LSAC down! LSAC down!

Between 8 p.m. and 2:30 a.m. EST tonight, most of the relevant portions of the LSAC website will be unavailable for scheduled maintenance. So no sitting there, finger on the “Withdraw” button for the June LSAT. Which is a good thing since you shouldn’t be making that decision yet anyway.

So what should you be doing during this LSAC.org blackout? Several ideas come to mind:

1) Study. Duh.

2) Head over to CVS and get your picture taken. You need to have a passport-style photo with a blank background attached to your ticket on LSAT test day. Without it, they won’t let you in. And there are some pretty strict regulations as to how the picture should look. Why mess around with it when you can head to CVS and have them do it for $10? Law school costs hundreds of thousands of dollars – don’t scrimp here. Make sure you’re not wearing a hoodie. And make sure that the photo looks like you will on LSAT test day; facial hair, glasses, Tyson-style tattoo — if you’re going to have it on June 10, make sure you have it in the photo.

3) Do tequila shots until you forget all about the LSAT. Why do this tonight? Because you can’t get drunkenly depressed and withdraw from the LSAT in a fit of inebriated bravado/self-pity. Though this means you’ll wake up hung over and still registered for the June LSAT.

4) Take the night off. As LSAT test day gets closer, people have a tendency to overdo it. Trying to squeeze every last point out of the test is a good thing, but doing so often requires taking a night or two off so your brain can rest. You wouldn’t train every day leading up to a marathon; you shouldn’t train every day leading up to the LSAT. And if the LSAC is going to take the night off, I don’t see why you shouldn’t also.

5) If you decide to follow my advice for #3, then you should call up some friends you’ve neglected while studying. They probably want to hang out after missing you for the past month or so. Just be prepared for them to tell you that you’ve gained the LSAT 15.

6) Sit at your computer, constantly hitting F5, waiting for the site to come back up. For…some reason that you don’t quite understand yourself. If you opt for this one, it’s time to seek help.

If you want my advice, I would recommend either some light studying coupled with a night out, or making it passport photo day, followed by a night out. It’s as good a time as any to take a break, and we’re still far enough away that you can justify it to your type-A brain.

Just go easy on the tequila shooters.