The Northeast of the United States preparing for heavy snow fall this weekend, which isn’t the biggest deal — unless you’ve spent the last 3+ months preparing to take the LSAT on Saturday.

If you are registered to sit for the exam this Saturday in an area that is likely to get pounded by snow, please resist the urge to freak out. Instead, you should keep yourself on high alert and know how to get the most up to date, accurate information as it is possible that your exam may be postponed.

Here are the best places to watch for updates:

• www.LSAC.org, of course.
• @Offical_LSAT (LSAC’s official twitter handle)
• Your email inbox; affected students will receive an email in the event that their testing location is closed.

So what happens if your exam center is indeed closed due to inclement weather? You’re asked to sit tight while LSAC organizes make up exams. Make up exams typically happen 1-3 weeks after the original exam date, and you’re given a few options for how to proceed based on whether or not you’re available to take the exam at the time of the makeup. If you do sit for one of these makeup exams, LSAC will attach a note to your score report explaining to schools why it was late being delivered.

Should you be unable to attend the make up exam, LSAC has historically offered full refunds or the option to take a future LSAT at no additional cost.

If your exam is postponed and you’re able to take the make up, be sure to stay sharp during the interval by reviewing recent PrepTests and replaying some of the harder games.

 UPDATE from LSAC: As of 2:35 PM (EST), LSAC confirmed that the following February 2013 LSAT test centers will be closed tomorrow, Saturday, February 9, 2013. Registered test takers will receive information next week regarding make up test dates.

Connecticut

• Bridgeport—University of Bridgeport, 3017
• Fairfield—Fairfield University, 3001
• Middletown—Wesleyan University, 3002
• New Britain—Charter Oak State College, 3016
• New Haven—Yale University, 3003
• West Hartford—University of Hartford, 3009

Maine

• Brunswick—Bowdoin College, 4280
• Orono—University of Maine, 4282
• Portland—University of Southern Maine, 4290
• Waterville—Colby College, 4284

Massachusetts

• Amherst—Amherst College, 2650
• Bedford—Middlesex Community College, 2663
• Boston—Boston University, 2651
• Boston—Northeastern University, 2656
• Boston—Suffolk University, 2676
• Boston—Suffolk University Law School, 2674
• Bridgewater—Bridgewater State University, 2667
• Holyoke—Holyoke Community College, 2678
• Newton—Boston College Law School, 2652
• North Dartmouth—University of Massachusetts School of Law, 2664
• Salem—Salem State University, 2653
• South Hadley—Mount Holyoke College, 2670
• Springfield—American International College, 2680
• Springfield—Western New England University School of Law, 2671
• Waltham—Brandeis University, 2672

New Hampshire

• Durham—University of New Hampshire, 4001
• Plymouth—Plymouth State University, 4003

New Jersey

• Lincroft—Brookdale Community College, 1039
• Newark—Rutgers University – Newark, 1001
• New Brunswick—Rutgers the State University, 1004
• South Orange—Seton Hall University, 1003
• Upper Montclair—Montclair State University, 1011
• Wayne—William Paterson University, 1032

New York

• Albany—Albany Law School, 3150
• Albany—SUNY – Albany, 3167
• Brentwood—Long Island University-Brentwood, 3599
• Brooklyn—South Shore High School, 3617
• Brookville—CW Post – Long Island University, 3170
• Hempstead—Hofstra University, 3157
• Jamaica—St. Johns University, 3605
• Long Island City—CUNY School of Law, 3621
• New Paltz—SUNY-New Paltz, 3175
• New York City—Fordham University, 3632
• Pleasantville—Pace University/Pleasantville, 3174
• Poughkeepsie—Marist College, 3180
• Staten Island—Wagner College, 3633

Pennsylvania

• Center Valley—Penn State University-Lehigh Valley, 2031
• Philadelphia—LaSalle University, 2506

Rhode Island

• Kingston—University of Rhode Island, 2551
• Providence—Brown University, 2552
• Providence—Rhode Island College, 2561

• Canada

  Nova Scotia

  • Antigonish—St. Francis Xavier University, 0906
  • Halifax—Dalhousie University, 0950
  • Sydney—Cape Breton University, 0935

  Prince Edward Island

  • Charlottetown—University of Prince Edward Island, 0926

Here are the free LSAT events we’re holding this week. All times local unless otherwise specified.

01/26/13 - Washington D.C. – Free Proctored LSAT Practice Exam- 9:30AM- 1:30PM

01/26/13 - San Diego, CA- Free Proctored LSAT Practice Exam - 9:30AM- 1:30PM

01/26/13 - Santa Monica, CA- Free Proctored LSAT Practice Exam - 6:00PM- 10:00PM

01/26/13 - Irvine, CA- Free Proctored LSAT Practice Exam - 9:30AM- 1:30PM

Looking for more free events? Check out our Free Events Listings Page

An overhead shot of the Manhattan LSAT Geek Lair

Deep within the Manhattan LSAT Geek Lair (a real place, by the way, located somewhere in the mountains of Colorado), a team of master LSAT teachers

has dissecting and deconstructing the December 2012 LSAT. While it was Socrates who said “the only true wisdom is knowing you know nothing”, we’re never going to stop in our relentless mission to fill the world with all of the geeky truisms of being a top scorer the LSAT.

Join us tomorrow evening, January 8th, at 8pm EST for a free live online review of the December 2012 LSAT. Manhattan Prep’s executive director of academics Noah Teitelbaum will be joined by curriculum developer Dmitry Farber  to break down the exam’s more difficult questions, as well as to address that age old question of whether or not to retake.

Think of your LSAT Prep as Oil for the Machine That Is Your Brain

Neuroscientists at the University of California-Berkeley have published a study that suggests that heavily training one’s brain to develop sharper reasoning skills (sound familiar?) can can fundamentally reinforce tangible connections between neurons in areas of the that are used when thinking and reasoning.

The study focused particularly on LSAT students, since you all are essentially training yourselves to be better at reasoning. Allyson Mackey, a graduate student in UC Berkeley’s Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute who led this particular study, says “What we were interested in is whether and how the brain changes as a result of LSAT preparation, which we think is, fundamentally, reasoning training. We wanted to show that the ability to reason is malleable in adults.” The findings of this particular study led by Mackey supported this hypothesis.

Silvia Bunge, associate professor in the UC Berkeley Department of Psychology and the Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute adds “A lot of people still believe that you are either smart or you are not, and sure, you can practice for a test, but you are not fundamentally changing your brain. Our research provides a more positive message. How you perform on one of these tests is not necessarily predictive of your future success, it merely reflects your prior history of cognitive engagement, and potentially how prepared you are at this time to enter a graduate program or a law school, as opposed to how prepared you could ever be.”

Scientists, prelaw students, and educators the world over should be very excited by this discovery; it is encouraging to know that when trained properly, the brain – like any other muscle in the human anatomy – can be made stronger and more powerful. Study on, my friends, study on!

Source: University of California – Berkeley. “Intense prep for law school admission test alters brain structure.” ScienceDaily, 22 Aug. 2012. Web. 23 Aug. 2012.