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Law School Applications in the Time of Corona

You know what might help you stop looking at COVID stats for a few minutes? Thinking about law school applications! Hooray?

Okay, look, I get it. It’s hard to focus when, well, [gestures at everything].  And in times like these, there’s no one correct way to cope.  But on the off-chance that your particular brand of oh-god-oh-hell-what-are-we-going-to-do anxiety manifests in an action-oriented direction, let’s talk about some things you can actually do during quarantine to help your law school applications.  After all, even post-apocalyptic wastelands will need lawyers, right?

1. Remember your frenemy, the LSAT

I’m sure you’ll be shocked to hear this, but one of the most effective things you can do to boost your law school applications is to slay the LSAT. The immediate time range of when LSAT testing will resume is still up in the air—the March test was canceled, and we won’t hear about April’s exam until around the 10th—but sooner or later the exam will be back.  

Okay, that’s nice, but how am I supposed to study during a global freaking pandemic?

Oh, thanks for the question, rhetorical device. I’m glad you asked.

The New York Times recently ran a piece about adjusting to working (or studying) from home.  The tl;dr version: make a schedule.  Keeping track of time when days merge and blend into each other feels a bit impossible.  One thing that can help is setting a timer.  An afternoon can slip into, I dunno, maybe Tuesday?  But a 40-minute timer is 40 minutes long, no matter when you set it. Setting three 40-minute tasks to accomplish a day feels a lot more doable than “study at some point.”  

Some things that could take about 40 minutes: 

– Comb through recent practice tests to create a list of the types of questions that you want to spend more individual time practicing with.

– Create a set of flashcards — lists of terms that indicate necessary or sufficient conditions or conclusions and premises might be a good place to start.  (If you use one of your 40-minute slots to decorate your flashcards instead of studying them, I won’t tell.)

– Take and score one full practice section.

– Make a list of all of the logical fallacies that you can find while scrolling Twitter.

– Stare blankly at your prep book because some days it just won’t come together.

2. Have you thought about your personal statement lately?

What better time to really ruminate on what makes you uniquely you than a period of enforced isolation?  A lot of the usual activities that law school hopefuls rush to fit onto their résumés before applications go in are going to be pretty impossible while social distancing.  Luckily, navel-gazing is an activity that’s exceptionally well-suited to “pantslessness” long periods of uninterrupted thinking time.  

Try to work in a few brainstorming sessions while you’re commuting around the apartment.  Start easing into a first draft while you rock out to your personal ‘rona playlist.  Do a digital home workout with Chris Hemsworth.  That won’t help with your personal statement, but it might help brighten your afternoon, and don’t we all deserve one nice thing?

Side note: Adcoms will probably see a lot of law school applications and personal statements that start with “How Surviving Coronavirus Changed My Life.” You’ve been warned.

3. Get involved in your community

In order to be a good lawyer… okay, you don’t need to be a good person to be a good lawyer, but wouldn’t the world be a better place if that were true?  The country, and the world, are in crisis. Do something good for the people around you. See if a nearby hospital is accepting homemade masks or other personal protective equipment.  Donate blood.  Send money to your local food bank — or better yet, sign up to volunteer with them (provided that you can do so safely).  Put a drawing of a rainbow in your window and connect with people across the world who are trying to spread cheer and keep kids entertained.  

At heart, lawyers are advocates.  And what are we meant to advocate for if not the betterment of our world?  Right now, that means this.

There are a lot of things that are outside of individual control right now.  We can’t control politicians’ decisions, whether or not our parents are breaking quarantine, or if we’re going to be taking Torts and Contracts from self-isolation.  So we take action where we can.  Stay safe. Stay home. And in the meantime, we at Blueprint will be here for your study needs, be they online classes, individual (online) tutoring, or the humble offerings of this very blog.

Law School Applications in the Time of Corona was originally published on Blueprint LSAT Blog

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The Deadline to Reschedule Your March or April LSAT Is Tonight

[Update, April 2: While the deadline for March LSAT registrants to change their test date or location has passed, LSAC has extended the deadline for April registrants. If you’re signed up for the April 2020 LSAT, you can request a change to your test date or location by filling out the April 2020 LSAT Test Date Change Request form on LSAC’s website by Monday, April 13, 11:59 pm Eastern.]

After canceling the March 2020 LSAT, LSAC automatically enrolled all March registrants into the next available LSAT registered in the “community” in which they were signed up to take the March LSAT.

But if you’re were signed up to take the March 2020, this doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll take the LSAT on April 25, for a bunch of a different reasons. For one, there may not be an April LSAT scheduled in the “community” you signed up to take the March LSAT in. Also, and more importantly, the chances of the April LSAT actually being administered for anyone right now is pretty low. If even the president can be talked out of forcing things back to normal by April, it seems like LSAC will soon follow. (LSAC will make an announcement regarding the April LSAT by April 10 at the latest.)

If you were signed up for the March or April 2020 LSAT, you might not want your LSAT rescheduled for you once again. So for those of you signed up for the March or April exam and want to wrest a little control over when you’ll take LSAT back from a novel strain of the coronavirus, you have some options. Last week, LSAC launched the March 2020 LSAT Rescheduling online form, which allows March LSAT registrants to request to change their test center location, to reschedule their test date (to April, June, or July 2020), or to receive a refund on their registration fee, in full. There’s also the April 2020 Rescheduling online form, which offers April registrants the chance to change the date or location of their exam (there’s no refund option on this form, however). But the deadline to fill out either form is Tuesday, March 31st, at 11:59 pm Eastern. And just in case being confined to your home has blurred all your days and weeks and sense of a diurnal cycle into a single, continuous, monolithic day (as it maybe has for yours truly), let’s be clear: that deadline is today. You have to make a decision by 11:59 pm Eastern, 8:59 pm Pacific. (Central and Mountain Times, you’ll have to do the math yourself, my coastal bias has always prevented me from remembering our time differences. Apologies.)

So, if you were originally signed up for the March or April 2020 LSAT, you don’t have as much time to make a decision on how to reschedule. Luckily, we’ve run down some options for you. What can you do before the deadline passes tonight?

1. Nothing

The old wait-and-see approach has its merits, especially during the “wait” part. For now, you won’t have to worry about doing anything, which is nice. It’s the “see” part that I’d be a little more worried about. If you were originally signed up for the March test, your study plan was already disrupted once, when the March LSAT was canceled. We think the April LSAT will probably be canceled as well, so that’ll be a second sudden change to your study plans. If the June LSAT gets canceled — well, that’ll be yet another time your study plan is upended.

If you don’t request a change now, you’re just waiting for the next available LSAT, but you won’t know when that’ll be. The goal line might be moved one, two, three, four more times. If you try to keep your study plans ongoing until we return to normalcy and can take the LSAT again, you may burnout. If you decide to take a break under the assumption that the next LSAT won’t be held, and that LSAT is actually held, you may be underprepared for the exam. LSAC is also toying with the idea of scheduling an exam in May, or may decide to start holding remotely proctored, at-home exams, so the time or format of your exam may catch you unawares.

And that brings us to the thesis of this post: Having a firm date when you’ll take the LSAT is essential to your study plan. You need to have a pretty solid idea of when you’ll take the LSAT to know whether or when you’ll take an LSAT course, how you’ll schedule your review of the LSAT concepts, when you’ll take practice exams, and more. Obviously, SARS-CoV-2 has made knowing when you’ll take the LSAT pretty difficult. But by choosing to do nothing now, you’ll just prolong this uncertainty into April, and probably May and June as well. We don’t recommend doing nothing.

2. Reschedule to April

We also don’t recommend rescheduling to the April LSAT, if you were originally signed up for the March test. We think April LSAT will soon be canceled, so this seems kind of pointless to us. But people have bet on the longshot and won before, so if you really want to take the test in April, and are willing to risk probable disappointment, knock yourself out.

3. Reschedule to June or July

We think this is a better plan. As opposed to the April LSAT, it seems a bit more likely the June and July LSATs will be held (especially the July exam). It’s hard to know what things will look like in June and July — especially now, when two weeks ago feels like it may as well have been two decades ago — but it stands to reason that these LSATs have a much better shot at being held than the April test, at the very least. Even if we’re still doing the social distancing in June or July, LSAC will have had some time to figure out how to make test centers safe for test takers and proctors or how to administer the test as a remotely proctored, at-home test.

Our point is that rescheduling to June or July gives you the option of putting a more concrete test date in place. And with the more concrete test date, you can make better plans for how you’ll study. You can take a break and recharge right now, if you feel like you need one (and I’m pretty sure we all feel like we could use some relief). You can sign up for an LSAT course, or you can take some time to review the materials from a course you’ve already taken. You can schedule out when you’ll take practice exams and, crucially, when you’ll review them. And then, when the time comes to take the exam, you can take it (we hope).

If you’re trying to apply during this 2019-2020 admissions cycle to begin law school in fall 2020, there’s a (fairly obvious) drawback to this option. While LSAC is working with law schools to extend their application deadlines (which some schools have already promised to extend!) it’s not terribly likely that many schools will accept the June or July LSATs. Especially the July exam — since scores for that one won’t be released until early August, the same month law schools should begin their fall classes. So be aware that choosing this option might mean you have a very limited number of law schools you can apply to in this admissions cycle, or that you may be punting your applications to the 2020-2021 admissions cycle.

4. Request the refund, plan on taking the LSAT in August or later

Option number four also has its merits. Especially when you consider that LSAC basically never gives test takers the opportunity to request a full refund. Once you sign up for the LSAT, you part with that $200 (and the most you could hope to get back is $50, if you withdraw by the partial refund deadline). So the option to get all $200 back is a rare opportunity. It can also give you more options for when you’ll take the LSAT.

If you request the refund, you can use the money you’re getting back to plan on signing up for the August, October, or November LSATs when registration opens for those. Those are even more likely to be held than the June or July LSATs. And you’ll have at least five months (before the August LSAT is held) to get a study plan in place. You’ll obviously be giving up the chance to apply during the 2019-2020 admissions cycle, but taking the exam in August would at least give you a shot at applying early in the 2020-2021 cycle. And, who knows, with LSAT administrations thrown into disarray this year, that cycle may end up being far less competitive than the 2019-2020 cycle.

You can also take a bit of a wait-and-see approach with this option. If you feel ready to take the LSAT before August, and LSAC administers an extra exam in May, or later, or opens registration for at-home tests at some point, you can elect to take the LSAT then. So this option can also afford you some flexibility with respect to when you’ll take the LSAT, if you want that.

(Although this refund option is not available on the April LSAT Rescheduling form, we imagine that’s only because the April test hasn’t been officially canceled — yet. Perhaps this option will be offered to April registrants if and when that test is canceled.)

5. Change your test location

It’s a little confusing on how this works, but LSAC is also giving March 2020 registrants the option to change their test location, if they’re requesting a rescheduling to April, June, or July. It’s usually $125 to try to change your test center, so the free option is quite the deal. When you reschedule, make sure to include the zip code for where you actually want to take the test under “Preferred zip code for testing.” Do a little research — check out our review of test centers, and see if there’s a suitable test location in your preferred area.

