Having reviewed my actual September LSAT

I find that I did the worst on the arguments section, the section I normally do the best in. I spoke with a friend of mine who turns out used to work for Kaplan as a test prep instructor. He tells me that there are two main reasons for people to have dramatically different scores on their prep test vs. there actual test.

The reason could be test anxiety which is a reason I've heard before but never bought. This is because I was not anxious during the test. I remember thinking, "This is hard, that's ok though, the test on a curve. Better yet everyone else is taking the same test, I bet they are all panicking and doing worst because of it, great!"

The other reason which sounds like it fits me much better is over confidence. I was excited every time I turned to a new section and found nothing but LSAT arguments looking back at me. No daunting reading passages, no games with tricky rule wording, just lots and lots of logic games that looked delicious to my eyes.

The Logic games can be tricky and you do have to be sharp to get the right answer. Many of the questions are trick answers and they, (like the rest of the test,) are not the time for your brain to take a breather. Reviewing the September test many of the wrong answers I picked were careless mistakes. Things that I really should have gotten right.

This leaves me very pleased because now I have an answer. I'm no longer pulling out my hair crying, "what the f@ck happened?!?!?" This is something I can fix and do better in next time.

Back to the books, refreshing for December

Starting a new Prep LSAT right...

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.

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Now!

::Time Passes::

Section 1 Arguments - 22/25

Section 2 Reading - 20/27

Section 3 Games - 16/24

Section 4 Arguments - 24/25

Raw Score - 82

Scaled Score - 163

Rank - 91st percentile

Not my best performance ever but then again I got less than 5 hours sleep last night and the guy who owns my apartment came in just as my break was ending wanting to do a maintenance inspection, (there's always something, lol.)

?!?!?!?

Fargh!

I just took a prep test for the LSAT the first one since September 26th. I haven't even studied at all since September 24th. So how in god's name do I get a 167, (96th percentile,) now and still got a 157 on test day?!?!?!?

Internship

Now I'm looking for an internship in addition to studying.

Today is the first day I've picked up my LSAT books and notes since first taking the test. Admittedly I only really glanced but I guess you have to start somewhere. :) It's gonna be hard getting back into the intense studying schedule I was putting myself through.

"The only thing harder than taking a country to war is taking a country to war, again."

It has to be done though.

Onward.

Talked to the Admission Department at Hastings

I would not suffer an insurmountable disadvantage by applying in late December evidently. Nevertheless though, it's not good.

More bad news,

My GPA of 3.45 from LCAD is going to get dragged down somewhat from my time at Santa Monica Community College. At SMC I only pulled in a 3.35 over a heavy 294 credits. So my final GPA from both is going to look more like a 3.40

oh no.

So some schools have rolling admissions, meaning that the sooner you apply the better your chances of getting in are since the most seats are available. Apply late and you and the other late comers are going to be fighting over just a handful of remaining seats.

If I'm taking the December LSAT I will be applying late since my scores probably won't be coming back to me till Christmas, and even once I get them applying to schools and mail could delay the actual day schools get my application till early to mid January. Keep in mind that the cut off date for most schools is the start of February.

So I just finished calling everywhere I was thinking of applying:

Cal Western USF UCSD Loyola Marymount UC Hastings Pepperdine UC Davis UCLA UC Berkeley Stanford

Every single one works on rolling admissions. This leaves me, for lack of a better word, fucked.

In for a penny, in for a pound

I can't let this undo everything. True my results on the September LSAT were not what I wanted at all. However, there is sure to be all sorts of set backs, hick ups and shenanigans in trying to make this work, so never mind and press on.

I have to accept that this was a fluke. There is no way that someone scores in the 91st three times, 92nd twice, and 94th once one week before the test only to get in the 72nd with out this being a major fluke.

I have another 6 weeks to study now and as such need to get my shit together right away. I've gotten much better at studying for this. The day before I knew that I was not prepared as I possibly could have been. I guess now I'm gonna get my second chance. This time I won't be satisfied till till I'm routinely breaking the 95th percentile.

Retaking the LSAT

http://www.top-law-schools.com/retaking-the-lsat.html

Here are the policy on the schools I have up for consideration in order of most realistic to least realistic.

