Law School Discussion

I just wanted to thank you for taking the time to chime in here too.  I was just wondering what kind of an impact you think the Peace Corps would have on a decision at a top school.  It is really hard to judge exactly how this will be viewed and I was wondering specifically if it could possibly overcome a slightly lower LSAT score (166) despite a strong GPA (4.0).  I was just wondering how top schools (like Chicago and other T14 schools) would regard an applicant with such numbers and the Peace Corps experience.

Thanks again!

While I’m quite certain this has been talked to death, being a new member here i have to ask: So i plan to take the LSAT in Sept and just took my first diagnostic and scored a 153. Obviously I'm not happy with the results and am hoping to score somewhere in the mid 160's on the final product. I took the diagnostic about 2 weeks ago and am now in the process of doing sections by themselves, and then analyzing my mistakes. With that said, for those of you who found yourself scoring in the 150's on your first diagnostic, how long did it take to see real improvement? I can't say that over the past 2 weeks I’ve seen much, which of course bothers me to some extent. Also, even though the Sept test is over 4 months away, would you say i have adequate time to reach my goal? Thank you for your responses.

I'm here to give you some hope (I think).  My initial diagnostic was a 152.  Like you, I was beyond devastated by the results of that test.  I kind of thought that it was hopeless.  Because of that I set the LSAT aside for about a month.  Then I came back and took another one... 154 and still disapointed.  Another test yielded about a 156.  Then I worked my way through the LG bible at superspeed.  In the next 6 weeks I went from about that 154 to scoring a 166 on the Feburary test.  Well, here's some more honesty.  When you get a score like that you won't be happy either because you'll look at it and think about what you could do with 2-6 more points.  Because of that I am retaking in June.  The ascent from the 150's to the 160's was quick for me after the LG and LR bibles.  But it has been a continual (3 month) struggle this time.  I don't want to be sure about anything but if my recent tests have been a decent indicator I should be in that 170-172 range.

What I'm saying is that whatever happens, you can probably do this if you take it seriously and study enough.  It takes work, and it can be very hard at times.  Especially in my case though that initial climb can be very quick.  If this is really what you want keep working on it.  I would say that 4 months is enough time to get you to the mid 160's and possibly higher given your diagnostic relative to mine.

I too am going to have to go with the 169 - 170.  If I got a 169 I would probably retake but I doubt I would with a 170.  You have to set that arbitrary limit somewhere.  But in all reality I could see it being 171 - 172 for some people.  Saying you are in the 99th percintile is just something to be proud of.

The only thing that I have to add is that I would expect Stanford to continue getting more clerks simply because of the Supreme Court Clinic that they offer.  I would think that putting students into contact with the court would give them an advantage in getting the actual clerkships after graduation.  Anyway, just my two cents.

If I were you I would honestly be excited about having missed only 12 total on the whole thing.  If you continue to study between now and June I would think that you could score very well given your performance on this practice test.  What you have been studying is the form (from the powerscore bibles) and it appears that for the most part you have that down.  Now it is time for you to move on to focusing more on speed.  Start timing yourself at 40 minutes for a while until you can do that and keep your scores up there and then slowly move down to 35.  I think it is very possible for you to do it come June and your skills will increase if you take routine practice tests also.