The Deadline to Reschedule Your March or April LSAT Is Tonight was originally published on Blueprint LSAT Blog

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The LSAT and COVID-19

Remember when you said, “2020 is going to be my year!” Yeah, us too. This year has been a wild ride, and it’s only March. This was the week we should have been talking about last-minute tips to prepare for the March LSAT, like logic game strategies or how to get through sufficient and necessary assumption questions. Instead, we need to face our new reality. COVID-19 has put a pin in our LSAT schedule (and possibly even the 2020 law school application cycle). The March 2020 LSAT is canceled and the April 2020 LSAT is in limbo. Here’s what we know so far:

– Everyone who was scheduled to take the March 2020 LSAT was automatically transferred to the April 2020 LSAT. Initially, it sounded like a good compromise. However… – LSAC will decide whether it will cancel the April 2020 LSAT by April 10th. That means everyone scheduled to take April might be moved to June or a later test date. It is also possible that the April LSAT will be canceled in some locations, but not others in compliance with local rules and restrictions related to public gatherings, etc. #SocialDistancing – If you don’t want to wait until April 10th or let LSAC decide your fate, you can reschedule your April LSAT yourself without paying a test date change fee. This only applies if you’re registered for the April exam. – March and April registrants will be able to add a canceled score back into their score report. This news came out just this morning. If you took the LSAT previously, canceled your score, and registered for either the March or April 2020 LSAT, you will now be able to review your canceled score and decide if you want to uncancel de-cancel revive it. If you have multiple canceled scores, LSAC will show you only the highest score. This addition is permanent change; if you don’t want to add a canceled score, you don’t have to. So, if you’ve canceled in the past, look out for an email from LSAC soon.

And now for what’s still uncertain: – LSAT is exploring different options for future LSAT administrations, including a test-at-home option and additional dates. We imagine a remote LSAT will be as intense as the take-home Writing Section. We’ll know more about how to “take the LSAT Safely” by April 10th. – Law schools will take the impact of COVID-19 into account when evaluating applicants. LSAC will include a letter in every candidate’s CAS Report, reminding law schools of the impact of COVID-19 on the spring 2020 semester. Thanks, guys! – Admissions and seat deposit deadlines are subject to change. Some schools are pushing back admissions deadlines (to accommodate late LSAT scores) and pushing back seat deposits for admitted students. These decisions will be made on a school-by-school basis. – COVID-19 may slow the process of admitting students off waitlists. Some students may choose to defer law school to a later year due to the impact of COVID-19.

These are definitely interesting times, but if you’re still on the path to law school, it’s important to remember to keep up with your LSAT prep (or start, if you haven’t). As it stands right now, it doesn’t seem like we’re walking into an LSAC-optional cycle. That means, at some point, you’re going to have to take the LSAT—and that’s ok!

Check out the video below to see what the LSAT changes might mean for you, and tips on prepping for the LSAT during the COVID-19 pandemic—actually, these tips can apply to any LSAT that gets canceled or rescheduled.

All this said, we’d like to remind you that you don’t have to take an in-person LSAT course to prep for the LSAT. You also don’t have to do it alone. Blueprint’s Live Online Courses are 100% live courses streamed to your computer, phone, or tablet with 98+ percentile instructors. Fun fact: our Live Online classes were our most popular classes last year. If you’d rather not deal with a class schedule, you can prep on your time with our Online Anytime Course and pay-as-you-go or grab a package deal! Students in both classes also get to attend our live Office Hours with our instructors for extra help, 5 days/week. If you’re not sure which prep style would be best for you—or if you want to ask about online tutoring—schedule a free consultation with our LSAT Advisors!

The LSAT and COVID-19 was originally published on Blueprint LSAT Blog

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Study? At MY desk??

Hello from the isolation of my apartment, where I’m maintaining a comfortable six feet of social distance between me and my cats. Not to make light of what is a very serious problem: everything from colleges and universities to major sports leagues to St. Patrick’s Day parades are being shut down and for good reason. Perhaps more pertinently to readers of this blog, many LSAT prep classes and individual tutors have shifted from face-to-face meetings to an online format. So what’s a socially conscious student to do? The transition from studying in a structured, teacher-led classroom to managing LSAT prep on top of everything else can feel a bit, well, 😱😱😱… 🛑 👐💦💦 ❌😷

So, how can we collectively (and from afar) deal with the move to an even more online-led life? Let’s talk about it with Blueprint’s edition of Hot Tips for Studying At Home.

Make a schedule. No, like, really.

One of the most difficult parts of managing self-study is figuring out when, exactly, you’re going to be studying. It’s easy to say “I’ve been ‘rona’d into staying home, so I’ll study for at least three hours every day.” But when, exactly, will those three hours come? Are you planning on taking any breaks in there? Do you also have coursework or, well, work-work that you still need to finish?

Making a real, actual schedule makes it much harder for your entire afternoon to slip away in a YouTube fugue. You can also use it as an excuse to get your studying organized. A helpful LSAT studying spreadsheet might look something like this:

Practice Test #

LR: __ / 2_

LG: __ / 2_

RC: __ / 2_

For any missed questions:

Section and question #

What type of question was it? (Strengthen, Author Attitude — get an idea of what types of questions you’re missing!)

Where did you go wrong? (Did you miss a common fallacy? Were you reading too fast and skipped over a key “not” or “only” in an answer? Did you drop a variable in your sketch? Learn your own flaws!)

Why is the correct answer better than the answer you chose?

Be sure that your daily study plan includes blocks for eating (yes, seriously), and give yourself a couple of breaks throughout the day. Insta isn’t going to scroll through itself, after all.

Find a space.

Your home (or dorm, or temporary quarantine hotel room) might not be the place where you typically study, but it’s looking like it’s gonna be LSAT-central for at least the next couple of weeks. Carving out a dedicated place to do work can make it easier to switch into “study mode.” Your makeshift study space doesn’t have to be glamorous, it just has to get the job done.

Bonus tip: It’s easier to concentrate if your space is relatively tidy, so if you don’t want to deal with all the organization projects you’d been planning on getting to “sooner or later,” point your temporary desk in a direction that faces a window, wall, or other space that doesn’t have a towering, unorganized pile of random items.

Pants: Only kind of the enemy.

Are pants a tool of the patriarchy? Maybe. But it’s probably a good idea to wear them anyway. Getting your ‘fit right can help keep you in a “working” mindset. Getting dressed every day is a good way to remind yourself that you’re actually doing something important, and not just kickin’ it in bed for an extra week of spring break.

DND, baby!

If you thought I meant Dungeons and Dragons, congrats nerd! If it’s any consolation, I just outed myself as someone who refers to Dungeons and Dragons often enough to need an acronym, so we’re all facing difficult times today.

Actually, by DND I mean “do not disturb.” Millennials look at their phones on average 150 times a day. (Fun fact: That’s a statistic I double checked on my phone!) During times that you’re devoting to study — particularly if you’re in class or with a tutor — put your phone on Do Not Disturb. Getting your focus together when your phone is chiming every three minutes with a COVID update is pretty impossible. It’s astonishing how much easier it is to ignore your phone when it isn’t lighting up with every Twitter mention and text from your auntie. When your study period is over, you can turn your phone off silent and revel in how popular you were while you were away.

Keep vibin’

In working from home as in many things, a positive attitude can be a huge help. May I recommend some jams for your personal quarantine? Setting the mood is a great way to help keep yourself calm and focused or, failing that, it can at least let you dance some of your jitters out.

Study? At MY desk?? was originally published on Blueprint LSAT Blog

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The March LSAT Is Canceled. Now What?

Today, LSAC made the probably difficult, definitely inconvenient-for-many-law-school-hopefuls, but, in our decidedly non-expert opinion, inevitable and socially responsible decision to cancel the March 30 LSAT. You can read their statement here.

First, what this means for you, logistically, if you signed up to take the March LSAT and didn’t already take up LSAC’s offer to reschedule your LSAT for free: You’ve been automatically enrolled in the next LSAT to be held in the “community” where you were registered to take the March exam. If you’d like to change your test date or location, LSAC encourages you to reach out to their Candidate Services team at LSACinfo@LSAC.org, or (215) 968-1001. I’d try to carve out some time to contact them — this decision affected thousands of people, so, as with seemingly every grocery and drug store right now, I’d expect long queues.

Second, what it means for you if you’re planning on taking the LSAT in April or later: LSAC hasn’t decided to cancel the April or June LSATs yet. The registration for April LSAT is closed, but you can still register for the June LSAT (until April 24, 2020). But of course, these might be canceled as well. Experts can’t yet really say how long this era of social distancing will last, so any prediction about whether these exams will be held is pure speculation. But those who were planning to take these LSATs should consider a contingency plan in case these exams also get canceled. LSAC, for one, is considering some contingency plans: they note that they’re considering if remote-testing or other alternatives that might be viable for future test dates.

Finally, for those who were planning to use their March LSAT scores to apply in the 2019-20 law school admissions cycle, this is a tough break. But LSAC also notes that they are working with law schools to adjust deadlines in light of the March cancellation. As an applicant, it wouldn’t hurt to reach out to the schools you planned on applying to, to let them know that you’re interested in applying still, and to see if there’s anything you can do to apply during this cycle.

Now What?

OK, so those were LSAC’s decisions. Now what should you do, if you were planning on taking the March LSAT? What should you do if you’re planning on taking an April LSAT that may or may not be held? I’ll give you the same advice that was given to me before I started studying for the bar: “Take it seriously, but pace yourself; it’s going to be a long process.”

Studying for the LSAT is going to be a bit more of a marathon for you than you might have initially considered. What was originally going to be a two-, four-, or six-month process is going to be extended by at least a month. Perhaps longer. In some ways, this is a — now, any word I could possibly use here is going to feel wrong and insensitive and inappropriate considering the magnitude of a global pandemic, so please forgive me for the word choice — an opportunity to get more study time in. To master important concepts like the common fallacies and scenarios and author’s attitude. To do many extra practice exams, and review those exams thoroughly. Luckily, there are plenty of studying resources to prepare for the LSAT. From prep courses to private tutors and LSAT prep online classes, there are options suited for everyone’s schedules.

You should definitely do all of those things (from the safety and curve-flattening sequestration of your own home, of course)! For most of those who were studying for the March LSAT, this extra month will likely be best spent doing a few things. First, try nailing down the LSAT concepts (especially those important concepts like diagramming and identifying common fallacies in Logical Reasoning, making scenarios and “playing the numbers” for Logic Games, and understanding the structure of a passage and the author’s opinions in Reading Comp) so that you can achieve the accuracy your target score would require when doing the LSAT untimed.

After you do this, start to ease yourself into test speed by doing small, timed practice sets of Logical Reasoning questions, games, or passages. Start with the time you need to finish the set and maintain your accuracy. Then reduce the time you give yourself to complete another set of LR questions, games, or passages. If you can finish those within the allotted time and still maintain your hard-won accuracy, reduce the time given once again. Eventually, you want to work your way down, slowly and incrementally, to finishing the Logical Reasoning practice sets with an average of 1 minute and 30 seconds per question, and the Logic Games and Reading Comp practice sets with an average of 8 minutes and 30 seconds per passage or game. In this process, if your accuracy ever dips below the threshold needed for your target score, you’re going too fast. Try to get more practice with slightly more time allotted.

But when you can maintain your accuracy at those speeds — and only when you can do that — then you can start taking practice exams. But be judicious with how many exams you take. Practice exams are great for a few things: getting experienced working at “test speed,” building mental endurance, experimenting with testing strategies. Above all, they’re great at telling you what your strengths and weaknesses are as a test taker. But, paradoxically enough, they’re pretty bad at actually improving the score you get at the end of the exam. Careful review of the exam — tips here — and untimed practice between the exam will help boost your score. Two exams per week is our recommendation.

