The Choice - Part 2 "The Numbers"

(The Choice is an ongoing section where I will be examining my decision to attend the University of Baltimore.)

Well, here goes. I am going to throw it out there. My "stats":

Undergraduate GPA: 3.3 *Note 1

Major: Psychology

Minor: History

LSAT Score: 159

Schools Applied to: *Note 2

University of Baltimore: Accepted

University of Maryland: Denied

University of Miami: Accepted

Drexel University: Accepted

Hofstra: Accepted

Total cost of applications: about $400 *Note 3

I will be referencing this in future posts!

*Note 1: I attended a strong private liberal arts college. My curriculum included an 18 class 'core' of out of major courses. I spent one year (2 semesters) abroad, which counted towards my GPA. My GPA was very low (2.0) my freshman year, and rose steadily. I think I had three semesters on Dean's List.

* Note 2: I applied to a few others, however they came later in the process and I did not follow up. For example, Nova Southeastern (a school that on paper I should have been a lock for) never made a decision after confirming receipt of my application. By that time, however, I had been accepted to enough other schools to not need to consider Nova. CUNY Law was missing a part of my application, I withdrew it because I had already received comparable or better acceptances.

*Note 3: This is a rough estimate. Most schools were about $60-70 for an application fee. The LSAC charges you $12 per application. To anyone who works at an admissions board for a law school, yes, I did apply to more schools if they waived the application fee! Registering for the LSAC is also a one time fee, about $50 if I recall correctly. Additionally, you could count LSAT fees as well. A HUGE Thank You to my mother and father for footing the bill on most of the applications, and for always supporting my dreams.

Who I follow on Twitter

I admit to being a huge fan of Twitter. I love finding interesting people (everyone should follow Shaq and the Natural History Whale) as well as a thriving, varied, professional network. Twitter is, however, a new and expanding resource, and the use varies widely. This is my list of people I follow on Twitter, as they relate to Law School and the legal field.

(Sorted by my personal relative enjoyment)

@ABAJournal - This is basically the ABA Journal's news feed. Headlines delivered straight to your Twitter, with links to the full article. Articles are short and generally news-worthy. I find this a great way to get involved in the legal community and keep an eye on issues that will soon be increasingly important to me. Also, a lot of the news is really interesting. The only downside is that at times 10-15 new articles go up simultaneously, drowning out your other Tweets.

@annlevine - Ann K. Levine is a law school admissions consultant. She is pretty awesome, with interesting Tweets about the LSAT and other admissions related issues. She updates pretty regularly, although be warned about 2/3 of her Tweets are personal use. She is kind of like a Twitter Mom to hopeful law students, posting reminders about LSAT dates! I was very impressed when she took the time to respond to my Tweets about school acceptances, and even answered a few questions I had about law school admissions.

@ronfox - Ron Fox is a lawyer career coach. He places a heavy emphasis on assisting lawyers find happiness and satisfaction from their careers. He also hates Big Law. His updates generally link to in depth feature articles, which are fascinating reads. You can also always count on him to look past the stereotype of what a Lawyer is to most laypeople, and show you the real, human side of Law. Inspiring in that regard. Be warned though, he is VERY effective at discouraging you from pursuing a legal career if you haven't already begun it.

Those are my top three. Others include:

@samglover - A consumer rights lawyer, he maintains several legal blogs. He is very technologically savy, and writes a lot about how he uses technology to enhance his career and practice.

@aaron_at_EJW - This is Aaron at Equal Justice Works. Interesting legal perspective, updates occasionally. If you are into public interest law, he might be a good follow. He does write about student debt frequently, and generally from a helpful and hopeful perspective.

There is my current Legal Follows. Who do you recommend on Twitter? Put them in comments and I will share them in a later post.

LSAT Prep - Logic Games

Hello!

Today I thought I would relax with a short post on fun ways to prepare for the LSAT. Logical Reasoning typically gives people headaches because it is an entirely new type of question. A good way to get into the right mindset and familiarize yourself with these types of questions are logic games.

You may remember these games from elementary school, they, much like on the LSAT, involve basic rules (one person per day, one color per house, one person per house) and then provide several statements, the information from which you are to use to complete the table.

A good site to find these and more like them is here, at Puzzle Paradise. They are free, and vary in difficulty. This site has a good interface for solving online, and the option to print puzzles to take with you, or if you feel it would be better practice to use pencil and paper, as on the LSAT.

