Calm After the LSAT Storm

Score release day is a nervy affair for students (first and foremost), parents, and test prep companies alike. We are all intimately familiar with the amount of hard work that has gone in to preparing for the LSAT, making the moment that you open that email from LSAC an impossibly sudden crescendo to the hundreds of hours of hard work put in by law school hopefuls.

As sweet as it was to hear the numerous success stories of our students in the early moments after the score release, our immediate attention is always turned to the people out there who still have a bit more work to do. There will be many students who should think about retaking the exam in December (or February, depending on when you are trying to start Law School), and many more who should not – much more on this decision will be forthcoming in my “Retake Manifesto” blog post later this week.

For the unsure student, (or anyone else curious about what was going on with this exam), we’re offering our free live online review of the October LSAT.  Mike Kim and Noah Teitelbaum will be presenting the answers to several of this exam’s more difficult questions, as well as providing insight in to whether or not you should be considering a retake.

If you already have your sights set on December for one last shot at this thing ahead of the Fall 2012 application deadlines, here is some helpful info:

• The deadline to register for the December 2011 LSAT is Friday, November 4th (receipt deadline)
• Ann Levine’s blog post regarding the retake decision is a useful read
• It’s not too late to self-study! Perhaps a bit of organization was all you were lacking from previous prep efforts.
• If you’re looking for more than self-study, we offer in-person and live online Private Tutoring – a fine option for the compressed timeline between now and the December test.
• Our live online Logic Games Intensive course begins on Sunday, October 30th and finishes up before the December exam. Try it free.

It's over!! It's all over!!

As we lay the October 2011 LSAT to rest, it is important that we remember the legacy it will leave behind. We mustn’t forget the blood, sweat, and tears that went into preparing for this exam. Hopefully, you’re coming off of Saturday’s exam feeling content with your performance. If that’s how it went for you – congratulations! I hope you celebrated properly, and cannot wait to hear about your results.

As for the rest of you, who didn’t quite skip out of the exam center whistling “Zip-A-Dee-Do-Dah“, all is not lost! If you’re certain things did not go well for you on Saturday, you ought a cancel your score (if you haven’t done so already, today is the last day!). And luckily, December is not too late – you can still get in to law school in the Fall 2012 using your scores from the December 2011 LSAT!

What’s important is for you to recognize what’sholding you back from achieving your LSAT goals, and then to do something about it. Here are three common reasons why you might not be seeing the results you wanted:

1)  You underestimated the beast that is the LSAT.  You knew the LSAT was hard, but you had no idea just how much time and energy was necessary to adequately prepare for the exam. –We see this often—students who expect that a few hours of homework and studying each week will be sufficient for maximizing their potential on this test. Unfortunately, for most people it takes much more than that. Set your sites on the December exam with your expectations adjusted.

2) I just can’t seem to get over the hump on the ___________ section.  This is natural. Often students who have been studying for a while start to have a few sections of the exam really “click” for them, while one or two sections remain  problem areas. You should embrace this opportunity to hone in on your weak areas and really address what’s holding you back (note: if you’re struggling with Logic Games, consider trying our Logic Games Intensive Course).

3) You prepped hard, but not smart. At Manhattan LSAT, we’re big proponents of self-study. Maybe you’ve been studying on your own, but have never really had a structured approach. This is one of the major advantages of our Self Study program: it gives you structure.  It tells you what to focus on, when to focus on it, and how to channel your efforts on a particular question type or exam section. If you’ve chosen to do it yourself, be sure to add some sort of structure.  Our Self Study program comes with a syllabus and course recordings, ensuring that you have a very structured plan of attack.

For those of you who are going to continue the LSAT battle from now until the December exam, perhaps we can help.  We’re offering a free, live online review of the October exam and have an lsat class beginning October 17^th that will prepare you for the December test.

Decisions, decisions!

