Law School Addendum about two learning disabilities! Forum

[dvd0188]

Hello Everyone,

My name is Dave and I was wondering you can critique or just give thoughts about my law school addendum. I am writing about my low LSAT scores and what caused them. Please let me know if the argument makes sense, if I should include or disregard something, and anything else that you think might help. Also, can you give some direct feedback on the last paragraph. I am thinking about cutting it since addendum are supposed to be very factual. But since my LSAT scores are so low I wanted to keep it just to show them that I understand the gravity of the situation. Thanks and I look forward to hearing from you, here it is:


I would like to use this addendum to explain my low Law School Admissions Test (LSAT) scores to the admissions committee:

In the summer of 2009, I was diagnosed with severe ADHD and Dyslexia. Consequently, I requested accommodations of extra time, on exams and assignments, at University of Virgina and saw a great improvement in my GPA from my junior to senior year. Because of the copious amounts of reading and analysis within very tight time constraints the LSAT requires, my evaluator and I applied for accommodation of extra time on the LSAT.

Despite my evaluators and professors providing elaborate documentation of my learning disabilities, and how they adversely affect my ability to do well on the LSAT under normal time constraints, the LSAC repeatedly denied my accommodations request without providing any sufficient justification for their decision. As a result, despite spending countless hours of studying, practicing, and ascertaining many testing strategies over a three-year period, I was only able to achieve a LSAT score of 148/180 without accommodations. A score that is far from illustrative of my academic capacity. Moreover, when taking practice LSATs with the suggested accommodated time of an extra 20 minutes per section, I was able to consistently score above 160.

Simply put, because of the LSAC’s failure to grant me accommodations of extra time despite having two learning disabilities and adequate documentation, I strongly believe that my LSAT scores are not accurate benchmarks of my ability to do well in law school, just as the SAT, in which I received a score of 1199/2400 without accommodations, was not an accurate measure of my ability to do well in college. Furthermore, I believe the cumulative 3.65 GPA I earned in my Political Science and Philosophy courses in college, which test the same analytical skills tested on the LSAT, is more representative of my current potential.

Lastly, I am not naive; I fully understand the gravity of LSAT scores on law school rankings. In a world where rankings mean everything, I sincerely hope that you will give my application a fair evaluation given the information provided above. Thank you for your time.

Additional medical documentation of my disabilities is provided in the document titled, “Dave's Neurophysiological Report.” Lastly, communication between the LSAC and I during this ordeal can be provided upon request.



-Dave

[moneybagsphd]

Hello Everyone,

My name is Dave and I was wondering you can critique or just give thoughts about my law school addendum. I am writing about my low LSAT scores and what caused them. Please let me know if the argument makes sense, if I should include or disregard something, and anything else that you think might help. Also, can you give some direct feedback on the last paragraph. I am thinking about cutting it since addendum are supposed to be very factual. But since my LSAT scores are so low I wanted to keep it just to show them that I understand the gravity of the situation. Thanks and I look forward to hearing from you, here it is:


I would like to use this addendum to explain my low Law School Admissions Test (LSAT) scores to the admissions committee:

In the summer of 2009, I was diagnosed with severe ADHD and Dyslexia. Consequently, I requested accommodations of extra time, on exams and assignments, at University of Virgina and saw a great improvement in my GPA from my junior to senior year. Because of the copious amounts of reading and analysis within very tight time constraints the LSAT requires, my evaluator and I applied for accommodation of extra time on the LSAT.

Despite my evaluators and professors providing elaborate documentation of my learning disabilities, and how they adversely affect my ability to do well on the LSAT under normal time constraints, the LSAC repeatedly denied my accommodations request without providing any sufficient justification for their decision. As a result, despite spending countless hours of studying, practicing, and ascertaining many testing strategies over a three-year period, I was only able to achieve a LSAT score of 148/180 without accommodations. A score that is far from illustrative of my academic capacity. Moreover, when taking practice LSATs with the suggested accommodated time of an extra 20 minutes per section, I was able to consistently score above 160.

Simply put, because of the LSAC’s failure to grant me accommodations of extra time despite having two learning disabilities and adequate documentation, I strongly believe that my LSAT scores are not accurate benchmarks of my ability to do well in law school, just as the SAT, in which I received a score of 1199/2400 without accommodations, was not an accurate measure of my ability to do well in college. Furthermore, I believe the cumulative 3.65 GPA I earned in my Political Science and Philosophy courses in college, which test the same analytical skills tested on the LSAT, is more representative of my current potential.

Lastly, I am not naive; I fully understand the gravity of LSAT scores on law school rankings. In a world where rankings mean everything, I sincerely hope that you will give my application a fair evaluation given the information provided above. Thank you for your time.

Additional medical documentation of my disabilities is provided in the document titled, “Dave's Neurophysiological Report.” Lastly, communication between the LSAC and I during this ordeal can be provided upon request.



-Dave

Nope.

[JoeFish]

Umm, yeah, if you got an 1199 on the SATs... that's um.... rare.

[Tom Joad]

Possible problems:

-You only scored a little below aveage on the LSAT. That isn't really that odd.

-The classes in your major doubtfully tested the same analytical skills that the LSAT tests.

Personally if you really want to go to law school, I would just spend some time studying, try to get accommodations on the LSAT, and try to improve on your score with or without accommodations, so that you can get into a school worth going to.