USF – “USF will utilize the average score when multiple LSAT scores are presented for application review.”

University of San Diego – “Effective September 1st, 2006, the highest LSAT score will generally be used to evaluate applications for admission and scholarship consideration.”

Loyola LA – “If you have taken the LSAT multiple times and have a score differential of 4 points or more, we ask that you submit an addendum explaining the circumstances surrounding the disparity. At our discretion, we may base the decision solely on your high score.”

UC Hastings – “The Admissions Committee will see each test score and date taken and will consider the highest score in its evaluation. Please note, however, that for fall 2009 admission, you must have taken the LSAT since the June 2003 administration. You will have to re-take the test if you have not taken the LSAT since June 2003.”

UC Davis – “In most cases when there is little or no difference between scores, multiple scores are averaged. In exceptional cases where it is apparent that a significant difference exists between scores, the Admission Committee will consider carefully the explanation provided by the applicant. If warranted, the highest score will be used to reach a decision on the file. This is in keeping with past practice of the UC Davis Admission Committee. The highest score will be the recorded score on all admission materials. The Admissions Committee has access to all scores submitted and, therefore, is aware of any 'significant' increase or decrease. A change of five points or more is considered significant. Applicants should provide an explanation of any significant change in LSAT score.”

UCLA – “Our general policy is to consider the highest LSAT score attained, although we will take note of all scores. In the case of a significant discrepancy between scores, applicants are advised to address it in their application. It is always helpful for the Admissions Committee to be aware of any factors that may have adversely or positively impacted one’s performance on the LSAT. Item 11 on our application is a suitable place to provide such explanation.”

Berkeley – “Most candidates take the test only once. If you take the test more than once, we will use your average score in most cases. We recognize that there is no statistical significance to a score gain or loss of a few points within the standard deviation for the test.”

----

That said, it seems retaking it makes the best sense.

157

well that was a disaster.

At this rate I would be lucky to go to UCSD.

Hastings would be a miracle.

What's the real goal?

What was the real goal here?

A high LSAT score?

Or is that only a goal in that it can get me into law school?

Getting into Law School then?

Well law school is only a useful place to be so long as it helps you become a lawyer.

Well then being a lawyer must be the goal?

But why do I want that? What's the good in me being a lawyer?

Happiness? It always comes down to that same boring answer. The only reason to do anything boils down to happiness.

Why do I need to be a lawyer to be happy? Or rather why is me being a lawyer sufficient for my own happiness?

A few clues:

How ever I believe being a lawyer will affect my happiness, it would be in a way that is not already being met. For instance it may be the case that I want to be a lawyer because I think having a white collar career will make me happy, since I don't have that right now. Additionally it is NOT the case that I want to be a lawyer because I will be able to live in Los Angeles, since I can do that either way.

Things that would change in my life if I were a lawyer:

-The median income for a lawyer is 60K a year, more than 5 times my present income.

-I would have a job more meaningful than making sandwiches.

-I imagine that lawyers get more respect for their profession than Noah's Bagel's employees do.

-I would have to make a much bigger effort in presenting myself, (for example not going 10 months without a haircut.)

-A typical day at work would be less intense physically but probably much more stressful mentally while also being more mentally exhausting.

-I would get a chance to really help people with real problems they have.

-Because of the specialized nature of practicing law I would probably have more self respect on account of my job.

I got too much time on my hands

What has really been the goal all along?

Have I just been so despondent that I'm really hoping for something better.

With the LSAT now having come and gone I can now reflect:

Why law school?

Why am I giving up art?

Why not just work at Noah's forever?

Why not try making it as an artist?

Why did I not leave art school despite how dissatisfied I was with the school and art in general?

Why did I stay with her so long when things were not getting better?

I think the answer for all these questions is the same. I'm unhappy.

not satisfied or pleased with (a situation)

The opposite being happy or satisfied.

Satisfied meaning,

fulfillment of one's wishes, expectations, or needs, or the pleasure derived from this

Are my needs not being met? What are my needs? What are anybodies needs?

