While searching for podcasts on iTunes last night, I found the Princeton Review's LSAT Logic in Everyday Life. They talk about logic in everyday life and supposedly help develop reasoning skills relevant to the LSAT.

The podcasts are less than 10 minutes long and are pretty interesting, whether they actually will make a difference on your LSAT or not. So they're probably worth a listen on your commute to school, at the gym, or whenever you have time. Here's the link. They are available for free on iTunes as well.

Have not done a reader question in awhile, so here it goes:

I am currently beginning a committed 2 full months into prepping for the LSAT. I originally signed up for the Blueprint LSAT full course, but was did not mesh with its classroom style. I prefer to study on my own. i have a low GPA 2.35 but went through hell (divorce, tragedy, etc.) while in school. I am 32 years ols and a single dad. I am absolutely committed to preparing and dead to the world for the next two months. i am purchasing the Powerscore Bibles to add to my study. What advice, if any can you elaborate on in preparing and what are the prospects, assuming I do well on the LSAT, of any top schools offering me admission?

Click below to see my answer...

 (More)

Here are a couple of links about the day before and the day of the LSAT here and here.

For more links, below is our original post about the day before the LSAT:

This weekend is an LSAT weekend! Hopefully you're well prepared for and not too stressed out over the exam.

Compelling Interests blog (from the people behind LexPrep Law School Preparation Course) gives some last minute advice.

Here you can find some good advice for the day before and the day of the test.

Here is some more advice for the day of the test.

Good luck!

UPDATE: Well, it looks like the Law Critic blog has died almost as quickly as it started. It must have been the avalanche of traffic sent by the Pre-Law Blog readers. My apologies to the author.

The other day, I stumbled upon a new blog that is written by a future law school applicant who will be taking the LSAT within the next year. It is called Law Critic.

The blog is billed as "a website for people trying to decide if law school is the next step" but focus as of now looks to be the LSAT with posts like "Why does the LSAT carry so much weight?" It is certainly interesting for me to see an applicant's perspective on the test before he's taken it leading up to test day. Some of you future law students in his position might want to keep up with the blog.

Good luck and welcome to the world of blogging.

The Prelaw Advisor Blog has a good post about the importance of the LSAT.

He makes a good point about the counterintuitiveness of the LSAT's importance, especially to applicants and parents.

Click below to read more.

 (More)

Ann Levine of Lawschool expert posts her thoughts on the Pre-Law Blog's previous post on the LSAT.

We haven't talked about the LSAT in awhile. A reader gives us this comment:

• I recently downloaded a practice LSAT exam. Though I have learned a great deal about the law in Paralegal School, I saw that it had absolutely no relevance when it come to the LSAT. What is the best way to prepare for the LSAT?

My response below...

 (More)

I don't recommend Kevin Boonear Siangchin's technique for getting into a top law school: Leaving cryptic notes and money on Law School Admissions Council (LSAC...the organization that oversees the LSAT) workers' cars in an attempt to bribe them into selling you a copy of the LSAT. (Link)

An important part of the law school application that a law school applicant must understand, especially if the applicant is a minority, is how being an minority (URM) affects the application. Along those lines, here is a submitted question I received not too long ago:

• I graduated from (very good public school in California) with a 3.72 in philosophy. I recently took the lsat and I am very disappointed with my score. I got a 158, I was hoping to get at least in the 160’s. I am considering taking it again, but I really don’t want to. I have done a lot of community service and extracurricular activities. I am also a member of an underrepresented ethnic group. Will I even have a shot at a top 10 school with this LSAT score? The school that I really want to go to is Columbia.

By the way, thanks for including your actual numbers. This makes it much easier for me to assess thie situation. For future readers with questions, know that including your LSAT and GPA numbers will make it more likely that I will answer because that lets me better understand where you are.

How being a URM affects an applicant:
First off, a little background. A landmark US Supreme Court decision in 2004 basically affirmed law schools are allowed to favor an applicant because of race or ethnicity. This is not affirmative action or a quota system. It is simply bumping a person's chances of acceptance up because that person would add diversity to the academic mix. The basic logic behind this is that a schools' diversity is a compelling interest that justifies using race or ethnicity in the admissions process.