But, Please, Stay Well

Those are our purely LSAT-related recommendations for those suddenly given an extra month of study time. But to take off the proverbial instructor hat for just a moment, I want you all to remember that studying for the LSAT is a long, arduous, and stressful process, even under the best of times. And, friends, I’m not sure these are the best of times. We’re all getting adjusted to this hopefully brief period of social distancing together, and we’re all going to feel the emotional and mental toll of this abrupt change to our everyday lives. This is not the time to overstress yourself by going too hard into your LSAT study plan.

You know your ability to tolerate stress better than anyone, so I don’t think it’s appropriate for me to tell you how to regulate your study schedule. But I will say this: be honest with what you can take on right now. Listen to your body, and monitor other signals of overstress. And if right now you have serious financial or health concerns, please, please, please tend to those first. The LSAT and law school will still be there when you’re ready.

I’ll also say this: if you’ve already gone through an LSAT course, or have otherwise have acquired a solid foundation of LSAT-related skills, strategies, and experience, studying for the LSAT for a couple of hours a day, five or six days per week, is sufficient. Don’t feel like you have to put in six-hour days of studying every day. That really ups the risk that you’ll burn out before test day (especially if test day gets pushed back from April to later). So free up some time each day to engage — responsibly — in activities that bring you happiness. Practice self-care. Get plenty of sleep. These are the things that can help keep you healthy and relatively happy during these trying times; these also happen to be the things that will make you a smarter, sharper test taker.

So please stay well — physically, mentally, emotionally — to everyone who just had their test date changed. We all got some extra time to prepare for the LSAT. Let’s use that time wisely.

The March LSAT Is Canceled. Now What? was originally published on Blueprint LSAT Blog

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The Different Law Degrees

Eeny meeny miney…degree?  Much as I’d like to believe that readers of this blog are only here to bask in the sparkling wit and charm of our lovely authors, I know a self-serving fallacy when I see one.  We’re all here for one reason:  To absolutely decimate the LSAT—Blueprint is great at that, BTW.  But is that the only reason we’re here?  What’s after the LSAT? More importantly, do you even need to take the LSAT?

Sometimes it’s worth taking a moment to remember that the LSAT is only an intermediary conclusion.  After all, there’s still law school to conquer.  But what exactly does that mean? Is a legal education just the LSAT, three years of law school, the Bar exam, and then you’re out the door and into practice?  It certainly can be. But that’s not the only path out there. There are a number of “law degrees” out there and each one can determine if you’re capable of suing or getting sued.

When people talk about a “law degrees,” generally they have something quite specific in mind.  But that doesn’t mean that there aren’t a number of options available to an enterprising legal scholar.  Here’s a brief overview of some of the different programs that can contribute to a legal education. 

  What is a Juris Doctor (JD)?

A JD is the gold standard of a legal education.  When you think of “law school,” this is the kind of program you’re likely picturing.  Elle Woods got her JD in “Legally Blonde.”  On “How to Get Away With Murder,” Viola Davis teaches students earning a JD.  

According to LSAC, a JD degree is typically earned in three years, requires a Bachelor’s degree to enter, and often relies on a killer score on the LSAT in order to ensure admission—this is why you prep for the LSAT.  A JD provides the background knowledge needed to pass the Bar exam, which allows lawyers to practice law in state and federal courts.  

Most JD programs will cover a core set of courses, including contracts, torts, and civil procedure—concepts that make up a huge amount of what lawyers actually do when practicing law.  Students fill out the rest of their class hours with electives in different areas of study, like environmental or international law. Regardless of focus, successful graduates of these programs walk out the door with a JD degree in hand, ready to take the Bar (hopefully), and then practice. 

  What is a Legum Magister (LLM) Degree?

But what about people who want to continue their legal education beyond a JD?  An LLM program can be used to augment the legal education earned while pursuing a JD.  

Augment is the keyword there:  a JD is required for admission for an LLM program. (One might say that a JD is necessary to obtain an LLM.  See what I did there?  We have fun here at Most Strongly Supported.)  LLM programs are aimed at lawyers who are seeking to deepen their professional credentials in a particular area of law, like taxation or human rights.  An LLM might make a US attorney a more attractive hire for a particular law firm, or it could be used to help a lawyer from another country familiarize herself with U.S. law. These programs typically take one year to complete. Most law schools offer an LLM and some even offer joint or dual JD-LLM programs. However, whether or not you need an LLM is ultimately up to you and your career goals. 

  What is a Legal Certificate?

Legal certificate programs appeal to the widest group of potential students. Both practicing attorneys with a JD and people working in law-affiliated careers like court reporting can, and do, enroll in certificate programs. Some certificates are cross-disciplinary and available to business or med students.

These programs also tend to be on the shorter and more affordable ends of the spectrum of legal education.  Before deciding on a Legal Certificate program, be sure to do your research to make sure that the program is aimed at the appropriate content and level of expertise.  A paralegal hoping to expand her general knowledge of contracts is looking for a different program than a practicing attorney looking for a cybersecurity crash-course.  

Master’s Degree

Let’s say that, theoretically, you’re someone who is deeply interested in the law, but might not be interested in being a practicing lawyer.  A Master’s program may be what you’re looking for.  

There are a few different degrees available for people in this position, including Master’s in Science in Law (MSL), Master of Legal Studies (MLS), and Juris Master (JM).  Like other secondary degrees, candidates looking to apply for one of these programs should have a Bachelor’s degree. However, it is rare for students with a JD to pursue a Master’s degree of this kind.  

The key difference between one of these Master’s degrees and an LLM is in how those degrees are used. Lawyers pursue an LLM as a professional degree; students earn an MSL or MLS in order to learn more about the law from a non-practicing point of view. 

In summary, a chart:

*Note: currently four states allow people to take the Bar exam without going to law school—California, Vermont, Virginia, and Washington.

As you can see, not all law degrees make you a lawyer. The only sure-fire way to practice law is by going to law school and taking the Bar exam. But, in order to get into law school, you’ll need to get a good score on the LSAT. Helping students to achieve that happens to be our forte. Schedule a free consultation with an LSAT Advisor to talk about whether a live online LSAT class, in-person LSAT class, or online LSAT prep makes sense for you. 

The Different Law Degrees was originally published on Blueprint LSAT Blog

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February 2020 LSAT Instant Reaction

Congratulations, February test takers. You did it. You entered your test center at one point in your journey to law school, and a few hours later you emerged at another point entirely. It’s a significant accomplishment. Not that it always feels that way, we know. Most people exit their test centers like …

But, at the very least, you can rest assured that you weren’t the least prepared person to take the exam today.

So you should celebrate your accomplishments — go to your local watering hole, and spend hours in the restroom trying to remember whether it’s more sanitary to use the paper towels or the hand dryer. Go to your local bookstore, buy a copy and quickly set fire to The Street. Wake up tomorrow morning and pose for a family picture. Live your post-LSAT life.

But if you’re not yet ready to live life on the other side of the LSAT, if you’d like to spend a little more time luxuriating in this test, we got you. Let’s talk about this exam. Now, we can really only talk about the topics covered in the three sections. We can’t discuss which kinds of games were featured, or the answers to any of the questions, for obvious reasons. If you must reflect on this LSAT — to, for example, try to determine which section of your test was the experimental — here’s what we’ve been hearing …

A rough consensus seems to be that Reading Comp was the hardest section, and that the section progressed in an usual way. The comparative passage about gold mining in San Francisco and Mali was first, which is rare — these passages are usually the third or fourth passage. The consensus pick for the hardest passage, and maybe hardest thing period, on this test was the second passage, literary criticism and Ann Petry’s aforementioned 1946 novel The Street. Usually the hardest passage is the third or fourth one. But test takers experience less trouble with the last two passages than with the first two. (This is where the LSAT instructor in me can’t help but give advice — there’s no rule that you have to do the passages in order. For many, it makes sense to use practice exams as an opportunity to experiment with different ways to complete this section.) However, we heard few complaints about passages three, which was about tax plans, or four, which was about ice cores.

Over in the Logic Games section, most test takers mentioned that the third game, about stores in two cities, was the most difficult. We haven’t heard a ton about the other games, which included games about a family portrait and library readings. There was a potentially circular game about table assignments was in the experimental section, and people predictably lost their marbles about it, as people always do with these types of games (real heads know to just set up most “circle games” the same way they would for a basic ordering game, though).

People didn’t seem to think Logical Reasoning was especially difficult, which has been par for the course on recent exams. We mostly just heard about the random collection of unrelated topics that were discussed in these LR sections. So here is non-exhaustive list of the unrelated topics that we heard were discussed in the two real LR sections: cancer in lab mice and tea, a comparison between drying your hands with paper towels and a hand dryer, life on other planets, finding solutions to street traffic, watching the news, mammoths, rhinos, and antioxidants. Fun stuff.

On balance, it sounds like February was about as difficult as the January exam (which was generally considered to be an easier test than the September or the November 2019 exams). Our rough guess for the curve on the January test was a -10 (so you could miss 10 questions and earn a 170), so we’ll go with that here. Not that we’ll ever know what the curve actually was — the curves aren’t released for nondisclosed exams. Let’s leave any worrying about the curves to those LSAC employees who now have to release these scores to you by March 17.

If you’re thinking about canceling your score, you can read up on LSAC’s official cancellation policy here. Or you can hear it from us: you have until Friday, February 28, 11:59 pm Eastern to cancel. So you have some time. Sleep on it. Take a look at this video, featuring expert guidance from Blueprint co-founder Matt Riley.

Before canceling, you should also be aware that nearly every law school will simply use your highest LSAT when constructing your academic index, or whatever calculation it uses to assess you as an applicant. Although law schools will see every score you got on the LSAT in the last five years, the vast majority of them won’t hold having multiple LSAT scores against you to a significant degree. For most test takers, our recommendation is … don’t cancel. Choose to receive your score, just on the chance that you’ll be happy enough with the score that you don’t have to study for the next exam. For a more thorough discussion of this issue, check out this blog post.

No matter the decision, you did it. You’re on the other side now. Now, please, close this post, leave your computer for a little bit, and celebrate your accomplishment.

February 2020 LSAT Instant Reaction was originally published on Blueprint LSAT Blog

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Predictions for the February 2020 LSAT

Well, pre-law folks, it’s time for that now nearly monthly tradition. If you studied for the January or November tests, you know the drill: the number of days remaining before an LSAT test date starts to get alarmingly low, and we summon our in-house LSAT prognosticator to make some last-minute predictions for the fast-approaching test. And with the February 2020 LSAT mere days away, that’s what we’re doing today.

So we called upon our in-house LSAT mystic, who just donned his dusty wizard robes and still-problematic feathered turban, retrieved his ersatz crystal ball, laid out his LSAT-themed tarot cards, and consulted the astrological charts to make his best guess about what’s going to be on this February 22nd exam. Full disclosure though — he’s been a little preoccupied these past few days. He spent the better part of the weekend dabbling in alchemy to see if he can whip up a love potion for Valentine’s Day (it gets a bit lonely in his LSAT lair), and then spent Presidents’ Day using his powers of divination to predict the 2020 election.

But fret not — this prognosticator has been paying attention to all the recent LSATs. He has every page of recently published LSATs posted to the walls of LSAT lair, yarn strung from question to question as if he’s a conspiracy-obsessed fictional character about to crack a case wide open (or slowly going insane … it’s a six-in-one-hand-half-dozen-in-the-other-type situation). But he has a pretty good grasp of the LSAT, even if his ability to conjure up a Valentine or predict the outcome of the Nevada primary is wanting. He’s also somewhat modest; he wants to be absolutely clear that he has no special insider knowledge, and he suggests you use these predictions as a loose guide to supplement your studies in these last few days before the February exam. You shouldn’t be exclusively studying the things mentioned in these predictions, is his point.

