Author: Evan Jones

A reader recently asked: Would you say that a high score is also a reflection of one’s natural brilliance? Or is it possible for someone who has been “average smart” their whole life to study and prep within the top 20% as you were saying, and come out with a 170+ score? This this something that we all wonder when we decide to try the LSAT: How much of this LSAT thing is preparation, and how much of it is natural brilliance, “smarts”, etc? Do you have to be smart to do well on the LSAT? Scientists, so far as…

Happy New Year’s future law students! I hope you had a good one. December LSAT scores came out today, so that will either start 2014 off with a bang, or you’ll be headed back to the drawing board to get your score right. Also, we know we have a ton of our readers who have yet to take the LSAT. For those who might take it in 2014, I want to offer some New Year’s advice that I hope will help guide you to a great score. If you been reading our blog for the past 6 months that it’s…

Parallel reasoning questions suck. I won’t dispute that. However, they are beatable. I’m going to teach you how to make peace with them and even benefit from solving these bad boys. Some common advice for those who have trouble finishing the LR section on time is to skip parallel reasoning questions. That’s fine advice. They are typically among the more time-consuming questions, so skipping them frees up time to get easier points elsewhere. You can always come back to them at the end if you have extra time (do not, however, forget to mark a guess answer on your first…

This is the first in a series of question and answer posts that we are planning to do in order to answer reader questions that are pertinent to many LSAT prep students. This reader is still having difficulty with logic games even after extensive prep with a solid LSAT company. It’s a pretty common problem, one we’ll attempt to solve with some good advice and a funny cat video. Our reader writes in: Hey Evan. I took the test in Dec after prepping with 7sage, I was happy in that I was scoring in the 160s but my aim was…

In this 3rd edition of law school cost watch, I’m happy to report that there is more progress on the front lines: George Mason, the large Virginia public university, announced that it will be freezing tuition at the law school in the coming year. From their website: The Board of Visitors of George Mason University voted today at its quarterly meeting to freeze the tuition of the law school for the upcoming year, for current and incoming students, and it declared its intention not to increase law tuition through 2016-17. The Dean of the law school, Dan Polsby, stated, “One…

A couple of days ago University of Iowa announced that it was lowering tuition. Now, Penn State has followed suit, announcing a major slash to tuition for in-state students. From the Centre Dailey: Penn State will cut the cost of tuition at The Dickinson School of Law $20,000 a year as part of a financial incentive that officials at the university hope will boost admissions at a time when law schools nationwide have seen fewer students enroll because of the economy and the cost of an education. Basically, Penn State plans to give in-state students 50% off a year, the…

A couple weeks ago, I blogged about how University of Iowa (ranked #26 in the US News) was considering a student-backed proposal to cut out-of-state tuition costs. In what can only be described as an early Christmas miracle, it appears that U of Iowa has not just agreed to the proposed out-of-state tuition cuts, they’ve actually lowered in state tuition as well. The board of regents rejected the initial proposal from the law school, and decided to give the same 16.4% tuition reduction to in-state students. This all adds up to a $7,750 a year cut for nonresident students to $39,500,…

As we’ve discussed a lot lately, the number of people entering law school has been in ongoing free-fall over the last several years. At some point, you’d have to figure that the number of new lawyers being created would equal the number of jobs available, right? The National Jurist covered some recent debate over which future date exactly this equilibrium might be reached. You can read it here.

Prairie populism is apparently alive and well, but now it’s law students, not farmers, throwing their collective weight against the entrenched élite. The Iowa student bar association is supporting a proposal to lower out-of-state tuition at Iowa’s only public law school, The University of Iowa College Of Law, by nearly $8,000. This story comes by way of the Press-Citizen. The student association’s president was quoted, saying, “the value of a law degree is elevated when a school can attract students from out-of-state. Improving the law school benefits in-state and out-of-state students.” Now, I think what he is implying here is that…

It’s not often that you get an interesting video about real flesh and blood lawyers, but this short documentary, courtesy of the New York Times, is a true must watch.

