You must be exhausted from partying at this point. You celebrated finishing the November LSAT, then partied the Wednesday before Thanksgiving where you invariably reconnected with some high school acquaintances at the hometown watering hole, and then finally feted during Thanksgiving itself. You have been lit off the LSAT celebrations, smacked by the small talk, turnt off the tryptophan, and now you probably just want some sleep. But rest must wait, at least for now. For better or worse, the LSAC powers that be decided to tether this year’s LSAC schedule to American holidays. So just as the October test takers had to endure our post-exam festivities after a week of over-celebration, all you November test takers must now endure our favorite kind of party — a mandatory one. One we’re calling our post-exam carnival.
As is our tradition — and your obligation after enduring an LSAT — you’re attending the post-exam carnival we’re throwing. What does a post-exam carnival entail? This isn’t the trademarked Carnival cruiseline. Our onboard activities will not include trampoline parks or watersides, but at least your chances of contracting norovirus are less than 1%. This will also not be the Shrovetide Christian parade that Latin American countries turn into insane block parties. And no, despite what you’re thinking, it is definitely not one who consumes the flesh of one’s own species — that would be a cannibal, which is not even close to what we’re talking about. You really do need rest.
So what does a post-LSAT carnival really entail, my bleary eyed friends? It’s an intimate congress of those who fought alongside each other on the tablet-strewn battlefield of the November LSAT. We also welcome those who, for unforeseen circumstances outside of their control, were unable to take the November LSAT. We’re gathered here to talk about the exam, to unwind and unburden ourselves. To exercise the demons of the November test with a few drinks and the occasional curse word (OK, with a lot of drinks and a lot of curse words). But for those who are planning to take the December 8th make-up test, maybe try to get home at a reasonable hour? You have a lot of last minute studying to do, and we don’t want you getting side-tracked once everyone else is on their fourth drink and the conversation turns to peptides. But for everyone else, kick back, enjoy the night, and share with your fellow test taker your enmity for everything you thought was unreasonably difficult on this test and your delight for everything you felt you were eminently prepared for.
Let’s get started, then. Let me get some appropriate, November themed music … Let’s see, that Guns ‘n Roses power ballad is too obvious and wouldn’t set the right vibe. Let’s see … we’re all book-ish nerds here, so we must all love the National?
Ehh, I’m probably showing my age on that one. Too mopey, right? Probably shouldn’t go with the Morrissey November song either. What about …
No. I got it, here’s a slice of 90s RNB that’s literally from an album called The Carnival.
All right, music’s thematically appropriate, everyone’s got their drinks, let’s chat then. OK, I’ll start … how did you feel before the day of the test?
I’m sure we all felt that way. Did anyone have anything that helped them get past those pre-test nerves?
Hope that “sketchy” vitamin turned out all right. OK, let’s talk about the test itself. What was the hardest section?
Hmm, not a lot of agreement there. Well, let’s start with RC, which passage gave you the most difficulty?
Woah, language everyone! Oh, look “cityofbridges_” brought some decorations they want us to use as a dart board ….
I don’t understand anything about this, but I assume it’s hilarious. Any other annoying part of the RC section?
Oh … you all are annoyed by pretentious language? Verily this impels me to revise a veritable smattering of recondite and recherché blog posts, post-haste. Anyway, let’s hear it from the people who disliked Logic Games. What happened there?
Ahh, gotcha. Ahh, time, once again, our mutual enemy on the Logic Games section. Did anything else go wrong?
Yeesh, who invited the copy editors? Well, despite these difficulties … how are you feeling?
Man, things have gotten pretty negative, that’s my fault. It looks like the couldn’t-take-this-LSAT-crew is itching to leave pretty soon, so let’s hear from them …
Man, cancel culture really is getting out of hand if it’s reaching the LSAT. For real though, there were always going to be difficulties in rolling the digital LSAT out — this is obvious, but given the course of the rollout, it’s a point worth reinforcing. But … and here’s where you’ll have to excuse your host as he rants about this …
… we’re now at the point where I’m curious if LSAC is telling these proctors anything about how to set up the tablets. This the fourth official digital administration, and it doesn’t appear that administering these things is getting any better. In fact, by all accounts, it’s getting worse. About thirty test centers were canceled before the test was administered, and many more centers were canceled the day of the exam — about 10% of all the test centers experienced difficulties. And then, LSAC emailed in error a bunch of people who did take the exam, telling them about a make-up date. I used to end these discussions of “technical difficulties” with an encouraging “I hope these things get better next time!” I can’t really muster that anymore — I’m more in the “let’s all hope things don’t get worse”-stage of things.
That said, if you want to take the LSAT again as soon as possible, you can sign up to take a paper version of the test on December 8th, and have almost two weeks to cram in some extra studying. Plus, scores for that make-up will be released on December 19th, the same day as the regular November exam. Or you get priority registration for a later LSAT, or you receive a refund if you want to stick it to LSAC and opt-out of this LSAT business altogether. So you have options. And to answer your question, Femme_Fatale786, it will be a different test.
And, look, I don’t mean to dwell on the negative, let’s hear it from some of you who experienced some positivity last Monday …
Thanks for staying positive, ya’ll. Congrats to all. Here’s to happy news dropping December 19th.