All right, with all that said, here are the predictions …

Logical Reasoning

In Logical Reasoning, our prognosticator thinks this will be the distribution of LR question types …

So it’s a little boring … our prognosticator is going chalk on this one. As you can see, our prognosticator is predicting that each question type will appear about as many times on this test as they’ve appeared on every test, on average, since June 2017. It’s like, c’mon man, you put on the wizard tunic and everything — get a little crazy with these predictions.

But the prognosticator notes that a number of those Strengthen questions will probably be Strengthen Principle questions. These are the questions that say “following principles” in the prompt, and require you to find a broad rule that will connect an argument’s premises to its conclusion. He wants to point you to this post that explains how to do these questions quickly and effectively. We must concede this is pretty sound advice, boring or not.

He also wants me to remind you that between the seven Flaw questions, the two Parallel Flaw questions, the eight Strengthen questions, the four Weaken questions, the lone Crux question*, the two Sufficient questions, and the five Necessary questions, he’s predicting that there will be be twenty-nine questions that involve the common fallacies in some way. So make sure you feel comfortable identifying which common fallacies is committed in these arguments, especially the super common fallacies. He’s predicting that causation and equivocation fallacies will be the most common. Which is another pretty chalk prediction (those are almost always the most common fallacies), but still sound pretty sound advice from our in-house clairvoyant.

*These Crux questions, by the way, simply ask you to select the answer choice that would be most “helpful” or “useful” in evaluating the argument in the stimulus. Approach these like a Strenghten or Weaken question, but instead of looking for something that would definitely fix or worsen the flaw in the argument, look for the answer choice that asks whether the problem is even present. If the argument is committing a causation fallacy, for instance, the right answer might say, “Are there any alternate causes?”

Logic Games

Over in Logic Games, our guy really wants to convince you to review two things in your final days: making “scenarios” and “playing the numbers” for underbooked games.

He notes that, of the thirty-six published games since June 2017, making “scenarios” was pretty helpful in the thirty-five of those games. Making scenarios is a central skill to doing logic games quickly and accuracy, and you should have been working on this skill consistently throughout your LSAT studies. But if you need some last minute review, try doing recent games — especially the more difficult ones (typically the third or fourth game) — more than once. Try making scenarios using different rules or constraints in the game. Finding the rules and constraints that work best for scenarios on those games will give you a pretty good sense of which rules or constraints will work best for scenarios this Saturday. The LSAT tends to use the same types of rules across multiple tests, so a few of the rules that worked well on recent exams will probably show up on February’s exam.

Our prognosticator also wants you to know how common “underbooked” games have been on recent tests. “Underbooked,” by the way, is Blueprint’s term for games in which the game’s variables have to fill more than one position in the game’s set-up. On most recent exams, these have been “underbooked” grouping games. As in, six people must be assigned to three three-person teams. Which would require some of our six people to join more than one group. To review how to handle these games, our prognosticator points you to this post.

If you feel comfortable with making scenarios and the strategies for tackling “underbooked” games, our prognosticator thinks you’ll do just well on the games section, no matter what kinds of games appear. Nonetheless, he’s projecting a basic, 1-to-1 ordering game, an underbooked grouping game, a “combo” game with both ordering and grouping, and a tiered ordering game. He’s thinking the last game is going to be most difficult, so try to reserve at least ten of the thirty-five minutes for that one.

Reading Comprehension

Last — and, let’s be honest, almost certainly least in your estimation — is Reading Comp. Our prognosticator feels quite confident that one passage will be about the law, one will be about the sciences, and one will be about the arts/humanities. Every recent Reading Comp section has included at least one passage of each. We dedicated a whole blog series to that fact. For the fourth passage, our prognosticator is feeling a little social sciences — maybe something about political theory or linguistics or psychology (his powers of prediction get a little fuzzy when it comes to academic fields). On most recent exams, the comparative passage has been about arts or the law — our prognosticator is thinking this comparative passage will be about the law.

But the prognosticator also wants to remind us that the topics of these passages ultimately matter much less than the structure of these passages. Keep notes on where new arguments are introduced in these passages, and how these arguments are supported. Pay special attention to the author’s view — our prognosticator predicts that the author will be advocating for a position in all four of these passages — because many of the questions will relate to the author’s opinions. And remember to use a method of underlining, highlighting, and note-taking that works well on the still-somewhat-new-feeling digital LSAT.

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The final point we must make in these posts, as always, is that these predictions can only take you so far on the LSAT. We’re confident the test will resemble the test our prognosticator is envisioning — but that’s partially because all LSATs look more or less the same. If you’ve mastered the concepts that appear on every test — diagramming conditional statements, breaking down arguments, and identifying why arguments are flawed on LR; making helpful set-ups, representing the rules accurately, and making deductions and “scenarios” on LG; making helpful notes, underlining the author’s opinion, and highlighting the important details on RC — the February LSAT will feel incredibly comfortable for you. If you’ve mastered some of the more specific skill sets we think will be prevalent on this exam, all the better.

So use these waning days to review these concepts, take a couple of recent exams — those are going to probably most closely resemble this February test — and don’t overdo it. Good luck on Saturday, everyone.

Predictions for the February 2020 LSAT was originally published on Blueprint LSAT Blog

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Free Law School Valentine's Day Cards

We here at Blueprint love a good cheesy pun–it’s the blueprint to our hearts. So we decided to create some fun downloadable Valentine’s Day Cards you can (legally) send your boo, BFF, classmate, peer, etc. And they wouldn’t be Blueprint cards if they didn’t have some reference to the LSAT, so we made them with a nod to the legal field. Download and share them to your heart’s content. Don’t forget to tag us in your posts if you share them!

Note: Blueprint LSAT is not responsible for any declarations of love gone wrong that might occur when you send them.

2020 Pre-Law Valentine’s Day E-Cards

Looking for more law-themed Valentine’s cards? These were a hit last year!

Free Law School Valentine’s Day Cards was originally published on Blueprint LSAT Blog

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Five Pre-Law Dating Profiles

Valentine’s Day is this week. Maybe you heard? We almost missed it — the only flowers we received were from game three of the September 2019 LSAT. Anyway, while our instructors are more likely to canoodle with an armful of LSAT practice tests than with another human being, we still like to think we can set the right mood for the most romantic of holidays. So enjoy this bouquet of Valentine’s Day posts this week from your friends at Most Strongly Supported. We hope that you can choo-choo-choose the right answers on all your practice questions this week.

Online dating is so prevalent now that it’s barely worth calling it “online dating” as opposed to just “dating.” How does that relate to the LSAT? Well … Let me tell you about the five pre-law students you’ll meet in heaven on law school forums.

THE GUNNER 💼 Unpaid but *Highly Prestigious* Internship 🎓The Ivy You Most Wanted to Get Into 📍Manhattan, NY

About me? Great, me is my favorite subject. I’ve wanted to be a lawyer since I first learned the word “no,” and I haven’t stopped aiming for the top since. I’ve made a science of stacking my CV to become an irresistible law school candidate. I’m not playing around here — I’m in it for the long haul. I’m gonna make it into every one of the T14, and then laugh at everything but HYS. Best try to catch me now, because by the time I’ve got my JD in hand, I’ll be unstoppable.

Interested in: Comparing our most recent practice test results. I only got a 178 this time, but I’m pretty sure it was just because of a tricky parallel reasoning question.

THE PUBLIC INTEREST ADVOCATE 💼 Volunteer Coordinator: PPFA, UWW, HHI, BGCA, ARC… 🎓A Small Liberal Arts College, Don’t Worry About It 😅 (Wellesley) 📍Organizing a bone marrow donation drive — have you registered?

Haha, I’m not really one to talk about myself, but since that’s why we’re here… I’m going into law for the right reasons. To save the planet! To stand up for underserved communities! To help, well, everyone! Since I know that a JD is important in order for me to achieve my dreams, I’m going to take studying seriously. So if you’re looking for someone to run flashcards with while knocking doors for Vote.org, I’m your gal!

Guilty pleasure: Looking at adoptable animals on Insta — from no-kill shelters, of course! I know I could be out there fundraising, but … they’re just so cute!

THE CORPORATE CAREERIST 💼 Cravath, Swaine & Moore (future) 🎓The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania 📍Local Networking Event, Invite-Only

Pros: • Effective • Efficient • Killer instinct

Cons: • [this space intentionally left blank]

Show I Last Binged: Billions

THE SCIENTIST 💼 Graduate Student (fmr) 🎓MIT 📍Anywhere But Lab, God, Please

I know, I know. What’s a nice scientist like me doing in a law school forum like this? Truth told: Intellectual Property. I’m here for that sweet, sweet IP bank, and to get the hell away from wetwork. I figure, well, I’m smart enough to have earned a degree or two in the sciences so, how much worse can a JD be?

Perfect first date: Having a couple of drinks with someone who won’t tell me about techniques for culturing yeast while I’m trying to finish my beer.

THE SINCERE SCHOLAR 💼 Honorary Reference Librarian 🎓 BA in Poli Sci, minor in Philosophy 📍Office Hours With My Favorite Prof

I’m just looking for someone who won’t say “why?” when I tell them I want to go to law school. I can’t help it; I really, sincerely think Con Law is fascinating. Like, who doesn’t stalk SCOTUSblog on big decision days! Surely everyone has a favorite podcast or two about legal minutiae! We all check in to see how #AppellateTwitter is doing from time to time, right? … Right? Uh, well, nobody ever got to be a law professor without acing law school first!

My golden rule: Don’t quote Justice Potter Stewart in bed … unless you mean it ;)

Five Pre-Law Dating Profiles was originally published on Blueprint LSAT Blog

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Which 2020-2021 LSAT Date Should You Choose?

There has never been more choices when it comes to taking the LSAT — there are three LSATs left in this 2019-20 LSAT “year” and the following “year” will feature eight more. But as anyone who has spent hours scrolling through Netflix to find a new show (before settling on something they’ve seen before (and spending most of the watch time on their phone)) can attest, more choice doesn’t always make the choice easier. So today, to make your LSAT choice a little less difficult, we’ll go through each of published LSAT dates through 2021 and discuss some pros and cons of each administration.

But first, the ground rules for choosing your LSAT ….

The most important factor, by far, in choosing an LSAT is study time. Studying for the LSAT is, for most people, a two-to-four month, twenty-hours-per-week process. So when choosing an LSAT, think about the two to four months before that test date. Will you have the time during those months to dedicate about twenty hours of weekly study time?

The second most important factor should be whether the LSAT will allow you to apply early in the law school admissions cycle. Law schools use rolling admissions, which means they start offering acceptance letters as soon as they start receiving applications. Ideally you want to get your applications submitted early in that cycle, before too many acceptance letters are sent out. You should aim to have your applications submitted by October or November in the year before you’d start your first year at law school (so October or November 2020 if you plan on starting law school in fall 2021). Obviously, taking an LSAT after that October or November would prevent you from meeting this goal.

And you definitely shouldn’t try to game the system by choosing an LSAT you’ve been told is usually “easier” than other LSATs. First of all, no one — other than the malicious logicians who make this test — knows how hard or easy an exam’s questions will be ahead of time. Second, LSATs are curved, so test takers who take an LSAT with “easier” questions have to answer more questions correctly to earn the same score as test takers who took an LSAT with “harder” questions. For that reason, no LSAT has been historically harder or easier than any other LSAT. You can’t game the system with the LSAT; any LSAT will require at least a few months of hard work, which brings us back to the first point.

