[dasReaper]

I almost have enough credits for senior standing and was thinking about taking the LSAT. For those of you who have done well on the LSAT or who have recently graduated Law School what do you recommend doing to prepare for the test?
When do you recommend taking the test?
Do you have any other comments or opinions about the LSAT?

[GTiceman]

I recommend not doing it unless you are positive you want to go to law school. The legal market sucks right now. If you want to take it, take a prep course. I did testmasters and it helped me a ton.

[turb0]

Yes, legal market is pretty bad right now. As for prep courses, either PowerScore or Testmasters seem to be the best while Kaplan and the other more famous names tend to not be very good (from reviews).

If you want to attend Law school in the fall, you want to take your LSAT the fall semester before. If you graduate in May and want to go to Law school that following August, you will need to take your LSAT in December of the previous year at the LATEST. Most law school application deadline is Feb (you should check each school as they are all different).

You should focus mainly on doing prep tests (real LSATs). Do as many as you can and focus on the answers you get wrong. Go over them completely until you know 100% why you got that answer incorrect. Its good to review certain books, but actually doing the tests will help you the most. Just get the main concepts down and then complete as many prep tests as you possibly can and REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW. You will not go anywhere unless you review your wrong answers and even your right ones to make sure you got them correct for the right reasons. All standardized tests follow the same rules. Learn those rules by seeing the trend.

Books I recommend are:
PowerScore bibles (logical reasoning, logical games)
Real LSATs (10 actual, etc) - as many as you can finish

goodluck

[The Libertine]

My advice: DO WHAT WORKS BEST FOR YOU. I took the a Princeton Review prep course before I sat for the LSAT and my score was not so hot. Then I took it again, put aside all the tips and tricks taught by Princeton, and my score significantly improved. This was back in the late 1990’s, so while I expect the LSAT has changed and prep. course evolved still believe that you know what studying and test-taking skills work best for you.

And don’t worry about what the legal market is (or is not) like. When I graduated from Law School, went to work as an in-house counsel in the insurance industry. But I grew tired of disputes, switched to the commercial side of the business, and am now negotiating contracts for the sale of medical devices.

My point is, a JD is a powerful degree to have, and gives you flexibility in your career choice. Focus first on your LSAT, choose your school wisely, and the rest will fall into place for you.

Good luck!

[NemesisX]

The "tough love" big brother advice on law school right now is that if you can't go to a top 16 law school as defined by the US News World and Report then it's probably not worth the time and money.

The obvious exceptions I can think of are cases where you have some sort of guaranteed $100k+ job lined up through connections, nepotism, etc.

Otherwise there's a very good chance you will graduate law school making anywhere from $60k to $120k per year for the rest of your life.

[rcracin]

Don't underestimate the intensity of repaying debt. Seems ok at first, but when you hit 30 and want to buy a house and live better, you'll feel the burden. Unless you have a parent paying or score high on the LSAT to get a scholarship, DON'T DO IT.

take a practice an see where you're at. if you're at 150, i'd say it probably isn't worth it.