Test This!

Recently, the Huffington Post put up a blog post by Noah Baron arguing that the LSAT is basically a test of your wealth. The reasoning was peculiar – because only wealthy college students have both the time to study during school (because everyone else is working) and the means to afford a prep course, they have a strong advantage on the LSAT. Baron is missing the big picture though: wealth and quality of education are strongly linked in our country, and a rigorous education (and I’m talking K-12, along with college) is one of the best preparations for the LSAT. One does not quickly learn to think critically, or to read quickly and with understanding! Courses like ours can definitely help people improve these skills (and part of the point of our curriculum is that go beyond simply exposure to and categorization of the test), but there’s no doubt in my mind that if I had to choose between 10 years of challenging and effective high-school and college classes or 3 months of a great prep course, I would choose the former. I think we’re great, but let’s be realistic!

There are many other problems with Baron’s reasoning — take a look at the comments to hear some great critiques — but I’ll add that the disadvantages faced by low-income students are not at all specific to LSAT-prep. In fact, for some, our classes are what help them overcome a lack of a rigorous education. To help out those who would otherwise not be able to afford LSAT prep, we offer discounts and scholarships, and we focus particularly on folks who are serving in the armed forces.

Good question! Obviously this depends on your situation, but in general, if by this Friday, May 14 – your last day to postpone your registration for the June LSAT – you are not scoring at least 3-4 points from a score that you’d be OK having, you probably won’t like your actual score. There are definite exceptions to this rule, but that’s a decent rule of thumb. But don’t pull your hair out over this question, because if you decide NOT to postpone, and then realize – eek! – you’re not feeling the LSAT winds blowing in your favor, you will face a set of options, many of which are perfectly acceptable.  Steve Schwartz wrote a great analysis of these different options,

For those of you reading this blog from outside of NYC, you may not know how big a deal real estate is in NY, but suffice it to say that it is completely common to ask a near-perfect stranger what she pays for rent. It’s sort of a shared burden, so why not ask? Thus we’re very excited that we now have a great new class space! And it just the right size for our classes — enough to keep 18 students in LSAT-blissdom. (Don’t ask about the rent though!).

Hello Early Birds!

If spring classes or your work life has left you unprepared for the June LSAT, your eyes are probably affixed to the October LSAT.  But then it might feel a bit silly to start studying this far in advance — it’s just a test, right?  You may be correct — most people study 3-5 months for the LSAT, so for many, starting in June or July is fine.  But, you should go ahead and take a practice LSAT – under timed conditions – to see where you’re at. If you’re aiming for a 170 and you’re below 150, start prepping now.  If you’re already in the 160s, enjoy the springtime but dedicate June – September to the final battle!

Even if you’re going to take an LSAT prep class, it might be worth going ahead and buying the LSAT prep books associated with your course and reading them over and doing a bit of practice. What you do NOT want to do is take tons and tons of PrepTests before you’ve learned some strategies. Every year we see tons of unhappy folks on the forums who say “I’ve done all 60 LSATs, now what?!”

If you’re going to study on your own, you should definitely follow the above advice and work in a systematic fashion. Learn some strategies, practice them with sets of questions, do a PrepTest here and there along the way. Then, once you have the basics learned for each question type, start poring on the PrepTests, with in-depth review.  Here are some tips on how to review your work. If you’d like to make sure you stay on track, you may want to look into a self-study program.

If you are going to start now, you should also round out your preparation with some good boring reading 🙂  The LSAT (and law school) requires you to read a lot of complex text that you may not find interesting. Go and buy some academic magazines – Smithsonian, American Scientific, Foreign Affairs, etc.  Put down Twilight and pick up something that does not involve lots of sexual tension and blood-drenched plot lines.

The Pampered Pets Grooming Salon has a very busy day ahead.  There are three groomers – Lisa, Mario, and Nancy – scheduled to work, and the salon has 1-hour appointment slots available for each groomer at 8, 9 and 10 am.  Seven animals have appointments – four poodles, two terriers, and one westie.  No more than one animal is assigned to any particular appointment slot. Animals are assigned to grooming appointments according to the following restrictions:

• Lisa grooms more animals than any other groomer.
• At least one poodle is groomed before any terrier is groomed.
• Each groomer grooms at least two different types of animals.
• Nancy grooms a poodle at 10 am.
• No terrier can be groomed during the same hour that a poodle is groomed.
• Mario does not groom a poodle first.

1. Which one of the following must be true?

(A) Mario is assigned exactly one animal.
(B) Nancy is assigned exactly one animal.
(C) Lisa is assigned exactly two animals.
(D) Mario is assigned exactly two animals.
(E) Nancy is assigned exactly three animals.

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