(Mods: This may belong in IMHO; please move if so.)
I’m taking the LSAT this coming Monday, and as I go through the sample tests and such, I find that I have specific difficulty with the analytical reasoning sections. These are the questions that say things along the lines of “There are five construction companies: A, B, C, D, and E. They’re working on five projects. A has to start before D, and E has to be located five blocks from B, and C has to build a bigger building than A but start directly after D, and &c., &c.” I do pretty well on the other sections (typical sample test score is about 170), but I usually miss three or four of the analytical questions.
Does anyone (whether attorneys or not) have specific suggestions or helpful tips on how to work these? I go through the section and usually take almost the entire 35 minutes, and I try to draw diagrams to help, but I get discombobulated and have trouble keeping all the rules and such in my mind at once, not to mention shifting gears between sets of rules.
I’m not panicking yet (especially since I know that will only make the problem worse) but I hate the blank-wall confusion of staring at these questions and having to read them over and over, word by word, and still not getting a decent mental picture of the situation described.
Very sorry to bump this and I won’t do it again, but I’m afraid it sank pretty quickly. Perhaps I should have titled it “Sex-Crazed Hobbit Love Goddesses Spit or Swallow” or some such.
Yikes. You’re coming to us pretty late in the game for any help we give to do much good.
In any case, at least some of the questions in your problem section are just logic problems. You can solve them by plotting out a grid, like the one pictured on that page. The grid will help you keep all the rules straight.
Those that don’t fit the “logic problems” model are more difficult to plan for. About all I can tell you is my number one tip for taking the LSAT and getting a good score: RELAX.
Thanks, Max Torque; that site is good. The examples given are considerably simpler than the ones in the sample test, but with a little brainpower and modification, the grid method helps a lot. I’m worried that it will take more time than I’ve got, but I’ll keep working on it; I can see improvement already.
And I’m pretty sure I’ll be relaxed; I’m not a test-anxiety type. As long as I can keep from thinking, “The next three hours will determine the rest of my life…,” I think I’ll be fine.
It is far, far too late for you to effectively study for the logic portion of the LSAT. The only way to study for those logic problems is to do similar problems incessantly until they become second nature. If you can’t do 'em fast and accurately now, you won’t be able to do 'em fast and accurately Monday no matter how much you study between now and then.
I would recommend that you take the test for the experience, then CANCEL YOUR SCORES at the end of the exam. Sign up for the exam again in the fall, after you are properly prepared for it. You will still have plenty of time to get your scores back and file your applications.
Do not, under any circumstances, allow your test to be scored. I’m completely serious about that. Any bad score you receive now because you were not repaired will stay on your testing record, and the schools will downgrade you for it even if you take it again and kick ass.
minty green, esq.
99th percentile . . . the second time I took the LSAT
As I write, you only have a few days to study for the exam and in all honesty, you really should be resting up. That said, the only thing you can really do now is relax and if at all possible, consider what minty green said about taking the exam as gigantic prep.
Some people are just not good with logic puzzles. There are tricks to approaching them, but the biggest thing is that you need to do puzzle after puzzle until you start seeing patterns and they stop freaking you out. Stay calm and be methodical. Don’t skip ahead of yourself and remember – sometimes instinct works.
PS: The 3 hours during the exam will not determine the rest of your life. Yes, it could affect where you get into law school, but so do your grades.
Hmm. As stated above, I’m consistently scoring around 170-172; that doesn’t strike me as bad enough to cancel the scores, since honestly I’m not likely to take the test again for another few points.
I should mention that I’m not committed to the idea of law school at this point. I’ve got a professional career going now, but I’m really starting to burn out on journalism (and journalists), not to mention I’ve pretty well maxed out my upward mobility. So I’m checking into law, and this seemed like a good place to start seeing whether I’ve got a knack for it. (And of course law is just to pay the bills until I become a world-famous, indie-rebel filmmaker. )
Peg, the June test is the only LSAT given on Monday for some reason. Oh, and resting up isn’t really an option for me at this point, alas.
Thanks for the advice, all; I’m going to spend the next few days studying (when not at work), and as long as I don’t feel I’ve absolutely tanked it at the end, I don’t think I’ll cancel the scores. No offense, minty!
And as long as you’re begging for unsolicited advice . . . don’t do it. I love the legal biz, but far too many people go to law school not sure that they want to be lawyers. The vast majority of such people hate it, and with good reason. If you’re not tempermentally suited for this gig, it’s like Chinese water torture.
Right, I said in the OP that I’m usually missing 3 or 4 of them, compared to 1 or 2 of the others. I infer from your response that this is a good enough score and I’m being a psychotic perfectionist? (It wouldn’t be the first time.)
Thanks. I’m very much interested and I think law would be a fascinating career, plus I’m a bit older than the young jackelope who madly rushed into a couple of English Lit degrees ten–oops! fourteen-- years ago. At this point I’m pursuing it cautiously, but keeping options open until I see what my circumstances look like in a year or so (and what kinds of offers I get from various schools).
Everyone’s candid advice is sincerely appreciated.
I’d echo minty green’s advice about really looking before you jump into law school. I always tell people that law school and law are very different and it’s definitely not for everyone. Unforunately as with lots of things, you won’t know until you get there. That said, a law degree is pretty flexible and because there are so many areas, there’s room for different personality types within the career.
I had plenty of classmates who were career-switchers. They always did fine, in many cases better than those straight out of college. (I was somewhere in between.)
If you’re freting about missing 3 or 4 questions, you are a psychotic perfectionist… maybe law is a good career for you afterall.
I should mention that about a generation ago (1989), I sat for the LSATs, managed to get only about 2/3 of the logic problems correct - and still got 99+ percentile.
Oops, I meant to continue - so don’t worry, Jackelope! And I felt like shit after the LSAT, convinced that I wouldn’t be able to get into JimboBob’s California Bar Approved Law School - n - Bait Shack.
Thanks for the followup, folks; I took the test today and smoked it. I think I did better on the actual test than I was doing on the practice tests (on which I was scoring 170 or so). Will resurrect this thread to share the official results in three weeks, when I get them. (Side question: when you get your score report, do they tell you how you did on individual sections and so on?)
Max Torque, I shared your advice about canceling one’s scores on the first try with a guy I was chatting with during the break. He commented that he hadn’t even finished any of the sections before time was called, and I told him your advice to tak the first try as a prep test. He seemed kind of shocked at the idea (this was pretty late to spring it on him I guess), and I don’t know if he actually did cancel them, but I at least opened him to that idea.
Anyhoo, I’ve been out getting treated to drinks by one of my favorite people, so I’ll cut this short before I screw up and say something sincere. Thanks for the responses, everyone.
Resurrecting this from three weeks ago, as promised, to share test results:
For anyone who’s interested: I got my scores last night. A 172, 99th percentile. Hooray! I’ll be talking to my lawyer friend/advisor about what to do next.
Congratulations, jackelope! I got into Harvard with a score only a couple of points higher, and only adequate grades, so you should be sitting pretty with that.
Any chance you can get a paralegal job for a while? It’s not a bad way to try to figure out what lawyers do and whether you’d like it. (Being a paralegal is not itself that much like being a lawyer, but it can be a good way to observe the lawyers in their natural habitat and get an idea what they do).
Not a bad idea, I suppose. I’ve got a fairly well paid and interesting job right now, which I was planning to keep for another year or so until I start law school, but that might be worth looking into; thanks for the suggestion.
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