How are these useful? They give good practice for reading the conditions and drawing conclusions. For example, if the statement is that "Jack gave his presentation before Julie, but after the presentation on frogs," you can conclude that Jack was NOT in the first or last time slot, but also that Julie was NOT first or second, since she was after Jack, and that the presentation on Frogs was NOT last or second to last. Also, you can conclude that neither Jack nor Julie presented on Frogs. This kind of insight requires practice, and these fun games can help you learn it without doing repetitive bookwork.

Also, these games can help with diagraming and charting. This site provide some diagrams, but others (such as time based ones) are equally helpful.

Be warned though, that this should not be taken as a substitute for actual LSAT logic game practice. LSAT games tend to have you "backing up." They will give you five statements, then each question will have a sixth condition that is hypothetical. You may need to remove information to complete the next problem. Also, the LSAT gives lots of choices such as "If Frogs were presented by a Male student, what can you say about Tuesday's presentation?" These oddball ones may have more than one correct answer, such as "Tuesday was either Julie or Tammy presenting either Shrimp or Snakes." Practice for these types does not come from logic games with one correct answer.

Have you used alternative prep for the LSAT? Any experts out there want to weigh in on the use of games as practice?

The Choice - Part 1

(The Choice is an ongoing section where I will be examining my decision to attend the University of Baltimore.)

For this edition of "The Choice" I would like to start with a discussion of how I choose the schools I was applying to.

First of all, I am going to have to start with personal details. I was, at the time, in a very committed relationship. She was applying to graduate programs herself (though not for Law) and her schools all had much earlier application deadlines. We reasoned that we had been together long enough, and were committed enough, to include each other in our professional choices. Our way to solve the dilemma was to each identify a few schools or cities where we would like to pursue our educations. We then would each apply to two or three schools in each area, and then when he had all the acceptances, we could make informed decisions together.

She picked Miami, where we both found University of Miami and Nova Southeastern. I jumped on Philadelphia as a place I would like to reside, but found only Drexel with a suitable law program. She picked Long Island, noting several top schools in her field. I did apply to Hofstra. I reasoned New York City might not be a bad idea, and applied to St John's and CUNY. We both stated Baltimore as an obvious choice, as we had been residing in the city for the past two years, attended four years of undergraduate school there as well, and her family was about 20 minutes outside the city. Plus, I had all of Maryland's law school, University of Baltimore and University of Maryland, right within walking distance.

Ultimately, I think this was a good strategy. Although I am almost never one to make a "life" decision based on someone I am dating, at the time we were seriously looking ahead to engagement and beyond. Still, she is equally as pragmatic (pessimistic, maybe?) and always said that we should choose something that would satisfy us without the relationship if it ever came to that.

As for locating schools by area, I think that it is a good measure to start your search. I was able to get a handle on all the information out there. Another good way to start is to rank the schools by relative strength, and see what is at the top. Although I ended up at a "4th tier" school, I was accepted by "#42."

Speaking of strength, I always think it is a good idea to make sure you have some guaranteed acceptances as well as to get rejected by some schools. Once you take your LSAT, if you choose to have your information reported (highly recommended), schools will get your UGPA and LSAT score. Florida Coastal emailed me with acceptance and scholarship offers if I completed a one page application with no fee. It was great to know, well, at least I can get a JD somewhere! The University of Maryland (usually top 30) rejected me. So I felt I knew about where I stood. It would be a shame to only apply to top 10 schools and get no degree, but I think it is equally wasteful to not shoot high. That way you will always know it wasn't meant to be, and you never know, something on your application may strike someone in admissions and you may have a great chance.

This has been a very brief introduction. How did you decide where you were going to apply to school?

Greatest Feeling in the World

Is when you finally make it, through all the effort and hard work and anticipation and long nights and anxiety and fear and self-doubt, and then one day you can start telling people that yes, you are, in law school. At times, it never seems real, just a far off dream. Then, one day, it hits you, and let me tell you, it is awesome.

LSAT Prep Schedule

My calendar for LSAT preparation:

1 Year Prior to test Date: Create an outline or schedule for prep. Pick a test date.

1 Year to 6 Months prior: Gather information about the LSAT itself.

6-4 months prior: Begin earnest preparation. I recommend completing a diagnostic test, but only for the practice. I personally have heard only that the diagnostic scores are poor predictors of actual test performance. Take note of the type of questions, and I think it is always good to indicate when you are guessing on an answer, so later you can go back and study that one as well.

