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Studying with Victoria: October 2010 LSAT Recap

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We did it, guys!! The weight has been lifted and we are free! Months and months of logic games, logical reasoning, and reading comprehension passages finally paid off for about four hours. It’s all over and you’ll never have to answer questions about the author’s attitude towards dark matter, Canadian legal developments, or Native American basket weaving again. Unless you have some sick addiction to the LSAT or something and you need a fix like some logic junkie.

My plan to not actually remember taking the test didn’t pan out, so I guess I owe the LSAT a big “Thanks for the memories!” The other upside is that you, dear reader, get to read about my crazy, gut-wrenching, triumphant day.

Saturday started off well. I woke up early, drank some coffee and surfed the web for a little bit. My normal morning routine because the only thing that’s better than coffee is coffee with Cracked.com. Then I walked to my car and drove up to the test site, where I couldn’t get parking in the student parking lot because it was game day. Go Bears and all, but I’d like to be able to take the LSAT without worrying about my car being towed.

Anyhow, I peeled out of the parking lot with a sinking, leaden feeling in my chest and desperately started looking for street parking. If you’ve ever missed a flight connection, slept in late and forgotten to go to a test, or blownn up something in your kitchen, you’ll know exactly the feeling I’m talking about. I found a space, parallel parked like a champ (my mother would be so proud), grabbed my LSAC approved plastic baggie of stuff, and booked it back up to the test center. Keep in mind that while I was running back to the center I was trying to go over my review questions. At the test center, I sat down to finish my review questions before joining the humongous line of LSAT takers being sorted by last name into rooms. I wished my fellow Blueprinters good luck and found the last letters of the alphabet room. My LSAC approved baggie made it through inspection with flying colors and I even got to keep my can of Monster.

I won’t go into detail about taking the actual test other than to say I didn’t feel great about the first section, but rebounded on the next few. I came back from break having chugged the Monster and proceeded to find all of the funny and/or interesting things I could and enjoyed the hell out of demolishing my test. There were even logical reasoning shout outs to early industrial pollution, the Chicxulub crater, and Aspergillus! My nerdy little heart skipped a beat. Thankfully, there was no Classical material included or I might have actually bounced up and down in happiness. Even the writing section was fun, getting to come up with an argument rather than deconstructing them.

The not so fun part was that after the test was over, I couldn’t remember where I’d parked my car and so I wandered around the block several times with bare feet because my sandals had broken. The Universe hates me, if you hadn’t already noticed. By the time I found my car (with added parking ticket, courtesy of the city of Berkeley) I didn’t know whether to cry or to laugh, but since laughing at myself is one of my favorite pastimes, I did that instead. Then I turned up my car radio way too loud and sang along all the way home.

And then began my weekend of doing absolutely nothing productive whatsoever. It was glorious. I ate junk food, played video games, hung out with my best friend, and watched enough TV to rot away the logic-tainted brain cells I’ve amassed over the past few months. Or at least I thought I’d gotten rid of them. Much to my surprise, I’m still evaluating everyday statements for logical structures and I mark up my legal studies reading with all of those nifty Blueprint tags. Dear god, what have I become?

The answer of course is a very pleased Blueprint graduate. All in all, I can only say how happy I am to have taken this course. I’m not going to say that learning logic and all of the LSAT tricks was a piece of cake, but Blueprint made it doable and enjoyable. I even had a good time with all of the homework in a masochistic sort of way. To all of you at Blueprint, thank you. To my instructor, Nick, the ultimate in logical badassery, thank you for a straight up awesome class. I might not ever be able to look at bridges the same way again, but I can pick apart arguments like a pro now.

So, this is it, my friends. We’ve been through it all: oppressive heat, sickness, health, bad luck, and even Comic Con. I leave you here to ride off into the sunset as the music swells triumphantly and the credits roll. Or more likely, I leave you here and slink back into my normal life as your average, unassuming college student and get to work on polishing my personal statement, finishing my applications, and waiting with bated breath for my score to come back. I’ve certainly enjoyed sharing my experiences with you (shout out to my aunt and uncle and my parents!). The best of luck to you all with applications, school, life, and whatever the world throws your way. I know you can handle it.