It varies from school to school and most won't say exactly how, but it's no secret that your chances of acceptance if you are a member of an underrepresented minority is much better than if not . Just make sure in your application you bring to the forefront how being a minority gives you a diverse perspective and show how your status has affected you as a person. That said, being a minority doesn't write a person a ticket to any law school he/she wishes to attend.

Your chances:
I'm no expert, but in your shoes this is how I would approach your situation. I'm going to be using Columbia as an example since you mentioned it, but you can go through this process with similarly situated schools to get a better idea.

The first thing to do is find Columbia's data page from the Official Guide to ABA-Approved Law Schools. A comparison of your GPA to that of last year's acceptances at Columbia shows that you are right near the top 25th percentile. And your GPA is from a pretty reputable/recognizable school. You're certainly not going to get rejected because of your GPA. In fact, your past scholarly success will surely help your chances.

For further guidance, some schools give more detailed applicant statistics at the bottom of the "Law School Description" sheet. Columbia, like a lot of top schools, chooses not to disclose applicant data in that kind of detail though (here's an example of what some schools do provide though).

Next compare the LSAT scores. As you can see, your 158 LSAT score does not surpass the lower 25 percentile for Columbia's accepted students last year. This is not good news for most applicants, but could being a URM put you over the edge?

Use Law School Numbers:
To break this down a little further, I would use one of my favorite websites for law school applicants: lawschoolnumbers.com. You can really play around with their search function and get a basic idea of how things shakeout for Columbia. You can even use the search tool so that only other URM applicants are included in the search.

Just remember two things about LSN: 1) these are self-reported numbers so they undoubtedly contain mistakes and accounts that have not been updated and 2) as you narrow down searches, the sample sizes are going to be too small and may not be a very accurate representation.

Based on what I know, with your URM status and great undergrad GPA, receiving an LSAT score that is average for Columbia would likely get you into Columbia 7 or 8 times out of 10. Doing a search on lawschoolnumbers of last year's minority Columbia applicants who scored between a 168 and 171 (50% of all Columbia acceptances LSAT scores fell into this category) helps confirm this by showing a pretty good majority of candidates fitting this criteria reporting themselves as accepted to Columbia (as opposed to rejected or waitlisted, you can assume the pending ones just didn't update their accounts).

Now a lawschoolnumbers search for last year's Columbia minority applicants with an LSAT score between 155 and 163, similar to yours, doesn't garner a lot of results so be weary of the small sample size problem. But most report either a rejection or a waitlist (can probably assume that most waitlist candidates eventually choose another school or were never accepted at Columbia). And the ones reporting being accepted in this group were generally 160 or better with a sparkling GPA.

My Advice:
I would have guessed your 158 LSAT score puts you at a less than 50% chance of acceptance at Columbia. The lawschoolnumbers search helps confirm this guess and maybe even paints a bleaker picture for your chances than I expected.

If you want a halfway decent shot at a school as reputable as Columbia, you're going to have to do better than a 158. You can take your shot with what you scored, but I wouldn't recommend it. I certainly wouldn't want to go through the LSAT twice, but you have to do what you have to do.

Not to be overly dramatic, but the LSAT is an extremely important test and can pretty much indirectly determine what career opportunities you might have or might not have. Do you really want to spend your life thinking "I could have done well on the LSAT and gotten into Columbia had I studied for and taken the LSAT again."

Based on my limited knowledge, I think you need to shoot for 165 or higher. Take a course or a tutor if you have to in order to get it.

Links:
This a description of how law schools use diversity on applications decisions as viewed from a person who is paid to help minority applicants through the application process. Website looks out of date but it still seems like a good description.

LSAC's (administrator of the LSAT) "Minority Perspectives" homepage with links to FAQ's for minority applicants and some relevant articles.

A pretty good "Guide to The Law School Application Process for People of Color." Pretty long but most of the length comes from an addendum with numerous sample resumes, personal statements, and letters of rec.

Blog written by a group of black professors called blackprof. It tackles a lot of relevant issues for minorities. Wish they posted more often though!

----
*I am a law student. That means I don't have all the answers. I may be lacking knowledge in certain areas, namely the real world practice of law. But I have done a lot of research into the law school process as a whole and I am currently living through law school. I am also surrounded by a lot of smart and experienced people with unique insight into the law school world who either work at CALI or with whom CALI have close relationships. I hope that you seek others' opinions and insights in addition to mine in order to make an informed decision.