A member of the Manhattan LSAT Forum community – who, like a good lawyer-to-be, is keeping himself anonymous – sent me an interesting article in the NY Times magazine that has some interesting implications for LSAT study. Take a look at the article and what he had to say about it – I think this is spot on:

The article is about “decision fatigue”: how merely making a large number of decisions (whether deciding LSAT questions or deciding your breakfast cereal) leads you to a point where you are more liable to make bad decisions or take shortcuts to avoid having to invest yourself in more decisions.  There were  a few things I think are relevant to LSAT study:

#1. This could underlie the fatigue students often feel towards the end of an individual test (it’s not just having to read a lot or analyze a lot of logic—it’s literally the act of making so many decisions)

#2. This could definitely underlie LSAT burnout. Having to make so many decisions in a short period of time has a major taxing effect. One test is about 100 decisions—when combined with the other decisions we make from day-to-day that’s a serious workout

#3. The way to recover from decision fatigue is through glucose, so this would support the idea of eating sugary snacks during the break. And that’s not just because you’re using energy in general—in fact making decisions doesn’t use more brain energy, it just shifts what parts of your brain are active.

I found it especially relevant when it said that decision fatigue leads to an otherwise wise person falling for misleading logic or tricks. And perhaps something to take from it aside from how it supports practices already done (like taking some time off before test day, etc.), would be that no matter how good a person is on the LSAT, merely making so many decisions will burn him out. It also may suggest that doing 6 or 7 section tests is not productive—according to the findings a person doesn’t build up more decision energy—they merely learn how to conserve it better. So doing 6 or 7 sections may in a person’s mind take the pressure off when it comes to 5 sections, but if decision fatigue is a major or deciding factor, it would seem that practicing with 6 or 7 sections would have little benefit.  

It definitely also shows why it’s so important to do 5 section practice tests because it’s very possible that most people start to feel the effects of decision fatigue especially strongly after 4 sections—that would be the perfect zone for a person to falter.

Interesting stuff! I do think it’s still worthwhile for some people to try doing a 6 section LSAT just to push their mental stamina – learning to conserve your decision energy can actually be useful. It’s good to know when to think a lot, when to pull the trigger, when to simply guess.  These are all characteristics of a good test taker.

Speaking of test taking skills, if you are in NYC on September 15th, stop by our office at 6:30 for a free workshop on maximizing your test taking potential.

Our first alumni interview is with Adam S., soon to be a 2L at Georgetown University.  Adam made time for a phone call with us a few weeks ago:

M LSAT: What is your educational and career background?

AS: I went to NYU and I was a philosophy major.  I graduated in 2007.  I went to public school before that in Maryland.

M LSAT: How did you come to choose a career in law?  Did you choose your Philosophy major with that in mind?

AS: I didn’t have any inclination first of all when I came to college.  I just simply didn’t know what I wanted to do for a year.  I was undeclared when I came in and I decided on philosophy after taking a philosophy class that I liked a lot.  Sort of the word among philosophy students is law school the reason why you do what you did.  I think I got the idea from that, from hearing what other philosophy majors were saying.  I did a substantial amount of research myself.  I spoke with as many people as I could about the practice of law, about law school itself.  I spoke with people who are lawyers now, people who are in law school now, people who are no longer lawyers because they didn’t like it.  Ultimately I thought it would be the right thing for me.

M LSAT: Was there any one thing or any one person that you talked to that made up your mind for you? Or was it a gradual evolution?

AS: It was very much just speaking to a lot of people and it weighing on the side of seeming like a good thing for me.  In college I did an internship where I was exposed to legal stuff, in the music industry, and I’d thought that I’d be an entertainment lawyer.  The internship involved licensing agreements for a record label, Universal Music Group.

I wasn’t doing real legal work but I got a chance to read through legal agreements; it was my first time ever having to really do that and just to see what it is.  I guess what I liked about law and what I think what ultimately attracted me to it after speaking with a lot of people, and then working, I sort of figured out that it’s an area in which one always has an opportunity to learn and be challenged and that seems to me to make for a fulfilling career.

M LSAT: How has your view of the law profession evolved as you progressed with your studies?