4 - 2 months prior: Begin diligent preparation. I found it easiest to spend 2-3 weeks on each question type individually. Read about them, complete practice problems, work slowly through the very hardest ones.

2 months prior: Spend a little extra time with question types that are still giving you trouble. At this point, I would recommend learning strategies for managing your time while completing the test.

4 weeks prior: Schedule some time aside to take a full length practice exam under conditions as close to real as possible. Make sure you have all your registration materials available for the test date.

3 weeks prior: Review your practice exam results. Try to target areas that you scored poorly on. This is also a great time to practice on the hardest questions you can find.

2 weeks prior: Now is when I would work on my test taking strategies. Get your timing down, learn to look for obvious right or wrong answers, those kinds of things.

1 week prior: If you gave your email address to the LSAC search service, you can expect to begin receiving emails wishing you luck from various law schools. I also started carrying my prep materials everywhere with me, and spent my free time looking over them. Do not cram, but do try to immerse yourself in LSAT goodness.

3 days prior: Make sure everything is in order for your test date (ID, pencils, snack, bottle of water in clear plastic bag, proper admission ticket printed). Also, I would highly, highly, highly recommend driving to the test site and locating parking. The tests are generally early in the morning, and looking for parking or getting lost should not be a reason you are late or miss your test.

2 days prior: Cram a bit. Try not to panic. Say a prayer. I slept with my book under my pillow. Try to relax.

1 day prior: Seriously, relax. Don't even open your books. Eat a nice dinner, do a quick workout, and go to bed at a reasonable time. Aim for a solid 8 hours of sleep. Relax. At this point, you have done all you can, and you did good. Now just let it happen.

Day of: Be calm and confident, get a good score, move on with your career!

LSAT 180 from Kaplan Review

In the previous two posts I have reviewed my thoughts on LSAT prep, and thoroughly reviewed the first book I used to prepare. In this post, I will discuss the second book I studied from.

LSAT 180, by Eric Goodman of Kaplan Test Prep and Admissions, promises "Advanced Prep for Advanced Students" and "Intensive Practice for the Toughest Questions." Right from the title, it sets a lofty goal of a perfect 180 LSAT score. It is available from Amazon or Barnes and Noble for $20.00.

The book starts off with a philosophical discussion of perfection, including why you, the reader, might aspire to this. I would like to think that I was not the perfectionist described in the opening, but rather a student looking to increase his overall score.

This book assumes you know the basics, and should not be your first prep material. I highly recommend starting with a general book, such as the one I describe here. This book goes straight to the toughest questions, and does not spend much time on types of questions, the predicted percentages, or generally test taking skills.

LSAT 180 dives right into the logic games, regarded by most test takers as the hardest section, but also by most experts as responding best to preparation. The problems in this one are mind boggling hard. They go through the first problem is a reasoned, well thought out, no nonsense manner. After about fifteen minutes of study, the first problem is manageable. They give about 5-10 problems of each type (examples are problems of order, problems with time, etc), then move onto the next. In all, there are about 100 pages devoted to logic games. The last and hardest ones, I struggled to understand even with the explanations.

The next section, Logical Reasoning, is also highly useful. The book is good about helping you learn to keep the focus on what is written, and exclude outside knowledge, extraneous information, or personal opinions. There is a very basic refresher on what formal logic is, and then the different question types are each described and you get several examples with full, detailed explanations. All in all, you get about 120 or so pages of logical reasoning.

The text then moves onto the Reading Comprehension, which I have stated before is my strongest area. The approach is solid, as they give you examples of why each passage is tough. For example, there is a section titled "Blinded by Science" where the authors teach you how to cut through the difficult technical terms to get at the important information and arguments. Likewise, the section on philosophy based passages is helpful. Still, I find that this is a section where you either get it, or you don't. All in all, there are about 90 pages of Reading Comprehension.

This book completely skips the writing sample, as it is not a part of the 180 perfect score.

This book is also well supported by Kaplan's website, with links to additional information on the test itself that is updated regularly. My only gripe is that Kaplan is always trying to sell you something, especially on their site.

