Its official, Gillderness will one day be defending you guys with your financial scandals.
I am taking the LSAT. I got a couple months to study for it. Any tips? I plan on taking the free LSAT prep courses offered at Charlotte. Any specific books or courses I should look at?
Thanks guys.
I took the test last October after taking a Testmasters prep course through the Continuing Education Dept. over the summer. The only tip I would have is study hard because it means A LOT. I did quite well but wish I would have worked a little harder outside of the prep class. If nothing else prep classes should definitely help you with the logic games section.
I am taking it in about three weeks- the best advice I could give you is to take a prep class- my diagnostic would put me in at Chapel Hill, but I signed up for a 5 week study with Kaplan- I’m only a week and a half in and I have increased my score three points, which is pretty significant for that time. After all of your tests they have these things called “smart reports” that will create custom assignments based on the types of problems you need to work on, and they only use previous LSAT questions. The little tips and tricks they pass on are great, too; especially if you are one of the people who finds yourself struggling early on. Just a strategic approach will help you quite a bit. Its expensive, but its a small price to pay considering its vital role in shaping your future.
If you are dead-set against it then I would strongly suggest that you atleast do several full-length practice tests, including the experimental section and the writing. This test is VERY draining, so you need to be fully aware of the effort needed. Familiarity with the test can help you as much in the beginning as anything else. The other thing that I recommend is that you find someone else who has/is studying for the LSAT so that you have a source for helping explain problems that you just don’t understand why the answer is what it is. (This seems to be most true with the reading comprehension section for most people) The Logic Games section can be mastered easily once you learn to develop an approach, especially the sequencing problems. The Logical Reasoning (the two-section type) can be difficult, but the majority of these problems are based on finding the assumption in the argument. Identify the conclusion and the evidence and try to find the missing link. This isn’t to suggest that there aren’t some problems that are extremely difficult in Logic Games or some that are easy in Reading Comprehension, etc. I will agree with the above poster though- study as hard as you can, and as hard as you think that is, study harder.
Wow. ok, I’ll def look into Kaplan. The Reasoning is the most difficult part I hear.
Gil,
My method:
Get practice tests. Take many of them in simulated conditions.
Rinse and Repeat.
I did pretty damn good. (96th percentile). Take that FWIW.
The test is about the techniques and the pressure, not knowledge. It’s all glorified word and logic puzzles. And then the writing sample at the end.
Tell them you have ADHD, get a doctors note, get all the time you need on the test…
i signed up for the FE Exam today, a real man’s test.
i signed up for the FE Exam today, a real man's test.Federal Express ??? Are you gonna be a driver or a sorter?
:shades:
Federal Express ??? Are you gonna be a driver or a sorter?:shades:
close, Fundamentals of Engineering, but if i took that federal express test at least i’d get to handle internal organs every now and then.
Gil,My method:
Get practice tests. Take many of them in simulated conditions.
Rinse and Repeat.
I did pretty damn good. (96th percentile). Take that FWIW.
The test is about the techniques and the pressure, not knowledge. It’s all glorified word and logic puzzles. And then the writing sample at the end.
Practice? We’re talkin’ bout practice. Practice. Practice?
In all seriousness, though, the best thing is to just practice the test and keep practicing the test. That’s what I hear…
Oh, and when you take the test, make sure if you skip a question, that you skip a bubble, too. I missed half my logic questions because I forgot to skip one space on the answer sheet.
Does the writing portion count for anything? When I took, the score was on just the bubble answers.
Now, once you get in, go to the cheapest school you can get into!!! Believe NA backs me up on this one, and trust us…unless you’re going to a top 14, an extra $20-30 Grand a year is not worth it.
[QUOTE=cakewalk5;428447]
Now, once you get in, go to the cheapest school you can get into!!! Believe NA backs me up on this one, and trust us…unless you’re going to a top 14, an extra $20-30 Grand a year is not worth it.[/QUOTE]
I know what you’re trying to say cakewalk but this advice is not absolutely true. Certainly costs should be taken into account but if you just go to the cheapest school you get into you may decide to take a full ride at a tier 3/4 school like Campbell where the employment rate at graduation is ~49%. Obviously you’d probably find that you’d be better off paying to go to a school with better employment prospects.