AS:  In between going (to law school) I worked for two years at Royal Bank of Canada, in the legal department.  So I worked with lawyers for about two and a half years before I came.  That also influenced my view of what legal practice is like.  It’s hard to say because I don’t know if I’ve ever had some clear view of what legal practice is like.  Also, it can be very, very different depending on the area of where your practice is.  I know that working at a law firm, or least I believe – I’ve never worked at a law firm before – but I have the sense that working at a law firm is very, very different than working in house, for a company like what I was doing.

There is a fair amount of common knowledge about law firm life being difficult – long hours, that kind of thing.  It’s a hard question, a good question.  There are many different types of law itself so it’s hard for me to answer generally.  There are lots of sort of preconceived notions in our society about the quality of lawyers and such.  And one of the things that I think, that’s been heartening for me, is coming to law school and seeing that law students, and particularly the law, is really a tool with which to make the biggest changes that one can in the way things work.

M LSAT: What led you to choose Manhattan LSAT for your test prep?

AS: Well, to be honest, my brother is friends with Andrew Yang [former CEO of MG Prep].  He’s actually one of the people that I spoke to about law school, because he went to law school.  He definitely gave me an honest view; he didn’t like it.  He was one of the best people to speak with because he had a lot of good insight about it.  I think he was my brother’s teacher for GMAT and my brother found out they were doing a new LSAT program and he really thought that MGMAT was great so I decided to do this.

M LSAT: How was your experience with Manhattan LSAT?

AS: I would say that they did as good a job as possible at preparing me for the LSAT.  It’s definitely a really challenging test and there are no real secrets to it.  There is nothing you can say that, just by telling someone, will instantly make them improve by a lot.  The insights, I thought, were really, really valuable.  I was very, very, very happy with Manhattan LSAT.

M LSAT: How did you study for the test on your own time, outside of class?

AS: I studied for a long time for it.  I started pretty early and, I actually took two Manhattan LSAT classes.  They have a thing where you can do it for very inexpensively the second time around (editor’s note: $300 for a retake of a Manhattan LSAT class).  So I took it once with Noah Teitelbaum and I took it with Aileen.  They were both really just amazing teachers.

The way that I studied for it is by doing the exercises in the book.  That’s definitely a necessary preliminary sort of thing.  But the most important thing I did was just take practice tests over and over again.  Normally I would do two sections at a time if I could, timed.  Or one section at a time and then just go over the answers, just the drilling down nature of that, to make sure the things that you’re doing right you can do more quickly and the things you’re still struggling with don’t hold you back.

M LSAT: You said that practice tests were an effective strategy for you.  Was there anything that you found that didn’t work or wasn’t helpful?

AS: I’d say that the most productive strategies are the ones that….I would say that it should be done timed, when you do practice problems.  I think that was a really important thing, or at least it was a really important thing for me, because I think timing was the biggest issue for me.  When I started, particularly, I was not finishing everything.  It was very, very difficult for me to finish any section.  So just trying to create the timing pressure that the real test imposes, that was really effective.  I think in the beginning I didn’t really focus on that that as much. I mean, it’s just a matter of being realistic about what your strengths are where the challenges are and anything that isn’t focused on either improving your strengths or having the challenges not hold you back so much is probably not going to be as productive.

M LSAT: What was the best part of studying for the LSAT?  What was the worst?

AS: I actually did like the LSAT class.  I genuinely did like it.  I mean, I found it enjoyable to go to class I think just because if someone is interested in law then they probably should enjoy things like this.  I mean, I believe obviously it’s possible to not because you could be interested in law for all different reasons but just the idea of reasoning through something and talking about that and talking about how to approach an issue.  That’s on the positive side.

The tough part is, when you’re trying to be at your best, it can be discouraging when you’re not doing as well as you want to.  Obviously when you take the practice tests, you have good days and you have bad days and it can be scary.

M LSAT: Speaking of the practice test, how were you prepping before the course and what did you ultimately end up getting on the exam?