I used this book in a few ways. With logic games, I was able to see how the questions were designed, which was helpful. Also, for 2008-2009, it was reasoned that you could spend eight minutes per logic game. I took these super hard questions, and gave myself nine minutes. In this way, I got used to the time constraint, which helped immensely on the test itself.

The logical reasoning section is very helpful in learning the ins and outs of formal logic, but unfortunately lacks in helping you learn to process the questions quickly, as required by the test itself. It does give you a great idea of how questions are actually written, however, which is helpful in spotting traps and tricks on the actual test.

Reading comprehension can also be used to get your timing down, as well as a large, choking slice of humble pie. I was extra confident about this area, and quickly was shown I had a lot to work on.

Overall, I spent between 20 and 30 hours with this book. It was useful as a final measure of improving my chances. It is a great resource, but keep in mind that it should not be your only study aid.

Barron's LSAT 2008 Review

So, for my LSAT prep, I decided primarily on self-study. Let me tell you about some of the materials I used.

I primarily used two books. The first, Barron's LSAT 2008, 12th Edition, by Jerry Bobrow, was my primary tool. This text is available at Amazon.com (here) or Barnes and Noble.com (here) for under $20. The highlights of this text are 5 full length LSAT tests, two of which are actual past tests. All sample tests have explanations for the answers.

The book starts off with a brief introduction, with such gems as "Beware of Distractor Answers!" and "Mark Your Test Booklet!" which should be fairly common knowledge to most at this point in the game. It then jumps straight into a diagnostic exam. The diagnostic is sort of useful, as it approximates your score, but it does not give you much help with determining your strengths and weaknesses on individual question types within each section. Questions on the diagnostic are also not rated as easy or hard, so you only get a fairly broad range. I generally scored slightly higher on this text's diagnostic than I did on the actual test, so be wary!

The book then gets into the best part, the detailed explanation of the types of questions in each section. The book in turn goes through each section and gives detailed information about the types of questions, why they are asked, how they are worded, and PLENTY of hints for solving them. I found this to be the most useful section of the book. It also approximates how many of each type appear on the actual test, so you can make some judgements about which to practice the most on. This was also most useful in assessing my strengths and weaknesses, since question types are narrowly divided, allowing me to see exactly which types were difficult. At the end of each section practice problems are given, and the book talks you through each slowly and carefully, and gives key hints.

The treatment of logical reasoning is decent. The book spells out various terms to describe logical reasoning and various fallacies (think of Philosophy 101, arguement ad hominem, etc.). This is actually much more useful than you might think, and a great refresher if you haven't had a similar course in ages.

The book's strongest section is analytical reasoning. The book goes through a variety of question types, and each is clearly explained. Also, several diagraming strategies are described, and in the example questions, the diagrams are fully drawn out for each question. When I sat for the test, I found myself spotting various types of questions and knowing exactly which diagram to draw for each.

The reading comprehension I found less useful, but this is also my strongest area, so I mostly glanced over it. There is some pretty good discussion on question types. The writing sample (generally regarded as the least important section) is also covered, but the advice on outlining is so elementary as to be nearly useless. The various sample prompts are highly effective in getting you prepared for what is on the test, however, and should not be discounted.

The book then finishes with four model tests, which I mostly used for additional question practice. I would recommend timing yourself on at least one for pacing practice, which I over looked and paid for on the test date. The answer explanations for these questions are somewhat brief. Generally, this is fine, because you mostly know the strategies and reasons, you just need to see if you are right. When you get one wrong, however, the limited explanations are frustratingly unhelpful.

The book concludes with a chart of ABA approved law schools, however the internet has much more useful data that is much easier to access, and much more accurate.

Overall, I found this resource to be highly useful and would recommend it to anyone. I can confidently say that it helped me immensely with my test prep, and was my primary tool. I approximate that I spent upwards of 70 hours with this book in preparation for my test.

Friend Bar Added

Although I am going to try to stay away from two posts per day, I did want to add this in as soon as possible.

I have added a "Friends" module in the sidebar where I am going to link to some of my personal friends professional projects. You can find it on the side of this page, below the profile section with my picture in it.

Screenshot

If you are still lost, check out this detail photo.

Screenshot

The first one I have added belongs to someone I grew up paying Little League with as well as attending his mother's CCD classes for some time. Currently, he is residing in Boston, writing about food, spirits, and life. Worth checking out, he updates frequently, and writes well. Also, his blog was somewhat inspirational for this.