Final Post before Score

Just finished the LSAT.

took the test 6 times this last week in the final stretch of preparation, always scoring over the 90th percentile.

I'll make sure to make one last post after this when I find out how I did.

And then again the next day.

Since I only got 4 hours sleep last night, and I have one day off work this week, I'm gonna say that is enough. I can make up the missed test on my day off.

and then again the second time I took it today

Have not been around because honestly I care a lot more about studying than blogging about it.

That is unless it is to gloat. lol

Just took a test, finished around 4:22 PM

92 percentile.

:D

It's all about pacing

I just finished taking and throughly evaluating a practice LSAT.

Carelessness maybe cost me 3 or 4 points.

Running our of time meant I guessed on 14 questions.

All in all I came in with 158, the 75th percentile. Not very good at all.

I averaged 76% in arguments, but only 65% in both reading and games. This was largely do to major macing problems.

Sleep: 6 hours last night, 4 hours the night before

Coffee: 8 oz

M: 2 at once

Logic games is where the most points were lost (Counting questions guessed as wrong:

Went too fast: 1

Misread: 1

Skipped: 4

Incorrectly transfered answer from booklet: 1

Ran out of time: 2

Arguments

Having reviewed yesterday's practice test some thing is becoming clear to me, I missed 5 questions in all 4 sections. Meaning I'm equally proficient at Reading Comprehension, Arguments, and Logic Games. Since Arguments count for half the total possible points this seems to be the place to focus my studies on next.

81 out of 101

I've made it to the 90th percentile, at a scaled score of about 164/180.

UCLA's median score is 168 but with my grades I'll need 169 to get accepted. However, I'm already past Hasting's median score of 163, and 1 point shy of their top 25% score of 165.

T minus 1 month as of today till it's test day for real.

What is filling me with hope right now is two things,

1) It was so hot in my apartment that I actually started to feel nauseous.

2) My meds started waring off half way through the third section.

Things seeming a lot more real now.

"This is to notify you that you have been placed in test center 9624 EL CAMINO REAL HIGH SCHOOL for test date September2009. Log in to your account www.LSAC.org and select LSAT Status>Print Ticket to print your updated admission ticket."

Reading is hard!

It makes my brain hurt.

Although, it's getting easier, albeit slowly. However, I did come across a useful book by Barron's which was helpful though and packed with lots of useful pointers.

Check Point!

Sorry to leave you hanging for so long. Finally starting to feel better.

Today I took another Practice test and really dropped the ball on the reading comprehension part. I don't know why. Maybe it was my cold I'm still getting over or just it being the first time having a photo copy of the passage in front of me to mark up. Either way Logic Games, as I continue to familiarize myself with the format and get a better hold on the tricks within them, are no longer my only priority.

Admittedly I feel a real sense of accomplishment from having come this far. I assume, as long as I continue to focus on where I am weakest, I will eventually start focussing on all 3 sections knowing that they are all equally valid.

Ugh a cold

Have been slown down today by the attack of the COLD VIRUS! What is it they say, "feed a cold, starve a flu?" Still plugging away at prep question though and also found a valuable set of 12 more here:

http://www.atlaslsat.com/logic-games-practice.cfm

Granted they never appeared on any real LSAT but it's something to work with.

Commitment

There is a difference between intent to do something and commitment to do something.

"an engagement or obligation that restricts freedom of action"

Today, I paid the $132 dollars to hold my seat for the LSAT. What was only intent is now commitment. I don't have the money to NOT follow through with something that I've put $132 dollars towards.

Today is the 12th, I'm going to spend the next month and half continuing to familiarize myself with the LSAT. I have no other choice at this point.

Pushing Forward

The long hours at Noah's, waking up at 4 AM, and studying is starting to wear on me. I have to push on though. Everything I've read points the same thing, "the LSAT is crucial and center to acceptance."

I've split my studies between pacing myself better and making better use of the techniques available to me to solve the logic games.

If nothing else, I've learned this: Lots of sleep, my meds, some caffeine, and calm clear thinking equal one thing, better performance. My meds and sleep are especially important because without them I'm prone to make mistakes on the logic games. One mistake interrupting a game and the next 7 are in jeopardy as well as the rest of the section because of the wasted time.

