One Year LSAT Tangent/Reflection

juanmapm

This was my third time taking the LSAT. I have been studying for this beast for the last 12 months - eight of those months working a full-time job, three of them being an LSAT unemployed bum, and one month (the most recent) at a 30-35 hour gig. In that year, I moved across the country and back, had my heart broken and torn to pieces, reunited with my pooch, applied to law schools, learned how to cook and iron my own clothes, and read every possible Baldwin book I could get my hands own (dm me for Baldwin suggestions - that beautiful man deserves more attention and every prospective law student should read/see If Beale Street Could Tak).

Through all the volatility, the LSAT was the only constant. I fucking obsessed over that test. I never realized in high school what a high standardized score could do for someone like me, and I committed myself to not making the same mistake twice. I sat for September, after consistently averaging around 166 (my diagnostic was a 151/152), and scored a 162. Sat for November, consistently hitting over 168 on my PTs. I scored a 162. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. For someone who is consistently a positive person, I was so incredibly beyond bummed after that score. I felt like giving up and was definitely depressed. I had put so much time on that test, that it became part of me, and, becoming part of me, came to define my worth.

But somehow, miraculously, some law schools looked past my scores and admitted me. Through this process, and I realize my insane luck and blessings, I realized that a score does not signify self-worth. So many things go into an application and a life story, and although a high number is incredibly important, it is just one factor.

With that mindset, I sat for January, felt the same anxiety as always being bombarded with absurd conditionals, and nearly threw up when I read one of those rules in the last game. But after writing January and reflecting on these last twelve months, I realize that this test, this fucking test that has brought me to some really shitty lows, actually taught me a lot beyond differentiating between necessary and sufficient assumptions. I read more intently. I can sit people with some really peculiar needs in a circular table (“are you fucking kidding me Harriet? give me one good reason why you can’t sit next to Karl at this picnic table?!?!”)* which will probably come in handy when figuring out wedding arrangements for in-laws in the very very very distant future. I am more inclined to yell bullshit when I hear x political commentator talk nonsense about y issue.

So even though this test has cost me so much anxiety, and needless to say money, I am glad I spent the time I did and hope that silver linings, whether obvious or obscure, manifest before you all as they did for me. And may waves fall now and forever on my fellow 7Sagers. Thanks for the support y’all.

*PT41, Game 4 for reference

Chardiggity

Damn, maybe LSAC & the schools are just messing with us - the real prize was amping our brains up, and the friendships we made along the way ;-) I hope your January score exceeds your wildest dreams though - I love it when people slap the LSAT back for slapping them first.

juanmapm

@Chardiggity hahahaha i hope so too and I totally agree the friendships are a big part of it!!

Regis_Phalange63

Hey man. Fuck PT 41's circular. That game is MUCH harder than PT 1 and PT B's circular.

Bumblebee

The Harriet joke cracked me up. Harriet also cannot sit beside Fiona.hahaha So hard to keel track of Harriet's needs indeed.

Congrats on your acceptances and wish you the best the rest of the cycle!