You have finally decided that you’re applying to Law School. Either you’re still in college, and there might be a department of your school that is dedicated to helping you with this, or you are on your own. In my experience, you will have little help either way. I’m going to chronicle my Law School application process in the hope that this may serve as a small bit of assistance for you. I don’t pretend to be an expert on applying to Law School, but I’ll be peppering my articles with advice, good ideas, and hopefully an interview or two from some people who are experts of some sort.
The process of applying to Law School often starts with an attempt at the LSAT. The LSAT is the only individual test that Law Schools will pay much attention to. It’s likely that every A that you worked for in undergrad will be glazed over in an attempt to find your LSAT score. The statistical breakdown for this test is wicked. There are a lot of people in the middle of the bell curve here. They make the test extremely challenging so that they can differentiate people accurately down to the 1/100th of a percentile at the high end of the
scoring chart. (PICTURE OF BREAKDOWN) for example, there are 61 possible scores and 18 of them account for the top 10% of future law school students. In order to do this, they make the test very hard on you physically and mentally.
These facts about the LSAT in conjunction with the admission statistics of that Ivy League school you wanted to go to should show you how likely it is that you’ll get in there. The majority of people will not have a spot for themselves at the top. Don’t worry about this. An incredible number of very intelligent people get horrible LSAT scores every year. You might never be a Supreme Court justice, but you could still be a great lawyer without going to Yale.
The test should probably intimidate you, but taking it requires knowing this and facing it. I saw an ad once for an LSAT prep program that said, “Does the LSAT hate you? Yes, and it wants to make you cry.” I’d say this is roughly true. The test is designed so that you will be too tired to take it well at 8 on a Saturday morning. It is designed so that most people won’t finish a single section in what is generally perceived as an attempt to frustrate everyone. It is also designed so that the best way to take the test is not one question after another like normal tests. Because of this, taking the test on a whim can be disastrous. Barring the possibility that you are some type of savant, things will go badly. Schools tend to pay attention to multiple scores, whether by averaging total score or some other calculation, so “just trying it to see how I do” could come back to haunt you later.
Fortunately, you can get around most of the difficult aspects of the test. The first thing you should do is learn about the test before you take it. This will help you to understand the strategies that you will need in order to get the best score. I’d recommend using a prep book. The Law School Admissions Council has a prep book, so does Kaplan, and this was enough for me. You might benefit from a more structured class environment. Do what you feel. Make sure that you feel like paying attention to the advice that is given though. No matter where you learn about the test, this knowledge will come in handy. Taking the LSAT well requires real strategy. The added confidence that will come from knowing about the test will also combat some of the anxiety that they are trying to make you feel.
The only other thing you can do to help yourself is to control the way that you feel physically and mentally. Do not take the LSAT tired, hungover, upset, scared, or unsure. They are depending on you to ruin your test experience. The best way to see how young people will do as attorneys is to design a test to find out how you can think and work under hopeless time limits coupled with ridiculously early (or late) hours and with the pressure of competition and your future life success hanging over your shoulder.
Whatever you do to lower stress, do a lot of it. Go to bed early and wake up at
6 every morning the week of the test so that you are used to the early hour. Wake up at 6 on that Saturday and drink some coffee. Leave your house early so you don’t have to rush to the test center. Make conversation with the other people taking the test. Basically anything that you can do to think about something besides the importance of the test, the early hour, or how unprepared you are will have a positive effect. The test depends on a large number of people choking. It is important not to freak out, or you will have failed the test of fortitude that they care about way more than the test in front of you.
If you’d like some more specific advice, feel free to email me at LouisGrube-AT-Gmail-DOT-com. I have a good number of people around who can answer any question that I cannot answer. Good luck on the LSAT!
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{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
Seriously? It’s not that bad. I did a prep test and a half and came out very well on the real thing. (The guy next to me who had a prep book out before it started and downed two Red Bulls over the course of the test, probably not so much.)
It’s also, like all standardized tests, no predictor of much of anything beyond how much money your parents make. (It’s REALLY good at determining that, though.) It’s right up there with listing “travel” as an interest on your resume in the category of “things that institutions and employers should ignore, but choose to rely heavily on because they really like surrounding themselves with ever more upper-class mostly white people.”)
Full disclosure: I am an upper-class white person. And I found the LSAT kinda fun, actually. Because I’m who it’s written for, and everyone else is left to go hang.
@Molly, Thanks for your comment. I’d really like to see the statistical data linking scores to race/skin color that you mentioned. Can you email that to me? louisgrube-AT-gmail-DOT-com
Thanks for this info.
Glad I could help.
Great post…already eliminates some of the stress over the test.
good post. i found some helpful articles about the application process/recommendations here: http://www.associatedcontent.com/user/117418/bp.html