Free LSAT Events This Week: Nov 12 – 18
Here are the free LSAT events we’re holding this week.
11/17/12 – Washington, D.C. – Free Proctored LSAT Exam – 6:00-10:00 PM
11/17/12 – Santa Monica, CA. – Free Proctored LSAT Exam – 6:00-10:00 PM
11/17/12 – San Diego, CA. – Free Proctored LSAT Exam – 9:30 AM-1:30 PM
11/17/12 – Irvine, CA. – Free Proctored LSAT Exam – 9:30 AM-1:30 PM
Looking for more free events? Check out our Free Events Listings Page.
Friday Links: Letters of Reference, Personal Statements, Law School Trends and More!
As we near the end of this week, we again hope that those affected by Hurricane Sandy are making a progressive recovery and that life is returning to as close to normal as possible. To help everyone ease back into the usual routine, we’ve complied our weekly list of law school and LSAT-related links:
Telling Your Story: Avoiding Oversimplification, Part 2 of 3 (jdMission)
As you’re filling out law school applications and writing your personal statements, take a moment to stop by jdMission for some tips for avoiding oversimplification of your essay.
Read more
Perspective Reminder This Week
It’s been a hard week for the east coast, and here in New York, the difficulties range from inconvenient to catastrophic. Volunteer and donation opportunities abound, and with neighbors in such dire need, it feels strange to write about the LSAT.
You’re hopefully already taking a break from study to vote, but if you, like me, are finding it difficult to focus when the need around us is so desperate in places, consider taking some time to step away from the test to volunteer.
Donation opportunities:
Volunteer opportunities in NY/NJ:
And for a quick read that finds the silver lining in hardship, I recommend Mei Mei Fox’s 5 Spiritual Lessons from Hurricane Sandy.
Life After the October LSAT
After a Sandy-induced delay, October LSAT scores were released last week. To those of you who rocked the test to your satisfaction, congratulations! Time to get thinking about the rest of your application.
For those of you with more LSAT work to do still, we’re here for you. Whether you’re still having nightmares about zones, or you simply want some help deciding whether or not you should retake, I strongly encourage you to attend our free, live online review of the October LSAT. This Thurssday evening (8pm EST) Manhattan Prep’s Executive Director of Academics, Noah Teitelbaum, will cover some of the more challenging questions from the October exam, as well as provide some perspective for your retake decision. The best part? It’s completely free to sign up!
Hurricane Sandy May Delay October LSAT Score Release, LSAC Says
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.
Happy Hal-LAW-een!
News flash: Halloween is tomorrow! Presumably, you’ve been too wrapped up in LSAT prep to even take the time to brainstorm costume ideas. 
But don’t worry, we’ve got your back. How about dressing up as a funny, scary, or realistic version of your future self? Or a popular legal reference? Here’s some inspiration to get your creative juices flowing:
- Colonial Lawyer: Take the traditional route and pop on a black robe and white collar and wig.
- My Cousin Vinny: Plenty of options for this one. You could go with the all black ensemble (black pants, leather jacket, and silver belt and chain) or you could spice it up with a brown/orange suit, complete with a matching bowtie, white button-down, and heavy New York accent.
- A Lawsuit: Wear a suit and attach legal documents all over it (Amendments of the Constitution, the UCC, Restatement of Torts) .
- The Second Amendment: Wear a sleeveless shirt.
- The Socratic Method: Get a white sheet from the linen closet and style a Greek toga. Sling a colored sash around your shoulder with the word “method” written across it.
- Judge: A white, curly wig, pair of glasses, white turtleneck, and black robe should do the trick. Add some pizzazz by adopting a New York accent and calling yourself Judy.
- Elle Woods: Bring out anything and everything pink. Pink dress, skirt, shirt, heels, and hat. If you’re not a natural blonde, grab a wig, as this is a pretty essential part of the costume. Don’t forget to pick up a Chihuahua and dress him in a matching pink outfit.
- The Lazy Lawyer: For those who want something more subtle or are just too lazy to put a complete costume together, throw on the shirt pictured above from Zazzle.com.
- Yourself: If you don’t fancy the whole costume idea, just go as the studious LSAT student that you are. Accessorize with you’re pencils, stopwatch, and Manhattan LSAT Strategy guides.
Already have your costume picked and ready to go? We’d love to hear your ideas! Leave us a comment or tweet @Manhattanlsat
Free LSAT Events This Week: Oct. 29 – Nov 4
Here are the free LSAT events we’re holding this week.
10/30/12 – Los Angeles, CA – Free Trial Class – 6:30-9:30 PM
11/3/12 – Washington, D.C. – Free Proctored LSAT Exam – 6:00-10:00 PM
11/3/12 – Santa Monica, CA – Free Proctored LSAT Exam – 6:00-10:00 PM
11/3/12 – Irvine, CA – Free Proctored LSAT Exam – 9:30 AM – 1:30 PM
11/3/12 – La Jolla, CA – Free Proctored LSAT Exam – 9:30 AM – 1:30 PM
Looking for more free events? Check out our Free Events Listings Page.
The Life of the Law: An Unstuffy Look at Law
Law doesn’t just happen in courtrooms and legislative buildings. It’s actually all around us, and a new radio and multimedia project in which one of our instructors (and frequent contributor to this blog), Mary Adkins, is involved explores all the ways in which that’s true.
The Life of the Law may interest many of you, particularly those of you who have gotten into the podcast craze–season one of their podcast just wrapped up, and all the episodes are available on the site.
For a contemplation of just how broad “the law” is, check out in particular Mary’s ongoing photo series, What The Law Looks Like. Here are a few of her shots:
Dump At Your Own Risk
Waiting to Cross
Friday Links: Networking, Studying, Recommendation Letters and More!
Still waiting for your October LSAT score? Pass the time by catching up with some of this week’s top stories about legal education. Happy Reading!
Network ‘Yer Face Off! (Legal Skills Prof Blog)
LSAT scores will be here...soon
Legal Skills Prof Blog has some great advice for law students hoping to secure a job upon graduation. It’s all about networking!
The Shift Toward Law School Specialization(The New York Times Deal Book Blog)
Are general professional degrees in law a thing of the past? Find out how law schools are restructuring their curriculums to allow for increased specialization.
The Short on Long-Term Planning: Go to the Sources, and Here They Are (jdMission)
Want to know what makes for a strong law school application? Here are some answers from admissions officers at Yale, Michigan, and Columbia.
Read more
When the #@*% Are the October LSAT Scores Going to be Released?!?
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.