Why Your Friends Can’t Wait Until You Take the LSAT

  • Reviewed by: Matt Riley
  • BPPphilip-lsat-blog-friends

    When I was getting ready for the LSAT, I didn’t spend a whole lot of time with my friends. Most of the time, I was either doing homework, taking practice tests, or thinking about the disastrous consequences of performing poorly on the test. Consequently, I wasn’t a whole lot of fun to hang out with for about three months. Here are a few of the things my friends had to suffer through:

    1.) Fallacies, Fallacies Everywhere

    After we covered the lesson on logical fallacies, my instructor told me to practice finding examples of flawed reasoning in everyday life. Now, he didn’t tell me to point out those flaws to my friends every time they committed one… I decided to do that all on my own. If you ever want to really test a friendship, gleefully point and laugh at someone after accusing them of fallaciously relying on an ad hominem argument.

    2.) So Much to Do, So Little Time

    As I noted earlier, preparing for the LSAT is a pretty all-consuming activity. I bought the video component of the course…and attended the in-person class, which might’ve been a little bit of overkill. I didn’t have a lot of time left over for anyone. Besides, who needs to hang out with friends when you can spend time watching Trent and Matt teach the LSAT, am I right?

    3.) You Just Don’t Understand Me!

    No matter what course you’re taking or practice materials you’re using, preparing for the LSAT involves learning a whole new set of terms. I started finding myself referring to the necessary and sufficient clause in everyday conversations. For my friends who weren’t taking the LSAT, this was understandably infuriating. Unfortunately, the more comfortable you get with all the new terms and methods, the more often you’ll find yourself using them. Shortly before the LSAT, I was positively unbearable… or at least slightly more unbearable than I am generally.

    4.) Why So Serious?

    I tend to get a little anxious about… most things. The LSAT was no exception. I was constantly crunching numbers to try to figure out the exact score I would need to get into ‘x’ school. I worried about the ramification of a subpar score constantly. This bled over into social interactions. My perpetual state of stress didn’t go unnoticed by my friends, and it didn’t exactly lend itself to casual social gatherings.

    At the end of the day, studying for the LSAT isn’t a fun process, and I have no doubt both you and your friends will be happy when the test is over. Just try to minimize the crazy (something I certainly didn’t do) and make yourself slightly more tolerable—it’ll be better for everyone involved.

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