After the LSAT: What’s Next?
Way back when, I took the June LSAT.
If LSAT prep courses and law school admission consultants (or, of course, the Internet) had existed back in 1995, I hope someone would’ve told me a few things. Among them:
1. Since I’d only studied for one month, on my own, and was not a naturally brilliant standardized test taker, I should’ve waited until the October test administration. Especially since I’m also a morning person. I should have learned more about the option of canceling my LSAT score. If this is you, and you are taking the LSAT with the advantage of all of the resources I lacked, then consider canceling your LSAT and registering (today!) for the October test. If any of these terrible things happened to you and you did not see my blog post on Friday in time to decide not to take the test, please cancel your June LSAT score. Click here for other reasons to cancel your LSAT score.
2. If you are keeping your LSAT score, use this time wisely. LSAT scores are usually released by email on the third Friday after the test, so perhaps on June 25th. During the next 3 weeks you can be very productive. Here are some of my suggestions:
TODAY: Do nothing. Eat chocolate. See a guilty pleasure movie. Go out with friends. Do all of the things I told you on Friday NOT to do this weekend. Do them tonight. So what if it’s Monday? Go OUT. Stay away from discussion boards. Please. I beg you. It does you no good to know how total strangers would’ve dissected the dinosaur game. Seriously. Trust me on this. I know you won’t listen to me on this, but I promise you’ll regret trolling the forums today.
In the next three weeks, you can spend time on your resume, start putting together ideas for a personal statement, and ask people for letters of rec. You can register for LSDAS if you haven’t already and start getting your transcripts sent there by EVERY college you’ve attended. This would be extremely productive, and you’d be ten steps ahead of everybody else if you followed through with this plan.
3. In Law School Expert blatant self promotion, here are two other tools that you may find helpful during this time:
The Law School Admission Game: Play Like An Expert - My bestselling law school guide is available on Amazon.com and on my website.
Law School Bootcamp – a series of 10 webinars with me on topics including: setting up an application timeline, crafting a fantastic law school resume, brainstorming and drafting your personal statement, Letters of Recommendation, Tips and Tricks on Applications, and so much more. I’ve already done three webinars (and if you sign up for the series you can watch the recorded webinars) but I’m actually going to REPEAT the first three again due to the demand for them. You can sign up for one or all ten, or any combination that works for you – it’s made to work for your needs. The dates are set (but subject to change) and you can see the calendar here. If you can’t make a particular webinar, you can always watch it anytime after it’s given. If you can watch it live, you get to ask me questions throughout the webinar related to that day’s topic. All you need is a computer and a phone (or headset) to listen in. Please feel free to leave any questions in the comment section of this blog post. You can sign up here, and spaces will fill up because I’m limiting enrollment to 25 for each webinar.
Never Miss a Law School Expert Update or Tip! Subscribe to the blog by filling in your email address on the right side of the page, and join/follow/like these pages on Facebook:
Play Like a Law School Expert and The Law School Admission Game
I also tweet @annlevine
Hope everyone is feeling great about today’s test, but I know most of you are feeling exhausted, upset, anxious, and nervous. These feelings are all completely normal. Just remember you don’t have to decide today whether to cancel your LSAT score. Sleep on it and hang in there!
Related posts:
- Deciding Whether to Cancel Your LSAT Score
- Taking the LSAT
- Not hitting your Goal LSAT Score?
- June LSAT Tips
- Ready for the September LSAT?
Ann K. Levine, Esq., former director of law school admissions for two ABA approved law schools, is a law school admission consultant and owner of Law School Expert,
Ann – just wanted to echo your suggestion to get ahead of the game by using the three weeks between test and score. I took the test this past fall and found it hard to concentrate on doing things after the test. Then, after receiving my score and feeling a tad dejected (lower end of my practice range) it took a few weeks to get back on my feet and motivated.
I really wish I had heeded advise like this to make sure to get ahead. In the end everything worked out for me but it ended up being a lot more stressful. Hope others will be smarter than I and heed your advise – stay away from the message boards and get some work done once the LSAT is over.
Just remember, you now have 6 calendar days to cancel your LSAT score. See: http://www.lsac.org/pdfs/ScoreCancellationForm.pdf
Tniem – thanks for your feedback. I know my readers will find it really helpful.
Ann left out one thing: Hire Ann to help with all your Law School applicatins. I bought “The Works” package and feel it was worth every dollar. It is expensive and Ann will work you hard, but then, you get to work Ann to death with all the essays and applications you send. You will know that everything you send to law schools will be exactly what needs to be sent. You will save time writing essays because you won’t write about topics that don’t matter. You may even get into schools that on your own wouldn’t give you a chance. .
Hi Ann,
I’ve got myself into a pretty good predicament.
Last June (2009), I took the LSAT and scored a 166. In hopes of improving my score, I retook the test this June. I was certain that my score would improve: fifteen of the seventeen Preptests that I took showed an improvement over my current score. To my great disappointment, I struggled with the logic games section. I had never before done so poorly on any time-constrained games section: I didn’t even finish half of the questions. Certain that my reported score would be much lower than my previous 166, I canceled my test and left the testing center, bewildered.
I am concerned that my canceled score will reflect poorly on my capabilities when prospective law schools see my LSAT transcript. Is this a legitimate concern?
I am considering enrolling in a commercial prep course and retaking the test to mitigate the damage to my transcript. Of course, there is the possibility that I will again hit a “brain block” and be forced to either cancel my score or report a low score. At that point, I would have to delay my law school plans for a year so that I could again try to raise my score.
Honestly, I am confused and not a little worried about my situation. Any information/advice would be greatly appreciated.
Regards,
Checed Rodgers
(P.S. My undergraduate GPA is currently 4.0. I am not certain exactly which law schools I will apply to, but I had my heart set on at least being eligible for a few in the top ten, such as Stanford or Michigan. According to this link, , I’m just a little bit short of my goal.)
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Atlas LSAT, Natalie Steele. Natalie Steele said: RT @annlevine For all you June #LSAT takers: After the LSAT: What’s Next? http://bit.ly/9Vsaak [...]
Sorry, the link didn’t show up for some reason. Maybe I shouldn’t have enclosed it in “” signs. Here it is again:
http://www.ilrg.com/rankings/law/index.php/1/desc/LSATLow
Tniem – thanks so much for your comment. I know my readers will find it helpful.
DT- Thanks for making my day! You rock : )
Checed,
First, you did the right thing by canceling. This will not hurt your applications; I hate to see people panic over one canceled score. In fact, it often shows good judgment!
Second, you don’t need a commercial prep course if you’re scoring a 166 on your own. This was a question of execution, not preparation.
Sign up for the October LSAT and kick its butt. Let me know if I can help you in any way.
Ann