LSAT Blogs

You may be curious as to how the application process works, so here goes…

I view the application process as containing five different pieces:

• The application form itself
• Undergraduate GPA
• LSAT score
• Letters of recommendation
• Personal statement

Over the course of the next few blogs, I will address each piece individually. In the meantime, I feel it is important for you to understand the overarching sequence of the process.

You will need to submit your transcript(s) and letters of recommendation to LSAC. It is your responsibility to make sure that LSAC receives both, and the good news is that you have the ability to track their receipt online on the LSAC website. And, obviously, LSAC will have your LSAT score(s) on file.

Even if all of this information is in, the law school doesn’t know that you are applying until you submit the actual application form. After you complete the online application and before you hit the "send" button, upload your personal statement, resume (if you have one) and addendum (if you’ve written one – the purpose of which I will discuss in a later blog) as attachments.

Once you click "send", your application will be forwarded to that respective law school. When the Admissions Office receives your application, it will set up an internal file and request your LSAT score, transcript(s) and letters of recommendation from LSAC. Only when all of the material is received by the Admission Office will your application be considered "complete" and be forwarded on to the Admissions Committee for review.

The Logical Reasoning section of the LSAT contains a number of frequently repeated argumentative structures. One of the most common involves an author using the given evidence to reach a definitive conclusion without considering alternative factors. Here’s an example of such an argument:

Last night, I planted a bed of roses in my front yard. This morning, I noticed that the roses had been dug up and spread around the yard. My next-door neighbors have a dog that enjoys digging up flowers, so it must have been their dog that dug up my new roses.

In this argument, the author discovers a possible factor in the flowery destruction: a dog with a penchant for digging up flowers. While it sounds like a reasonable explanation, the author unfairly concludes that this "must" be the only explanation. Such extreme wording often indicates that the author has failed to consider alternative possibilities – and that’s certainly true in this case.

With this kind of argument, there are a lot of questions the LSAT could ask. For starters, the LSAT could ask you what the "error in reasoning" is or what makes the argument "vulnerable to criticism." In these questions, you merely have to point out the flaw. The answer could be presented in a fairly straightforward manner (e.g., the author fails to consider that some other animal could be responsible for digging up the roses) or may be dressed up in slightly abstract wording (e.g., the author treats one possible explanation for a particular occurrence as if it were the only explanation for that occurrence).

The LSAT could also ask you to weaken or undermine the argument. Since we know that the author is overlooking possible alternatives, a quick way to weaken the argument is by offering another explanation. For example, a correct answer may suggest that the author lives next to another neighbor who owns a rabbit known for digging up flowers.

Finding the correct flaw or identifying information that could weaken the argument stems from recognizing the author’s primary assumption: that the neighbor’s dog is the only animal that could be responsible for the roses being dug up. This assumption is just one more piece of information the LSAT could ask for. However, like with flaw questions, you have to be prepared for multiple variations on wording the correct answer. On less difficult questions, the assumption could be written clearly (e.g., no other animal could have dug up the roses). On more difficult questions, the correct answer could consider a specific alternative and deny the possibility of that alternative happening (e.g., the property surrounding the author’s home is not inhabited by gophers, which are known for digging up flowers).

These answers are the most difficult to spot because they often bring up information that wasn’t provided in the original argument. It wouldn’t be unusual for your first reaction to be, where did the gophers come from? The argument was talking about a dog! However, if the author’s home was near flower-digging gophers, that would weaken the argument by providing a possible alternative explanation. Therefore, the author must assume that these gophers aren’t in the area.

As you study for the LSAT, you will come across many arguments in which the author overlooks alternative explanations. The more easily you recognize them, the more efficiently you’ll be able to answer the questions based on those arguments. Also, remember to be flexible when evaluating the answer choices; the LSAT can present you the correct answer in many different ways.

So you’ve made the decision to apply for the Fall 2010 Entering Class. I welcome you to the admissions process.

I’ve mentioned this before and I will continue to do so throughout my blog entries: I want you to enjoy your law school experience, and this entails finding the right school for you. You may be asking yourself how you go about doing this. Below are some hints:

I encourage you to take advantage of a number of free opportunities that will help you learn more about the various law schools.