And just to toot my own horn, I did ever so slightly better than NA on the LSAT 
Oh and no the writing portion does not count but your sample is provided to the law schools so you should make a reasonable effort so as not to look like a jackass.
[QUOTE=arn;428449]And just to toot my own horn, I did ever so slightly better than NA on the LSAT [/QUOTE]
My ego is crushed. :weep:
[QUOTE=arn;428450]Oh and no the writing portion does not count but your sample is provided to the law schools so you should make a reasonable effort so as not to look like a jackass.[/QUOTE]
Funny, kinda sad story - I took it twice. First time at Davidson. I can’t remember why but I absolutely panicked during the written portion and wrote a bunch of borderline gibberish. Went home, got drunk, and canceled the score. They send the results to you anyway. 98th percentile. I did worse the second time. Classic NA move right there.
I do remember how tweaked out I was though - nervous wreck. 2nd time around, I had the woman that was going to be my wife and her cute friend waiting for me to grab lunch with them outside McEniry. I took the test on friendly turf. Helped the nerves a bit.
Gil, The test is about the techniques and the pressure, not knowledge. It's all glorified word and logic puzzles. And then the writing sample at the end.
This sounds remarkably like the GMAT except the GMAT requires you to relearn basic math that you probably forgot since you first learned it in high school.
What percentile would get you into Harvard Law? You “only” need to be in the top 12% or so to theoretically get into Wharton which is widely considered the top b-school. Although getting a top school is a lot of who you know and how much you can give back to the U. I guess there is also the full time vs. evening consideration for getting an MBA which doesn’t exist in law school.
I had the score to get into all but the super elite schools. I didnt have the grades. I got into UGA, Wake, Tenn, USC, Kentucky, but not UVA. I didn’t apply to Chapel Hill, and I was stupid not too. Would have saved me a car payment every month for the next 30 years. I just couldnt handle being a tarhole.
I had the score to get into all but the super elite schools. I didnt have the grades. I got into UGA, Wake, Tenn, USC, Kentucky, but not UVA. I didn't apply to Chapel Hill, and I was stupid not too. Would have saved me a car payment every month for the next 30 years. I just couldnt handle being a tarhole.
When I was looking at MBA Programs I had to bite the bullet and consider UNC-CH, mainly because the program is exactly what I was looking for. I’ve put off my MBA plans for at least a couple of years if ever at all, but as hard as it is to do, I would have to strongly consider becoming “one of them.”
Standardized tests are kinda like first dates. You have to relax and trust yourself, if it doesn’t go well you can always get drunk afterward and try again later.
Chapel Hill basically didn’t tell me they didn’t receive my proof of residency form and so they never got back to me with a yes or no. Their process is more complicated than every other school I applied to and they are very slow at getting back to applicants compared to most other schools.
I’m kind of glad they didn’t get back to me because I’m very happy where I am.
I’m at Vanderbilt now.
[QUOTE=arn;428513]Chapel Hill basically didn’t tell me they didn’t receive my proof of residency form and so they never got back to me with a yes or no. Their process is more complicated than every other school I applied to and they are very slow at getting back to applicants compared to most other schools.
I’m kind of glad they didn’t get back to me because I’m very happy where I am.
I’m at Vanderbilt now.[/QUOTE]
Niiiice… I don’t think I could have gotten in there. You’d better work those connections. I ignored many of the instate TN connections cause I didnt wanna stay there. Another dumb move.
Chapel Hill still does rolling admissions too, I believe. One of the few schools who still does so. So if you’re borderline, you’d better be in the first batch of applicants, 'cause you are not making the cut 4 months later.
I know what you're trying to say cakewalk but this advice is not absolutely true. Certainly costs should be taken into account but if you just go to the cheapest school you get into you may decide to take a full ride at a tier 3/4 school like Campbell where the employment rate at graduation is ~49%. Obviously you'd probably find that you'd be better off paying to go to a school with better employment prospects.And just to toot my own horn, I did ever so slightly better than NA on the LSAT
Obviously its not completely true. Tier 4 school does make it tough to move around. But a law school ranked 30 and one ranked 130, there doesn’t seem to be a difference.
Really, though, if someone wants to be a tort, insurance, or public attorney, they cannot be saddled with that much debt.
