LSAT Diary: Law School Dreamer

Below is Law School Dreamer's latest LSAT Diary, which covers the past two weeks.

She talks about LSAT vocabulary, finding motivation to study, and Equal Pay Day for women, among other things.

Law School Dreamer's LSAT Diary:

Week 4 (4/11 - 4/18):
This past week has been so crazy, I feel like I’ve hardly had time to catch my breath! As usual, I sign myself up for too many extracurriculars (which I enjoy, don’t get me wrong) but it leaves very little time for everything else on my plate. While I did study for the LSAT here and there in one hour increments or so, I didn’t really have any major breakthroughs.

I spent the week reading my LSAT books wherever I was, even during one of my classes; an upper level writing class about the original fairy tales by Hans Christian Anderson and The Brothers Grimm. The only trouble with doing that was I kept hearing “The Little Match Girl” and that poor “Snow White” while I was trying to read logical reasoning passages and needless to say it was rather confusing.

Anyway, I’m glad I’m taking the upper level writing class, not only has it really boosted my reading comprehension, so many of the words we use now days have different meanings than they did hundreds of years ago (I did a double-take when I read “the Little Mermaid swam up from the booty” (ie. treasure chest)) but it has also helped polish up my writing skills. I LOVE to write (as you may have sensed from my long diary entries). But it had been two years since my last writing class so I was glad I could take a writing class that fulfilled one of my graduation requirements.

Speaking of reading comprehension, I began circling all of the words I encountered during my logical reasoning that I wasn’t totally sure of the meaning. I got this idea from Steve himself, when I saw his list of words to know. My words for this week are:

Antecedent: Something that happens or exists before something else. “The book deals with the historical antecedents of the revolution.”

Condescension: Snobby and pretentiously kind manner. Behavior that implies that somebody is graciously lowering himself or herself to the level of people less important or intelligent.

Complacency: Satisfied and unaware of possible dangers; eager to please.

Preclude: Prevent something from happening or somebody from doing something.

Prelude: Introductory event or occurrence (just like a prelude to a song).

I have found that studying the “families” of logical reasoning question types is really helping me to learn how to approach each question. I think part of the battle is learning what the question is really asking you. I mean sure, “which one of the following strengthens the argument” seems simple enough. But realizing that this type of question is really asking you to choose which answer choice helps the stimulus is helping me choose correctly.

I also learned that in certain types of questions, sometimes the correct answer choice will have information that goes beyond the sphere of the stimulus (and that is allowed).

Of course, in cannot be true or must be true questions no outside information beyond the sphere of the stimulus is allowed in the correct answer choice – so an answer choice in those questions that goes beyond the scope of the stimulus tips you off that its probably incorrect.

It seems every week I am constantly finding motivation. This week, I presented at my undergrad’s research conference. I have been researching judicial independence, and mostly contrasting judicial selection by merit appointment versus judicial selection by popular election. I compiled my research into a 24-page manuscript which I am currently seeking publication, and somehow managed to fit most of that into my 15 minute allotted time for my presentation.

Anyway, after my presentation this man in a suit (I was thinking maybe he was a lawyer) came up to me and said he loved my presentation and he could tell I was very passionate about the topic. He said I am so persuasive – I should think about going to law school! I just thanked him and introduced myself (he didn’t offer his name). Come to find out, he’s the DEAN of my college.


Week 5:
Monday, April 19, 2010 – The Countdown Begins – 49 Days

June 7th is approaching faster and faster. I am continuing to work through all of the “must be true” questions from PrepTests 1-40. But I am starting to realize that with less than six weeks to go, there may not be time for me to go through each individual logical reasoning question type like I did with the logic games.

So I think I will amend my study plan slightly; I will begin taking full practice tests as soon as possible. I am already starting to question whether I should defer until the October administration, but I know I will be even more busy come this fall, so I really want to get this behind me as soon as possible.


Tuesday, April 20, 2010 – Equal Pay Day – 48 Days
Today is Equal Pay Day. Women earn just 78% compared to their similarly situated male counterparts. I organized a table talk discussion on campus and was pleasantly surprised at the equal presence of men. (Maybe they just came to pick up chicks, who knows). Anyway, this is basically how I spent my free time today and while I feel guilty about not spending it working on the LSAT, I feel good about educating others.