6/7 on a logic game in just under 5 minutes!

Took the LSAT again today at Boarders, this time scoring in the 80th percentile! I managed to get to every question in time save 2 of the logical reasonings puzzles. The last section of the Logic Reasoning, I did in 5 minutes scoring 6 points out of 7 possible! Not that they were easy questions but I was making choices on a much faster and more intuitive basis knowing that I was coming down to the wire. I did not even bother to make a diagram or to rewrite the rules in my own words. I just made a mad charge at the problems knocking out answers that I knew were wrong. This worked well, so well that next time I'm working on the logic games I'm gonna try to jump into them tackling the "which of these could be" questions first since they are usually taken down by rules violations anyways.

Have a good night!

On the 5th day

God invented Adderall.

I retook a portion of the prep test I took on the third and actually did worse! The big difference was that today I forgot to take my meds. Anyhow, I'm not going to take any this late in the day so I'm gonna just play computer games till it's time for bed.

Good night.

First Prep Test Done

I scored in the 70th percentile. I'm confident I can do better though since I ran out of time on the logic game section and started filling in the wrong bubbles on the reading comp. one.

That's it for this post though, I'm tired and need to go to sleep.

3 Prep Test by TEST DAY

The book I have has three prep tests in it. I got enough time to do one every Monday after work and get them all done by the day of the test. Despite all my preparing I have not sat down and done a full 225 minute practice LSAT yet, only bits and pieces.

Today I got off work at 6 PM, so I made only a quick stop at boarders before making the trip home. I came across another Kaplan publication, Logic Games ADVANCED. Intrigued I sat down the coffee shop at Boarders a flipped to the logic game section and gave the first set of 7 a try. I breezed through them, although still a little too slow. Pleased I turned the page to check my score: 2/7!

"What? Huh? What happened?"

I miss-notated a rule as IO instead of OI. As you can imagine I was frustrated and left shortly after. What a stupid way to miss 5 out of 7 questions! This is not the first time either, for another Logic Game I wrote a J as a 'j' instead of a 'J'. This one mistake also meant that I missed 4 out of the 5 questions on that whole section! Missing 4 questions can be the difference between scoring in the 62nd percentile and the 50th percentile. I just need to make extra sure on test day that I'm not screwing up that badly.

I shouldn't be so hard on myself. I was writing my notes on the back of receipt paper I got from the coffee shop. With so little space mistakes were bound to happen.

Day off

I can't not begin to describe how thankful I was to discover that I had today off from work. Having missed lots of sleep this past week I slept for a full 12 hours, leaving me feeling very much refreshed. Today though I'm taking a breather, no work and no studying. I'll pick up again with the frantic pace of study and work tomorrow.

I am the Buddha of Reading Comprehension

Today I got off work at about Noon. I spent the 6 hours after that at work, in the bagel shop, reading and working through practice questions. I was able to make a useful discoveries: 1) I'm in the 95% percentile for reading comprehension questions, and 2) I'm in the 60% percentile for the dreaded logic game questions. As such my studies for the LSAT for the next 3 hours down at Borders were trying to shore up this weak point in my score.

Not that much shoring was done. The Distributive Grouping questions are very hard requiring you to make lots of deductions about the implications of different rules presented to you. What's most frustrating is that of the half I miss, maybe 30% of those are because I miss copied a rule down to my worksheet or just circled the wrong answer.

A few things:

1) Everyone has the most trouble with the logic games.

2) I'm good at the Sequencing and Matching games, it's those freaking (distributive) Grouping games that leave me batting only a point better than average.

3) Kaplan seems to think that the Logic Games are where students show the most improvement, after study.

KAPLAN

The end of July quickly approaches and I press on to get what ever advantage I can in the LSAT. I stopped by the library on the way back from work and picked up the Kaplan LSAT Test Book. I managed to get about 35 pages into it before leaving the library but between being sleep deprived and not having my meds with me I thought it best to take the book home and try to get through at least a quarter of it before night fall.

I also called my lawyer's office back he won't be back to early next week, so I will call him again on Monday.

