I Want to be Famous So I Will Be (Wait… No)
Sometimes I find myself telling people (er, myself?) that I’m not writing my novel to make money. If that were my motivation I’d almost certainly write about vampires or shades of colors. But hey, if my novel sells a million copies, and I get to retire at 30, who’s complaining?
Here’s the thing: just because I’m not writing a book in order to make money doesn’t mean it couldn’t happen. This personal example is now becoming uncomfortable for me so I’m going to move on.
Logical reasoning questions can sometimes hinge on understanding this difference. I’m talking about the difference between being motivated by a certain goal and actually achieving it, even though it wasn’t your motivation or primary motivation.
Say I’m stranded on the far end of a deserted island and have to trek a hundred miles by foot to the nearest small society of humans, picking berries I hope aren’t poisonous along the way, befriending my hand to fulfill socialization needs. When I finally get there and yell, “There is a group of us stranded on the other side of the island!” and someone says, “You lost weight. You look fit,” will I say, “No, I didn’t! That wasn’t my goal!”? No, I’ll say, “Yeah, I’m sure I did because I was starving.”
Just because it wasn’t my goal doesn’t mean it didn’t or can’t happen; and just because it does happen doesn’t mean it was my goal. These are separate things.
Be careful for this distinction on the LSAT. For a couple of examples, see Preptest 66, section 4, question 22, and Preptest 42, section 2, question 15.
Free LSAT Events This Week: Dec 10 – Dec 16
Here are the free LSAT events we’re holding this week. All times local unless otherwise specified.
12/10/12 – New York, NY – Free Trial Class – 6:30-9:30 PM
12/10/12 – Online – Free Trial Class – 8:00-10:00 PM (EST)
12/10/12 – Online – Free Games Intensive Trial Class – 8:00-11:00 PM (EST)
12/15/12 – Santa Monica, CA – Free Proctored LSAT – 6:00-10:00 PM
Looking for more free events? Check out our Free Events Listings Page.
Friday Links: Keeping In Touch with Professors, Law School Application Stats, and More!
Looking to kill time while you wait for your December LSAT scores to come in? Have a look at some of our favorite law-related articles from the week:
In Lean Times for Law Schools, an Opportunity (The New York Times Deal Book)
Thinking of applying to law school? Stats show that applicants who score well on the LSAT may have a better shot at getting into a top-tier law school and receiving a generous financial aid package than in years past.
The Short on Long-Term Planning: Keep in Touch with Former Professors (jdMission)
There are a number of reasons why you should not lose contact with your undergrad professors after a class ends. If you’re planning to apply to law school, perhaps the most practical reason is that you may eventually want to ask them for letters of recommendation.
A Possible Head Start for Law Students (The National Law Journal)
One of the top stories the law school news this week discusses whether third-year law students should be allowed to sit for the bar before graduation. Proponents at the University of Arizona argue that this change will give students a head start on the job search.
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Solid Advice from Someone Who Has Been There
Like any good marketer, I try to keep my ear to the ground to make sure I’m aware of the relevant pre-law/LSAT prep chatter that is happening out there on
Advice
the interwebs. One bastion of such pre-law babble is the inimitable (if not insane) Top Law School Forums.
A recent thread started by a forum user called “piney” provided some insight that I could not have written better myself, in a thread called “My advice to future test takers”. I was so impressed with the advice that I reached out to the author in order to get his buy-in on me sharing his advice on our blog. Turns out his name is Michael C. and he was fine with us sharing his astute insights with you all. Thanks, Michael!
We know Michael is a smart, credible, intelligent guy because he studied using Manhattan LSAT books (hehe). Here are his insights, with a bit of commentary from me in italics (you can read his thread in full here):
1) Get used to an analog watch. With the stop watch, I knew exactly how much time I had spent on each question and how much time I had to go. That’s not as easy to calculate with an analog watch, and the proctor won’t write a stop and finish time fo(r) you on the board. You get a 5 minute warning, which is really only enough time to panic if you have an entire logic game left because you couldn’t keep track of time.
Most students will score 2-5 points lower than their PT average on test day. There are loads of theories as to why this is — nerves, crappy proctors, etc. — so why not prepare in a way that will make you as comfortable as possible on test day? To me, this includes getting comfortable with your timing mechanism. So important is the whole watch thing that there is an entire company, LSAT TIMER, that sells watches calibrated for 35-minute intervals specifically for taking the LSAT!
