law school

LSAT Prep | Reading Comprehension

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Introduction

The law school admission test (LSAT) consists of four scored sections, each section representing one of three section types: (i) logical reasoning, (ii) analytical reasoning, oftentimes called “logic games “, and (iii) reading comprehension or “reading comp”.   This blog entry will focus on the reading comprehension section of the LSAT.

Reading Comprehension Overview

Reading comprehension accounts for approximately 28% of the scored questions on the LSAT, while logical reasoning makes up about 50%, and logic games about 22%.  Reading comprehension is therefore the second most important section of the LSAT in terms of numerical impact on one’s score.

However, reading comprehension seems to have become increasingly difficult in recent years, making it the “haymaker” section of the LSAT for many students, including those who are scoring well into the 170s. This increase in difficulty may be attributable to a heightened recognition by the test makers that reading comprehension is an indispensable and top-value skill for the successful law student.  But whatever the reason, students must be aware that reading comprehension cannot be treated as an afterthought in one’s study regimen—which is all too commonly done as a result of the over-emphasis of the “games” section by most LSAT prep companies.

Check this blog periodically for more information on how you can “Test at Your Best” on actual LSAT day.

Happy reading—and comprehending!

LSAT and Bar Prep | Constructing and Destroying Arguments

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One key skill tested in the logical reasoning section category of the LSAT is that of building—and tearing down—arguments.  This skill can appear on the test in many ways, including:
__________

  1. Making a statement of facts into an argument, either by drawing an inference or by providing support to an unsupported assertion
  2. Finding an additional premise
  3. Presenting a “counter-premise”, i.e., a statement that would serve as a premise in a counter-argument

__________

This skill also plays a significant role in bar exam essay, performance test, and MBE sections.

Check this blog periodically for discussion of the argument-construction/destruction skill, how to develop it, how to spot questions that test it, and how to separate good from bad answer choices.

(Original publication date:  July 20, 2011 (LEX))

Things that Make Law School Cool

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Invisible Strings

Experiencing a great novel (I’d recommend Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell) for the first time can be very exciting.  Each plot twist fuels a need to turn the page and find out what happens next.

But once a person has had that first-time experience, he or she may have hard time recapturing that thrill by re-reading the same book.  All those invisible strings that tied the plot together have now been revealed.  The mystery, the illusion, and the naïvete have been stripped away.

One reason why law school is cool is its inherent process of similarly stripping away illusions and revealing how things really work.  The invisible strings that attach to each and every person are made plain, never to be re-concealed to those who have been initiated.

Constitutional rights are a good example.  Before law school, one’s next-door neighbor appears to be just a person who likes to grow tomatoes and to play with her three cats.  But after law school, her appearance has changed:  she wears  plates of armor and carries a sword and a shield wherever she goes.  The law student asks himself or herself, “How did I never notice all that stuff before?”

That formerly invisible armor includes a right to free speech that was designed by some of the brightest thinkers of the last millennium; was embodied in a document that describes one of the longest-running, still-active governmental structures on the planet; has been defended by millions of soldiers, guns, tanks and planes; and is excercised every day of the latest political campaign, protest, demonstration, or debate.

Other such armor includes a right to be free from unreasonable search and seizure by police; to trial by jury; and so on.  These mechanisms—just abstract and theoretical to the student entering law school—have become palpable, real, and unmistakable to the student exiting law school.  He or she can never go back to the way things were, back to viewing his neighbor in the same way, any more than he or she can re-readHarry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets for the first time.

And that’s one thing that makes law school cool.

(Original publication date:  July 19, 2011 (LEX))

More Things that Make Law School Cool

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Idea Wars

Philosophizing can be fun.  As undergrads, perhaps through a philosophy class or maybe just during a night out, we often entertain far-fetched ideas and discuss them at length just for the fun of it (“What if our whole universe is just a single atom in another universe?” seemed to be a favorite with some of my friends).  Such talks not only provide entertaining social exchanges but also mind-expanding exercise, enhancing both the flavor and substance of a good liberal arts education.

In law school, those discussions still happen.  But there are major differences.  Because law is like philosophy that matters.

That line always gets the biggest laugh at the “Introduction to Law School” talks that LEX hosts, but it does so because it’s true.

Let’s discuss why.  Arguing about Thomas More’s Utopia or Plato’s Republic can be challenging and interesting, but it won’t get anyone out of prison or regain custody of a child.  Law does.  And when a medical malpractice victim has suffered a traumatic injury at the hands of an incompetent hospital staff member, she doesn’t call a philosopher.  She calls a lawyer.

Law is where a society embodies its highest philosophical notions regarding truth, justice, freedom, choice and human dignity into tools that have hard-core, real-world consequences.  Law calls upon all the intellectual powers that go into a philosophical discussion, but it doesn’t end there.  It matters.

Accordingly, during law school, students are confronted with issues that require each individual to stake out some sort of philosophical basis for his or her point of view.  Issues like abortion, capital punishment, same-sex marriage, drug use.  Both in and out of the classroom, the idea wars get hotly debated.  And that debate is all the hotter this time around,  because—unlike that night out with the college friends—this time the full significance of those ideas is being brought to bear on the lives of actual human beings.  A real person with a real name and a real face will live or die; a couple will marry or not; a child will or will not be born—all these human lives will be forever and fundamentally altered  on the basis of which idea carries the day.

And that’s another reason why law school is cool.

(Original publication date:  July 19, 2011 (LEX))

Law Reviews and Law Journals | Law School Insights

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Making the Most of One’s Time in Law School

Many students have heard about “making law review” without really knowing what that means.  Some insights ahead of time may help one make better decisions before and during law school about this topic.

What Is Law Review?

Law reviews may be described as sort of the academic equivalent of a magazine.  Most law schools publish their magazine—their “law review”— between four and eight times per year. The magazine is edited by students.  This editing process includes both article selection (i.e., deciding what articles to publish in the magazine) and article proofreading, fact-checking, and polishing.

The authors of the articles in the magazine are usually law professors, but the authors are not necessarily from the school that publishes the magazine in which the articles run.  In other words, UCLA Law Review may publish articles that are by UCLA professors, but they may also publish articles from law professionals who have no formal tie to UCLA.

What Does It Mean to “Make Law Review”?

When a student “makes law review,” he or she is invited to be part of the magazine’s staff.

How Does One Make Law Review?

The process of being selected to join a given school’s law review staff depends on the institution.  One can typically be accepted by achieving a certain academic standing during one’s first year of law school, by being in the top 10% of one’s first year class, for instance.  One can also “write on” to law review at many schools by prevailing in a writing competition.

Check this blog again soon for more discussion of law reviews and law journals.

(Original publication date:  July 15, 2011 (LEX))

The Importance of First Year (1L)

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Performing well during your first year of law school can have some pretty interesting consequences.  Law reviews and other journals typically make their membership decisions based on first-year grades and tryouts.  Law firms generally only have your grades from first semester upon which to base their decisions in offering summer associate positions.  Even one’s peers and family members can get pretty serious about comparing grades.

Meanwhile, these outside decision-makers are, in turn, shaping your job prospects after law school.  For instance, making law review may have a lasting effect on your competitive standing in the job market.

Finally, the first-year experience can impact your own attitude toward law and a legal career, perhaps leaving you feeling confident and excited or frustrated and self-doubting.

For all of these reasons, getting off to a good start is crucial.  That’s one reason why LEX academic director Shelton Harrison created the LSAPP Law School Bootcamp.

(Original publication date:  July 14, 2011 (LEX))