Many schools enter, but only one makes it to the top

It’s that time of year again, when all the hard work that law schools do gets acknowledged, along with the work their students put in before they were ever accepted.  The US News and World Report 2010 Law School Rankings are up for your review!

What is all of that hard work that schools and their students do?  If you’re an LSAT student (aspirant?), you might think it’s all about you, your LSAT score and your GPA.  It turns out that we in the LSAT game are not the center of the universe! LSAT scores and GPAs, while perhaps representing 90% of how a law school measures its applicants, are only 25% of how US News measures a law school.

Here’s what US News look at and how important each factor is to a school’s overall ranking: Read more

Only the flexible will survive

We’re getting a lot of questions like this: “I’ve already read the Powerscore Bibles and I’m worried that it’ll be confusing if I now read the Atlas books,” so I figured I’d address this here so that we can send folks to read this if they have that same question.

First the bad news: if you’re about 2 weeks from the LSAT, don’t try to add on our books to what you’ve learned. We love to have people use our books and self-study courses, but at that point in the studying process, you should be solidifying what you’ve already learned, not adding on more.

Now, the good news: If you have more time than that, those students who have previously read the Powerscore Bibles – we call them “refugees” – reported that 1) they found our books to be helpful and generally more useful, and 2) they were able to resolve the differences in the two approaches. Read more

Definitely not. Now that all of the follies of April Fool’s has quieted down, it’s time to get focused on the June LSAT.

If you’ve only bought an LSAT book thus far and sorta-kinda-maybe took one official practice LSAT exam (with a teeeeeny, quick Facebook session thrown in — Admit it. You know you did.), it really isn’t too late.

You’ve got almost 2 months left. It won’t be easy to learn all there is to know about the LSAT, but if you are mentally committed, you can still do well. The June administration is one of the most popular dates because most students figure that if they don’t do well, they can re-take the LSAT in September.

We’ve got an intense NYC 3-Weekend LSAT Bootcamp beginning May 8th and a Live Online LSAT Course beginning on April 24th. These courses are comprehensive and will structure your studies from now until the June exam. Both courses are taught by our awesome 99th percentile teachers and feature our flexible, 170+ focused curriculum and strategy guides with 28 Practice LSATs. If courses aren’t your style, our Self-Study options fit most students needs.

For upcoming course schedules in your area, select your location on the map: Find me an LSAT Course!

Good luck!

Spring has tentatively sprung here in our New York City Headquarters and we couldn’t be more thrilled. It’s time to pack away those down coats and bust out your LSAT books! For those of you who are fortunate to find yourselves on the West Coast, you all enjoy this weather all day, everyday right? I’d insert an audio clip of Tupac here, but I think there are more pressing concerns because there are only 80 days til the June 2010 LSAT! Have you started studying yet?

If you haven’t begun yet, fear not my California friends, because Atlas is going to Cali!

Atlas LSAT is launching our exceptional LSAT course in Los Angeles, San Diego, Irvine, and Berkeley at the end of this month. We’re excited to bring our course to warmer pastures.

Join us for a free Trial Class or Workshop to see how Atlas LSAT will better prepare you for the June LSAT. Our teachers have all scored 172+ (99th percentile) on the LSAT and our classes are small and rigorous.

>> The trial class is session #1 of our 12 Session LSAT Prep Course. Attend this trial class to:

• Introduce yourself to the Atlas LSAT 170+ focused Curriculum
• Receive free access to the LSAT Starter Kit, which features a practice LSAT exam, a proctor video, and detailed preptest explanations
• Experience the discussion-based teaching style
• Learn strategies to solve logic games and logical reasoning questions using real LSAT questions
• Receive prep course discounts

Select a link below to sign up. We hope to see you there!

• Free LSAT Workshop at UC Berkeley – 3/21/2010
• Trial Class at UC Irvine  – 3/31/2010
• Trial Class at UC San Diego – 4/5/2010
• Trial Class at UCLA – 4/8/10
• Trial Class at UC Berkeley – 4/11/10

Good luck to everyone already studying for the June LSAT! If you need explanations when you review your practice tests, visit our LSAT Forum!

P.S. Ok, a little Tupac didn’t hurt anyone: California Love!

When I first started preparing for the LSAT, I found myself a little frustrated by the logic games section in particular but also by the logical reasoning component of the test. What, I asked, could this possibly have to do with who is ready or able to go to law school? In particular, I ruefully compared the LSAT to other exams for professional school admissions, such as the MCAT and GMAT, which test more substantive knowledge about chemistry or specific mathematical formulas, directly relevant to coursework in medical and business schools. I thought the LSAT had little to do with law school and was something of a throwaway, but the more time I spend in law school (I’m a 3L) the more I think this is not really the case.

Logic Games?!

