Last week I talked about the possibility of transferring law schools. But did you know that there’s a second way to attend another law school? It’s called being a visiting student.

Most law schools offer you the opportunity to spend a semester, or at most an academic year, attending classes at another law school. Consider, for example, that you are currently enrolled in a Chicago school, and you’ve decided to live in New York City upon graduation. As a visiting student at a New York law school, you can begin the networking process prior to moving there. Or, maybe you’re concentrating in intellectual property law at a Washington, DC, school, and you find a California school offers classes that your home institution does not. Or, maybe you’re attending school in Florida and a personal matter requires you to be in Minnesota for a short time.

In all of the above cases, I encourage you to contact the Registrar at both your current school and the school you’re considering visiting. You want to make sure that the credits and classes from your visiting school will transfer back to your original school. The application process to be a visiting student can vary from school to school, but generally you will need to submit an application, a letter of good standing from your current law school and your law school transcripts. You may need to also submit letters of recommendation from law school professors.

You will pay the tuition of the school you’re visiting and will receive your degree from your original law school. You should be able to become involved in school organizations and take advantage of that school’s career placement services. However, you may not be eligible to participate in law review or moot court.

I would never guarantee a client that he/she will or will not be accepted to a law school. I do, however, believe it is my responsibility as a Kaplan consultant to make my clients aware of the various options open to them. Visiting another law school can be a very valuable tool depending upon your individual situation. Be sure to check it out.

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.

Are you considering taking a year or two off before applying to law school? Whether you plan to travel (I’m jealous already), or work, or both, I encourage you to do it, or at least be sure to look into it.

As you may be aware, as part of the application process, law schools ask that you submit a personal statement. I guarantee that the person you are two years from now who sits down to write this statement will not be the same person who would compose it in six months. You will have more life experience, depth, insight and maturity…all characteristics that law schools are looking for. Additionally, maybe today you are thinking about concentrating in corporate law, but after traveling around the world for a year, you may instead wish to study international law.

I am by no means suggesting that you must delay applying to school, but if you are thinking about it, please don’t rule it out.

Having said all that, I would recommend preparing for and taking the LSAT when you feel you have ample time to dedicate yourself to it. Scores are good for up to 5 years at many schools. One option is to prepare now while you’re already in "study mode." Then, whenever you do decide to apply, you can jump right into the rest of the application process: school selection, essay writing, identifying strong recommenders, etc. A second option is to wait until you’re ready to start the process because you may be more directed at that time, which could result in your earning a higher test score. If you find you need guidance with the more subjective aspects of your application, you may consider working with an admissions consultant. Kaplan’s admissions consultants include former admissions officers (like yours truly), advisors and experts who can help you successfully navigate the law school admissions process.