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.
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!
Don’t wait for your LSAT score; there are things you can do in the 2+ weeks that you’re waiting for your score. Here are some of them:
1. Request letters of recommendation.
2. Have your transcripts sent to LSAC.
3. Finalize your resume, taking out things appropriate when seeking employment and adding in things that law schools want to know about.
4. Draft your personal statement and get it to the point that it’s ready to be adapted to each school’s request once you know your LSAT score and finalize your schools list.
5. Participate in one of my free 1-hour webinars entitled, “I’ve taken the LSAT; Now What?” The next two available dates are Monday, October 1st (8pm EST/5pm PST) and Saturday, October 6th (Noon EST/9a.m. PST). Each webinar is limited to the first 15 participants. To sign up, e-mail me at alevine@lawschoolexpert.net
6. Hire a Law School Admission Consultant to help you get going with all of these tasks while you wait for your score, and who can counsel you about your strategy in choosing schools once you have your score. Here is more information about Things to Consider When Hiring a Law School Admission Consultant.
Good luck on the LSAT this weekend!
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