Accepted Admissions Almanac reports on the upcoming changes that will take place starting on the June 2007 LSAT exam. Here's some nice analysis on the upcoming.

Some good analysis in this article on insidehighered.com. I find it interesting that two of the major LSAT prep companies are offering opposite advice. These quotes are taken from the above article:

Kaplan's advice:

• "[I]f they are taking it in the next year or so, they should, if they have time to prepare, take it in December or February. Anytime there is uncertainty in the exam, regardless of the magnitude, it should be avoided if you have the opportunity,” said Steven Marietti, director of pre-law programs at Kaplan."

Princeton Review's advice:

• “I think June is a better time to take the exam, in terms of how it fits into the admissions cycle,” Meanza added. “I don’t think that it’s ultimately that big of a deal — I don’t think we need to scare students into doing something just because of two minor changes.”

Kaplan's advice makes a lot of sense to me. In a test that you are (hopefully) going to prepare for extensively and where the cost of a single wrong answer is fairly high, it makes sense to avoid as much uncertainty as possible. But then again, it doesn't make much sense to rearrange a plan you've had in place based on what looks like a very minor change.

I guess it depends on how flexible you are and how comfortable you are with bumping up your LSAT test date to an earlier date.

This weekend is an LSAT weekend! Hopefully you're well prepared for and not too stressed out over the exam.

Compelling Interests blog (from the people behind LexPrep Law School Preparation Course) gives some last minute advice.

Here you can find some good advice for the day before and the day of the test.

Here is some more advice for the day of the test.

Good luck!

Another great question submitted by one of our readers.

• I'm in a similar situation as the chemical engineering student from Northwestern, but my university isn't nearly as prestigious, nor is my major as difficult (Political Science with an emphasis in Public Relations). Due to an incredibly bad sophomore year, I have a low gpa . . . but I do not want to give up on my dream of going to law school . . . . Another option that may be feasible is to apply to a lower ranked (but still accredited ) law school, do well during the first year, and then transfer to a higher ranked school the following year. Should I just forget that I once dreamed of attending Harvard(completely out of the question at this point) and Duke? I still have time to improve my GPA and prepare for the LSAT, as I have two majors, my graduation date (2007) has been delayed by a year, but I would like to give myself peace of mind regarding my situation. Thanks.

There are several good questions in here, but let me address the most general question that is probably applicable to many law student hopefuls who cannot get into a big name school...

Should I apply to a less reputable school with the plan of transferring out after first year?
Unfortunately it is a very poor strategy to go to one law school and counting on transferring to another between your first and second years (generally the only point at which a law student can transfer).

Look at it this way, to transfer to a big time school you have to prove that you are far and away a better student than the students at your current lower reputation school. To transfer upward, you probably need to be in lower than top 25% and the highest reputation law schools to which you wish to transfer will require you be in the very, very top of your class.

Most of the students at the school you attend your first year are going to be, assumedly, of similar intelligence as you. Afterall, your LSAT's will likely be within the same range. And obviously, almost all law students are going to try to achieve elite status academically during their first year; whether their motivation is transfering, scoring a biglaw job, law review, etc.

So in your first year you'll have all of these students of similar intelligence vying for a top spot in the class. Because of this you just don't know whether you will be at the top of your class at the lower ranked schooll, which will be the major factor to ability to transfer upward.

In general to anyone thinking about the transfer up idea, I highly advise against taking this strategy. If you go to a certain law school, you need to be comfortable with the idea of finishing your JD at that school. After the first semester if your grades and rank are high, then you can think about transferring upward.

Should I rule out going to law school?
I don't think you should rule out law school until you know what your capabilities are on the LSAT. I can't stress enough that the law school you attend is highly dependant on LSAT.

Your major or undergrad school alone is not a big enough strike against you. But if your GPA is as low as you lead on, there is a chance that it will hurt, maybe completely eliminate, your chances at some elite schools. The LSAT, though, can mask that low GPA and still get you into some pretty good schools.

For now you should concentrate on getting that LSAT score as high as possible to make up for your GPA. In addition keep improving the GPA to show an upward trend. Take plenty of practice tests and have an idea of your potential score on the LSAT.

