Buckle up.

The NFL labor dispute, summed up in one simple drawing

What do you want to do with your J.D.?  That’s the $250,000 question for most of you. After all, there has to be an end game to all of this LSAT prep madness. The truth is, a legal education can take you many places that you may have thought previously unattainable.  See exhibit A: NFL stardom.

Unbeknownst to most National Football League fans around the country today, the most important players to the future of the NFL are not named Brady or Manning, and are not getting paid tens of millions of dollars to chase a ball around. The future of the NFL actually lies in the hands of several attorneys, mediators, and decision makers who – not unlike yourselves – were recently sweating through many an LSAT workout routine.

The NFL is in the midst of the most crucial labor disputes in the history of American sports.  The NFL Players Union and the NFL owner’s are intensely negotiating how they are going to split the 9 billion dollars in revenue that the league rakes in per year. Read more

We all knew “that guy” (or girl) who couldn’t get enough of their own voice and opinion in the classroom. When the Professor asked a question, they would invariably raise their hand with a fervor and energy that can only be matched by a pack of twelve-year-old girls at a Justin Bieber concert.  They had the answer to every question, studied twice as much as you for every test, and were – at least in their own minds – destined for greater things than you.

Cee Lo Green

Well my law school hopeful friends, I have some good news and some bad news; first the bad: you will undoubtedly encounter these folks in large numbers as you journey through law school.  So prevalent are these Poindexter’s that  law school students have even come up with a term for them: gunners.

The good news?! You and your other, non over-zealous classmates have several years of jokes to make at their expense! See exhibit A: an incredibly talented group of George Washington University students have put together an excellent tribute to these classroom legends set to the tune of Cee Lo Green’s Grammy nominated mega hit “F*** You’.

Enjoy!

There's a lighthouse at the end of the tunnel.

Yes, it is time.

Look deep into your heart, young LSAT-geek, and commit!

Start by taking a diagnostic test and seeing how long the road ahead is. If you don’t know squat about the LSAT, read our intro guide, and perhaps attend a free workshop.

If you’re not some super standardized test geek, you’ll need some prep materials. At a minimum, buy some guides and some practice tests. (As you can imagine, we like ours – especially our new Logical Reasoning Guide – a.k.a. the Beast – but apparently there are some other good ones out there).

Along with this more formal LSAT prep, start improving your brain. Put aside your young adult fiction. Yes, set aside Twilight and Hunger Games (and if you haven’t read Hunger Games, you really should, but after the LSAT). Instead, pick up the Economist, Smithsonian, Foreign Affairs (not as sexy as it sounds, sorry), Scientific American, and a few other academic journals. It will fill your head with interesting facts and train you to keep focused as you work through tough texts. Here’s a bit more on good LSAT reading choices.

On your way back from the library, stop off at the gym and start doing that frequently. Study after study shows that exercise helps your brain grow new connections. Here’s a recent NY Times article about walking and your hippocampus.

Now, you’re healthy, you’re carrying some snobby reading material, it’s time for the more formal stuff. Start up a weekly schedule of studying – and I mean actually set a schedule. How many hours on which days. Start easy on the practice tests – I would recommend one every 2-3 weeks for now, increasing to 1+ per week in the last 6 weeks. Remember to study strategies, then implement them with practice sets, then integrate them into practice tests. And review those tests deeply!

But, once again, in answer to your question. Yes. Begin!

“For never was there a story of more woe, than that of Villanova and the LSAT scores they show”

Villanova Law School has recently made headlines after their dean, John Y. Gotanda, wrote a letter to students and alumni admitting that members of the school staff had knowingly passed along bogus data about the GPAs and LSAT scores of the students they admitted “for years prior to 2010”.

In the letter, Gotanda promised that the university would deal with these deceitful acts “swiftly and thoroughly”.  Apparently Gotanda went so far as to retain the legal counsel of Ropes & Gray to determine the “nature and scope” of the data fudging.

Lest we forget, the US News and World Report weighs LSAT and GPA scores quite heavily in their evaluations of the top schools in the country. Love them or hate them, these rankings are widely considered to be the authority in determining who is who among institutions of higher education.

So a law school has been inflating the GPA and LSAT statistics of their admitted classes in order to achieve a higher ranking from US News and World Report – hardly earth shattering news there! You can bet that Villanova is not the only law school out there that has “cooked the books” when it comes to the LSAT and GPA statistics of their students, and in my opinion, Gotanda deserves some credit for coming clean about these past transgressions (although this confession must have been made easier by the fact that Gotanda was not the dean of the school at the time of these forgeries).

What’s more important to glean from this article is the fact that – despite flashes of opinion that suggest otherwise – the LSAT remains as important today as it has ever been when it comes to differentiating oneself from the rest of the law school applicant pool. If a prestigious institution is willing to risk its good name through dishonest LSAT and GPA reporting, imagine how favorably they will look upon an applicant with the type of LSAT score they are pretending their students have.

Here are some interesting tidbits on this story from across the web:

//www.abajournal.com/news/article/new_villanova_law_dean/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=ABA+Journal+Daily+News&utm_content=Netvibes

//articles.philly.com/2011-02-09/business/27328846_1_director-of-data-research-rankings-law-placement

//www.collegenews.com/index.php?/article/villanova_law_law_school_rankings_11777/