Any of you taken LSAT - Any tips??

84porsche · 84porsche's Garage

I am taking the Law School Admission Test next week and just curious if any of you have taken it and can you provide any tips/advice.

Superman · 02-04-2005, 02:13 PM

Ummmm, get a good night's sleep beforehand.

Moses · 02-04-2005, 02:16 PM

Just remember that 30% of nothing = nothing.

Superman · 02-04-2005, 02:33 PM

And the correct answer to any and all questions is....."It depends."

84porsche · 84porsche's Garage

Quote:

Originally posted by Superman
And the correct answer to any and all questions is....."It depends."

You aren't kidding either - I have been reviewing for the past month and that is the way it seems. I am under the impression not to over read the questions becuase one word will throw the whole question.

mattdavis11 · 02-04-2005, 02:45 PM

discombobulated. Read the senario, not the wording. It's like 3rd grade math. Chop the word puzzle up if you have to.

Superman · 02-04-2005, 02:52 PM

Good night's sleep. Get laid, and then get a good nights' sleep and get up and take the test. Eat a nice breakfast. Park a couple of blocks away, in plenty of time to saunter to the testing site. Attitude is everything. Perspective.

CarreraS2 · 02-04-2005, 03:21 PM

If you're taking it next week - not much left you can do.

Taking the prep classes was critical, I thought. Esp. taking the past exams that they give you to practice on.

No surprises that way. I scored fairly consistently on those practice/past exams, and my score on the real one was similar. (Actually a bit better than the practice ones - I focus better under pressure).

I found that the LSAT was definately "masterable." Unlike a lot of other standardized tests, it doesn't require any prior knowledge of anything (which is why so many ex-pre-meds, philosophy majors, etc. end up taking it). I thought it was kinda fun, and it definately was something that was right up my alley. (96th percentile, thank you, thank you very much!).

I took the old one, though, a long time ago. (Has it really been 17 years?!?). People were probably dumber back then.

P.S. The night before I took it, some of my sorority girl friends thought it would be a laugh riot if they set off my car alarm in the middle of the night . . .

84porsche · 84porsche's Garage

Quote:

Originally posted by SoCal911SC
If you're taking it next week - not much left you can do.

Taking the prep classes was critical, I thought. Esp. taking the past exams that they give you to practice on.

I have a 2 day review prep course all day tomorrow and all day Sunday so hopefully I will be learning something new.

84porsche · 84porsche's Garage

Thanks for the good info so far. I agree that this test seems manageable. The one thing I need to work on is timing though and taking tests under pressure. I have been out of school for 2 years and seems like forever now.

MikeSid · 02-04-2005, 03:36 PM

Practice tests are your friend. Take several timed tests - if you haven't already.

Don't study the night before. Get lots of sleep. And Superman is spot-on, relax and saunter in to the testing site. The stress in that room can be contagious. Don't assume that everyone else is better prepared than you. Confidence won't give you the correct answer when you don't know it, but it will make the ordeal much more pleasant. It's not supposed to be fun, but it doesn't have to be a total nightmare either.

Rot 911 · 02-04-2005, 05:15 PM

If you don't already have it, get the Barons LSAT book and do all the practice tests.

CarreraS2 · 02-04-2005, 07:17 PM

Two day prep course?!?

Is that all your taking? I would have bombed with that.

I took some course that met something like every day for THREE MONTHS.

And on weekends I'd go to their test center and take all the timed practice tests for the prior decade.

M.D. Holloway · 02-04-2005, 08:00 PM

Thats it SoCal911SC - bring a brotha down!

84Porsche: the prep class will help you gain 3oz of confidence - you know the answers it just requires spit-back.

superman et al are correct - you will get butterflies and this will get in your way towards focus. Just sit back and do about 15 seconds of controlled breathing - 2secs in 2 secs out. This will get you into a groove.

Wouldn't be a bad thing to do for 5 min everyday till the test - do some controlled breathing where you focus on nothing but breathing in and out. As a thought comes into your head, push it out and go back to the breathing. It may sound foolish but trust me when I tell you this, a relaxed focused mind will yield amazing results. I bever studied for a test in University - I did this 'sitting' everyday and applied it to exams and recall was amazing - BS Chem, BA Philos, MS Chem Eng - 3.8 GPA.