1. Kaplan offers seminars in your community which bring together law school admissions officers who will introduce you to the application process. You will have the chance to ask the representatives about their respective schools. Visit kaptest.com/lawadmissions to find events in your area.
2. As I mention in my May 18th posting, attend the Law School Admission Council (LSAC) Law School Forum in your area; check out the LSAC website (www.lsac.org) for information on locations, dates, times, registration, etc. Additionally, attend a law school open house, set up an appointment for a tour and ask to sit in a first-year class.
3. Also available on the LSAC website is the ABA-LSAC Official Guide to ABA-Approved Law Schools, where you can search for schools based on admissions criteria, salary statistics, geography, bar passage rates, etc.

You may also want to consider the following factors:

1. Geography: You will need to network, network, network. If you wish to live in Chicago after graduation, it is much easier to build your network by attending a Chicago law school. Think about it…once you start law school, you will immediately begin the networking process when you meet your professors and your fellow classmates. You will continue to expand your network as you meet with interviewers, and once you secure a position, work with your colleagues.
2. Internships: Let’s say, for example, that you’re interested in corporate law. Are there certain schools that indicate that they will assist you in securing internship positions in that field?
3. Law clinics: Some law schools house law firms within the school itself, where the professors are the attorneys. Continuing with the corporate law theme, maybe a school has a corporate law clinic to which you can apply to gain experience.
4. Cost: This covers in-state versus out-of-state, as well as private versus public.
5. Criteria: What are your chances of acceptance? Through the LSAC’s UGPA/LSAT filter, you can plug in your LSAT and GPA to determine whether you are applying to a "reach" school, a "strong chance" school or a "safety" school. (This topic will be discussed in fuller detail at a later date.)

If you are considering applying to law school this year, I ask you an important question: Is law school in 2010 right for you? Riding out the economy shouldn’t be your motivation for law school now. I urge you to do some soul searching as to your reasons for applying now. To assist you in this process, I pose the following questions for your consideration:

◊ I believe that investing in education is an investment in yourself. Having said that, I’m sure you’re aware that law school is expensive. Are you financially prepared for the costs you’ll incur? Resources are available to help you meet these expenses. You can apply for federal financial aid. Additionally, law schools award scholarships to qualified accepted applicants. Be sure to watch for my future blogs, as I’ll be expanding on these two topics later. In the meantime, you’ll find a wealth of information on the website of each law school you’re considering.

◊ If you are entering your senior year of college, are you mentally ready to commit yourself to another three or four years of study? Or, do you need to take a break (check out a previous blog entry where I specifically address this topic)?

◊ Many of you are currently working full time and plan to continuing doing so while attending school part time. What kind of support do you need from your company to take on this endeavor? Will your company provide this support?

This is an exciting time for you…you are pursuing your dream of attending law school. I want you to enter school having created the outside environment that will foster your success and allow you to take advantage of everything law school has to offer.

Ideally, every person who takes the LSAT goes into the testing center, takes the test, and leaves feeling confident that great results will follow. However, it’s inevitable that some test takers will succumb to the pressure of Test Day and walk away feeling anxious and uncertain.

The LSAC offers test takers the opportunity to cancel their scores. Before making that decision, one should know a few facts about canceled scores:

1.) If you choose to cancel a score, nobody will ever know your actual results on that test – not law schools, not the LSAC, not even you. It will be as if you never took it.

2.) You’re only allowed to take the LSAT three times in any two-year period. Even though you won’t get a score if you cancel, it still counts as an exam taken. So, you will only be allowed to take the exam twice over the next two years (unless you contact a law school that is willing to send a written approval to the LSAC on your behalf).

3.) While admissions officers won’t see your score, they will still see a note in your file indicating that you took the exam and canceled the score. In some cases, schools will request that you provide an addendum to your application explaining the canceled score.

Knowing all of that, how do you decide whether or not to cancel? Cancellation should typically be an obvious decision. If something drastic happens on test day (e.g., severe illness), cancellation is a clear option. When it’s not as obvious, the decision can get a little harder. However, a good general rule is that the more uncertain you are about canceling your score, the less likely it is that you should choose that option.

The anxiety of Test Day tends to skew people’s assessment of their performance. Often times, people will feel as if they performed inadequately when, in reality, they performed just as well – if not better – than they originally expected. It’s true that the stress of Test Day leads many test takers to receive slightly lower scores than they achieved on their final practice exams. However, that’s hardly a universal occurrence and one that is very hard to predict with certainty.

