worse night-before-LSAT ever

[Matthew_24_24]

Arguably the 2nd best law school in Canada counts the LSAT 20%.
UBC and Victoria, both top 7 schools, take your high LSAT, which im sure is going to be 97%+

GG son

Worst case scenario I'd be tight at U of T with a 163-165 and a 3.7ish.

Yawn, didn't even apply there, before my oct lsat. so didnt care.

matt

[BigBadBo]

guess the only problem is that the average salary is far lower in canada than the u.s.



by the way - pulled dozens of all nighters in college

the LSAT is not a test to pull an all-nighter, you've got to be kidding.

[blinkuldhc]

Haven't any of you ever pulled all nighters before exams?

Its not that big of a deal.

If you haven't pulled all-nighters, or dont like it...you might not like law.

Matt

Don't quite understand how distaste for pulling all-nighters has anything to do with enjoying law. First of all, pulling an all-nighter before an LSAT is not like staying up all night at your computer half IMing people and half typing up a meaningless philosophy paper. Getting sleep is so crucial to the LSAT, which is basically the second most important test you'll ever take if you're headed in law. We're talking about a 6 hour test, where you really have to concentrate for about 140 minutes to answer 100 tough conceptual questions.

There's a difference between pulling an all-nighter to memorize a bunch of useless info only to regurgitate it the next morning, and taking a standardized test that measures critical thinking, reading aptitude, and logical reasoning.

But what do I know. I guess I don't like pulling all-nighters before important exams. I'm probably not going to like law.

[Matthew_24_24]

You think you'll get lots of sleep before your law finals?  Heh

Your body and mind is trainable.  I slept the night before my 1st LSAT and i screwed it up.
Woke up at 2 am before the dec one and kicked the *&^% out of it. EZ

matt

[BigBadBo]

Your anecdotal stories are amusing...

Of course I don't expect to sleep much before law finals - I rarely do for finals now.

However a final is quite different than the LSAT - one requires precision, and frankly one requires a lot of writing.  There is no similarity between the two.


As for gpa's, it's all relative to your competition - so the fact that Canadian gpa's are lower means absolutely nothing.  If your gpa is good among Canadian students, it's likely to be good among American students and vice-versa - to suggest that students are better prepared there is laughable.  I spent the last year in the UK at one of their top 3 schools and despite a sense of pretentiousness, it was clear U.S. schools were far superior in teaching and testing.

[Matthew_24_24]

It's completely anecdotal evidence...from every experience i've encountered with it.

Canadian kids who can barely pass high school here go to the u.s. and receive honours.
Canadian kids who can't get into med school here go to the u.s. and speak about how "easy" it was.
American kids (much more rare) come here for school and get absolutely smoked.

Having been on the 'net for 10 years or so, I have found enough examples where 3rd year American university curriculum is most equivalent to 1st/2nd year Canadian. 

[chipmonkee]

It's completely anecdotal evidence...from every experience i've encountered with it.

Canadian kids who can barely pass high school here go to the u.s. and receive honours.
Canadian kids who can't get into med school here go to the u.s. and speak about how "easy" it was.
American kids (much more rare) come here for school and get absolutely smoked.

Having been on the 'net for 10 years or so, I have found enough examples where 3rd year American university curriculum is most equivalent to 1st/2nd year Canadian.

Do you really think so Matt?  I know alot of Americans who attended U of T and did amazingly well...so much so they went on to Cambridge and Oxford.  I think there are many more universities in the States and for that reason many "not so bright" Canadian students go there, however, I think you are making a huge assumption here.

[timma21]

Your anecdotal stories are amusing...

Of course I don't expect to sleep much before law finals - I rarely do for finals now.

However a final is quite different than the LSAT - one requires precision, and frankly one requires a lot of writing.  There is no similarity between the two.


As for gpa's, it's all relative to your competition - so the fact that Canadian gpa's are lower means absolutely nothing.  If your gpa is good among Canadian students, it's likely to be good among American students and vice-versa - to suggest that students are better prepared there is laughable.  I spent the last year in the UK at one of their top 3 schools and despite a sense of pretentiousness, it was clear U.S. schools were far superior in teaching and testing.

Oxbridge? As a visiting student, or for grad school? I am curious how your experience was , and how it compared to your american school.

I have to agree with what you say about the calibre of American/Canadian students. While Canadian schools have much tougher grading curves (65/2.0 is roughly the mean for many of my classes) but that doesn't say that the students at the top are any smarter than U.S. students at the top.

[BigBadBo]

LSE actually - I probably spoke a bit harshly however.

Great school, some wonderful, diverse, intellectually driven people...

Professors are all over the place, some amazing, some terrible. 

Setting is average - depends on whether the charm of living in London overpowers the cramped, lacking facilities


What I was speaking to more is the courses/grading scheme,

Exams are graded much more strictly in the U.K., however given the set-up (one 3 hour exam determines your mark for the entire year - and at Oxbridge it is a set of exams at the end of 3 years that determines the entire grade) students can largely ignore the majority of the material and still make a first if they study efficiently around exam time.  It was clear that many of the students did just that - I don't blame them, I wish I had done the same. 

The U.K. system is wonderful for you if you can learn to write quickly and coherently in a 3 hour setting - however for overall education I just don't think it compares to the American system.  I would love to hear from British students regarding this... 

The U.S. system if actually taken seriously is much more intense throughout the year it seems - at least until exam time, when it is less so.

If you're familiar with the system let me know what you think...

*With all this said, I'm still applying to LSE for Masters programs - can't beat the prestige or the efficiency of an LSE degree.

[timma21]

I asked because I was considering deffering a year from law school if I can (I haven't finished by Canadian UG degree) and was curious about the visiting program offered at Oxford. I lived in Oxford over the summer, and I heard about the 1 shot exam thing. It does seem a bit ridiculous.

Thanks for sharing how your experience at LSE was, it sounds like a great school, certainly very international. I spent a couple weeks in London and had some bad experiences with London crime, unfortunately.

Being an American student, how hard did you find it was to integrate and meet people?