My LSAT

I started getting ready for the LSAT by going to a free class the Princeton Review offered. It was a few hours one night and the guy there answered all our questions and gave us some pointers and beginning advice. You can sign up for various classes ranging from private tutoring (it'll cost up to nine grand) to online programs and small groups to the regular classes lasting anywhere from four to sixteen weeks. I never did any of these since I didn't have $1200 to spend on it. I didn't really check out Kaplan when I was getting ready so I don't have any advice on that program. I did take advantage of the free LSAT tests that The Princeton Review offers, usually once a month. They administer previous tests which have been released in a test-like atmosphere so it's pretty solid practice and did I mention free? I did sign up and take a weekend course, where they try and give you a basic understanding in a couple of days. It was like $400 and honestly not worth it for me or my brother-in-law who took it with me. Our instructor wasn't all that great, he was more interested in telling us how disappointing his law experience was so far (he worked for the DA) and how we shouldn't expect to make the big bucks. Others might have had a different experience, but I found that I learned a lot more from my individual studies and practices.

There are a few books that I personally found really helpful, one of them is the Princeton Review Book. It may sound like I'm endorsing these guys or something, but honestly that's just the direction I took and it helped a lot. I took the July 2008 LSAT after doing some person training and the weekend course and scored a 159. That was about seven or eight points lower then what I was scoring on my practice tests, so I was pretty upset. That's when I bought the PR book and starting to really study. I signed up for the October test and despite feeling like I bombed it, I actually scored a 166, right where I thought I'd be. If you don't know the difference in percentile that those seven points are, it's pretty crazy. A 159 puts me in the 78th percentile, so 21% of the people who took the July test did better then me (it only goes up to the 99th percentile). A 166 put me in the 93rd percentile so 6% of test-takers scored higher then I did. So yeah, seven points is a huge difference. The link titled "Chances of Getting Accepted" is cool, you can punch in your GPA and LSAT score and based on the previous years enrollment, it calculates your chance of getting accepted to every ABA law school. Schools are required to take your highest test score, something that changed in the past few years, so don't be afraid to take the LSAT more then once. With my new score, I started finalizing my applications and narrowed down which schools I wanted to apply to.