And with all that said, let’s get to the 2020-21 LSAT dates …

March 30, 2020 (Monday, 12:30 pm)

Registration Deadline: February 11, 2020 (Tuesday)

This one’s fast approaching — as you can see, you have less than a week to sign up for it. Unless you’re already studying to prepare for this exam, or are just trying to boost your score by a couple points, it’s probably too late in the game to choose this one. But if you decide it’s March or Die, check out our one-month and two-month study plans.

April 25, 2020 (Saturday, 8:30 am)

Registration Deadline: March 10, 2020 (Tuesday)

The April 2020 LSAT exists in a weird liminal space. It’s administered too late in the year for applicants who want to begin law school in fall 2020, but it’s really early for applicants who want to begin law school in 2021. It’s administered quite a bit after most university’s spring break, so that week off won’t provide a late study opportunity. But it’s also administered a little bit before most university’s finals weeks, so finals studying probably won’t conflict with LSAT studying. So if you’re a graduate, or a university student who doesn’t mind threading the needle between spring break and finals, and you want to begin law school in 2021, and you want a lot of runway before the 2020-21 application season to retake the LSAT or get your application materials together, we can recommend the April LSAT.

June 8, 2020 (Monday, 12:30 pm) (disclosed test)

Registration Deadline: TBD

The June LSAT is perennially great for working folk. You can take the June LSAT and get your score back by July, giving you several months to leisurely compile your application materials before sending them in early in the admissions cycle. Even with a busy work schedule, the June LSAT grants you enough time to prevent your stress level from hitting the red during application season.

The June LSAT is a little less kind to folks still in school, however. It’s held less than a month after finals for most students (or around the same time as finals for students on the quarter system), which will obviously eliminate the study time you can dedicate to the June exam. For these students, we recommend holding off ’til July or later.

July 13, 2020 (Monday, 12:30 pm)

Registration Deadline: TBD

The July test can help out working folks nearly as much as the June LSAT. The scores will likely be released in mid-August, so those in the workforce will still have at least a month to build their application and submit them very early in the 2020-21 application cycle.

But the July LSAT helps out students and recent grads way more than the June LSAT. The July 2020 LSAT will be held a couple months after finals at most universities. We’d recommend starting the LSAT study process before you begin finals, pushing through finals weeks and the inevitable post-finals hangover, and then reigniting you LSAT studies in earnest, and carrying that momentum through July.

Also, night owls should be advised that this is the last afternoon LSAT in the 2020-21 year. So if you’d prefer not to take your test at the early hour of 8:30 am, consider July 2020.

And, nota bene, if you hear anything about being able to cancel your July LSAT score after receiving it, or getting a free retake if you cancel your July LSAT score, that applied only to the July 2019 LSAT. The July 2020 test offers no such deal.

August 29, 2020 (Saturday, 8:30 am) (disclosed)

Registration Deadline: TBD

This one’s super exciting for me. The fall LSAT has historically been held in mid-to-late September or early October. Before the July LSAT was introduced in 2018, students who wanted to use their summers to study for the LSAT were forced to take the September or October LSAT. However, the September or October LSAT would often conflict with midterms or papers for these students. So people would spend their entire summers getting ready for the LSAT, only for the LSAT to conflict with their Global Environment and World Politics class or something. For this reason, I’ve long advocated that the September/October LSAT should be moved to late July or August. So I’d love it if droves of you signed up to take this LSAT, just to prove me right.

But regardless of any selfish desires for validation, this is a pretty good date for any student who wants to use their summer to study for the LSAT. It’s especially good for those who want to go straight from undergrad to law school. Those students can dedicate the summer between their junior and senior year to study for the August test, which shouldn’t conflict with their senior-year classes.

That said, if you want to apply early in the application cycle, you should also use your summer to start assembling your applications. That way, you’ll have your applications ready to go around the time you’ll receive your score in September, allowing you to apply early.

October 3, 2020 (Saturday, 8:30 am)

Registration Deadline: TBD

This is another exam for students who want to use their summers to study. I think it’ll be especially good for students on the quarter system. They get out of school in mid-June, which would make it difficult to get fully prepared for the July or even August 2020 exams. But they’ll have plenty of time to get ready for the October test. And the fact that fall quarter classes won’t begin until late September means this exam won’t rub up against midterms or papers or anything like that.

Of course, those who are taking the October exam should make sure they have all their application materials ready to go before they receive their October scores in late October or early November. Otherwise, they may have to apply later in the cycle than they’d prefer.

November 14, 2020 (Saturday, 8:30 am) (disclosed test)

Registration Deadline: TBD

Now we’re at the LSATs “late” in the admissions cycle. If you’re taking these tests in anticipation of starting law school in 2021, then you won’t be able to apply early in the admissions cycle. Now, if these “late” tests are the only exams you can dedicate adequate study time to, that’s totally fine. We’ll refer back to the very first point we made — study time is the most important factor to consider when choosing an LSAT. Just make sure you’re getting your application materials together as you study for this test, so you can submit your applications as soon as you get your score back in early December.

In the last few years, this winter LSAT has been the most taken exam in the LSAT calendar year. So for the November test, test centers can fill up quickly, and test takers frequently get placed on the waitlist and sometimes assigned to test centers as many as 100 miles from their homes. The demand for the for the November exam, plus the fact that the LSAT switched to a digital format in September 2019, led to the November 2019 LSAT being a veritable disaster.

However, we’re cautiously optimistic that the November 2020 LSAT (and the rest of the 2020-21 LSATs, it should be said) will go a lot more smoothly. The January 2020 LSAT didn’t go perfectly for all test takers (frankly, and unfortunately, no LSAT does), but it went a helluva lot better than the November 2019 exam. And we’re hopeful that the test administrators will spend the year following the November 2019 exam recruiting and training new proctors who can ensure the exams will be held without a major hitch.

January 16, 2021 (Saturday, 8:30 am)

Registration Deadline: TBD

Another “late” LSAT. This one, at least, will allow students and workers alike to dedicate their holiday vacations to study time. As with October and November, make sure to assemble your applications as you study for this exam.

February 20, 2021 (Saturday, 8:30 am)

Registration Deadline: TBD

Now we’re in the “super late” portion of the 2020-21 application cycle. Some law schools won’t accept the February 2021 LSAT for 2021 matriculants; if you’re planning on taking this exam to attend law school in fall 2021, make sure the law schools you’re applying to will accept this exam. Alternatively, this test is in the “super early” portion of the 2021-22 application cycle. And any study time you dedicate to the February 2021 test will be done during the thick of winter, so you won’t be sacrificing any balmy summer days or crisp fall afternoons to the LSAT.

April 10, 2021 (Saturday, 8:30 am)

Registration Deadline: TBD

And we’re back to April. In 2021, however, the April LSAT will be positioned a little bit closer to most universities’ spring breaks, which can provide a helpful week of studying. It’s also a little bit further away from finals week, making those even less of a concern. Like the April 2020 exam, however, it’s too late in the year for those who want to begin law school in 2021 (although some law schools may still accept this exam — it never hurts to check).

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So, pre-lawyers, choose wisely, study up, and best of luck in 2020-21.

Which 2020-2021 LSAT Date Should You Choose? was originally published on Blueprint LSAT Blog

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LSAT Prep FAQs

You have questions, we all do. Especially if you’re preparing for the LSAT. The LSAT makes naive fawns of us all, as we take our first timid steps into some LSAT prep program. So you have some questions about how to prepare for the LSAT, or how to make the most of one of our prep programs. Now, some of your questions are so common that they become “frequently asked questions.” And we have a pretty robust FAQs section on our website, both for prospective and current students. Today’s blog will address some of the less common, but still fairly common, questions we didn’t have a chance to address on our site. Call this our FEAQs (Frequently Enough Asked Questions).

1. Should I take notes while watching videos for an online LSAT course?

This is a question that’s been coming over our transom quite a bit. Many LSAT prep programs have placed a greater emphasis on online courses recently, both to account for the new(-ish)ly digital LSAT and students’ busy lives and aversion to long commutes. For students whose academic careers took place exclusively in classrooms, watching live recorded lessons or on-demand lesson videos at home could feel a bit like a strange new learning environment. And, perhaps as a result, many are unsure whether they should even take notes while watching these videos. So, they ask, “Should I take notes while watching these online videos?”

We recommend using whatever technique you used successfully in other, more traditional learning environments. For many of us, we take notes to keep engaged, get all the important parts of the lesson in writing, and confirm that we understand what the instructor is even talking about us. For others, we sit there and let the words of lesson wash over us, confident that we’ll be able to remember the important bits later. So use your preferred technique if you go with online LSAT prep. The pedagogy — fancy word for “teaching methods,” if you’d like to jot down a note and use that later — of online prep isn’t much different than that of a classroom course. So whatever worked for you in a classroom will also work in an online course.

That said, for the LSAT, we strongly recommend taking notes, whether the class is in person or online. Improving on the LSAT involves learning a few important concepts and practicing a few sound strategies, both of which will help you answer any LSAT question. Most people need to take notes on what these concepts and strategies entail to effectively employ them in their practice outside of the lessons. Our on-demand lesson videos, by the way, use on-screen text to make very clear what notes you should be taking down. You can get a sneak peak at these videos by signing up for a free trial here.

2. Will I do better if I do a traditional in-person classroom course?

Here’s another one we get about online prep a lot. Many people considering taking either our live online or on-demand online courses are concerned that they may not increase their LSAT score as dramatically as they would had they taken our in-person course. So do students do better in an in-person classroom course?

We’ve monitored — and we continue to monitor — the success of our students in all of our courses, whether in person or online. It’s a lot of data to process. But the long and short of it is that students who take the in-person class do not outperform students in our other courses. Which we didn’t find too surprising. Our in-person instructors are amazing, and so our our live online instructors. Our online classes cover the same exact material as our in-person classes. Our live online course allows you to ask your instructor questions in real time, just as you could in class. And the on-demand lesson videos let you pause, rewind, and rewatch lessons to get a more thorough understanding of the material.

And, having crunched the numbers, we found the biggest predictor of dramatic score increases was student engagement. The more LSAT questions you can complete during the course, the better chance you have make a huge score leap. And all three of our courses — our in-person, live online, and on-demand online course — will give you access to every LSAT question ever published.

3. How far in advance should I start prepping for the LSAT?

No matter how people choose to study for the LSAT, we hear a lot of questions about how long the study process should take. For most people, studying for the LSAT is a two-to-four-month endeavor. That’s why we made most of our classes run for two to four months.

But it all depends. Some people who are trying to make a minor score leap can get away for studying for a month. Some people trying to make a huge score jump might take longer than four months.

We recommend starting your studies with a practice exam. Go into that practice exam completely cold. The score you receive, and how close or far that score is from the score you’d like to receive on the actual exam, will give you a sense of how long you’ll need to study. If you don’t know what score you’d like to eventually receive on the real LSAT, but have a good idea of where you’d like to go to law school, check out our Law School Compass, which you can get in our free LSAT Toolkit. For those who might need a study plan that’s either longer or shorter than the typical two-to-four-month duration, we strongly recommend our online anytime course, which allows you to customize your study plan to make it as long or as short as you’d like.

4. Do I really need to do daily homework and drills?

We’ll make this answer short. Yes.

Now here’s a longer version of that answer. Absolutely yes. Unequivocally yes.

Remember, when we said the students who do the most questions give themselves the best shot at making a major score increase? The daily homework is how you’ll do more of those questions. And remember when we said that improving on the LSAT also involves learning a few important concepts and practicing a few sound strategies? The drills, which are part of Blueprint’s homework curriculum, is where you’ll confirm that you understand those concepts and strategies.