2) When I practiced, I made the mistake of checking my answers after each section right away. This usually put me at ease, because of the five or six questions I was unsure of, I usually got most of them right and moved on to the next section with confidence. You won’t be able to do that on the test. The doubt and uncertainty you have about your performance accumulates with each section, and you lose confidence very quickly. By the third section, I started to worry I might not even be able to apply this cycle (I’m 27 right now, so that’s a big deal for me). I have no idea whether I scored a 175 or a 165, and that anxiety will stay with me until January.
Again, it’s important to follow game-day protocols while practicing. Some level of test-day anxiety is unavoidable, but you can eliminate aspects of it by being diligent in your practice habits. Perfect segue to advice nugget #3…
3) Take preptests in uncomfortable and unfamiliar environments, not your dorm room or library. If you can, take your test in a classroom with no windows in a building you’ve never been in before. That’s what test centers are like.
Manhattan LSAT offers free proctored exams at our locations across the country. If we have one in your city, consider signing up. It’s free!
4) Don’t expect your proctor to put you at ease. The strictness of the procedures makes you anxious from the start. You realize LSAC trusts no one and automatically assumes you’re there to cheat the system. Expect to have an excentric (sic) and snippy PhD watching your every move for 3 hours, and a large group of Saturday morning volunteers who don’t know the procedures and can offer no help.
This is not a one-off experience; I constantly hear tales of the proctor from hell. Expect the unexpected on the proctor front.
5) Don’t wait until December to take the test like I did. If this had been June, I could have told myself during the test that I had two more chances to get a higher score. But when I started to worry I was doing badly and knew there was no chance of redemption, I became depressed very quickly, and this probably hurt my performance.
This is a nice piece of long term advice for those of you reading this blog as part of your pre-planning efforts. Knowing you have an administration or two “in the bank” in case you don’t do well can sometimes go a long way in calming your LSAT nerves.
Friday Links: Tips for LSAT Test Day, Personal Statements, and More!
The December LSAT is tomorrow! Best of luck to everyone taking it and don’t forget to check out our archive for Three Things You Should Do to Prepare for LSAT Test Day (And One Thing You Absolutely Should Not). Today is a day to relax so put down the prep books and check out some of our favorite articles from the week:
Law School is Worth the Money (The New York Times)
The dean of Case Western Reserve University’s law school makes his case for why students should not be discouraged from attending law school
2012 What’s Hot and What’s Not (Attorney at Work)
Trying to decide which area of law you want to practice? Attorney at Work turned to information from clients and leaders in the legal profession to compile a list of legal sectors that are really heating up (and some that are cooling down).
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Come One, Come All! A Universal Tip for LSAT Takers
In the week before the LSAT, I’m always inclined to write last-minute tips, but I’ve done that already and you can read them here. This week I want to offer a tip both for those of you cramming a few last days of study in before Saturday and those of you beginning to prepare for the February test.
The tip is: don’t study badly.
A friend who tutored the LSAT for years used to tell her students that the worst thing they could do is study while doing something else: watching TV, listening to music, tuning out a conversation (that you’re not really tuning out, because how possible is that, really?). Her tough-love line was, if you aren’t going to study well, don’t at all. It’s worse to develop bad habits and associations around the test than it is just to study less.
I’ve come to see her point. When I talk to people who don’t understand why their scores aren’t going up, it often goes like this. They tell me that they study all the time! They use the strategies! They have read the guides cover to cover and highlighted! But then I hear, well, sure, I have Pandora on. I study during Project Runway–but I’ve seen them all before so it’s not even like it’s suspenseful! I just like having it on in the background?
You know what I say to this? Auf wiedersehen, 170+.
When you devote half your attention to a task, you’re saying that that task doesn’t demand your full brainpower. This may work when you’re talking to your mom on the phone and washing dishes, or reading Gawker and keeping an eye on the phone to see if that certain person texts, or cleaning your roommate’s toothpaste off the sink while plotting his “accidental” demise, but the LSAT isn’t a stubborn clump of Colgate or a story about your Uncle Clifford’s mystery mole. It’s an endurance test designed to challenge the best and brightest minds intellectually, emotionally (anxiety is probably the number one issue students want to discuss one-on-one) and physically. You don’t train for a marathon by stopping every two miles to update your Facebook status, and you can’t successfully study for the LSAT by half-heartedly committing to your preparation.
