Preparing for LSATs in Canada? (1 Viewer)

[Elliott Willschick]

I am planning on applying to law school in about two years. I want to get ready for the LSATs, which I am planning on taking next year. Does anyone have any good suggestions on preparing? I realize it's not like studying for a normal test but there are many study guides and I was wondering if anyone could recommend a few? Does it matter if they are American guides or should I look for Canadian books?

Thanks

 

[Erik_C]

When I did it (in NY, not Canada), I took Kaplan. I don't know if there's Kaplan in Canada, though. If not, I'm sure there's something comparable. Don't sweat the LSAT. All it does is determine what law school you get in, which then in large part determines how good of a job you get, how happy you'll be, and how much money you'll have the potential to make. So it's not like there's any pressure or anything!
-Erik

 

[Dennis Nicholls]

As is true with most multiple-guess tests, you need to get the "rhythm" of the questions. I'm not sure you can really study for the LSAT but I know that I'm glad that I worked several old ones before taking it. I took no "prep course" and got a 94th percentile score - and this at age 39 after being out of school and test-taking for over 17 years.

how happy you'll be

We already know he won't be happy - he's going to be a scummy slimy lawyer!

 

[Elliott Willschick]

I actually found this website http://www.lsac.org which was quite helpful. I tried their sample one and didn't do too badly. Erik, thanks for the help. Any other advice about the job in general? I have actually had many people try to turn me away from the profession. They say there are too many lawyers and that it is extremely difficult to get a job.
I can't wait to hear all of the lawyer jokes. I don't take offense so you guys can't keep firing away.

 

[MikeF]

I actually found this website http://www.lsac.org which was quite helpful. I tried their sample one and didn't do too badly. Erik, thanks for the help. Any other advice about the job in general? I have actually had many people try to turn me away from the profession. They say there are too many lawyers and that it is extremely difficult to get a job.

A story:
Before enrolling in Canadian law school, I decided, never having seen an LSAT (or even knowing what was on the test) to enroll in a prep course by Kaplan. After paying my $1000 or whatever it was, I went to Kaplan, took a "diagnostic test," and scored 166 not even knowing that I would be writing a test that day, let alone what was on it! About a month later, after the Kaplan course, I landed up writing a 180 LSAT (yay for me! heh). How much of that did I owe to Kaplan? Very little, I think. I suspect the same result could have been achived just by way of writing a few practice exams on my own. What I'm driving at is that before you spend good money, you should probably see what sort of LSAT scores you're getting by writing an old test in a controlled setting. Even if you don't score 166 on your first go, you may well be able to pull your score up enough on your own to be able to get into whatever law school it is you're aiming for. Kaplan doesn't teach you anything you can't teach yourself, and in fact tends to cater to the lowest common denominator. They can show you some strategies, but ultimately, you're not going to get a high score on the LSAT because of tricks so much as aptitude for that which it tests (i.e. logical reasoning, reading comprehension, etc.).
Advice about the profession:
I don't have any general advice. To answer your question re: difficulty of getting jobs: if you go to a decent law school and do well, you will never have a problem finding work. If you expect to coast through law school (or to raise a family, or to retain a job while there), things will be tougher. Law school is not particularly fair, but at the end of the day generally rewards not so much intelligence as hard work (although the former helps). The legal profession, at least in the early years, seems to reward similar things.

 

[Erik_C]

Nah, it's not hard to get a job if you're in a top-tier law school at or near the top of your class. I graduated in May 2001, and landed a great job. If you go to to some backwater law school no one's ever heard of, you're not going to even get your foot in the door at a prestigious firm. Of course, that may not be what you want, anyway. Alot of idealists go to law school -- those who will work for next to nothing so long as they're saving a tree or trying to change some social policy. Good for them; it's less competition for the rest of us.
And yes, there's a ton of lawyers already. I practice in Washington, D.C. (and northern Virginia), where there's more lawyers per capita than anywhere else in the world. And none of us is going hungry. Go to law school. The only hard part of it is getting in.
Best,
-Erik

 

[Elliott Willschick]

Well this thread has been very helpful. This weekend I'm going to try some more practice exams to see what my score is. I haven't been doing badly on some single questions so I'll see what happens.
I'm not too concerned about saving any trees, or helping any dead beats for that matter. So enjoy some new competition.

 

[ben hunt]

Make sure to get your hands on some old tests. Any book you look in for LSAT tests are not gonna be as good as getting actual older copies of tests which are released.

One major word of advice. Make sure when you take the practice runs on the tests that you pay specific attention to the time limit.

It caught me a little off guard when I took it because 35 minutes goes by real fast when are trying to take this test.

I would also recommend taking a whole series of tests in one day with minimal breaks in between. Do it a couple times before you take the actual test so you are a bit used to the mental fatigue and hand cramps.

Just my 2 cents. Good luck.