AS: I’m trying to remember what my first score was…before I took the class I think I took one or two exams myself.  I think I scored in the high 150’s, like 158 or something like that.  I truly am not confident that that’s correct.  But before class I didn’t do much productive studying.  I think I looked through some books but one of the best things about, or certainly an important thing for me, was just having structure to the study schedule that the class provides.  And just sort of knowing, it sort of gives you a step by step how to go through the issues.  The different questions, the different approaches to each question and it’s just like a very thorough system, which is something that I needed.  So that was important for me.  Ultimately, I got a 168.

M LSAT: What was your LSAT test day experience like?

AS: It was a crazy day.  Aside from running late, and having the subway just not be running that day, and having to take a cab there and like running in at the last minute…. It truly is like a blur.  It’s very hard to describe because there is so much adrenaline when you’re taking the test, I think, because you’ve been preparing for it for a long time and you know that it’s important.

They call “time to start” and, for me I think, it was very mechanical.  That’s the point of taking the practice tests and that’s the point of taking the class.  One of the greatest things about what I learned from class, was really just sort of the ‘play-to-your strengths’ thing I’ve mentioned already a couple of times.  It’s just so critical, I think, to doing well.  With an unlimited amount of time many people could do very well on it.  But the whole point is that you have a limited amount of time to answer these questions.  The ones that you can answer with the most ease should be done as quickly as possible and they should be done almost without thinking, just because you’re so used to seeing a question of that same structure, it’s just mechanical.  You know it immediately, you bubble the answer, and then you move on.  You don’t really want to sit there and meditate on anything, you don’t have time.

M LSAT: Earlier on you talked about how you spoke about speaking to many people about becoming a lawyer and their experiences in becoming a lawyer.  What would you say now to someone who came to you considering going to law school?  What would you tell them?

AS: I think I would be more positive about it than many of the people that I spoke with.  Although, I’ve only been through one year of law school so I don’t have real insight about what it is to really be a lawyer that sort of the people I spoke with had.

I would say that I’m definitely biased about this but it seems to me that law school seems to me to be the greatest of intellectual experiences.  That’s probably an overstatement but the point of it is just to sort of hone your critical thinking and reasoning skills and to make you clear and precise about the way you think about things and the way you express yourself and helping you to be persuasive.  I think that it’s a really excellent thing to do intellectually.  I doubt that it’s something that people should do unless they realistically think they want to be a lawyer.  I mean, some people say it’s something you can do if you don’t want to be a lawyer but then some people say it’s something you can do if you don’t want to be a lawyer.  I think that is not necessarily true.

M LSAT: What are your long term professional goals?

AS: That’s a good question, that’s a question that I have beginning to think about more recently.  Generally, I would like to work in the private and the public sector, hopefully for the federal government at some point.  Although, I don’t know exactly in what area I’d like to walk in.

M LSAT: Is there an idea scenario for you or do you have a dream job?

AS: I think it would be really sort of fascinating to work for an agency like the Federal Trade Commission.  That’s something I was interested in before law school.  You know, just being able to work on big, interesting issues would be great although, like I said, I need to do a lot more exploring to figure out what area I’d like to be in.

If you are a current or former Manhattan LSAT student that has an interesting LSAT experience to share, we’d love to hear from you!  Shoot us an email to: StudentServices@manhattanlsat.com.

There's got to be a better way to decide whether or not to retake the LSAT

If you took the LSAT on June 6^th and were less than pleased with the outcome, then consider attending our free online review of the exam next Monday night (7/11) at 8pm EST.  Two of our instructors will be breaking down some of the harder questions from the exam and offering advice on whether or not retaking in October is a good choice for you.