5. What if my first practice exam score is really low?

Well, first of all, we’re relativists at Blueprint. We don’t think there’s any such thing as a “low” practice exam score. Your score is either relatively close to the score you eventually want to get on the real test, or it’s relatively far away from the score you eventually want to get on the real test. This may feel like a distinction without a difference to you, but we’ve found that getting rid of inherently negative, self-defeating terms like “low” or “bad” when discussing your LSAT performance can go a long way in making the experience of studying for the LSAT less self-esteem destroying.

As we alluded to earlier, if your first practice exam score is far away from the score you’d eventually like to eventually receive, you may need to adjust your study plan. There are a few very important checkpoints you’ll have to reach during your studies. Learning the strategies backwards and forwards is going to be super important to your progress. Taking the time to slowly and incrementally speed up will be another crucial step. And then the last step will involve taking many practice exams to practice testing strategies and monitor the areas you still need to review. These things take time — they certainly can be accomplished in a two-to-four month period, but they may take a little longer.

If you’ve taken a practice exam and want to develop a plan of attack for yourself, you can schedule a time to speak with one of our experienced Academic Managers here.

6. If LSAC is promoting Khan Academy, does that mean it’s the best way to prep for the LSAT?

The Law School Admissions Council — LSAC for short, they write and administer the LSAT — partnered with Khan Academy to create a free online LSAT prep program. They launched the program in June of 2018. And they continue to promote the program — there’ll even be a link to the program available to you when you register for the LSAT.

Since Khan Academy is being promoted as the “Official” LSAT prep program from the sacrosanct halls of the Law School Admissions Council, some have the impression that it’s the best way to prepare for the LSAT. That the Khan Academy is where the test writers divulged all the secrets to mastering the LSAT. Is that the case?

Well, it’s very difficult — perhaps impossible — for me to give an unbiased answer. But I can say with total confidence that the Khan Academy is not where LSAC divulged all the secrets to mastering the LSAT. I can say that because there are no such secrets. Mastering the LSAT, as we’ve said, involves learning, developing, and refining a series of skills and strategies. There isn’t a secret cheat code that can be revealed, unfortunately for us all.

I can also speak a little bit about my experience with Khan Academy. When it launched, I made an account and tried it out. Overall, I felt that it definitely had some pros, but also some … Khans (very sorry). It had me start with a practice exam — as any prep program worth its salt should — and I arbitrarily answered some questions correctly and some incorrectly. After the test, the program had a few suggestions for where I should begin my studies. Given my score, I needed a lot of help. But Khan Academy recommended I prioritize learning how to do “Role questions.” Your performance Role questions will account for about 1-2% of your overall LSAT score, so I wasn’t sure why this should be my priority. You can’t make a huge improvement to your LSAT score simply by mastering Role questions, so I felt this suggestion could be misleading to some students.

If you didn’t want to follow its suggestions, Khan Academy also presented a comprehensive course that takes you from the basics of the LSAT to its more advanced elements. There were text and video explanations for most parts of the LSAT. Some of these explanations had great pointers; others provided pointers I really didn’t think were helpful. All of it seemed a little bare bones and … I don’t want to say boring, so I will say a kinder word than boring … dry.

Overall, I think the availability of free LSAT prep is an important and necessary part of this LSAT industry. I’ve spilled thousands upon thousands of words that provided free LSAT advice on this blog — I feel strongly about providing a little free LSAT help to the public. But is Khan Academy the best way to prep for the LSAT? We’d encourage you to check it out and compare it to the other programs on the market, and make your own decision.

LSAT Prep FAQs was originally published on Blueprint LSAT Blog

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Tips for Making the Career Change to Lawyer

It’s funny, if you Google “career change to lawyer,” you’ll find article after article providing tips to people transitioning from their careers as lawyers to some other field. Keep scrolling and you’ll find the occasional article about making the transition from law student to actual attorney. You won’t find many articles about making a career change from one field to the legal field, however. As a bit of a corrective, that’s what we’ll discuss today. So, assuming the deluge of articles about leaving the field of law didn’t already deter you from pursuing a legal education or career, here are some things you might want to know about making such a career change.

1. You might feel a little rusty taking a standardized test … but almost no one feels on top of their game taking the LSAT

To make this career change into the legal industry, you’ll have to go to law school. And to apply to law school, you’ll almost certainly be taking the LSAT. Which will abruptly end your blissful retirement from the world of classrooms, grades, and standardized tests.

Almost every career-changer I encounter in the LSAT classroom comments on how strange it feels to be studying for a test after years in the workforce, or how rusty they felt taking their first practice exam, or just how out of place they feel among the more traditional, recently-delivered-from-the-university, pre-law student. Many seem to worry that this put them at a competitive disadvantage relative to these more traditional pre-law students. While it’s true that you may need to use a little more electrolysis than those other students to feel comfortable in the classroom, this won’t put you at a significant disadvantage in preparing for the LSAT.

And that’s mostly due to the unfortunate truth that most everyone — including the more traditional pre-law student and the later-in-life career-changer — will have some challenges adapting to the LSAT. This exam tests skills that most do not already possess and thought processes that most do not typically undergo. These are learnable skills and thought processes, to be sure. But it’s not the case that the fresh-faced university grads have studied these things any more than you have. Say what you will about the LSAT — and you may eventually say some very profane things about it during your studies — but it does have a nice sort of leveling effect.

In short, don’t worry about being out practice; very few feel truly comfortable with this exam, so you’ll be in the same rusty dinghy as everyone else.

2. You’ll have to budget some study time, though

But the above does mean that you’ll have to study for the LSAT, just like everyone else. Now, you don’t have to do anything drastic like immediately quit your job to study for this exam. But those LSAT-takers who work full-time jobs will have to budget a study schedule and be steadfast in sticking to it.

For full-timers, we tend to recommend a consistent schedule of two-to-four hours of study time per day, for at least five days per week. If you’re able to adhere to this schedule, you can expect to complete your LSAT studies in a two-to-four month period. We wouldn’t recommend that you save all your studies for the weekend. Studying for the LSAT is really a process of developing certain skills; acquiring and refining such skills requires consistent practice. Practicing every five or six days will likely delay the study process. Plus, studying for anytime over four hours a day can lead to diminishing returns. You’re better off spreading the study hours over the course of the week rather than trying to save them for the weekend. And you’ll need the occasional Saturday or Sunday off to rest up, engage in self-care, participate in your hobbies, or do whatever else you do to stay happy and sane.

If you’re planning on taking a comprehensive LSAT course as part of this study process, consider the various online courses on the market. Courses in which the lectures are transmitted to you through the internet — either in the form of on-demand lesson videos or live online lectures — can be a boon to those with busy schedules. Since you can view these classes anywhere you have an internet connection, won’t have to spend any more time commuting than you already do, freeing up more study time.

3. Your letters of rec? It’s fine if they’re from professional sources

After you take the LSAT, you’ll have to get your application materials together. We have a handy guide for all the application materials you’ll eventually require, but we’ll highlight a few that might be relevant to you in this blog.

The most common question we tend to get from career-changers is whether they have to track down some long-forgotten professors to provide a letter of recommendation. Most law schools require at least two letters of recommendation as part of their applications, which will be uploaded to Credential Assembly Service (CAS) account you make through the Law School Admissions Council (LSAC) website. And for those more traditional, recently bachelor degreed applicants, we recommend at least two letters of recommendation from a professor. After all, admissions departments are primarily interested whether applicants will be a good students, and professors can speak most directly to that point.

But for anyone who’s been out of school for five or more years, we think it’s totally fine to get letters of recommendation from people in your professional life. Unless you’ve maintained very close relationships with old professors, you’re going to have a ton of trouble finding any former professor who is willing to write you a recommendation, and even more trouble finding one who can write a non-generic recommendation. So it’s preferable to go with those who can speak to the qualities and capabilities you exhibit in your work field. Enough of those qualities and capabilities are relevant in the academic field that you shouldn’t think of that as a weakness in your application.

4. In your law school application, only your undergrad GPA will calculated, but you’ll still need to include transcripts from any graduate or professional schools you attended

Another common question from career-changers regards their transcripts. Since many career-changers attended some graduate or professional institutions, they want to know whether their graduate or professional grades will be factored into their applications. While any law school will take a look at your grades from graduate or professional institutions — and, to be clear, you’ll need to include in your application transcripts from any graduate or professional institutions you attended (as well as transcripts from any community colleges, summer programs, or international programs) — your Undergraduate Grade-Point Average (UGPA) is the top-line figure that LSAC will calculate and many law schools will use (along with your LSAT score) to get an initial read on your application. And, true to its name, your UGPA will only include grades earned as an undergraduate.

That said, the fact you attended graduate or professional institutions can still be a positive factor in your application, even your work will not be counted in your UGPA. Which brings us to our final point …

5. Think of your pre-law career as an asset to your application

Sure, there’s a renewable energy source of green recent poli-sci grads to fill the incoming classes of law schools. And yes, most of your eventual classmates will fit that description. But just because you don’t fit that mold won’t be a shortcoming in your application. Quite the contrary, in fact. Law schools want diverse classes. They want people from a variety of professional, social, and economic backgrounds. They want people of different ages and experiences to fill their halls.

Lean in to your career when writing your personal statement and updating your résumé. You can show how your experiences both sparked an interest in the law and will help as you pursue a legal career. Making a career change is a huge decision that requires a ton of courage. Emphasize that in your application narrative, and there’s no reason to think law schools will view your career change any differently.

Tips for Making the Career Change to Lawyer was originally published on Blueprint LSAT Blog

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A Beginner's Guide to the LSAT

So you’re planning on taking the LSAT? You sure?

OK, of course you’re sure. You’re going to law school, so you know you have to take this exam. Perhaps you’ve been following our step-by-step approach to applying to law school, and you’re currently stuck on step number 2. Or maybe you just caught wind of LSAC’s newly released test dates for 2020 and 2021, and you’re thinking about signing up for one of the dates.

So you’re planning on taking the LSAT … but you barely know the first thing about the LSAT. You know it’s a test … and that’s where your LSAT knowledge tops out at. Or maybe you know it’s a test and you know all your pre-law friends studying will only respond with a curt, “I don’t wanna talk about it” when you inquire about that test. Or maybe you know it’s a test and you know your pre-law friends would rather not speak of it and that it’s also super important cornerstone of your law school application. And, no matter your level of knowledge about the LSAT, you’re worried about taking it.

That’s OK. Even if you don’t know much about the LSAT, and even if you’re super apprehensive about taking the exam, studying for it doesn’t have to be a terrible process. If you’re approaching the LSAT with a little knowledge and a lot of nerves, we have a beginner’s guide to taking the LSAT for you to follow. Let’s take it one question at a time …

What is the LSAT?

I appreciate you starting from the beginning, my rhetorical reader. It stands for the Law School Admissions Test. That’s a pretty self-explanatory name (and quite uncharacteristic of the test in general — most parts of the exam itself are decidedly less than self-explanatory). Pretty much every law school requires applicants to report a score from some standardized test, and the LSAT is the one standardized test accepted by all 203 ABA-accredited law schools.

The LSAT originally debuted the same year as the Ed Sullivan Show — it’s an old test — but it didn’t take its current form until June 1991. The exam is written and administered by the Law School Admissions Council, or LSAC. By the way, the first thing you’ll need to do in order to take the LSAT is create an account on LSAC’s website. That account is how you’ll register to take the LSAT, sign up for a CAS account you’ll use to apply to law school, and, eventually, apply to law school.