I did some research on equal pay for women lawyers. As many of you may know, the first United States Supreme Court case which banned women from being lawyers was Bradwell v. State. Myra Bradwell was a practicing attorney in Illinois, she was more than qualified and very well versed in the law; in fact she ran a publishing company which published legal opinions which other lawyers used as legal precedent, yet she was told she could not practice law – it made the men in the courtroom nervous to be in “mixed company.”

Today, while women makeup roughly half of all law students, women make up only 30% of all practicing lawyers. While it is true this may be because women did not really start attending law schools in high numbers (or any graduate school for that matter) until the 70’s, that 30% statistic seems pretty low. Women are also earning less in the field of law. As a future lawyer myself I find this concerning. For those interested in women’s history in the law, you may enjoy reading “Barred from the Bar.” It’s a fairly short book, but it's packed with good info. I read it in an afternoon and was certainly impacted.


Wednesday, April 21 – So how far have I improved, anyway? – 47 Days
When I took my initial diagnostic of the June 2007 LSAT (PDF) back in January, I scored a 143. I cried. I got over it. I got to work.

How much has my work paid off? I studied on and off from January to March 1 and then began my “real” prep March 1st and have been averaging about 7-10 hours a week. I sat down and did another exam wth the time constraints. I was feeling pretty good, and even better when I started scoring my exam. What really surprised me though, was I was not able to finish any of the sections before time was up. The farthest I got on Section 1 was to Question 21. I scored a 149. So this is an increase of 6 points.

Of course I would like for my score to be higher, but this shows improvement. Of the questions that I was able to answer in the allotted time, I answered 75% of them correctly. I need to improve that. I ran out of time before I could do much more review, but tomorrow I will complete the questions I did not have time to answer, and then examine the questions I answered incorrectly.


Thursday, April 22, 2010 – 46 Days
I had just enough time to go back and complete the questions I had run out of time for during my simulated exam yesterday. I was a little disappointed that of the 27 questions I went back to answer, I only answered 6 of them correctly – what gives? I went from answer 75% of my attempted questions correctly, to 22%. I’m not quite sure what happened. I was in a rush, and it was late in the day. Anyway, had I answered those 6 additional correct answers during my allotted time, my score would have been 152. I am aiming for 160. I hope this is possible in 46 days.


Friday, April 23, 2010 – Mystery Novels – 45 Days
I had my usual internship with the county judge today. We got on the subject of what made him want to become an attorney. He said as a child he loved mystery novels, especially Sherlock Holmes. He loved making inferences and deductions based on the available evidence. I thought this was interesting, because as a kid I loved reading books that had alternate endings, usually they were mystery novels but at the end of every chapter, you had a decision to make, and depending on your decision, you would turn to a different page of the book for an alternate ending. Similar to my childhood reading, I hope I’m making all the right decisions that will get me into law school.


Saturday, April 24, 2010 – Photoshop: The Worst ADD Distraction Ever! – 44 Days
I attend a state university that has good deals on software as part of their licensing agreements with Microsoft and Adobe. So while I was in the school’s bookstore, I picked up Photoshop. I was supposed to be studying for the LSAT and writing a 5-page paper, but this program had me totally sucked in. I got pretty good at it.

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is my hero so I found a photo of her standing next to another woman – that other woman became me. Then I placed myself on the United States Supreme Court (I will be replacing Justice Stevens of course). I spent way too much time fiddling with that but to be honest, it was just the recharge that I needed. I had been spending so much time helping others, extracurriculars, work, school stuff, etc. that I was starting to feel robotic.


Sunday, April 25, 2010 – Getting it In Gear – 43 Days
I spent way too much time blowing off my school obligations and LSAT studies, I have to really cram everything in today. I hope to take another PrepTest today and finish off my paper and study for a poli sci exam. I am still super worried about the LSAT being just 43 days away.

I have until May 16th to decide whether or not I want to defer until October, and it will cost me a $68 reschedule fee. Alternatively, I may just take it, cancel my score and retake in October. Or take it, get my score, and take it in October. Who knows. I suppose I could approach June as my “initial attempt,” but I know I won’t have much time to dedicate to LSAT studying in October. Plus, I won’t get my score until almost November and I want to have already submitted some apps by then.


Photo by archeon / CC BY-ND 2.0