As mentioned in the previous post, map out scenarios using information provided by lawschoolnumbers.com and LSAC's Official Guide to ABA Law Schools. Come to a conclusion on what you think it would take, LSAT-wise, to get into your target schools and go from there. Estimating what schools you have a chance of getting into becomes easier when you have done plenty of practice LSAT exams and know where your score could fall.

At that point you will have the ability to make an informed decision about law school and, if need be, the ability to rule out attending law school altogether if your target schools are completely out of reach. But as of right now, you just can't do that. It might cost you some time and effort to prepare for the LSAT, but I think you have to keep up the dream for now.

One more note on a low GPA
Also, you need to make sure that your grades are continuing to rise. But I have to be honest, if you have trouble keeping up grades in undergrad with a less than difficult major at a less than competitive undergrad school to the point where you feel you are underperforming, you may need to seriously think about whether you are up for law school.

Succeeding in law school is much more effort and requires better study habits than undergrad. Unless you have a legitimate reason for your poor performance (and if you do, note it on your personal statements to law schools), you will have to be willing to change the way you do things in terms of school work.

I'm not assuming anything about the reader, but for people out there who know they have the ability but don't apply themselves in undergrad, just changing as soon as you step into the halls of law school might be harder than you think. The same temptations and distractions that might have kept you from doing well in the past in undergrad also exist in law school.

----
*I am a law student. That means I don't have all the answers. I may be lacking knowledge in certain areas, namely the real world practice of law. But I have done a lot of research into the law school process as a whole and I am currently living through law school. I am also surrounded by a lot of smart and experienced people with unique insight into the law school world who either work at CALI or with whom CALI has close relationships. I hope that you seek others' opinions and insights in addition to mine in order to make an informed decision.

About.com has a nice timeline for future law school applicants. It's a good idea to keep up with this or another checklist/timeline to see where you should be in your application process.

Prospective Fall '08 Applicants
If you you want to start law school in Fall '07 (2 years out from law school) you need to start seriously thinking about the LSAT and researching different law schools. More importantly now is the time to research the LSAT and different schools even if you are not 100% sure you will be attending law school.

I know 2 years from now sounds like a long time. But you'll end up in a better position if you start the process in motion now than you would if you wait too long to start the process.Waiting too long to start the process can hurt you in a number.

Prospective Fall '07 Applicants
For those of you looking to start law school in Fall '07 (next year), hopefully you've started the whole application process and taken the LSAT or at least plan on taking the October LSAT by now. If not, you're in a tough position and have to take the December LSAT to get in next year.

To be honest, it is possible though as I did take the December LSAT the year before I entered law school. I decided very late in the application cycle to go to law school. But I would not recommend doing this because I had only one shot at the LSAT and I'll never know if my late application and LSAT score hurt my chances of being accepted at some schools.

In reality here are the things the About.com timeline says that you should be doing in the September, a year before you start law school:

• Order the Law School Admission Council (LSAC) catalog and application or complete an electronic version.
• Finish writing your personal statement.
• Update your resume.
• Ask faculty for letters of recommendation.
• Ask a professional acquaintance or employer for a reference. Provide employers with a sample reference.
• Request financial aid information.
• Continue to visit Law schools.

So you should still be having a pretty busy month! Check out the timeline and make sure you are now on track.

As August winds to a close, the September 30 LSAT exam and its deadlines are fast approaching.

If you've been doing much research into law school I hope you know what I'm about to say. But for those of you just starting out on your journey to law school, I don't know how I can be anymore clear other than to say that the LSAT means everything as far as getting into law school.

It alone can make or break you in terms of getting accepted to law school. A high score can mask a low GPA and still get you into great schools. A low score can make it as if a sparkling resume and great undergrad GPA never occured. Take the LSAT mores seriously than any test you have taken in your life.

University of Buffalo Pre-Law Advising Blog has a nice post that points out the different study methods for the LSAT and resources for each. I was a self-study guy, but that's just my personality (I'd rather do it on my own, especially if it saves money).

Don't be afraid to take courses or use a tutor to get your test score up. You'll be spending a ton of money on law school and there's no reason not to spend just as much trying to get into the best law school you can.

Lawschoolnumbers.com
Every LSAT post from here out is going to include this link to lawschoolnumbers.com. CALI has no affiliation with the folks at LSN but I just think it's a great tool.

