Preparing for the LSAT (1 Viewer)

[Holadem]

Anyone taking the plunge this fall? What book/study guide would you recommend?

Thanks!

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H

 

[mark alan]

Don't stress the LSAT. I personally don't believe that studying really improves your grade.

Think carefully about the whole LS thing. It is a big investment of time and money which doesn't pay off for a lot of people. Don't go into it thinking you will come out making lots and lots of money. Have a realistic plan for why you are doing this.

Having said that, it paid off big time for me

 

[Lew Crippen]

This is not a flip answer (and I have never taken the LSAT).

Quit watching movies and spend all your time reading. Choose hard (complex, layered) books to read.

This is one of the best ways to increase your verbal skills (in the SAT sense) to include reading, vocabulary and reasoning is to read. Read a lot and consider what you have read.

If you have studied Latin, that will be a help. If not, just read.

 

[Holadem]

Yikes

That's no problem, really. I am not the voracious reader I used to be, but I can still hang.

I would have like to have known this earlier, I doubt it will make a difference this late in the game.

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H

 

[Dennis Nicholls]

My case may be different than yours - I took the LSAT at the age of 40, 15 years after I was last in school. The LSAT people sell old tests for something like $5 a copy. What I did was just take 3 or 4 real practice tests under the real time allocation. This gets you into the "rhythm" of taking the test so that you only take as much time as you are given for each question. I got a 94th percentile this way. I probably would have received a higher score if I had been in my 20s.

 

[LDfan]

I'm taking it this fall too. I'm saving every dime I can to take a prep course though. Depending on what school you are applying to it may make a difference. It seems that the average LSAT scores are on the rise so every point may help.

Jeff

 

[mark alan]

I did it exactly like Dennis, but I only got in the 91st percentile. Of course, I was only a young pup of 33, so I guess age brings wisdom (at least for old farts like Dennis).

 

[Lew Crippen]

On the other hand, we don’t want you to spend all of your time away from the forum, Holadem.

 

[Dennis Nicholls]

Kind of like Lake Wobegone, where all of the children are above average?

 

[mark alan]

The test is scaled so that the mean score is always 150. Because more people have applied to law school the last 3 years (recessions always increase the number of people in graduate schools), most schools have become more selective, causing the average LSAT score for the entering class to go up.

 

[Holadem]

That sucks...

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H

 

[mark alan]

H,

I assume you have seen the web sites that discuss what gpa and lsat score you typically need in order to get into the school you want? It helps to know what you kind of position you are in.

I saw on your profile that you are an electrical design engineer. Does that mean you have an electrical engineering degree? If so, you are in a good position for patent law.

M

 

[EugeneR]

I would seriously think about attending a prep course if you can at all afford it. They won't make you smarter (the LSAT is not knowledge based like most other tests, it is essentially an IQ test) but they will certainly help with proper technique for answering questions. Since law is about the only profession in which where you went to school will still matter many years down the road, a few extra points on the LSAT may mean a better law school, which in turn may be worth tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars over your career.

 

[Leo Hinze]

Good luck!

 

[mark alan]

Yea Leo, lets see you self-prepare (no bar prep courses) for the bar exam like I did. Then I will be impressed

I also self-prepared for the patent bar exam. And I took both of them while working full time (yes I am tooting my own horn). All future attorneys, you need to let everybody know that you are the best in the world (just like me). Self-promotion works in the legal world.

 

[LDfan]

At least the nice thing about Patent law is that the majority of law students and lawyers out there can't be patent attorneys depending on their degree.
My friend works for the PTO and business is still booming although the patent office no longer pays for their examiners to attend law school.

Jeff

 

[Leo Hinze]

I'm not sure what I'll do for the bar, but luckily the patent office has generously provided all of the prep I need for passing the patent bar, leaving me an extra $4K for beer

 

[Dennis Nicholls]

If Leo is an examiner with the PTO, he doesn't even have to TAKE the patent bar exam - he gets a free pass...when did the PTO stop paying tuition for examiners at GWU law school?

 

[LDfan]

The PTO has been flipping the bill for all of the local law schools for their examiners up until about 2 years ago. My examiner friend over there was getting a free ride at Catholic University until the PTO decided they were spending too much money by paying for law schools.
Since then they don't pay for law school tuition anymore. It pissed a lot of examiners off but then again they get paid extremely well for what they do and it was good while it lasted.

Jeff

 

[Leo Hinze]

Like Jeff said the PTO stopped footing the bill a couple of years ago. Granted, it wasn't totally free tuition - the tuition reimbursement was considered taxable income - but it was better than nothing.

With regard to the patent bar, the office just instituted new regulations. Examiners who want to get promoted past a certain level must take a certification exam. The exam is essentially half the new computerized patent bar test. The patent bar exam is two three-hour sections with fifty questions each. The examiner cert. exam is one three hour section with fifty questions. If an examiner has been employed for two fiscal years, has a fully successful performance rating, and has passed the test, they can have the testing requirment for entry into the bar waived. That's different from the old rule, under which you had to work here for four years.