Speaking of ‘the great retake debate’, here are a few questions you should ask yourself as you begin to make your retake considerations:

• Did I have a bad day? If June 6, 2011 was a bad testing day for you (e.g. the person next to you had a nervous twitch, severe halitosis, or uncontrollable flatulence that threw you off your game), you probably knew it upon leaving the exam.  We train our students to practice predicting their scores. So ask yourself: did this feel like an awful exam during and after the test?  If yes, chances are you won’t have a bad day again.  Check to see your law school’s LSAT policy, keep studying, and prepare to rock the exam next time.  If no, then it is likely that you have a lot of work to do to get where you need to be.
• Are the law schools I am applying to considering my top score only or an average of all recorded LSATs? For obvious reasons, this is a huge consideration!  If your June score was fairly consistent with your practice test averages, and the school(s) you are applying to are going to average your LSAT scores, why risk posting a lower score? 
• Did I dedicate enough time to LSAT prep? Many students underestimate the amount of work it takes to properly prepare for the LSAT.  Did you give yourself enough time to study? Could you have done a bit more?  If you answered “yes” to this second question, reevaluate your study regiment and consider taking the exam again. Keep in mind that most people don’t improve that much the second time around. The average person who re-takes the LSAT with a score between 150 and 160 improves only 2.4 points on the re-take (and the re-take improvement gets worse as you go up the score ladder).

For more on LSAT scores and the decision to retake, take a look at these past articles:

-          Should I retake the LSAT?

-          LSAT policies for the top 15 law schools (from jdMission’s blog)

Most Strongly Supported Left Cross

You’ve just gone five rounds with the LSAT.  How do you feel ? Relieved? Depressed?  Nervous?  Befuddled? Angry?

These are all natural emotions for someone fresh off an LSAT.  Hopefully you’ve learned a little bit about Zen and the Art of LSAT as you’ve been prepping for the last few months, but if you’re really freaked out – or just naturally anxious about how things went – we’re in your corner.  Come to our Free Online Review the June LSAT Workshop, led by two of our rock star instructors.  Whether you’re a champion of the LSAT world, or in need of a bit more training, this Review the LSAT workshop is a must attend.

In this session we will review the most challenging logic games from the June Exam, as well as any of the newer curveballs that the LSAC may have decided to throw at you…  We will also address the pesky question of whether or not you should be considering a retake in October.

Of course the decision to retake will be largely contingent upon your June score, which is scheduled to be released Wednesday, June 27^th via email. Past trends tell us however, that you can expect your scores to be emailed to you a bit sooner than that.

While you’re waiting, you may find some of our articles about retakes a useful starting point for making your decision about future LSATs.

Early Versions of the Reading Comprehension Section of the LSAT

The LSAT is less than a week away and people are often asking for final tips about test day.  Here’s my best of:

1.  Easy does it (sort of). Don’t take any full prep tests within the last two days. The brain is a muscle, let it rest.  But, you do need to keep it toned. So take a few timed sections each day and review   a bunch of the work you’ve already done. The day before the LSAT re-do sections you have already completed and on the morning of, redo one easy logic game on your way to the test center to get your brain moving.

Caveat: if you know you’ll do better with momentum, go right ahead and get momentumming– go crazy the week before the LSAT.  Some people like to do a six-section LSAT a week before test day to make 5 sections seem easy.

2. Pack-up the night before. Get all your pencils sharpened, print out the ticket (and make sure your printer doesn’t cut off any part of it), make sure you have a passport-sized picture, and find that analog watch your dad gave you years ago. Make sure you know how to get to your testing center – there’s nothing worse than freaking out on your way to the test. Plan to arrive early and to enjoy a coffee outside while you do a warm-up section, a crossword puzzle, or something that is fun and slightly intellectual.

3. Warm-up mental stretches. Bring some light, warm-up LSAT material with you to the testing center. I suggest bringing some tough questions that you completely mastered.  Before you enter the testing center,  run through the questions one last time, toss the paper into the recycling bin, and head to your room.  Don’t bother checking your work.  The reason to do all of this is so the first section of the test isn’t your warm-up.  You want your logical thinking already moving when you start section 1.  The brain is a muscle, so warm it up just like you would your legs.