What does the LSAT test?

If you ask the writers of the exam, they’ll say it tests logical reasoning, analytical reasoning, and reading comprehension. Oh, and also your writing skills. This might raise the question of how reasoning logically is different than reasoning analytically. Or how reading comprehension is distinct from either. So yeah, it might be better just to talk about the actual sections that appear on the test.

The LSAT is composed of six thirty-five minute sections. But you’ll only take five of those on test day. That sixth section can be completed at home, after the test. And only four of the five sections you take on test day will contribute to your overall score. That unscored section is called the experimental section — it’s basically a “fake” section thrown in at some point during the test that won’t count toward your final score. Those four scored sections, however, will include:

• Two sections of Logical Reasoning: This is the section that tests your logical reasoning skills, obviously. But in other, more comprehensible words, this section tests your ability to draw deductions from a set of facts, and your ability to understand and evaluate arguments. Each question consists of a brief paragraph (usually an argument), a question about the contents of the paragraph, and five answer choices. You’ll get between fifty and fifty-two questions between both Logical Reasoning sections.

• One section of Analytical Reasoning: This section tests your ability to reason analytically, obviously. It’s called the Analytical Reasoning section, after all. Except literally everyone you speak to about this section will call it the “Logic Games section.” These so-called games will test your ability to follow directions, draw connections between rules, identify patterns, and project outcomes. They’ll do so by outlining a hypothetical situation. They’ll provide some rules that govern that hypothetical situation, and then ask between five and seven multiple-choice questions. Overall, there will be four games and between twenty-two and twenty-four questions on this section.

• One section of Reading Comprehension: This section tests your reading comprehension skills, obviously. If you’ve taken basically any standardized test ever, you know how these go. Super boring passage, questions about that passage, rinse, repeat. On the LSAT, somewhere between twenty-six and twenty-eight questions will be distributed among the four passages included in this section.

You’ll also have to complete the “Writing section” within a year of taking the LSAT. Using exam software provided to you by LSAC, you’ll write a short persuasive essay in thirty-five minutes. It’s not a big deal and it doesn’t count toward your LSAT score, but many law schools you’ll apply to will require you to complete the Writing section, and all schools you’ll apply to will be able to read your essay.

When’s the LSAT offered?

Over the last two years, it’s been offered nine times per year in the US, Canada, and the Caribbean. The precise schedule changes a bit from year to year, but it should be offered in most of the months of whatever year you choose to take the exam. Some exams are administered at 8:30 am on Saturdays. Others are administered at 12:30 pm on Mondays. If you want to take the LSAT in a month in which the exam is held on a Saturday, but for religious reasons cannot take the exam on a Saturday, LSAC offers alternative dates to you.

The LSAT is also offered all across the world — not just North America — although the dates for the international LSAT administrations are slightly different, and slightly more limited, than the North American dates.

Also, if you believe you’re entitled to testing accommodations from LSAC, LSAC offers those. Occasionally, test takers who receive testing accommodations will have to take the LSAT a few days before or after the main test day.

Which LSAT should I take?

Well, that’s your choice, my hypothetical buddy! A couple factors to consider, though …

Some exams are given at 8:30 am and some are given at 12:30 pm. For many of us, the shock of recent consciousness makes doing anything — much less strenuous logical questions — quite difficult at 8:30 am. For those, a 12:30 pm test might be preferable.

Some exams are disclosed, and others are not. On disclosed tests, you’ll get your score, a copy of the test, the answers you selected, and a few other things. On tests that aren’t disclosed, you just get your score back. This isn’t a big deal for most test takers, but test takers who have to retake the exam sometimes find having a copy of the test and their answers helpful in guiding their study process.

If you’re applying to law school the same year you’re taking the LSAT, you should consider taking an earlier LSAT, if possible. Law schools use rolling admissions, which means they start sending letters of acceptance to applicants as soon as the schools start receiving applications in September or October. So applying early in the application cycle can give you a competitive advantage. And having to take a later LSAT — such as one in October or November — will prevent you from applying early in the cycle.

But your primary concern when selecting an LSAT date should be study time. Studying for the LSAT can be a twenty-hours-per-week-for-two-to-four(-or-sometimes-even-six)-months proposition. You want to make sure the two to four (or perhaps even six) month period before the LSAT you register for will afford you adequate study time. Which brings us to the next question …

How long will studying for the LSAT take?

It really depends. Some (truly loathsome) people are able to do great on this test without much studying at all. Most, however, will take somewhere between two and four months to prepare. Some will have to take six months or more to prepare. It all depends on how much time you can dedicate to your studies and how big of a score increase you’re aiming for. Which brings us to …

How should I start studying for the LSAT?

Start by taking a practice exam. Even if you have no idea how to do anything on the LSAT, start with a practice exam. And if you need a practice exam to take, sign up for our LSAT Toolkit, which will give you a free exam to take and score and receive a detailed score report.

The score you get back from your first practice exam will probably be unflattering, but that’s OK. Don’t worry about it. The whole point of studying for the LSAT is improving that score. The first exam simply provides a baseline score to measure your improvement after you start studying.

That exam can also help you plan how long studying for the LSAT will take. If you’re trying to improve only a few points before test day? That may only take a few months. In which case, take a look at our two-month and one-month study plan. If you’re trying to improve by around ten points? That may take as many as four months, so check out our four-month study plan. Trying to make a massive score improvement? That may take five or six months. The point is, the first practice exam will give you a realistic sense of how long studying for the LSAT will take, and you can plan your following months accordingly.

How should I study for the LSAT?

Great question — in fact, they’ve all been great questions, my rhetorical friend.

Most will want to use some sort of study materials or LSAT course to prepare for the LSAT. If it was the kind of test you could just show up and crush, your pre-lawyer friends probably would’ve been a bit more forthcoming about the exam. If you want to get a full, comprehensive course — and making a score increase beyond just a few points will generally require such a comprehensive course — we have a few options for you. But think about which learning environments you thrive in. Some students like in-person courses and some students rather prepare with an LSAT prep online course. Consider whether an in-person class or an online course is right for you. Or if you’ll work best with a one-on-one tutor.

To explore your options, we’d try to sit on any free classes that are being offered, to see if you dig that teaching style. To explore some of our options, we recommend signing up for a free LSAT Toolkit and speaking to one of our Academic Managers, who can help you find the study plan that’ll work best for you.

Is there anything I should know about the specific sections before I start studying?

The good news is each LSAT tests, broadly speaking, the same core concepts. The advice given to test takers in 1991 could still help test takers in 2020.

For Logical Reasoning, you’ll need to learn how to make deductions — especially deductions based on conditional statements. You’ll learn precisely what a conditional statement is in your studies, but making deductions with them will require you to brush up on how to diagram conditional statements, and learn a bunch of conditional keywords to help you do so. Also, aside from those conditional relationships, causal relationships are the most common type of relationship on this exam, so being able to identify and understand cause-and-effect is another central skill.

In Logical Reasoning, you’ll also need to learn a lot about arguments. You’ll need to learn how to deconstruct arguments, understand their structure, and, most of all, identify why these arguments are bad. Doing the latter will help you in all sorts of ways on this exam. Whether you’re asked to strengthen an argument, weaken an argument, identify an assumption made by the argument, or simply to relate why an argument is flawed, knowing all the common reasons arguments on this test are bad is a crucial skill.

For Reading Comprehension, being able to look past the topics of the passage and understand how the authors are making and supporting their conclusions is the central skill you want to develop. To do so, you’ll want to focus on discerning the author’s opinions, making solid notes on the function of each paragraph in the passage, and looking to common devices authors use to support their points — devices like cause-and-effect relationships, examples, rhetorical questions, and lists). Also, the Reading Comp section was changed the most by last year’s switch to the digital LSAT, so you’ll want to learn how to approach this section in its new digital guise.

For Logic Games, you’ll need to learn how to make organized set ups to help you visualize how the game will play out, and make methodical deductions from the rules to save you time on the questions. There are certain common games that you have to master, but you should be fairly comfortable with any game the test might throw your way. Since this is the most unfamiliar section for most test takers, find some example games (here and here and here) we made to give you a sense of what you’re up against.

I mentioned the same advice we’d give in 1991 could also help in 2020. And broadly speaking, that is true. But there are a few recent trends on this exam you should be aware of. In Logical Reasoning, questions that ask you to strengthen an argument — specifically those that ask you to do so with a “principle” — have become increasingly prominent. Reading Comprehension as a whole has gotten more difficult in recent years, so brush up on some tips on how to deal with inevitably difficult passages about science, the law, and the arts. And on Logic Games, many of the recent games have been “underbooked” and almost all of the recent games can be better defeated through something called “scenarios,” so you’ll definitely want to address those in your studies.

Can I take the LSAT more than once?

Yes, hypothetical pre-lawyer, you can. There are limits to how many times you can take the test, but you can certainly take it more than once. You can take the LSAT three times in an “LSAT year” (which, for some unknowable reason, spans from June to May), five times in five years, and seven times in your life.

I bet I know your follow-up question, though (and not just because I’ve been, technically speaking, writing all of these questions): “Does it look bad to retake the LSAT?” Not really! Or, not at all, really. It might be ideal to have one LSAT score when you apply to law school, but almost every law school will judge your application almost entirely on your highest score. Almost no school will average your score or anything. As we’ve discussed, schools looking at just your highest score is not only in your interest, but in theirs as well.

OK, those are all my questions!

Right on. Good luck on the test, my made-up future legal counsel. This blog is over.

A Beginner’s Guide to the LSAT was originally published on Blueprint LSAT Blog

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2020-2021 LSAT Dates

After a [really] long wait, LSAC has finally released LSAT test dates for the rest of 2020 and the beginning of 2021! Interesting note: no September or December LSAT. Just as we predicted, however, you will still be able to take the LSAT almost every month this year—a welcome reprieve from the LSAT of the past where you only had four dates to choose from. But before you get overwhelmed with the choices, think of all the benefits you have now. More test dates mean you can choose the dates that allow you to prep when it’s most convenient for you (i.e. during the summer). Most students prep for the LSAT for 2-3 months, so keep that in mind when choosing your LSAT date.

The law school admissions process is becoming much more personalized to adapt to your lifestyle. In fact, we created our LSAT prep with you in mind. Looking for an LSAT class that meets on a structured schedule every week? We have an In-Person Class for that. Want more flexibility but need to be held accountable? Check out Live Online. Want to study for the LSAT by yourself, but still have access to the best resources? Subscribe to Online Anytime. Want your own LSAT guru? Meet the best LSAT tutors.

And now you can save on your prep through 1/20/20. Head over to our website to save $300 on Live Online and In-Person classes or save 10% on all tutoring packages. 

  2019-2020 LSAT Dates and Registration Deadlines

LSAT Date LSAT Registration Deadline LSAT Score Release Date Mon, Jan. 13, 2020 Tues, Dec. 3, 2019 Thur, Feb. 6, 2020 Sat, Feb. 22, 2020 Tues, Jan. 7, 2020 Tues, Mar 17, 2020 Mon, Mar. 30, 2020 Tues, Feb. 11, 2020 TBD Sat, Apr. 25, 2020 Tues, Mar. 10, 2020 TBD Mon, June 8, 2020 TBD TBD Mon, July 13, 2020 TBD TBD Sat, Aug. 29, 2020 TBD TBD Sat, Oct. 3, 2020 TBD TBD Sat, Nov. 14, 2020 TBD TBD Sat, Jan. 16, 2021 TBD TBD Sat, Feb. 20, 2021 TBD TBD Sat, Apr. 10, 2021 TBD TBD

Not sure where to start? First, find out which LSAT you “should” take. Then, find out which LSAT prep is right for you by scheduling a free consultation with our LSAT Advisors.

