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Advice for the December 2010 LSAT

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With all the hullabaloo about the October LSAT that came about a week and a half ago, we’ve perhaps neglected to talk about its more wintery cousin, the December LSAT. Right now, the LSAT elves are assembling the questions in their workshop with extra care and love and psychometrics. Because come December 11th, we’ll not only be celebrating Jon Brion’s birthday, but we’ll be taking the LSAT as well. So let’s dive into the stuff that you mustn’t neglect.

Sign up – Right now. We mention this before every test, but it bears repeating. Testing centers fill up rapidly, and you should thus reserve your seat immediately. If you wait too long you may end up having to take the test really far away, and it’s even possible that all the centers could fill up. Even if you’re not certain that you’ll be taking the December administration of the LSAT, sign up anyway. You can always pull out three weeks prior with a partial refund and a clean record.

Work on the rest of your application – This is really important if you’re applying for 2011 admission. If LSAC is to be believed (and they never lie), you should be getting your December score back roughly around January 10th. The problem with this is that a good deal of people will have applied by then. Law school admissions are done on a rolling basis, and so the earlier you apply, the better your chances of admission (and getting financial aid). If you apply right when you get your score back, you’ll still be beating a sizable proportion of applicants, but to do this you have to have everything ready to go right when you get your score back. The three weeks between the test and your score coming back isn’t enough time to do this. Professors take forever to send out letters of rec, personal statements really take a lot of time to write and polish, and everything takes a goddamn eternity to get processed at LSAC. So you need to make sure you get the rest of your application together and sent in well before your score comes back.

Study – Obviously, you should be spending a tremendous amount of time studying for the LSAT. Taking it in December can change a few things, though. If you’re in school, this might mean that midterms and maybe even finals will get in the way of LSAT studying. You don’t want to sacrifice your grades, but you don’t want to sacrifice your LSAT score either. The solution? Planning ahead, and killing your social life. You need to budget out time for tons of LSAT work, in advance. You can’t just play it by ear. It’s too important. And to find this time, you’ll probably stop doing a lot of the things you love. Video games, drinking, and lathering yourself in marmalade will probably have to take a hiatus for the next two or so months.

Also, if you haven’t started studying yet, do so immediately. There’s still enough time to study if you start right now, but the more you wait, the harder it’s going to be.

Got any questions about studying for the December LSAT or anything else? Leave them in the comments.