Nixie: Law School and Hogwarts

Law School and Hogwarts

I just loved this post so much from Nixie, a 1L summer start at Michigan:

As I sit in the reading room at the law school, which is one of the most beautiful library facilities that I've ever seen, I marvel sometimes at how much law school at Michigan reminds me of Hogwarts. The reading room looks a lot like the main dining hall at Hogwarts. We're all a bunch of students taking all of our classes together with our sections focusing on learning something that really does in many ways equate to magic. Law is a field made up of spells, incantations, and other arcane methodologies, where logical reasoning can work illusions, where Latin phrases are bandied around with abandon, and where a sleight of hand, in the professional world, can determine the outcome of a case. Medicine is scientific. Law is magical. And so, when I sometimes feel a little tired or frustrated by my coursework, I just try to think of myself as Hermione and it helps me get rejuvenated.

I hope to look back on this post in the future and see if I have the same fuzzy feelings. This view also helps to explain to me why I didn't go into medicine. The writing and reading and creative analysis, and dare I say, "magic" of law might just be exactly where its at for me. Hmm, possible fodder for my personal statement, no?

Fantasy Blogging?

The fact that this exists makes me wonder sometimes. Strange! According to that website, "BlogShares is a fantasy stock market for weblogs. Players get to invest a fictional $500, and blogs are valued by incoming links." Who woulda thought?

I only discovered this by following in the footsteps of my law blogging ancestors and conducting a self-referential Google search to find out who had discovered Craftier Everyday. I had previously been surprised and delighted to find my blog mentioned on the tablets of my unofficial law school advisors, Waddling Thunder and Jodasm. I figured that either they have a linking reporting service, or they must have found out about me by searching for themselves and stumbling upon my new links to their esteemed blogs. So since I'm a copycat :P I searched on "Craftier Everyday blog". Lo and behold, I did some stumbling across myself and discovered this strange fantasy stock market for blogs. Interesting concept.

Apparently my blog is available to trade and valued at .20 cents!

Jodasm: Free To A Good Home

Ah, my spying eyes have once again been detected. Those crafty law students.

Jodasm: Free To A Good Home

A Testament to a Fresh Mind

Never underestimate the power of a freshly functioning brain. I felt guilty this weekend for not yet studying, so I took a practice test. You are supposed to take this test with no formal prep, just to get an idea of where you stand, and to measure your progress when you complete the course of study. Fair enough. I had been having good intentions to start this practice test, and begin studying for a couple of weeks now, so its about time I buckled down and did it.

Unfortunately for me, I somehow thought taking this practice test at midnight would be a good idea. I'm a night person, I said. Well forget that, because night person or not, if you're already tired when you start cracking books, you're in for a rude awakening. (Its been years since I was in school, so no, I did not remember that very important lesson). This is not like sneaking in a few pages of your latest fantasy fiction book, reading until your eyes flutter closed. Figuring out the crafty little tricks of the test prep people takes a little bit more work, and this was evidenced by my disappointing first score. Even I eventually gave in, and tossed the book onto the floor as I shut out the light and succombed to glorious sleep. I had completed 3 out of 5 sections, leaving the rest for the next day.

The first logic section had me only getting a few correct :/
However my strengths did show through in the analytical and reading comprehension sections, where I only got a few wrong. Anyhoo. I took the remaining sections the next day and wonder of all wonders, scored gloriously well. Never underestimate the power of a good 8 unconscious hours!

2 Resources and 2 Tips

1. Get real practice exams, this is important! LSAC past exam booklets. They are real questions from past exams...it is essential. Kaplan and Princeton Review practice guides do not contain real exam questions. They use simulated questions of their own creation. You can get the practice exams from lsac.org or ebay too.

There is a blog that offers daily or weekly lsat questions:
http://lsatblog.blogspot.com/

2. Kaplan's website has a review of all the testing locations. You dont want crappy proctors, crappy desks that are broken, etc.
http://kaplansurvey.com/ratings_browser/main.php

3. Time is the next challenge.

I wouldn't time yourself at the beginning. You first need to get comfortable with the questions before timing yourself. Once you know the lay-out of the test, then you can time yourself.

Most people take a timed practice exam cold without any prepping. This gives you an idea of where you stand. However, some people wig out when they do this because sometimes the score is not to their expectations. So finding your score before prepping is up to you and your anxiety.

4. Calm down.
You have a lot of time left to prep. Pace yourself. Make a schedule and stick to it. There is such a thing as studying too much, do not burn yourself out.

Its Not Till October!

Oh man, I had a dream last night where I disturbingly scored in the 83rd percentile! I haven't even really started studying yet! Obviously, I'm in trouble.

LSAT Study Partner?

Do such things exist? If they do, are they even useful?