What’s more important to consider, should you decide to retake the exam, is how a relatively lower score differs from a canceled score in the eyes of admissions officers. Also, do the admissions officers consider your highest score or do they average your scores? The answers to these questions vary from school to school. Your best course of action is to contact the admissions officers of the schools to which you’re applying and ask these questions. That information will be most helpful in making your final decision.

After all, let’s say a school considers the higher of two scores (which is reportedly the case with most, but not all, law schools). In that case, if there’s even a chance you’ll get the score you wanted, then it’s not worth canceling. If you get the score you wanted, you’ve taken the test once and you’re done. If you don’t get the score you wanted, you can take the next few months to study again and go into the next test confident that you’re going to get an even higher score, which is what the school will be considering.

One last thing to consider: if you choose not to cancel your score and you took the test under standard conditions, your test results will come with a copy of the exam along with your response sheet and a list of the credited responses. By not canceling your score, you’ll be able to review the test and see what mistakes you made. This way, if you do decide to take the exam a second time, you’ll be able to analyze what you could do better and how you can achieve the highest score possible the next time around.

If you’re in the DC, Chicago or Boston areas, attend a Law School Decision seminar hosted by myself (I’ll be in Chicago) or one of my Kaplan Admissions Consulting colleagues.

At these free events, we’ll discuss:

• • How the current economic climate is affecting law school admissions
• • The value of a JD
• • What it takes to get accepted to law school

We’ll also dissect a before and after version of a former admissions consulting student’s personal statement you’ll learn how to avoid common pitfalls while obtaining tried and true practices for a successful application.

Law School Decision Events - Register today!

• • Washington DC, June 9
• • Chicago, June 10
• • Boston, June 23

For more information about law school admissions consulting, visit: kaptest.com/lawadmissions.

Test Day is right around the corner! This is when tensions get high and the pressure of taking the exam can start to take its toll on test takers. That stress, however, can only impede your final preparations. That being said, here are a few don’ts to avoid as game day approaches.

1. Don’t take a full-length exam every day from now until the day before the test.

This leaves less time for a more analytical approach to studying. Simply taking exams and looking at the scores will do little to improve your performance. Instead, you need to spend time reviewing each test you take to understand what you did wrong and what you need to do to get better. Without that understanding, your score is unlikely to get better on the next test.

Even if you do review your test every day, that’s still about six or more hours of studying in one day. That can get exhausting and potentially lead to burnout. Plus, it leaves little or no time to focus on practicing on any specific concepts that troubled you on the exam. If you know what’s giving you trouble and you don’t take the time to work on it, then it’s probably going to give you trouble on the next exam, too.

You can’t always assume that problems will just fix themselves from one test to the next. That’s why you need to take an extra day or two between tests to work on concepts individually – whether it be specific question types or improving pacing within one particular section.

2. Don’t work on only the most challenging questions.

The more challenging the questions, the more likely you are to get those questions wrong. Sure, it’s great when you get those questions right. However, getting them wrong is still frustrating – even if they are more difficult. And, if you get too many wrong, you lose sight of what’s important – all the questions you would get right.

You have to remember that your score is dependent on getting questions right, not just getting hard questions right. If you focus only on the stuff giving you trouble, you’ll have a hard time building momentum and you’re more likely to enter the test discouraged about your weaknesses rather than encouraged by all the progress you’ve made. Spend some time reviewing your strengths and make sure that you end your studying on a positive note. Nobody wants to go into Test Day having blown the last question in practice.

3. Don’t study hard the day before the test.

It’s okay to take some time early in the day to get in some last minute review or work on a few strengths to give yourself a confidence boost. However, by the time dinner is done, the books should be hidden and all you should be worried about is making sure you have everything you need for day ahead – your pencils, your admissions ticket, directions, etc. Don’t let the day before the test be stressful in any way, shape or form. Relax. You’ve put in a lot of hard work. Let it all pay off with a great score the next day.

Good luck to everyone taking the exam. And, on behalf of all Kaplan instructors, please e-mail us after you’ve taken the exam and when you get your scores back. We really look forward to hearing from all of you.