| 30-Day LSAT Blog – Wrap-up Posted: 10 Jul 2009 01:37 PM PDT  After taking the June 2009 examination, and finally receiving my score, I’m ready to reflect on the LSAT experience and finish the TDLB. Here’s the punch line: It worked. I’m happy with my score. Any rational, sane person (yes, I’m looking at toplawschools.net here) ought to be. It was higher than almost all of the practice tests I blogged about, and I feel that it is an accurate representation of my LSAT-taking abilities, and I won’t be taking the exam again in September. Here’s what I learned from the 30-day LSAT Blog, in no particular order. - 30 days simply isn’t enough. That’s why every credible expert recommends six months. I had practiced for just under a year off-and-on again (mostly off).
- Do not take the LSAT in a foreign country. Taking my sweet time registering and winding up in Quebec didn’t help me, especially since my French is just good enough to ask for directions, not receive them.
- Get a good night’s sleep. The night before I was up until 1:00 am, had to wake up to make the 2 hour drive, and was sleeping on a pleather couch. It didn’t help.
- Bring a bigger snack. I brought three bananas, one of which I ate about 30 minutes before the exam to minimize hunger pangs. By the time I was taking the break, I would have strangled the nearest Canadian for a bar of chocolate.
- I cannot offer too much advice about how to prepare for Games. Thanks to the infamous Dinosaur game (which wasn’t the hardest game on the test, trust me) we saw a whole mass of candidates freaking out because their LGB method yielded a diagram that was, as a lawyer might say, as useless as a Swiss cheese tire.
- You will get discouraged. I figured I would hop into the room well-prepared, be relaxed before it began, and would blow through it . . . just like I did the PrepTests. By Section 4 I was doodling some arithmetic in the margin to guess which section was the experimental section.
- Don’t do what I just described.
- It will be impossible to focus. I studied in the library by putting my wristwatch on a table and glancing at it to see when time is up. What I should have done is hired a surly Russian prison guard to stand directly in front of my desk, circle around me slowly, and then scream at me when the section is over. I’m not saying that’s what my proctor did, but even if your proctor is Betty White that’s what it will feel like.
- Know your “rights.” Elle Sack has a very pronounced procedure for just about everything. Which is good because your proctor probably doesn’t care. I didn’t have any reason to invoke my LSAT “rights,” but I can only say that because I know what they are.
- Here is the most important advice I have. To prepare for the LSAT properly do six timed sections, because that’s how long the exam is. Obviously you should do the four PrepTest questions and an experimental section. But what about the sixth section?
Your first section should be completing an income tax return for a U.S. state determined at random. You think I’m kidding. I’m only 25% kidding. Let’s say the ticket says you must report by 12:30. That means, if things go smoothly, you will begin your first section around 1:30. The administrative portion of the exam will take your bright-eyed, sharply-dressed well-prepared, clear-minded self, the self you prepared so hard to be, and completely ruin it. This is an awesome tactic on Elle Sack’s part because it makes certain your exam will go like this:  Ready for the LSAT! . . . at least until you get your groove back. Be wary! Be warned! But most of all, be prepared. |
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