Law school applications are down. Way down. Back in 2010, everyone was lined up to get in. Now, the lines are half empty. Does this mean you should take your business elsewhere too? Maybe. But, if you are determined to go still, here’s how to take advantage of the applications drop. Law schools are frankly desperate to get you to come. I realize desperation in potential partners is unattractive. Humans interpret desperation as a signal that you can probably do better. However, we aren’t quite talking about selecting a mate for life here. You are looking for a law school…

When it comes to law jobs, becoming a law professor is one of the highest brass rings you can hope to grab. For those wishing to scale these Olympian heights, beware. A new study from professor Tracey George of Vanderbilt and Albert Yoon of University of Toronto took an empirical look at the factors that influence legal hiring. The findings suggest that the process for hiring tenure track faculty is rigidly elitist.

As a former law student myself, I hate the cliche that law students love to argue. If you look around at people, just about all of them love to argue. Law students aren’t any worse. In fact, if you are one of these very argumentative types, I suggest you take it down fives notches before you apply to law school (check out what the Yale Law Admissions dean had to say on this– if you are an argumentative law wonk, she’s not impressed). What law students do like, however, is sounding smart. You probably won’t get any of them to…

When you start out attacking LSAT logic games, basic linear games (sometimes also called ordering or sequencing games) is where you should start. Here, in a completely free, comprehensive lesson, we’ll cover some of the most effective basic techniques. The goal is to give yourself a powerful way to visualize these games so that you can do them really, really quickly without placing undue strain on the brain. If you are starting out learning logic games or you are struggling with linear games techniques, bookmark this page now. Learn this stuff and you’ll be well on your way to mastering…

Consistency is a big issue for a lot of LSAT takers. This is an example of a common question we get: “Hi Joshua and Evan. I’m taking the LSAT in three week (eek!) and I’m really worried. My practice scores are all over the map. I’ve scored as high as 168 but I’ve had some scores in the high 150’s as well. On individual sections, the swings are even worse. Sometimes I’ll get -10 on LR whereas most of the time I’m getting only 3-4 wrong tops there. What can I do to get more consistent?” Variability can be unnerving.…

It’s time for a dish of cold, harsh reality. Why? Because you are considering law school now. This is no game. This isn’t something where you are walking by an LSAT testing center and think, “hey, why not.” We are talking about the direction of your future here. That’s why we want you to view the process of getting into law school with your eyes fully open. Here a law school veteran, U Chicago grad Evan Jones, will help you see the law school admissions process for what it is, and give some advice on how to approach it. A…

Hi all. Early decision deadlines are looming on the horizon, so we wanted to list some for you and discuss early decision a bit. Why? Because ED is a big decision. If you are familiar with the process, then skip ahead and you’ll find the early decision deadlines for the the T-14 schools, schools that are often ‘reach’ schools for an applicant.

The Best LSAT Logic Games Strategies In this post we discuss the best LSAT logic games strategies learned from my own LSAT prep and my time as a professional LSAT tutor and classroom instructor. This approach helped me, and later many of my students, go from being unable to finish logic games sections to getting perfect or near perfect scores consistently on LG during simulated practice tests. Get to that point and doing it on test day is matter of routine. I ended up scoring -1 for LG on my actual test.

This evening’s post comes from Ann Levine, president and chief consultant at Law School Expert. Ann is the former director of law school admissions at two ABA-approved law schools and the nation’s leading law school admission consultant. She has personally guided over 2,000 law school applicants through the law school admission process. Ann is also the author of the bestselling law school admission guidebook The Law School Admission Game: Play Like an Expert.

People knock on trial and error as a strategy for attacking a logic games questions and generally, yes, it’s a last-ditch option. However, it’s happens: you get to a question and your saying “wtf, I have no idea how to do this!” and trial and error is your only remaining option. In this post, we discuss how to use trial and error correctly so you don’t get stuck or waste too much time on really tough questions.