English Second Language

[schroeder.franzi]

Hey guys,

I am originally from Germany and went to a German law school for about 2 years. I participated in an exchange program with an American law school, found there my husband and decided to stay. Because we have another education system, which does not have a Bachelors and Masters in law, I had to complete an Undergraduate degree before going back to law school (even though I already attended an American law school as an exchange student).

By writing this post I was hoping to possibly find some other non-native speakers that are currently studying for the LSAT. Do you have any suggestions? How do you do in the reading comprehension part? Do you have any advice on how I could improve my performance? I just can't get quick enough.

Also, I was wondering whether there are any stats on the performance of non-native speakers on the LSAT? Do you know whether some law schools are a little bit more lenient on the LSAT scores of non-native speakers since the test seems to be designed for native speakers?

Thank you guys.

Best regards,
Franzi

[ManhattanPrepLSAT1]

Hi Franzi, lots of questions there, and I'll try to speak to the one's on which I'm qualified.

Oder soll ich deine Frage auf Deutsch beantworten--ich habe am Gymnasium in Freiburg mein Deutsch gelernt. Und ich kenne mich gut aus mit dem Deutschen Jura Studium. Einer meinen besten Freunde ist nun Richter in Berlin!

Check out this edition of the Law School Podcaster on non-native English-speakers:
http://www.lawschoolpodcaster.com/2012/ ... as-an-esl/

Unfortunately, I have not seen statistics on either the performance of non-native speakers nor do I believe that schools will be more lenient on the LSAT score for non-native speakers. You have to remember, they're trying keep their numbers high--why would they lower their numbers by being lenient? What would they get from that? Maybe diversity, but rankings are important.

Good luck and hopefully some other non-native speakers will join you on your journey!

[schroeder.franzi]

Thank you so much for your answer! Your German seems quite impressive. I ll have a look at the forum and try my best...

[cnguye15]

Hi Frenzie,
I am also an international student from Vietnam, who has been in the U.S in 5 years, yet my reading skill still sucks.
I really understand your problem with the reading comprehension and LSAT in general. I remembered more than a year ago, I just got frustrated when first taking a diagnostic test and getting very low score (lows 130). Sometimes I felt that it wasn't my reasoning skill but reading skill that hindered my performance in LR and RC. I tried to study for a few months but didn't improve much (i consistently score in from low to mids 150 ) After that, I decided to quit studying for lsat and to take hardest classes in my poliscience major in my senior year that required intensive reading. It was a good decision as the more I read, the better I got at reading and writing. For the past 12 months, I have worked really hard on improving these skills. Just a few weeks ago, when i started picking up LSAT books again after a while, I was surprised to witness a significant improvement in the LR and RC sections in term of speed and accuracy (not LG because i forgot most of the fundamentals hhaa). I haven't taken another test yet, but my feeling is telling me that I will be doing better after I work on LG.
My hard work also got paid off as I got good letters of recommendation from my professors who were impressed by paper and my active engagement in their class , all of which helped me get accepted to the University of Chicago one year MA in international relations, where I will have the opportunity to take international law, poli-science and econ classes. I am confident that I will do much better on LSAT after this program.
If you take a look at posts written by 180 LSAT takers to show their tips on "top law school" website, they usually scored very high in the RC and sometimes LR sections in their diagnostic tests.
Thus, what they needed to achieve 170+ was focusing the LG, which is the most learnable section.
My advice for you is devoting a great amount of time everyday reading what interests you, although I'd suggest that you read scholarly articles and books written in sophisticated style. If you are interested in politics or economics ( as I am), I recommend you to read foreign affairs and the economists. As I read, I usually try to understand an overall picture of an article, its main argument/opinion as well as ask myself whether I buy any of its argument. Last month I just worked on accuracy for RC and usually I got btw 0 and -2 per passage ( usually I had problems with LR type questions). But then I just stopped working for RC and started working on LG and LR now because they are learnable, whereas reading comprehension is not. I will start practicing RC in a few months from now because by that time my reading comprehension will get much better. For the LR, you should purchase Manhattan LSAT LR as their classification is simpler than other companies. After reading the book, I was able to come up with some of my own strategies to attack each question type. And of course, this forum is the best LSAT resource for LSAT prep because this is the only place you can get free answers from thoughtful and friendly Manhattan tutors.
Hope this helps. Anyone please feel free to comment on this. I really need someone advice as I am working really hard to achieve 170+. Thanks.