2020-2021 LSAT Dates was originally published on Blueprint LSAT Blog

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A Step-by-Step Guide to Applying to Law School

Applying to law school can feel like a labyrinthine process, we know. So we thought, as a bit of public service, we’d simplify this process as best as we can. Here are the fifteen steps you need to take to apply to law school, along with a deluge of links to posts on how to make the most of your law school applications.

1. Go to college, and get the best GPA you can

Earning a J.D. is a postgraduate endeavor, of course, so you’ll eventually need an undergraduate degree to matriculate into law school. You’re probably, at the very least, already in the process of earning that. Your major matters far less than many believe, so choose the concentration that interests you most. But your GPA will matter quite a bit — it’s a major factor law school admissions offices will use in constructing your academic index, or whatever figure they use to get an initial read on you as an applicant. Your LSAT score will eventually be the centerpiece of your law school application — and at many law schools, a great LSAT score can rescue a less-than-stellar GPA — but an amazing GPA can occasionally carry you into 1L, as well.

2. Make a plan to take the LSAT

This is the hurdle most pre-lawyers fear the most. Almost every law school application requires you to include a score from some standardized test that the law school thinks will effectively appraise your lawyerly mettle. And the LSAT is the one standardized test of lawyerly mettle that’s approved by all 203 ABA-accredited law schools. Ergo (step 2b, by the way: start dropping “ergo” in everyday conversation), you should plan on taking the LSAT.

But which LSAT should you take? The LSAT is offered many times a year, giving you a ton of options to choose from. Our advice: choose an exam — preferably one to which you can dedicate about twenty hours of weekly study time during the two-to-four-month span before that exam — and sign up for it. As in, sign up before you start studying. Smash that register button. Having a deadline will force you to take the study process seriously, which will only help you get prepared. But, of course, this will require you to choose your LSAT wisely. The amount of time you’ll have to study should be your number one consideration. No single exam is any “harder” or “easier” than any other, so that shouldn’t be part of your decision making. Just choose the exam that fits best with your schedule.

Some law schools have begun to accept the GRE or GMAT, so those can be options instead. Still, we recommend the LSAT; we think it’s a better test (and it lacks math), but it’s also still the only test accepted by every law school.

3. Sign up for the Credential Assembly Service

You can do this when you sign up for your LSAT. Eventually, this service — abbreviated to CAS — will be how you distribute your grades, LSAT scores, letters of recommendation, personal statements, and everything else to all the law schools you apply to. It’s helpful but pretty expensive, so you’ll need to budget for it. (LSAC also sells bundles that include LSAT fees, CAS fees, and law school report fees to save you some money. And there are also fee waivers you may qualify for.)

4. Study for the LSAT

Most people use some sort of study aids to prepare for the LSAT. It’s not the kind of test that most can show up and crush. And, wow, do we have study aids available for you. But you should explore — LSAT prep isn’t a one-size-fits-all kind of thing. You may want to think about whether an in-person class or an online course is right for you. Or if private tutoring is best option. Consider sitting in on some free classes, to see if you dig that style of learning. To explore more of our options, we recommend signing up for a free LSAT Toolkit and scheduling a time to talk to one of our Academic Managers, who can help you find the study plan that makes the most sense for you.

5. Take the LSAT

It’s a lot, but you’ll get through it. And if it doesn’t go well and you have to retake? No biggie. Law schools will mostly just look at your highest score. Oh, and don’t forget about taking the Writing section of the exam within a year of taking the LSAT. You do that at home, and most schools require it as part of your application.

6. Research law schools

Of course, you’ll need to know which law schools you want apply to before you apply to them. Do your research. Don’t just rely on the U.S. News & World Report rankings. You can use better, output-based rankings or just look at the raw data yourself. Remember, you’re going to law school to pass the bar and get a job. So look for schools in your price range and preferred locations that are good at helping their grads pass the bar and get jobs.

There are also law school predictors — such as our own Law School Compass — that can give you a good sense of the schools you’re almost certainly getting into, those you have a good shot at getting into, and those you have an outside chance of getting into. Ideally, you’ll apply to schools in all three categories. And if you qualify, make sure to check if these law schools offer fee waivers to reduce application costs.

7. Start getting your letters of rec together

After you secure your LSAT score and figure out where you’re applying, you’ll need to get your application materials together. Start with the letters of recommendation, since those require the assistance of people who may lack your sense of urgency on the matter of your law school application. For most schools you need two letters of rec, but can include an optional third. If you’ve graduated within the last five years, at least two of your recommenders should be professors or people who can otherwise speak to your academic prowess; if you’ve been out of school for five or more years, your recommenders can be people from your work field. Here are some tips on how to secure the best letters of recommendation.

8. Craft your personal statement

It sucks to write about yourself in this way, but everyone applying to law school’s gotta do it. Fortunately, the prompts law schools use are so open-ended that the same personal statement — with minor revisions and additions — can be used for every application.

Start early, work through some inevitably terrible drafts, and get a lot of people to lend their editorial perspective. And remember, it should be a narrative that communicates what’s you unique about you and why you’re interested in a legal education and career. It can, but certainly doesn’t have to be, a tale of overcoming adversity. Don’t be falsely modest or a braggart. And definitely don’t just write a laundry list of accomplishments that many other applicants likely have as well.

9. Update the old résumé

This, by the way, will be the laundry list of your accomplishments. Tips on what to include in your résumé here and how to format it here.

10. Write an diversity or explanatory essay, if applicable

Most law schools allow you to include an addendum to your application. In a diversity essay, you can discuss how your race or ethnicity, religion, socioeconomic disadvantage, sexual orientation, or otherwise unique experiences might contribute to the diversity of the law school. In an explanatory essay, you can address any weaknesses in your application, such as a semester of anomalously low grades, a low LSAT score, or a gap in your work history. (Provided, of course, there is a reasonable explanation.) These addenda are truly optional — you should only write one if you do have a story to tell. No diversity or explanatory essay is preferable to one that elicits an eye roll from the admissions officer tasked with reading it.

11. Secure your transcripts from your undergraduate institution

You’ll also need to make sure your transcripts are uploaded to your CAS.

12. Review your applications, and send it to law schools

Next comes a scary part.

13. Wait for responses

This is the scary part. But, remember, you did it! You had a mountain of stuff to compile for your law school applications. You got through that, and now you’re on the other side. You’ll eventually be put through the 1L ringer, so try to enjoy these next few months. Travel, see friends, cultivate interests, etc.

14. Negotiate your offers

Once you start getting accepted to law schools, you can start negotiating with them to obtain scholarships. Many schools have built-in processes to negotiate such offers. So follow those rules, be realistic, and be polite and respectful in all communications. But don’t be a pushover — you finally have some leverage. Use it.

15. Figure out how to finance law school

OK, this is also the scary part. But there are many options to finance law school for you to consider.

A Step-by-Step Guide to Applying to Law School was originally published on Blueprint LSAT Blog

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January 2020 LSAT Instant Reaction

January test takers, you did it. You drove to your test center, waited through an interminable check-in process, sat in your assigned seat, and … used a stylus to click the screen on a Microsoft Surface Go for about three-and-a-half hours. Big congratulations there.

We kid, we kid. These moments are worthy of a sincere congratulations. In fact, if anything, you’re probably not proud enough of your accomplishment. Many test takers respond to a test with sentiments like, “that last game sucked lol see u in February.” But — and this is true irrespective of how test day went — this accomplishment deserves more than that. You sacrificed quite a bit to get prepared for this test, and deserve plaudits for that. You spent your free time learning how to make scenarios for logic games. You likely surrendered a good bit of your holidays to review the common fallacies, take extra practice exams or enroll in a LSAT prep online class. If you really went all-in on your studies, your visage might be but a faint memory to your friends and loved ones. The point is, this test probably made the last few months of your sub-optimal. And yet, you persevered. That’s a big deal.

So, use let tonight be a celebration worthy of your accomplishments. Drink a stout. Forge a Vermeer painting. Commit a few internet crimes. And spare a kind thought for your LSAT instructor.

If you must reflect on the LSAT before doing so, though, let’s talk about this LSAT. On a nondisclosed test like January’s — one in which we’ll won’t see a released copy of the exam anytime in the near future — it’s tempting for us to simply assume that all of our predictions were 100% on-point, and leave it at that. But, still, we hear things about the exam. And we can chat about those things. Well, some of them. We can really only talk about the topics covered in the three sections. We can’t discuss which kinds of games were featured, or the answers to any of the questions, for obvious reasons. If you must reflect on this LSAT — to, for example, try to determine which section of your test was the experimental — here’s what we’ve been hearing …

It sounds like the scored logic games were about traveling to various towns, senior and junior team presentations, school assignments, and — as if it were a preview to what you would be doing after the exam — the fourth game was about drinking beer. Reports suggest that this was not quite as fearsome a section as the recent September and November exams, although the fourth game caused some hang ups (and perhaps some hangovers) for some test takers.

The actual topics of the passages always get somewhat distorted in the game of telephone played between the test takers and us, but here are what the passages covered, as far as we can tell: the notorious Johannes Vemeer forgery artist Hans van Meegeren, biological indicators of aging in flies, internet crimes, and Mobilian Jargon, a pidgin lanuage used among Native Americans living along the Gulf of Mexico. Many test takers pointed out that the last passage was difficult, but that the section as a whole wasn’t as crazy as some recent tests’.

And finally, Logical Reasoning. For this section, we really only hear about a random assortment of unrelated topics that were probably discussed in these sections, as people try to access their fading memories of these short questions. So here is the random assortment of unrelated topics that were probably discussed in the scored Logical Reasoning sections on January’s exam: chimpanzees, highways paying for themselves, evergreen trees, legal curb parking after 7 pm, dragonflies, and Neanderthals and the hole in the back of their skulls. Some test takers thought these Logical Reasoning sections may have been a bit harder than September or November’s exams.

On balance, it sounds like January was an easier test than the September or the November exams. Unfortunately, that likely means the “curve” will be a bit less forgiving — a -10 curve for a 170 seems plausible. Not that we’ll ever know — the curves aren’t released for nondisclosed exams. At any rate, leave any worrying about the curves to those nerds in suburban Philadelphia who now have to release these scores to you by February 6. It’s your time to celebrate, deservingly so.

If, however, you cannot find it in you to celebrate, you may be thinking about canceling your score. Before doing so, you can read up on LSAC’s official cancellation policy here. Or you can hear it from us: you have until Sunday, January 19, 11:59 pm Eastern to cancel. So you have some time. Sleep on it. Take a look at this video, featuring the sagacious wisdom of Blueprint co-founder Matt Riley.

Before canceling, you should also be aware that nearly every law school will simply use your highest LSAT when constructing your academic index, or whatever calculation it uses to assess you as an applicant. Although law schools will see every score you got on the LSAT in the last five years, the vast majority of them won’t hold having multiple LSAT scores against you to a significant degree. For most test takers, our recommendation is … don’t cancel. Choose to receive your score, just on the chance that you’ll be happy enough with the score that you don’t have to study for the next exam. For a more thorough discussion of this issue, check out this blog post.

No matter the decision, you did it. Now, please, close this post, leave your computer for a little bit, and toast to your accomplishment.

January 2020 LSAT Instant Reaction was originally published on Blueprint LSAT Blog