UPDATE:

This book is amazing. The logic games, (that is the really hard part,) is getting easier and almost becoming fun! Also, having used up the last of my little molskin sketch book I moved on to a much bigger one. The extra space, helps tremendously!

Found a kink in the LSAT

I kept trying to do the Analytical Reasoning parts of the exam in the prep books and was having a lot of trouble scoring more than 75%, which as you can imagine, was worrying me. Today though I shifted gears a bit and instead found a place I can really collect some big points:

Logical Reasoning

Two words: Easy Peasy. I did much better in this section but still not as well as I would have liked. Perhaps with more practice I'll get better.

The good news is that the analytical reasoning section is both the part that students find hardest and the part that students improve the most in with practice. More good news, half your score is on the Analytical Reasoning part, not the part that I find much harder, Logical Reasoning.

Which School

I've been actively hunting law school for about a week now and it seems like it's starting to occupy most of my discretionary thinking ability. My facebook games have been left idle, as has my old ambitions in art. Today, I hunt for one thing.

Today's Hunting: Figured out where, based on GPA do I have the best shot of actually getting into. I did this by using the LASC web site's information on the GPA of entering classes. If you like you can see the link below on what schools I have been considering:

http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=tS3zzwOVzp18L89aPAcIGbQ&output=html

From what I can surmise these 5 schools are in the range for where I can get into:
UCSD: Very Safe Chances
Loyola Marymount: Safe Chances
UC Hastings: OK Chances
UC Davis: I would be lucky
UCLA: Dream School

The good news is that while I stand little chance of actually getting into UCLA or Davis I can always transfer between schools. This is an option relatively few people actually pursue but in reality has much higher acceptance rates than apply your first year in. For example UCLA only accepts 16% although of last year's 300 transfer students 80 got in.

I also finished activating my account for the LASC website. I need to get my hands on 132$ for the LSAT application fee for this September. Hopefully I can finally get my hands on the last remnants of the settlement when I broke my arm in 2003. Now more than ever before I could really use a couple of grand for application cost and other fees.

Letters of recommendation:
Because of how I organized the student petition and was able to at least help in getting Lance Richlin rehired at LCAD he was a natural choice. I'm hoping that the whole episode could be used as an example of stellar extra-curricular work of a pseudo-legal kind, that also shows I'm involved in the school. However I am a little worried about using this story because it could also make me come off as a trouble maker who is likely to give the administration grief. Nevertheless though, schools such as UCLA or Davis are unlikely to accept me unless I have some stellar material for the soft side of my application. The other 3 schools, UCSD, Loyola, and Hastings, are more likely to accept me without me using a wild card like this, so for those schools I wont.

School Loans: I finally finished my Loan Exit Counseling today for LCAD. The piddly $1,800 I owe is soon to balloon to something closer to $130,000 by the end of law school. While this is a huge amount to owe I will have an actual career instead of a BFA to help myself pay it off.

Short Term Goals:

-Find 132$ for the LSAT preferably from my settlement but I will use my credit card if I have to.

-Complete free LSAT exam from June 2007 as practice. Depending on how I score choose what level of prep do I need to do from there. Use results to help refine school pics.

-Decide who else I want letters of recommendation from and call them.

-Call IRS get a copy of my 2008 taxes for possible fee waivers from application fees.

A Taste of Court

Today I went down to the LA Federal Court House for lack of anything better to do on my day off. I wanted to give my chance to see real lawyers really being lawyers to help dispel any romanticized notions of law. I spent about 2 1/2 hours there and found that it was largely what I expected to be on my first visit. Although, I was surprised by that incredible lengths the prosecution was making to reiterate again and again key points to make sure the jury was understanding what was being said.

Afterwards I made a marathon 16 mile bike ride all the way back to Santa Monica. On the way I stoped by my lawyer's office to ask his advice on a few points that I've been concerned about. Unfortunately he was on vacation so instead I just left a hand written letter for him. Eventually though, I want to ask him for an internship. I wouldn't accept anything so glamorous as answering a phone but I would be just as happy to bring his office coffee in the morning so I could get the reference. Besides, I'm sure eventually he would need something picked up or dropped off somewhere in the city and that is sure something I could do.