My Personal LSAT Prep

The LSAT is a huge part of any prospective law student's consciousness. Most law schools provide a fairly narrow range of LSAT scores accepted into their program each year, and the test is quite daunting. Furthermore, the test has a reputation for chewing up and spitting back out some of the best undergraduate students, which only heightens the sense of anxiety felt when approaching your own test date.

Due to this, many programs exist designed to assist students in preparing for, and hopefully increasing, their score on the LSAT. With so many opinions floating out there, I thought I would add my two cents as someone who has completed the process.

As I began to approach the LSAT, I knew I would need to do some prep work, knowing little of the test prior to deciding I would pursue law school. I quickly discerned four approaches to preparing.

The first was to simply not prepare. Many diagnostic or measurement tests are designed to simply quantify the subjects inherent skills. For example, IQ tests are designed to provide a measure of the taker's intelligence level. Ideally, an IQ test is not something you can study for to increase your score, as many times as you take it you should score the same (the holy grail of test designers, but deeper discussion is outside the range of this post). The SAT was presented in much the same light to me, a measure of your aptitude for college level work. Perhaps, I thought, the LSAT was similar in this regard, it does share three of the same letters with the SAT, doesn't it?

Before you scoff and dismiss this notion as foolishness, I will be very honest and give some background: I am an excellent test taker. I never once prepped for the SAT, and in two sittings scored 1360. I also took the PRAXIS in preparation for a teaching career and scored either perfect or 95th percentile in all sections. Standardized tests are fortunately easy for me.

After quick review of various internet marterials and the LSAC site, I threw this idea out.

The second option was to take an LSAT prep class, such as the one offered by Kaplan or other companies. These promised huge score jumps, money back guarantees, and plenty of practice tests.

I reviewed some classes in my area, but unfortunately they were seeking upwards of $1,200.00 for the class, plus materials. While not completely outside my budget, it would have been a major stretch. Additionally, the hours generally didn't fit well with my 9-5 work schedule. They seemed to be set up with current college students in mind, oddly enough. Although they are probably a great way to boost your score, prep classes did not work for me.

The third option was to hire a private tutor, I had seen advertisements on bulletin boards as an undergrad, and Craigslist had plenty of them as well. This seemed a little risky, as there was no way to verify credentials, but then again, one on one teaching is the best you can get. Additionally, they could get expensive, and probably best fit someone with very specific needs, such as high test anxiety or low diagnostic test scores.

Finally, the fourth option was to LSAT prep books and practice tests. This option seemed highly flexible. It would give me a chance to study when I had time and at my own pace. I could also pick the areas I needed the most work in and focus on those. Online searches revealed the average price to be in the $25.00 to $35.00 range, highly affordable. After a quick trip to the local bookstore, I found that most books contained at least one full length prep test, some had upwards of five!

I will detail more of my strategy in upcoming posts. Please offer feedback on this one so far!

First Post

Hello!

Welcome to my 'pre' professional blog.

I am an aspiring law student, about to begin attending full time in the Fall. I have been slowly working my way into the Legal world and am finding it full of exciting and helpful people.

Frequently, myself and other prospective students ask "What is the best way to prepare for law school?" The answers I have heard vary only in the smallest degree, but all basically point to simply relaxing and waiting for it to begin.

There are two exceptions, however, that I have heard. The first is to begin immersing yourself in the legal world, which I have done by following various legal blogs and twitter users. The second was to begin a personal blog. I heard this suggested from a few people, and for a few reasons. One was to have a place to vent about law school, including difficulties faced. A second was to have a place to participate in class discussions, even if you did not get a chance to speak in a large lecture. A third was to practice writing by writing more frequently. I have taken this advice, and hope to practice all three here.

I already have a personal (and very private blog) floating out there on the internet, but I hope that this can be a sort of 'professional' place for me to write, and most of my posts will hopefully be helpful or interesting to others. My other blog is mostly random detritus of lolcats and youtube videos, with the occasional web poll or video game rant thrown in. If others do not find it interesting or helpful, that is fine as well, I still hope to practice my writing.

Also, I am going to publicly set a goal for myself right here and now, and that is to update this blog at least once a week with meaningful content!

Without further ado, hello and welcome!