4. Visualize consistency. This will be the cheesiest-sounding suggestion, but perhaps one of the most important. Many Olympic athletes spend some time before their event imagining every single step of the process. Studies show that this activates the parts of your brain that you will actually use, and it reinforces the steps you’re going to do. So spend 10 minutes before the LSAT imagining what will happen.  Visualize your attitude during the test, visualize how you will deal with a tough question, and visualize staying focused. It works – and what do you have to lose?

5. Eliminate, eliminate, eliminate, eliminate. On all but the easiest problems in LR and RC, you should generally eliminate 4 answers. If you’re going down the answer choice list, and (B) seems to be the answer, act suspicious – assume you’ve been duped – and go on and look at the rest of the answer choices, seeing if you can eliminate them.  It’s too easy to “shut down” your brain once you think you’ve found the answer.  Unless you’re scoring 180s, face it: the LSAT is fooling you some of the time.  So look for the wrong answers, not the right ones.  This is probably the most important piece of advice I can give to students who are looking for a way to freshen up their process if it has hit a plateau.

6. Move along. If you are stuck on a question, take comfort in the fact that most everyone around you is probably struggling with that question too!  Some of your neighbors will spend 4 minutes on that one question, and others will move on and devote time to questions they can tackle.  Those who move on and keep their cool will probably do better.  So, make an educated guess, bubble it in, circle the question number, and move on.  If you have time, come back to it.

7.  Focus! If you find yourself meta-thinking (i.e. “wow, I’m taking the LSAT and it’s really tough, I hope I’m doing well . . . shoot, I really need to focus!  I think I bombed that last logic game.  Dang, what if I can’t focus . .”) you need to get back to work!  One easy way is to read the passage or question to yourself aloud (very quietly obviously).  Some people understand better when they hear information.  Another way to do it is to start writing on the test – “Conclusion!” “Why?” “Author’s opinion!”

8. Try something. For logic games, if you are into the 2nd or 3rd question and have been struggling the whole way there, you may have not made some important inferences that could “un-lock” the game (and by the way, not every game has important inferences built into the scenario, sometimes they’re all in the conditional questions).  Lay out two possible scenarios with the elements and question yourself along the way: “could E go anywhere? Why not?”  This might help focus your thinking.  This isn’t usually the most ideal route to unlocking a logic game, but if you’re stuck, you’ve got to do something!

9. Stay limber. You’ve probably spent a lot of time learning diagrams, logic rules, etc.  During test day, feel free to abandon ship if something is not working, but don’t abandon everything you’ve learned and go back to your fight-or-flight LSAT brain. The best test-takers are flexible with their methods, but have a steady hand. That being said, don’t throw out your general approach to the test It’s your routine that will see you all the way through section 5.

And I still stand behind my longstanding night-before-the-LSAT recommendation:  Watch Legally Blonde, 1 or 2.

MmmmMmm, bacon!

Since many of you will be taking the LSAT this coming weekend, I thought it was appropriate for me to channel my inner Jamie Oliver and make some dietary recommendations to all the February LSAT’ers (if you haven’t seen Jamie’s TED talk,  check out the first few minutes) out there. Truth is, we probably all should heed more nutritional advice from the likes of Jamie O – so why not let the LSAT be the incentive for change in your dietary habits? After all, chances are the exam has controlled every other aspect of your life for the past several months!

While I am by no means a medical expert or professional nutritionist, I do consider myself a highly skilled ‘Googler’, and I took some time to wrangle some helpful pre-exam tips from across the web to keep your mental steam throughout the entire LSAT exam:

Breakfast is essential. Nearly every expert that offered an opinion on what to eat before an exam started with the first meal of the day: breakfast. Some suggestions for a healthy pre exam breakfast are non-sugared cereal with fruit (try raisins, blueberries and/or or bananas), or if you prefer a hot breakfast, go with an egg sandwich with whole wheat bread or whole wheat English muffin. These selections will have the simple sugars (from the fruit) and complex carbohydrates (from the cereal/grain) to keep your energy levels up. Lastly, but perhaps most importantly, is the protein element of your breakfast that should come from eggs or beans (more on that in a minute). Be sure to avoid sugary cereals or excessive caffeine before the exam, as these foods tend to result in a “crash” over time, meaning that you may not have the energy to make it through the writing section of the exam – the horror! Speaking of caffeine..

