ScoreItUp's 3-L Blog
5
The True Meaning of LSAT Scores: 2008-11 LSAT Chart
Filed under: LSAT, Most Popular | Tags: | March 5th, 2012
For those of you who are planning on taking the LSAT, you may be interested in seeing the real meaning behind LSAT scores. A few things are useful to know:
- A converted score (120-180) on the LSAT is an indication of how you compared on a percentage basis to other test takers throughout the nation.
- The LSAC uses a three-year average to compute LSAT scores so they have a sufficient sampling pool. The most recent published charts they have provided is for the June ’08 to Feb ’11 time frame. You can view the chart by copying and pasting the following: Read the rest of this entry »
4
Law School Is On Sale!
Filed under: Law School, Most Popular | Tags: | March 4th, 2012
Warren Buffet, arguably the greatest stock market investor in history, has a saying: Stocks are the only thing that people don’t like buying on sale. When the stock market is down (i.e., stocks are “on sale”), people worry about the economy and do not buy stocks, even at excellent values. When the stock market is up (and stocks are often overpriced), people feel exuberant and buy. It is an irrational phenomenon that is unlikely to ever go away.
If you are considering going to law school, right now may be an excellent time. Why? Because the economy is improving (not great, but improving), law firms are slowly starting to hire again, and law school is currently “on sale.” Read the rest of this entry »
24
Racial Preferences
Filed under: Law School | Tags: | February 24th, 2012
In a potentially very significant development, the United States Supreme Court has decided to reevaluate the legitimacy of racial preferences (affirmative action) in higher education (which, of course, would include law school). Currently, federal law does not prohibit Universities from considering race for purposes of affirmative action. The case involves a white female student seeking admission into the University of Texas. She was denied, and then sued. Her lawsuit alleged that she was denied admission despite having stronger academic criteria than some minorities who were admitted, and that the reason for her denial was race (i.e., being White).
Needless to say, affirmative action tends to be a very hot topic, Read the rest of this entry »
21
Chapman Professor Darmer’s Death
Filed under: Lawyers' Lives | Tags: | February 21st, 2012
On a somber note, some of you may have read about the recent death of Mary Darmer, a popular 47-year-old Chapman Law School professor. She was a Princeton University and Columbia Law School graduate, and had been teaching at Chapman since 2000. She fell from a 6-story parking structure, and her death has been ruled a suicide. For more details, you can go to http://www.ocregister.com/news/law-341323-darmer-university.html.
While I did not know Professor Darmer or the facts surrounding her apparent decision to take her life, her death reminded me of a former law school classmate of mine who also took his life several years ago. In my classmate’s case, it was due largely to stress from work. These tragic events are a reminder of the importance of thinking through what one wants to do with one’s working life.
Of course, it is hard to know what is best until you start doing it, but we can make thoughtful decisions about it. Work tends to be an important part of one’s life once you start a career – both in terms of the number of hours of your day spent doing it and the emotional effect it has on your life.
Whether you choose to go to law school or not, remember to take the time necessary to make the choice that is best for you. For more thoughts on the issue, you may want to review my prior posts on whether or not to go to law school – or feel free to shoot me an email.
15
Life as a lawyer: A pictorial
Filed under: Lawyers' Lives | Tags: | February 15th, 2012
http://i2.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/newsfeed/000/251/153/b11.jpg
Feel fee to take a look by clicking above – a slight exaggeration, but you get the idea…
12
Should I cancel my LSAT score?
Filed under: LSAT, Most Popular | Tags: | February 12th, 2012
For those of you considering canceling your LSAT score, you may want to review my prior June 8, 2011 blog entry. As a general rule, I tend to encourage students not to cancel their score unless it is very clear that the results were disastrous. I will give you one recent example. A student of mine was seriously considering canceling his score, fearing that he did not do well. In the end, he chose not to do so. The end result was that he got a very good score, which was higher than he ever scored on any timed practice exam! Obviously, results will vary, but he is a good reminder that students should use caution before canceling. And remember that law schools do see that you sat for the exam and canceled it, if they wish to take that into consideration.
I also would suggest that you take some time to make an educated guess at your score before canceling. Let me give you a hypothetical scenario. Let’s assume Read the rest of this entry »
11
The February LSAT: Logic Games are Back with a Vengeance!
Filed under: LSAT, Most Popular | Tags: | February 11th, 2012
The February LSAT is over, and word is in. Student opinions vary, but the general consensus is that Reading Comp and Logical Reasoning weren’t that bad, but Logic Games (Analytical Reasoning) was brutal! In recent prior tests, Logic Games were perceived to have eased up a bit and Reading Comprehension to have become more difficult. But predicting the LSAT is about as easy as consistently winning while gambling in Vegas. This LSAT is a good reminder that students need to be fully prepared for all sections of the exam, and they need to study and prepare diligently.
9
February LSAT Takers: Good Luck on Saturday!
Filed under: LSAT | Tags: | February 9th, 2012
For all of you who will be taking the LSAT this Saturday, good luck! Here are a few basic, last-minute tips you may want to consider:
- Try to get a decent amount of sleep.
- Get everything you will need in order the day before the exam – pencils, directions, etc., so that you don’t have to scramble the morning of the test.
- People have different feelings about how much, if any, studying to do the day before the exam. You don’t want to go into the exam burned out or exhausted. Personally, I might take a full-length exam on Friday Read the rest of this entry »
3
The Economy: A Glimmer of Hope?
Filed under: Lawyers' Lives | Tags: | February 3rd, 2012
Unless you have been living in a cave for the last several years, you know the economy has been a challenge. In particular, unemployment has been a serious problem throughout the nation. This has an effect on law jobs as well. On the positive side, things clearly seem to be improving. A recent article demonstrated that there were more new people hired last month than there has been in almost six years (excluding April and May 2010, when there was an unusual spike in hiring due to short-term jobs created for the census).
It seems reasonable to believe that the legal market for new attorneys will be improving as well. The economy certainly isn’t back to where it was in its heyday, but a meaningful turn in the right direction is positive news for future lawyers. (Of course, whether we really need more lawyers is a different question altogether!)
As I have mentioned many times, I believe the decision of whether to go to law school should be based primarily upon one’s desire to practice law. The economy is impossible to predict, other than knowing it will have ups and downs. One’s own personal feelings about the type of career one wants does not require a crystal ball, however. Think about the type of work lawyers do and other relevant aspects of the profession, compare it to other choices you may be considering, and decide if the practice of law sounds like a good fit for you!
30
Tier 1 vs. Tier 4 Law Schools: What’s The Difference?
Filed under: Law School, Most Popular | Tags: | January 30th, 2012
Law school rankings have become a virtual obsession for those in the law school world. Often these rankings can be overused. Other factors – including where one wants to work, where one wants to live for three years, the specific factors that are important to a student – are often equally, if not more important to a student’s overall satisfaction in law school.
That being said, there obviously is a difference between Tier 1 law schools and Tier 3 or 4 law schools. The most obvious difference is the likely impact one’s law school alma mater will have on one’s employment prospects, especially initially. Those differences tend to be magnified if one wants to find a job outside the local area in which the law school is located.
But there also is a difference in the type of education that one will get. Read the rest of this entry »