It has been a very eventful year.

The United States swore in our first black President. The King of Pop kicked the can. We finally achieved health care reform… sorta. We started to bounce back from the recession… kinda. A Tiger became a cheetah. And the Yankees won another World Series.

Well, all of that is well and good, but it has been an equally eventful year for those of us in the LSAT world. And I would like to take this opportunity to take a stroll down memory lane. Some highlights…

February

The February LSAT was held on the seventh day of the month. February tests aren’t released so it’s difficult to say much about them as a person’s memories of the test without written assistance are about as good as Tiger’s chance of reconciliation with Elin. There was a reason man invented paper and that the oral tradition only exists in reading comprehension passages.

March

Thousands of prospective students begin to study for the June LSAT. Little did they know what was awaiting them on game day. I won’t give it away, but it was big, it was extinct, and it was mauve.

June

The June LSAT was administered on June 8, 2009. That day will live in infamy.

On this day, the mauve dinosaur game came to life and LSAT students have been horrified ever since. For weeks, mauve dinosaurs were all that people could talk about, although the game normally went by a more informal name: that fu*@ing piece of sh#% crap game about the fu*%ing mauve dinosaurs.

The Logic Games on the June LSAT was the hardest section of games that has popped up in quite a while. Many predicted that this would start a trend for the test, but the games since then have not quite lived up to the reddish/purpleish dinos.

August

Despite the success of such notable programs as Cash for Clunkers, the job market continued to slide over the summer, and the legal profession was not immune to the effects of the economy.

Lots of rumors started circulating about the demise of big law. What are LSAT students to do if they cannot get their cushy six-figure job at the end of the rainbow that is law school?

Law firms started deferring entering associates and offering ridiculously awesome packages if you did not want to actually work for a year. I was very confused about the ensuing uproar. I’m not going to complain if anyone out there wants to pay me $80,000 to take a yearlong vacation. Any takers? Anyone?

Nowadays, law firms seem to be making a recovery and lawyers are back to making the big bucks and driving fancy German automobiles, so there is hope for us yet.

September

September was big. Really big. On September 26, more people took the LSAT than had ever before taken the LSAT. Ever.

As anyone who has actually sat through an LSAT can attest, it is unlikely that many of these people were taking it for fun. There are many more pleasurable activities that one can use to fill a Saturday morning. Like counting the blades of grass on your lawn. Or having knives hurled at your face.

There seems to be a confluence of factors that have led to the increasing LSAT numbers. There is the economy. There is the change in rules regarding postponing. There is the competitiveness in admissions. There is Jersey Shore. Okay, that last one probably has not played much of a role, but that shows deserves mention in at least every other post.

The test itself was rather unremarkable. I happened to take it and get a 178, as did my colleague, Colin. Everyone was frightened that there was going to be a mauve dinosaur-esque game, but there was not. No aqua hippos or fuchsia gorillas to be found.

October

The scores from the September LSAT were released. Screams were heard from across the country. In a totally unrelated story, test centers for the December LSAT were flooded with new test takers.

December

And here we are. The December LSAT passed without too much fanfare, (although there was something about an RC sculpting passage), but the big news came out recently. The curve for the December test was the easiest curve in a long time. You could practically just bubble (D) for the whole test and come out of there with a 152.

It is debatable whether this trend will continue into the future, but it appears that the increasing numbers of test takers are finally having an effect. Less studying by them means a better curve for you. Thank you very much.

So there it was; 2009 in all its glory. Here’s wishing all of you MSS readers a great 2010 and a Happy New Year.