Have your coffee, but scrap the Red Bull. Energy drinks are loaded with sugar and caffeine and are a recipe for test day disaster. Be sure to get enough sleep for two or three nights prior to the exam so that you aren’t reliant upon these gimmicky and unhealthy sources of temporary energy.

As far as coffee is concerned, if you are a habitual caffeine drinker (i.e. you have a cup of Starbucks coffee every single morning) do not all of a sudden break from your routine, as your body is probably reliant on that daily intake and the effects of cutting your body off from this common drug on test day can be damaging to your law school aspirations.

Protein Protein Protein. Another point on which all of the experts agree is that protein is an essential ingredient for test day mental fitness. Foods rich in protein will literally feed your brain during the exam, so don’t skip out on this essential aspect of a balanced breakfast.

Call in backup. Take full advantage of the LSAC’s willingness to allow you to bring a clear one-gallon zip lock bag in the exam room with you by packing it with a juice box and a snack. It’s a long exam, almost always spanning through lunch time, so a granola bar and an apple juice can be essential to keeping your energy levels up throughout the entire test.

Get off the sauce. Seems obvious, right? Make pains to stop drinking during the run up to the exam. Drinking excessive amounts of alcohol is generally not a great idea for your health, so it stands to reason that getting plastered a few days before the exam is not the most sound plan for a successful exam day. Besides, think of how fantastic that celebratory drink(s) will taste when you get your 180 score back from LSAC!

In summary, good nutritional practices in the days leading up to (and morning of) the LSAT will give your body the fuel it needs to sustain your focus throughout the pressure cooker that is the LSAT exam. Feel free to share your own exam day tips; what has worked (or hasn’t worked) for you on exam days throughout your academic career? Do you have any strange exam taking superstitions that you follow? We’d love to hear about them!

Arghhh!

It’s the Monday after an LSAT, so this is the question that’s filling the LSAT-universe. It’s not a pleasant discussion, but let’s get into it. Assuming that you just had a bad test day experience, here are a few considerations you should, well, consider:

1. Was this LSAT considerably different than your usual practice test experience? For example, did you only complete 3 games or RC passages when you usually complete 4? Or did you become violently ill?

2. Were you scoring comfortably within an acceptable score range on your last 2 – 3 practice tests?

3. What is the policy of the schools that interest you in terms of considering all scores, only your best, etc.

First things first:  if YOU KNOW you bombed the LSAT, then you should cancel (unless all your goal schools are firmly committed to only considering your best score).

Now that we have that out of the way, you should start with #3. Let’s say that you have 8 schools in mind. If 6 of them will look at all your scores, then that should steer you towards canceling and re-taking.

If it turns out that most of the schools that interest you consider your top score primarily or only, then you can relax and find out your score.

If, as is more likely, you face a combination of policies – some law schools considering your best score, some considering all, some giving more weight to your best score though taking a look at the other ones – then you need to think more about questions #2 and #1.

Let’s continue our reverse order and think about question #2: If you were at the bottom of your goal score range – in other words, if you were scoring below your goal school’s median LSAT scores on your last 2-3 practice tests, then a slightly bad test day brings you already further below what you need. So, then we’re probably facing a cancel, unless your father happened to build the school library or something similar.

If you were actually hitting the top end of the range you needed, then a slightly bad test day should bring you to the median, which is a decent place to be.

Finally, let’s consider question #1: How bad a bad day was it? If you’ve had practice tests in which you have experienced a similar screw-up – such as dropping an entire game – and you were able to salvage a decent score, then that suggests this event was not an anomaly and you might want to see the score. However, if this – you swear -was  the first time this has ever happened, then you’re looking at a cancel-me-now situation.

Go ahead and play around with the LSAT/GPA calculator that the LSAC helpfully provides. Take a deep breath, and consider this as rationally as you can.