Study! How you can change your life today. Forum

[LjakW]

[While this article might be light on the facts and statistics typical of most TLS articles, I know that I would send these few words to my past self before almost anything else on TLS. Motivation to study is very important, and I hope that I can motivate some of those who have not yet begun the admissions process to take the test seriously.]

It is a rare time in your life that you have the capacity to control how the rest of it will turn out. To chart your own course. To make up for past mistakes. To overhaul everyone else’s perception of you.

That time is now! If you are applying to law school, you have already decided to make a change. And the first step in the application process is, in actuality, the most important part of law school and will have repercussions for the next ten years of your life, if not for the entirety of your career. It is hard to underestimate the importance of this factor in applying to law school: it can overcome a low GPA; it can erase the taint of your subpar undergraduate institution; it can help you beat PhDs and Rhodes scholars to get into the school of your dreams. I should hope that you know what I am referring to by now.

No matter what anyone else tells you, the LSAT is the ‘be all and the end all’ of law school admissions. If you want to go to Yale, Harvard, NYU, UVA, or any of the other top law schools, a high LSAT score is your ticket. Even if you have no desire to attend one of those schools, a high LSAT score can pay for your tuition elsewhere and even put money in your pocket in the form of a full scholarship and stipend. $150,000 is nothing to scoff at and a merit scholarship can be the easiest money you will ever earn.

Now it is true that some of the ability necessary to get a 180 is innate and that some will never be able to achieve that score (myself probably included). Nevertheless, don’t fret, as those who are motivated enough can certainly increase their own score by a fair degree through studying.
The key to a high LSAT score is, in my opinion, nothing more than focused hard work. When I first took a proctored diagnostic, I got a 152. Some months later, I took the LSAT and got a 172, going from the 52nd percentile to the 99th. During those months, I went from caring very little about the test and just dragging myself into an LSAT class twice a week to studying four hours a day, six days a week.

Malcolm Gladwell wrote a book entitled Outliers: The Story of Success. Without giving away too much, the ‘story of success’ is that hard work leads to success. Throughout the book, he argues that by spending 10,000 hours doing something, one can become truly great at it. I certainly think that 10,000 hours of LSAT studying is a tad too much, but if you are not getting the LSAT score that you want in diagnostics, chances are that you have been studying too little. I estimate that including the 80 hours of class time with Testmasters, I studied about 250 hours for the LSAT. Calculating that as working for a scholarship + stipend at Cardozo (which I was awarded), I would have earned about $600/hour. My scholarship from UVA would have given me a return of $360/hour. Watching DVDs of The Wire may have been more fun then, but it would have been much less profitable.

I am probably not the best person to tell you how to study for the LSAT, but I think I am qualified enough to tell you to go study more. Study as if your life depended on it; I guarantee you now that significant parts of your life will be affected by your score.

[chuckwarr]

I studied about 300 hours. Scholarship worth approximately $250 an hour. Not quite $600, but I hope people get the idea...

[AtticusFinch]

+10,000

[GodFatherPENNington]

thanks

[let/them/eat/cake]

.....
I estimate that including the 80 hours of class time with Testmasters, I studied about 250 hours for the LSAT. Calculating that as working for a scholarship + stipend at Cardozo (which I was awarded), I would have earned about $600/hour. My scholarship from UVA would have given me a return of $360/hour. Watching DVDs of The Wire may have been more fun then, but it would have been much less profitable.

I am probably not the best person to tell you how to study for the LSAT, but I think I am qualified enough to tell you to go study more. Study as if your life depended on it; I guarantee you now that significant parts of your life will be affected by your score.

so where are you going to school?

[somethingclever]

I am printing this and reading it everyday between now and my retake. Looking back I studied, but not hard enough, especially for LR.

Mil Gracias

[GATORTIM]

I am printing this and reading it everyday between now and my retake. Looking back I studied, but not hard enough, especially for LR.

Mil Gracias

+1......Thanks OP, just what I needed!!!

[LjakW]

.....
I estimate that including the 80 hours of class time with Testmasters, I studied about 250 hours for the LSAT. Calculating that as working for a scholarship + stipend at Cardozo (which I was awarded), I would have earned about $600/hour. My scholarship from UVA would have given me a return of $360/hour. Watching DVDs of The Wire may have been more fun then, but it would have been much less profitable.

I am probably not the best person to tell you how to study for the LSAT, but I think I am qualified enough to tell you to go study more. Study as if your life depended on it; I guarantee you now that significant parts of your life will be affected by your score.

so where are you going to school?

NYU, at $200/hour. I didn't want to include this because, whereas UVA, Cardozo, and others sent me their offers with my acceptance, I had to apply for the NYU scholly with financial info, so I can't directly attribute LSAT to the offer (it also happens to be the lowest offer I've gotten, and thus not as dramatic as Cardozo's).

[Ken]

Great article! Congrats on all of your acceptances.

Thanks for your submission! This is eligible for all of the prizes and also for the $100 for the best article submitted between now and August 1st.

[strawberryfanta]

Awesome post. Thanks.

[pkpop]

I received Outliers as a gift for Christmas this past year. I liked it a lot. Sometimes you're just lucky and situations help you out. Committing and studying for the LSAT with a mindset to put yourself in the best position you possibly can is a great motivator, at least for me.

[bobkjohnson]

Just what I needed!!

Thanks soo much!

[cbreault]

+10,000

+100,000 on the avatar, Atticus.

[SplitterDreams]

Thanks for the motivation, my man...Time to reallly start hitting the books...

[La Grind Date]

good stuff!

[LjakW]

Thanks for all the comments. I really wasn't expecting such a positive reaction.

[robcataus]

At your rate of 300-600$ an hour, unless writing this article took 10 minutes, it seems to have been a waste of your time:)

[neverknow]

Thanks for this.

[maebysurely]

Love this.

I wish there was an easy print button....

[Gamecubesupreme]

Why didn't someone show me this article back in June : (

[lawlover829]

Great article! Congrats on all of your acceptances.

Thanks for your submission! This is eligible for all of the prizes and also for the $100 for the best article submitted between now and August 1st.

who won?

[azlawlady]

This is a good, motivating article but a little ironic because of your 3.9 GPA.

[YCrevolution]

..

[ben2587]

Every person that registers for this site should be required to read this lol

[pearl_earrings]

Thank you.
I printed this and posted it above my desk. It was a huge motivator for me, and I truly believe it contributed to my score increase. Thank you thank you thank you!