The skills learned for logic games have been quite helpful in two ways, one tactical and one practical. The tactical skill the logic games taught me was the habit of developing a system for organizing information and spelling out relationships. Lots of times on law school exams professors give you a problem that has several ambiguities, and these ambiguities can link up. The best answers are the ones that figure out the ramifications of every likely (that is legally colorable) argument. For example, did the parties form a contract for a lease of the house or didn’t they? And in either case, when one party moved in and then damaged the door, did that party do so negligently? What ramifications are there for each party under the four potential combinations of resolutions to these two questions? Is your head spinning yet? Read more

I wrote a while back about our selection process //www.atlaslsat.com/lsat/blog/index.php/2009/11/16/what-makes-for-a-good-lsat-teacher/ but an article in the Sunday NY Times Magazine made me think some more about what makes for great LSAT teaching: //www.nytimes.com/2010/03/07/magazine/07Teachers-t.html?ref=magazine

Doug Lemov, the main subject of the article, went around and videotaped teachers to create a catalog of effective teaching moves.  He actually filmed me when I used to teach 5th and 6th grade math at North Star Academy in Newark (if I recall, it’s a clip of me telling a kid to sit down — over and over again).  I truly admire Doug’s work — it provides a way to look at and work on some of the tangible ingredients that make a teacher great, and thus, students learn.  At times, I find the focus on moves a bit too narrow, but as the article suggests, the moves are just part of the package — a teacher needs to know the content backwards and forwards, and have a great curriculum.

It turns out that a lot of the moves that are effective in a middle school math classroom are the same ones that make an LSAT classroom work.  Not that we need to tell students to sit down (or at least not over and over again), but keeping every student engaged is part of an Atlas LSAT teacher’s job.  Sure, people who sign up for an LSAT class are self-motivated, but if they’re bored they’re bored!  So, cold-calling (read the article) is needed for adults too!  Be ready, the next question may be yours….

The February LSAT gets a bad rep for no good reason.  I assure you, it’s just another LSAT (which may or may not make it worth a bad rep), but for one of my students the test was fine, but the test-center was awful.  After an unexpected re-assignment to a location in a galaxy far, far away, my student — let’s call him Luke — found himself in a large auditorium.  OK, that’s not so far out of the range of expectations.  But, these auditorium seats were not built for the LSAT.  The little flip-up desk seat was about half the size of the LSAT paper!  So, not only did the 80 or so victims in there have to deal with the LSAT, but they were subjected to a constant spatial-relations puzzle/dance-dance revolution game in which you scored points by being able to keep your test on the table so that you could actually  bubble in your answers.

Alright, perhaps he’s a whiner.  When I was a kid we had to take the LSAT in a pool, walking uphill.  But then partway through the first section – RC for him — the radiator started a John Cage piece.  Many a New Yorker is well-accustomed to falling asleep to the erratic — erotic? — banging of the building’s heating system, but apparently this one was so loud that the test-takers revolted and the proctors paused the test at the end of the section to bring in an engineer.  While the engineers calmed the angry beast, the hapless prisoner — at least those following the rules –were not allowed to go to the bathroom since this was not an “official” break.

At least 10% of the test-takers simply walked out of the room and canceled on the spot.  Luke tells me he couldn’t finish that first section, which is unheard of for him, though he totally rocked the rest of the exam.  Alas Luke, go and seek your LSAT destiny in June!  And for everyone else, read up on your testing site (and rate yours) on this test-center-ranking site.

//lsatblog.blogspot.com/2010/01/logical-reasoning-vocabulary-words.html

I just saw a good blog post listing vocabulary words that you should have under your belt for the LSAT.   Take a look and see if you really know all of them.  Thanks for the list, Steve!

Houston, Here We Come!

Hey, we’re ready to mess with Texas!  We’ve added a great teacher to our ranks, Joey Ndu!  He’s a true test whiz with years of teaching experience and a really great demeanor in the classroom.  He’s a natural fit with our team, as he works hard to get students to figure out things for themselves.

We’re looking for a class location around University of Houston, and we’ll announce when we’ve found our home.  Stay tuned, Texas!

P.S. Austin is next . . .

As the February LSAT quickly approaches, I have been fielding many calls from worried and anxious students each day here. To be fair, test anxiety is real and we all want to excel in areas where we have invested considerable time, mental energy, and money. The LSAT and all of its test-takers are no different. However, what I have been recommending to students is to keep in mind the concept of attribution theory, especially for all you Type-A students out there.

What this means in lay-man terms is (pardon the language):  Suck it up. Know what you can and can’t control. Be honest about your skills and your ability to excel. Be prepared for the worst because Murphy’s Law is alive and kicking.

I realize that this is much easier said than done, but cultivate your own fearlessness. Successful people do not believe in external attributions. Successful people believe that their successes are a result of 3 things: Read more