I just decided to become a lawyer! LSAT plan of attack! Forum

[nlee10]

Hey guys! I recently decided to become a lawyer and have been following this forum.

A little bit about myself:

I just graduated Spring 2014 from a California public school (CSU) with a Business Administration-Entrepreneurship degree. My school gpa is a 3.447, however, I understand that LSAC calculates GPA differently so mine will be around a 3.25-3.3ish (Unfortunately failed a pass/no pass class).

As a result, I would like to score around a 165 on the LSAT this December! I have had limited exposure to LSAT content besides taking a section of LG/LR/LC un-timed*** Using the raw score out of 100/101 question, I estimate my "diagnostic" score to be around 153-155. Edit** By far, I do absolutely horrible on the LG section. But I read from this forum that LG tends to be the easier of the three to improve upon. Hope this applies to me as well.

Anyways, I just signed up for the December 2014 LSAT Exam. This leaves me a little less than five months to prepare for this bad boy. I plan on taking a prep course that runs late September-December. Until I start my prep course, what study book(s) do you recommend that I start on ASAP? I will be taking the next 5 months off from work as I just graduated from undergrad to focus solely on this test.

[Calbears123]

Hey guys! I recently decided to become a lawyer and have been following this forum.

A little bit about myself:

I just graduated Spring 2014 from a California public school (CSU) with a Business Administration-Entrepreneurship degree. My school gpa is a 3.447, however, I understand that LSAC calculates GPA differently so mine will be around a 3.25-3.3ish (Unfortunately failed a pass/no pass class).

As a result, I would like to score around a 165 on the LSAT this December! I have had limited exposure to LSAT content besides taking a section of LG/LR/LC un-timed*** Using the raw score out of 100/101 question, I estimate my "diagnostic" score to be around 153-155. Edit** By far, I do absolutely horrible on the LG section. But I read from this forum that LG tends to be the easier of the three to improve upon. Hope this applies to me as well.

Anyways, I just signed up for the December 2014 LSAT Exam. This leaves me a little less than five months to prepare for this bad boy. I plan on taking a prep course that runs late September-December. Until I start my prep course, what study book(s) do you recommend that I start on ASAP? I will be taking the next 5 months off from work as I just graduated from undergrad to focus solely on this test.

Take a real timed diag before you start tossing around numbers. This test is harder than you might think

[RZ5646]

With that GPA, you'll probably need a score higher than 165 to make law school a good decision. It sucks, but here are a few important facts you may or may not know, since you said you "just decided to become a lawyer":

1. more than any other factor, your LSAT score determines what school you go to
2. the school you go to largely determines what job you get
3. only the very best law jobs will let you pay off student debt and live comfortably

Combining those, we see that living comfortably as a lawyer years from now basically requires a very high LSAT score now. Since you have a low GPA, your LSAT bar is set even higher. (Note: of course, all this goes out the window if your parents are paying for school and you're not worried about debt or unemployment.)

So you should really be shooting for 170+. You have plenty of time, so that should still be in reach.

First, you should take a real diagnostic... i.e., all 4 sections, 35 minutes each, proper break timing. You can find apps for your phone that act as proper LSAT timers. Timing is what makes the LSAT so hard, so an untimed "diagnostic" isn't really diagnostic at all.

W/r/t books, the official Superprep, the LSAT Trainer, and the Powerscore LG Bible all get the best reviews. The most important texts are of course the actual preptests. Get as many of those as possible, the newer the better.

[nlee10]

With that GPA, you'll probably need a score higher than 165 to make law school a good decision. It sucks, but here are a few important facts you may or may not know, since you said you "just decided to become a lawyer":

1. more than any other factor, your LSAT score determines what school you go to
2. the school you go to largely determines what job you get
3. only the very best law jobs will let you pay off student debt and live comfortably

Combining those, we see that living comfortably as a lawyer years from now basically requires a very high LSAT score now. Since you have a low GPA, your LSAT bar is set even higher. (Note: of course, all this goes out the window if your parents are paying for school and you're not worried about debt or unemployment.)

So you should really be shooting for 170+. You have plenty of time, so that should still be in reach.

First, you should take a real diagnostic... i.e., all 4 sections, 35 minutes each, proper break timing. You can find apps for your phone that act as proper LSAT timers. Timing is what makes the LSAT so hard, so an untimed "diagnostic" isn't really diagnostic at all.

W/r/t books, the official Superprep, the LSAT Trainer, and the Powerscore LG Bible all get the best reviews. The most important texts are of course the actual preptests. Get as many of those as possible, the newer the better.

Thanks! I will take a full practice test tomorrow and see how I perform. I've been doing a lot of forum reading today. Appreciate all the invaluable information on this forum.

*EDIT*: In response to what you suggested, I am very fortunate to have family who are more than willing to financially cover any study costs/law school tuition. Of course that doesn't mean I'll suddenly aim for a Tier 3/4 school and not worry about employment. 165 was a number I kind of threw out there that would hopefully get me into some Tier 2 schools. I have decided to simply go all in with prepping and see what sort of score I can achieve!

[Louis1127]

lol just take a diagnostic instead of estimating what it would be if u did, it takes like 3 hours

dont put yourself on a time frame, be flexible.

law school isn't going anywhere.