All Things LSAT.

Patrick Moore

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Your First Practice LSAT: Take It, Grade It, Embrace It

The September LSAT is approximately two and a half months away. Whether you’re enrolled in an LSAT prep course or studying on your own, it’s time to get down to business. First up? Taking your first practice exam.

If you’ve never studied for the LSAT before, your first practice exam will be what we call a “cold” exam. You’ll have no idea what to expect, you may have never seen a logic game before, and no matter how smart you are, you’re probably not going to do very well. Why? Unlike the SAT, you’re not going to roll out of your bed and ace the LSAT on your first try. The SAT is more of a general aptitude test, whereas the LSAT requires you to possess a very particular set of skills (just like Liam Neeson).

So why go through this torture?

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Revisiting the June 2014 LSAT

The day of reckoning has come. Scores for the June LSAT have dropped, right before this weekend’s Independence Day festivities. We’re not sure if that’s a good thing (“Now I can stop waiting and enjoy my 4th of July weekend in peace!”) or a bad thing (“Thanks for ruining my weekend, LSAC!”), but whatever your perspective, June scores are here to stay. Now that we can talk a little more openly about the exam, let’s give it a closer look – including You-Know-What in that games section. But first, the curve:
170 – 88
160 – 72
150 – 55

With a raw score out of 101 questions, these numbers just about match the monster curve of the December 2013 LSAT, though a 170 required a -13 instead of a -14. A generous curve is no surprise, as many students reported this test to be a tough one. Let’s take a look at the sections.

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2014 June LSAT Morning Cometh: Staying Positive, Patient

So after months of studying, practice tests and hard work, you’ve finally taken the 2014 June LSAT. This should be cause for celebration, but maybe you’re not in the most jovial mood. Maybe things didn’t go smoothly for you yesterday. Maybe you’re worried about your LSAT score. And then there was that damned Logic Game. (“What the flip was that, LSAC?!”)

We wouldn’t blame you if these thoughts were running through your mind today. But keep one thing in mind: you’re not the only one. Were you a bit shaky in section 1 yesterday because of the nerves? So were other people. Did you have a less-than-stellar proctoring experience? Chances are someone else’s was worse (read some of the comments from yesterday’s 2014 June LSAT Instant Recap!). And that brutal fourth Logic Game? Yep, join the club.

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One Final Week Before the June LSAT: What You Need to Do

The June LSAT is a week away. That doesn’t sound like a lot of time, but you can get a lot done in the next seven days. OK, technically it’s six days, since it’s probably a good idea to have a day of rest before the LSAT. But hey, God created the universe in six days with a day of rest, so you can probably at least manage to squeeze a couple more points out of your LSAT score.

Here are some tips for your final week before the June LSAT:

Keep your foot on the gas.

With only seven days until game time, you mind might start to get clouded with doubts and distractions. Maybe you haven’t reached your target LSAT score yet. You’re worried about how you’re going to perform next Monday and are thinking, “What if I get sick the day before?” “What if I get stuck on a logic game?” “Am I going to have to retake?”

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3 Tips for the Final 3 Weeks of June LSAT Prep

With three weeks left until the June LSAT, things are getting real. Now is not a time for panic, but focus; you can get a lot done in the upcoming days with the right mindset. Here are three tips that will help you maximize your potential over the next three weeks:

Tip #1 for the Final 3 Weeks of June LSAT Prep: Don’t just take practice LSATs – study them.

We all have been taught the importance of practice exams. Taking a whole bunch of them will help build the endurance you’ll need when your brain starts to get tired in that third hour. But when it comes to practice LSATs, quality is just important as quantity. The key to getting the most out of your exams is setting aside the time to properly review them. This goes beyond just looking up explanations for the questions you got wrong. Really try and study your results. What categories of LR questions are you missing the most?

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First-Hand Advice on Juggling Finals and June LSAT Prep

The June LSAT is a beautiful thing. The afternoon start time means you get to sleep in. The early administration means you’ll have your LSAT score before the application cycle even begins. But for all its virtues, the June LSAT has one nasty secret: if you’re a college student, those last four crucial weeks of studying are going to overlap with your final exams. Yikes.

Thankfully, juggling LSAT prep with your finals is possible. As someone who took the June LSAT as a college student and survived, I thought I’d take a moment to give my two cents about what I learned from the experience. If you do it right, juggling final exams with your LSAT prep won’t feel like “juggling” at all.

Balancing finals with the LSAT means you have a good amount of work to do in a limited amount of time.

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What the Heck’s Going on at Oregon Law School?

If there’s a golden rule for the internet, it’s that you don’t tweet, post, or email anything that you wouldn’t want made public. Law professor Robert Illig, it seems, did not get the memo on that.

Illig, an associate law professor at the University of Oregon, made headlines last week when his email diatribes to his fellow faculty members were leaked to online news outlets. In a nutshell, Illig was furious about a proposed initiative to cancel faculty raises — i.e., his raise — and divert the money to a job placement fellowship program for recent graduates. So furious was Illig that he wrote not one, but two nasty emails. Illig had some choice words for his colleagues and administrators:

No wonder we’ve become a third-tier law school. Who’s going to want to come here to study or teach in this kind of poisonous atmosphere? . . . Is this some kind of faculty version of white-man’s guilt?

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2015 U.S. News and World Report Law School Rankings Out

It’s that time of year again—the US News and World Report‘s annual law school rankings have arrived. As the biggest authority on rating academic institutions in the United States, the US News rankings are a subject of much consideration and consternation for prospective law students, law school administrations, and legal employers alike. For you, the prospective law student, these rankings could mean big things for your future admissions and job prospects. So let’s dive in and take a look, shall we?

The More Things Change, the More They Stay the Same: The T14

Surprise, surprise: the Top 14 schools have once again reasserted their place at the top. From Yale (1st) to Cornell and Georgetown (tied for 13th), the T14 has pretty much stayed the same, with a few minor revisions.

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LSAC Releases February LSAT Scores…on Sunday?!

The mailman doesn’t deliver on Sunday, but LSAC does.

February LSAT scores arrived yesterday, much sooner than anyone expected — and on a Sunday, no less. It’s the first time that’s happened in recent (or distant) memory.

At this point, you should have received your February LSAT score by email, but if it somehow got lost in your spam folder, you can always find out by logging into your LSAC account and navigating to the “LSAT Status” page.

Whether you received good, bad, or so-so news yesterday, chances are this entire process has been stressful for you. It’s tempting to ask “What now?” and immediately become overwhelmed with what lies ahead, whether it’s retaking or moving on to the rest of the law school application process. But before you contemplate the next step forward, take a step back. For better or worse, what’s done is done, and it’s important to properly put the February LSAT behind you.

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How Learning the Piano is Like Learning the LSAT

As an LSAT instructor, I’ve come across students with a wide variety of interests and backgrounds. I’ve taught college football players, chemistry PhDs, and trapeze artists. One way I try to personalize the experience for them is to relate the LSAT to something from their own lives. Given the diversity of my students, this has sometimes proven challenging (except with the trapeze artist, obviously).

Today, though, I thought I’d compare the LSAT to something from my own life that I know and love well: the piano.

I have played the piano for 22 years, which is almost as long as the modern LSAT’s existence. Put another way: my piano playing is older than Miley Cyrus (which might explain why I prefer my music to hers).

The following are a few parallels that can be drawn between learning the piano and mastering the LSAT:

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