Later in life I kept it up - applied the "focus" on one hole when I was playing a round of golf with my wife and two buds - hole in one! Scared the crap out of me so bad to this day I can't repeat the "focus" without thinking of that shot no matter how much I sit. For a brief instance, I unleashed a power that I could harness.

Oh well, it served it purpose well I guess...

84porsche · 84porsche's Garage

Quote:

Originally posted by SoCal911SC
Two day prep course?!?

Is that all your taking? I would have bombed with that.

I took some course that met something like every day for THREE MONTHS.

And on weekends I'd go to their test center and take all the timed practice tests for the prior decade.

I took the review course for the CPA exam and it was a complete waste of money and time for 6 months. I studied and studied and everything they quoted to be on the exam wasn't. The format the quoted, was different. The questions they said would be most similiar, weren't. So my faith in review courses in general is quite small. I have had about a good 3 weeks so far of studying and reading and now the crashcourse this weekend and one more week of studying should help, I hope.

84porsche · 84porsche's Garage

Quote:

Originally posted by LubeMaster77
Thats it SoCal911SC - bring a brotha down!

84Porsche: the prep class will help you gain 3oz of confidence - you know the answers it just requires spit-back.

superman et al are correct - you will get butterflies and this will get in your way towards focus. Just sit back and do about 15 seconds of controlled breathing - 2secs in 2 secs out. This will get you into a groove.

Wouldn't be a bad thing to do for 5 min everyday till the test - do some controlled breathing where you focus on nothing but breathing in and out. As a thought comes into your head, push it out and go back to the breathing. It may sound foolish but trust me when I tell you this, a relaxed focused mind will yield amazing results. I bever studied for a test in University - I did this 'sitting' everyday and applied it to exams and recall was amazing - BS Chem, BA Philos, MS Chem Eng - 3.8 GPA.

I will give the controlled breathing a try, test nervousness is never good. I am using this test as a guideline for making future career decisions so hopefully it will give me some good feedback as to what direction to take my future.

bryanthompson · bryanthompson's Garage

There are books that will tell you the secrets of the test that might help. I picked one of those up when taking the ACT and it had some good advice and practice tests.

Iggy · 02-05-2005, 07:56 PM

I got a 95th percentile score. I took a review course and practiced logic questions. Good luck!

For those who aren't familiar with the test, it has nothing you can "study" per se. It tests your ability to think, not remember.

304065 · 02-06-2005, 03:04 PM

84:

1) Cancel your upcoming test. Eat the fees if you must.

2) Enroll in Stanley Kaplan's LSAT prep course.

3) Attend all sessions, execute all practice examinations, go to the test center and do extra work, do all the practice tests you can.

4) During the testing process you will identify one or more sections that you need help on. For example, if you're not scoring all the points on "logic games," you need to drill the living hell out of those until you are consistently only missing one or zero questions.

5) If it seems like it's a lot of work, good! So's the law. But seriously, your future is in the hands of the LSAT test designers, and you must approach it like a GAME. A high-stakes game that can dictate your future income for the rest of your career (yes, it can) but a GAME nontheless.

6) Forget all about sleeping the night before the test. You ain't sleeping worth a damn. Prepare prepare prepare until the day before, then take the day off, get some exercise, banish all distractions, and execute.

Good luck! On my first day of Law School I met a bunch of people who got ALL THE POINTS. 100%. I soon discovered that I preferred the company of those who didnt, such as Overpaid Slacker, but who were a hell of a lot more interesting.

speeder · speeder's Garage

Quote:

Originally posted by john_cramer
Good luck! On my first day of Law School I met a bunch of people who got ALL THE POINTS. 100%. I soon discovered that I preferred the company of those who didnt, such as Overpaid Slacker, but who were a hell of a lot more interesting.

John is being chactaristically modest, he and JP were definitely in the smart group. But I'm sure that they had some fun together as well.