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Why You Should Take the LSAT Immediately, If Not Sooner

BPPjay-lsat-blog-pongSome people see the glass half-empty, while others see it half-full. I myself typically just chug the whole thing then fill it up again.

Philosophical positions aside, a new wave of half-empty sensibilities has breached the legal community in recent weeks. The Wall Street Journal has recently published an article detailing the dire straits of employment among 2010 law grads. The next day the ABA journal presented basically the same piece but with comments enabled, which ended up being far more interesting and informative than the article itself. The shock value centerpiece was the story of Fabian Ronisky, a Norhwestern Law Graduate who, unable to procure any sort of legal position, has resorted to selling media online at his parents’ house. (I’m pretty sure I went to high school with the pariah in question, but like any righteously paranoid, self-protecting law student should, he doesn’t have a facebook account, so that pretty much exhausts my investigation on that matter).

The truth is, the current employment forecast for a graduating law student reads as anywhere from partly cloudy to full on blizzards of shit, but that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s a bad time to enter law school, and certainly doesn’t mean it’s a bad time to take the LSAT. I took the LSAT for the first time in October 2005. After busting ass in my Blueprint class all summer, I managed to pull off a 172. Needless to say, I was ecstatic. I then proceeded to make up for lost time and spent the bulk of the next quarter at UCLA punishing my liver like it was my job. I had planned on graduating early the following year, traveling across Europe for the summer, then returning to Southern California to find some gap year job and apply to law school.

Therein lie the two reasons why I have yet to attend law school. I discovered that my passion for both traveling and teaching the LSAT far surpassed any immediate desire I had to study and/or practice law. The beauty of the LSAT, however, is that your score remains valid for up to five years [See graphic below article on how to spend those five years]. If I decided to forsake living the proverbial part-time dream, I could absolutely apply to law school this fall using my score from the 2005 exam.

Studying for the LSAT is basically a full time job, and requires much the same time commitment. As taxing as those mandatory beer pong games and subsequent walk-of-shames* may seem in college, you will undoubtedly have way more free time in college than you will once you graduate. Even if you plan on avoiding the current ABA clusterfuck for a few years, it’s a bad idea to wait to take the LSAT as well. The idea of coming to LSAT class straight after a long day’s work sounds worse than this and that’s the worst thing anyone’s ever heard. You definitely won’t want to spend the painfully small amount of free time you have after work doing reading comprehension homework. Additionally, your basic test taking skills disappear when not in use. Your brain works a little differently when not constantly bombarded by scantrons. The only tests my full-time working friends do well on anymore are Hepatitis exams (trust me, an A is definitely not a good thing).

So my point is, if you are currently attending college and think law school is in your future, don’t let the currently dismal state of job prospects deter you from studying for and taking the LSAT in the very near future. Use the powerful combination of excessive free time and familiarity with standardized tests to your advantage, because like the McRib, they won’t be around forever.

*Side note: any ‘walk of shame’ you’re not so ashamed of shall be henceforth called “The Stride of Pride”.

Possible ways to spend the up to five years of LSAT score validity

Create a lengthy stop-motion record of your changes in appearance. Though I might suggest avoiding any appearance that precludes you from being within 500 feet of an elementary school.

Practicing for the beat box battle world cup. Or maybe its easier to just engineer a tiny beat machine, swallow it, and fake it.

Run for political office. If she can do it, why not you?

Write a screenplay. If he can do it, why not you?