Easier said than done, I realize. Believe me–I spent twenty years doing exactly what I’m saying you shouldn’t. I wrote college papers to Michael Jackson denying he’s Billie Jean’s baby daddy and Bono’s stalking. Do you know when I stopped? When I was studying for the LSAT. I had already graduated from college when I learned that I wasn’t going to get by on half-braining it, because when I did, I missed twice as many questions as when I found a quiet space and focused. That remains true today.
So close the door to your bedroom–your dog will be fine–get a big, bright lamp and a little pair of bright orange ear plugs if you have to, and set a reasonable goal: I’ll do this for thirty-five minutes. One section. See what a difference it makes. And good luck.
Free LSAT Events This Week: Nov 26 – Dec 2
Here are the free LSAT events we’re holding this week.
11/27/12 – New York, NY – Free Trial Class – 6:30-9:30 PM
11/27/12 – Online – Free Trial Class – 8:00-11:00 PM
11/28/12 – Washington, D.C. – Free Trial Class – 6:30-9:30 PM
11/28/12 – Irvine, CA – Free Trial Class – 6:30-9:30 PM
11/28/12 – Los Angeles, CA – Free Trial Class – 6:30-9:30 PM
11/29/12 – La Jolla, CA – Free Trial Class – 6:30-9:30 PM
Looking for more free events? Check out our Free Events Listings Page.
Friday Links: Law School Admissions, Memorization tips, The Future of Legal Education, and More!
Happy Friday everyone! Celebrate the end of the week by checking out some of top stories about legal education and the LSAT: 
Top Five Factors Take Into Account by Law School Admissions (JD Journal)
Can you list the top five factors that are weighed the heaviest by law school admissions teams? We’ll start you off with the number one factor: LSAT score!
Countdown to the LSAT: What you Need to Do Between Now & Test Day (Law School Podcaster)
If you didn’t get the chance earlier this week, be sure to stop by Law School Podcaster to listen to Manhattan LSAT’s Executive Director of Academics, Noah Teitelbaum, for some advice for mapping out an LSAT study plan.
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The LSAT is a Cruise, Not T.G.I. Fridays
I came upon a great question on our forum that I want to bring up here, because there’s a valuable lesson in it. A student asked:
On the LSAT, when you have a constraint that says “T is performed EITHER immediately before F OR immediately after R” does that mean there is a potential for an RTF block? Or is that eliminated because of the EITHER/OR language?
LSAT guru Mike Kim answered:
On the LSAT, the statement either/or does not inherently rule out the possibility of both (though sometimes other factors, such as the design of the game itself, do “naturally” limit the possibility of both).
Not Pictured: The LSAT
Mike went on to use a great example of soup or salad on a menu. If you’re at a restaurant and given the option of ordering a soup or salad with your entree, does that mean you can have both? Not unless the waiter thinks you’re cute. You have to pick one or the other (or pay more). That’s the T.G.I.Friday’s Or.
The LSAT Or is not the T.G.I.Friday’s Or. The LSAT Or is the Cruise Or. I’m told (as I’ve yet to cruise) that on a luxury ship, as the ventriloquist makes you cackle so hard you spit out your unlimited soda, “soup or salad” means you can also have both (gluttonous places that cruise ships are). The same definition applies on the LSAT. As Mike indicated, unless there are other restrictions in the game that prevent “both” from being an option, the “either/or” language itself does not prevent it. Both is possible.
In case this post left you wanting to go on a cruise (think of all that simultaneous consumption of clam chowder and iceberg…), I recommend David Foster Wallace’s essay “Shipping Out.” It may change your mind. It’s also very good.
Law School Transparency Score Reports: A New Way to Compare Law Schools
Last week, Law School Transparency rolled out a new tool for prospective law school students to help guide application and enrollment decisions. While many students turn to U.S. News & World Report’s annual law school rankings, LST hopes that their Score Reports will reduce the influence of U.S. News by providing more detailed comparisons. Instead of comparing law schools based solely on traditional factors like LSAT scores and undergraduate grade-point averages, LST Score Reports sort schools according to employment outcomes, projected costs, and admissions stats.
Using LST’s Score Reports, prospective students can click on any state on the country map and receive a comprehensive chart that shows the relationship between regional law schools and employment percentages in that specific state. This way, students can essentially select where they want to land their future law career and see which schools will give them the best opportunity for employment.
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