At LSN thousands of law school applicants post their undergrad GPA, LSAT scores, etc, as well as to what law schools they have applied. I suggest you do the same, anonymously if you like.

It's a nice way to benchmark your target schools and see what types of applicants those schools are accepting. I used it religiously during my application process.

A while back, Professor Paul Caron of TaxProf Blog reported the new policy regarding law schools' reporting of LSAT scores to the ABA. Whereas the ABA previously required that law schools report the average LSAT score of an applicant, the ABA now allows the schools to report the highest score of an applicant.

Some are touting this as a wonderful move. Accepted Admissions Almanac gushes, "I also agree with Daniel Solove of Concuring Opinions that this would be a "terrific policy change." I'm not so sure...

Some Thoughts
To me it's a clear rich get richer sort of deal. Because of rankings, schools are going to report the highest score of an applicant. While law schools may consider any lower test scores during the admissions decision, schools can certainly disregard lower scores with little consequence to the school itself. Therefore, a pretty big incentive exists for an applicant to take the exam three times and hope for a high score.

I can see a situation in which an incoming student with plenty of money and time to spare who is scoring, say, in the 150's on practice LSAT exams taking the exam three times and scoring, for example, 150, 155, and a outlier 170. Explain to me again how reporting, in this case, the 170 or any other possible outlier high score, is less "arbitrary" than the previous averaging policy? The end result is that test takers with the time and money to spend on retaking the test are at a huge advantage over those who lack the time or money retake the test.

Who else gets richer?
Clear incentives to take the LSAT the max amount of times?...The LSAC, administrators of the LSAT, must be thrilled. LSAT preparation companies, who are likely to sell more books and prep courses also must love this.

Protection Against "Bad Days"?
I realize this new policy was put in place to avoid the penalty for those who have a "bad test day." But I'm not sure why it's better acknowledge those in the opposite extreme, the fluke test. But let's look at what the previous policy meant for students' decisions to retake the LSAT.

Under the previous policy, if the applicant scored below what she believed to be her abilities (and test takers know this as much as they take practice tests), it was worth the time and effort to retake the LSAT because there would likely be an improvement. And if the first score was truly a bad day score, the applicant could take the LSAT two more times to get that average up. Additionally (and most importantly), under the previous policy if an applicant scored at or above what the applicant believed to be indicative of his/her abilities there was a disincentive to retake the test because a lower score would hurt the applicant.

The result with the old policy was that applicants decided whether to retake the LSAT based at least somewhat on their abilities. If an applicant scored according to what he believed was his abilities or higher, the applicant was more likely to keep that score because he had to consider the fact that a lower score would hurt him/her. So scores probably better reflected the student's abilities.

With the new policy, there is little reason not to take LSAT repeatedly no matter what, even if an applicant scores exactly what she thinks she is capable of. The result is an increased likelihood of a fluke high score on one of the three tests, thereby increasing the chance an applicant will be judged on that higher score.

As much as the previous policy may have hurt test takers' bad days, at least the bad days could be somewhat mitigated with the averaging of the scores. Not to mention, students who were hurt because of a bad LSAT day and had to attend a lesser school as a result could transfer to a better school if the higher scores were truly indicative of their abilities in law school. On the contrary, the new policy of giving more credence to fluke high scores is worse than acknowledging bad day scores because:

1) Even if the test taker knows a certain score is representative of his abilities (or even a overly representative) there is little reason not to play again and hope for an even bigger score.
2) Fluke score students could end up at a school at which they may not be able to cut it and possibly flunk out. Whereas bad test day students may end up at a school for which they are overqualified (in which case the student has a shot at transferring up and out) and bad day scores can mitigate by retaking and averaging out.
3) The people who can't afford to take the test more than once are at a distinct disadvantage because they don't have that extra shot at at the unlikely high score whereas a student who can afford it can retake and further prepare for the LSAT regardless of how indicative the first test was of his/her abilities.

Advice for LSAT takers
No matter what you are scoring in practice or scored previously, unless you know your score will get you accepted at a top school of your choice, take the LSAT the max amount of times and hope to hit the lottery one time if you can afford to.

Unless someone has an argument against this that I am missing, I don't see the disadvantage. Schools are now less likely to be deterred by low LSAT scores. If you don't have the money or time to take the LSAT repeatedly, then I guess you are out of luck.