When I was in grad school, I made good use of study groups with my classmates. We not only had fun hanging out since we were friends, but since we were also studying the same material, we were able to help each other through the difficult subjects. I gather that study groups are a good part of Law School too, so why not get back into the groove now? If there are any other Zero L's out there who would like some company studying for the October LSAT, shoot me an email!

Note, for this to work...you kinda have to live in Denver :P

Studying

Studying for the LSAT is definitely all its cracked up to be. Do not be led astray by any who degrade the glorious hours and hours of analytical reading comprehension. Do not hold sway with those who vilify the number two pencils, the practice exams, and the papercuts of LSAT love. Remember, its summer outside, and if there's one thing summer is good for, its to be inside...studying.


Yes....study...that's just what I intend to do...

The Internet Grapevine Moves Quickly

I've just found out that the law school blogosphere is quite a small space afterall. The owner of the blog that I've been reading "back-issues" of for a couple of weeks now has discovered my spying eyes! However, I do believe its some sort of blog honor to be mentioned in a long standing blog such as Waddling Thunder's (especially since Craftier Everyday is only a few days old) so consider this 0L tickled pink.

Panic Already?

As you know, I've been doing a ton of Internet research (much preferable to doing actual work at work, afterall) and have been trying to soak up the knowledge of those who have come before me. I've picked up countless tidbits which I am squirreling away, be it studying techniques, Lexis points, the forced curve, or which teachers offer an engaging classroom experience.

I've found the 1L blogs to be invaluable for this sort of stuff, and have gone back in the archives of a few, reading their insights from the very beginning. (Currently up to March, 2004 of Waddling Thunder :) and have been skipping around topics of interest on Jeremy, Three Years of Hell, Jodasm, Letters of Marque, and Involuntary Blogslaughter. Just found a new one that seems to similar to my career path Transmogriflaw and her archives.)

However, there are some resources out there that have been decidedly less helpful. I am referring of course to my compatriots--other prospective One Ls. These folks are also in the midst of studying for the LSAT and applying to schools, and from the behavior evident over on the Pre-Law boards at lawschooldiscussion.org, they have quite the tendency to FREAK OUT.

With a few sane exceptions, it seems to me that these people are doing a better job of badgering each other and requesting pointless speculation than gathering anything particularly substantive about the admissions process. Soliciting advice from other just as confused strangers as to the merits of taking a prep course, reading Contracts and Torts books over the summer, or whether a personal statement on being a contortionist (no joke!) is a good enough topic for admission is nothing more than spinning your wheels and wasting bandwidth if you ask me. The panic state of some of these people literally jumps off of the screen, and if they don’t get an immediate answer to their most urgent question of whether being a “legacy” helps them or not, then you can look forward to the dubious pleasure of A!L!L C!A!P!S in their next post.

Really, how does the uninformed speculation of someone as equally lost as you help to determine if your combo of GPA and LSAT gets you into HYS? Come on, the Internet is a great place for information and I love it, but are you really going to buy into the opinions of anonymous board posters in the same “outside looking in” spot as you? Unless you happen to be the lucky recipient of some sort of remote control admissions officer, at best this sort of questioning leads to a temporary reassurance based on the putative honesty of “BigDawg929”, and at worst it causes you to continually obsess over something you can only do so well with and once its done you can’t ultimately control. Is it really this necessary to get an early start on the 1L stress?

Moral of the story: I’ve learned to stay away from the pre law boards. At least it served as a good reminder to be wary because you really don't know who you are getting advice from. I prefer the sister boards aimed at current students and graduates who offer actual experiences to compare and contrast. While the “grain of salt” with an Internet bulletin board maxim still exists, at least I’ve gotten some descriptive examples to offer a view into the law school experience.

If you're with me in considering Law School, you've probably got a good brain in your head, so don't forget to use it. Keep your wits about you by not feeding into the public paranoia. Ask good questions, and do your own research and analysis to separate the wheat from the chaff. Or the sane from the wackos, as the case may be.

Craftier Everyday

Yes, that is my envisioning of attending law school:
Becoming craftier everyday.

I haven't even started law school yet.
I certainly haven't been accepted, because I haven't even yet applied.
In fact, I haven't even taken the LSAT.

But now I know my plan.
And Fall of 2006 should find me at University of Michigan Law School.
Ha, you scoff!
I know, its ok.

It will be interesting to see how things pan out...will I make it to Umich? HYS? Joe Dirt's School O' Law? Or perhaps my brain malady of wishing to attend law school will spontaneously heal, opening me up to more sane courses of action?

Eh, scoff if you will. All I know is that I've considered law school since undergrad, and now I'm ready to upset the applecart and go back to school (again).

Anyway, all of my recent research (1L blog archives, law message boards, university law school sites, law professor blogs, library books, LSAT review sites, the school rankings controversey, the confusing web that is the LSDAS, etc.) has my brain spinning--but yes...I am already starting to feel craftier.

:P