Posts Tagged LSAT
The LSAT Retake Manifesto, Part 1.
Posted by Cory@manhattanlsat.com in LSAT Prep, LSAT Tips on October 26th, 2011
Was this your reaction when you saw your LSAT score? Yes? Keep reading.
Each time LSAC releases LSAT scores, there are thousands of test-takers who are less than satisfied with their results. Luckily for those folks, you are allowed to take the LSAT up to three times in any two year period. Unluckily for them, the decision as to whether a retake is “worth it” is hardly a straightforward one. Enter the Manhattan LSAT Retake Manifesto.
In the coming paragraphs, we hope to address all of the concerns that a potential LSAT retaker may have – or really should have – before deciding what their next course of action is.
Initial Considerations
Let’s start with a dose of reality. Most people see very little improvement in their LSAT score after retaking (an average of roughly two points for folks who scored between 150 and 167 the first time), and some even see a decrease in their score. Take a look at the below chart for some analysis of the success of 2010-2011 ‘retakers’ with various initial scores:
*Data courtesy of LSAC.org’s 2010-2011 “repeater” statistics (pdf).
The most important take away from this data is the marginal nature of the score increases that repeat LSAT takers tend to achieve. Just because something is unlikely, however, does not make it impossible, especially when there are some repeaters scoring worse, telling us that some people do significantly better than the 2 or so point average increase. Furthermore, there are very legitimate circumstances that may have applied to your first attempt at the LSAT that prevented you from realizing your full potential.
Check back on Monday for Part 2. There are many pages more of the LSAT Retake Manifesto to come.
One of the Hardest LSAT Questions – @!#$%@# Dioxin!
Posted by noah@manhattanlsat.com in LSAT content, LSAT Prep, LSAT Tips on July 14th, 2011
"What's that you say, old Chap? The water's polluted? With Dioxin? Oh my. Oh my indeed."
Like snowflakes of intellectual pain, the hardest LSAT question is different for each and every one of us – it’s up to us to look into our hearts and find the question that is burning a hole through an artery. For me, that was PT45, S1, Q12 – the dioxin question. Oh how we fought, oh how we struggled!
Let me walk you through our relationship.
The conclusion of the argument is that, as opposed to what most people are thinking, dioxin released from a mill does NOT cause fish to have abnormal hormone levels. Why? Two premises are given to support this – and here’s where we had our first fight L: dioxin decomposes quite slowly and when the mill shuts down, the fishy hormone levels quickly return to normal.
At this point, me and question 12 were still on speaking terms, but when I looked at her answer choices, oh the pain! The correct answer – the one that most weakens the argument – states that dioxin actually is washed away pretty quickly from the mill area. Sounds painless enough – until you think about it! How does that weaken that argument? I was lost.
My colleague Matt Sherman cleared it up for me with a great forum explanation. You can go read it, but I’d rather tell you in my own words as a program of catharsis. Breathe deeply…OK, here we go:
University of Michigan Admissions Interview
Posted by Cory@manhattanlsat.com in Admissions, Applications, Law School on June 22nd, 2011
As prospective law school students, your LSAT score is one key piece to a larger admissions puzzle that you must put together. I’m sure you’ve heard many times by now how important your LSAT score and undergraduate GPA are to your acceptance in to law school – but there still remains a bit of mystery surrounding certain aspects of the overall application. Just what are admissions officers looking for in a prospective JD student?
This week, Manhattan LSAT is pleased to be teaming up with AdmissionsConsultants.com - an admissions consulting firm with admissions counseling experience that spans decades – to bring you an exclusive interview with Sara Zearfoss, Dean of Admissions at the University of Michigan Law School.
Here is an excerpt from their exclusive interview:
What do you consider the most important part of the application process?
The personal statement, far and away. There’s a strong perception among applicants that the make-or-break factors are LSAT and UGPA – but while those are unquestionably important indicators of academic ability, it is certainly true that many people with strong metrics are not admitted, and also true that people whose metrics are well below our medians do get admitted. What never happens, however, is that someone who writes a terrible personal statement gets admitted.
To read the full interview, please click HERE.
Rule Equivalency Logic Games Questions
Posted by noah@manhattanlsat.com in LSAT content, LSAT Prep, LSAT Tips, Manhattan LSAT Logic Games on May 6th, 2011
Rule Equivalency Questions are Meant to be Broken
The LSAT is a funny beast. On the one hand it stays very consistent – it’s still paper and pencil, still given simply four times per year, and still requires a number two pencil. But, on the other hand, it keeps throwing us small curve balls, small changes in what it asks of us. And these changes happen in every section: Logical Reasoning no longer has multiple questions about one stimulus, Reading Comprehension now has comparative passages, and Logic Games, around the year 2000, entered the Modern Era (read the intro to our Logic Game Strategy Guide to learn what that is). Excitingly, there’s a new Logic Games curve. It’s the introduction of a new question type – Rule Equivalency questions.
If you’ve taken one of the more recent LSATs, you might remember a question that asks something like “Which of the following, if substituted for the rule that . . . would have the same effect . . .” Some of these were quite easy, some were rather tricky, and they were all novel.
If you have already learned the basics of each of the games, take a look at our White Paper on this new question type.
LSAT Study Tips
Posted by noah@manhattanlsat.com in LSAT Prep on May 18th, 2009
Top Five Tips for Studying for the LSAT
1. Practice As You Play. Don’t go into test day with only one or two practice tests under your belt. Make sure you do a minimum of five practice tests – and do those under actual timed conditions with only one short break between sections three and four. Since the LSAC (the company that writes and administers the LSAT) adds an extra, experimental section to everyone’s test, make sure to add in your own extra section to simulate the actual length of the exam.
2. Wrong Isn’t Everything. Most students only review the questions they answered incorrectly on their practice tests. Instead, as you take your practice test note the questions that give you trouble or take too long. Give those questions extra review along with the ones you get wrong. In short, if you’re not confident about your answer, consider it a “mistake,” and learn from it.
3. Work from Wrong to Right. For the logical reasoning and reading comprehension sections, note which answers you can easily eliminate, and leave unmarked those which are somewhat attractive to you. When you review your work, go back and figure out why each tempting wrong answer is wrong. There are only so many ways to create an attractive incorrect answer. Learn the different types of wrong answers and you’ll find it much easier to eliminate them going forward. Top test-takers generally focus on eliminating wrong answers since the correct answer may be far from ideal but be the last one standing.
4. Play it Again. One of the most under-utilized study techniques for logic games is to re-solve them a second and third time. When you face a tough game, review it soon afterwards to consider what you wished you had done. Figure out the diagram you wish you had made and what inferences did you overlook. Then let the game sit for a week and then try it again. This can dramatically improve your speed.
5. Give it a Break. The 3-day marathon before test day isn’t the best idea! Don’t take any full-length practice tests within the week preceding test day. Your brain is a muscle, and it needs to rest. The last few days should include only a couple hours of practice work, and the night before, watch Legally Blonde to get your mind off the big day.
