LSAT Exam Cram - Softcover

Bellomo, Michael

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0789734141 ISBN 13: 9780789734143

Publisher: Pearson Education, 2005

Synopsis

Prepare for LSAT success with the LSAT Exam Cram. Accurate, to-the-point content, strategies for successfully completing the three exam sections, and four complete practice exams make this study aid one of the most comprehensive on the market. With over 500 practice questions, the LSAT Exam Cram also offers you an author-led video on CD-ROM that will help you arrive at the logical answer for each type of question. A "Cram Sheet" tear-card is also included for you to use in your last minute studying right up until exam time. Build your confidence and prepare for exam success with the LSAT Exam Cram.

About this title

About the Author

LSAT Exam Cram About the Author

Michael Bellomo holds a Juris Doctor in Law from the University of California, San Francisco; an M.B.A. from the University of California at Irvine; and a Black Belt certification in Six Sigma project management. In the course of his career, Michael has worked with The Knowledge Labs, a think tank in Irvine, California, and with ARES Corporation, a project and risk management firm that works with the Department of Defense and NASA. He was the narrator for a multimedia presentation sent to Congress on the development of NASA's Orbital Space Plane. Currently, he serves with ARES Corporation as their Contracts and Proposals Counsel.

Michael has written 13 books in the areas of science, technology, and business. His works have been published in Italian, Portuguese, Chinese, French, Dutch, German, Russian, and Japanese. His latest book, Microbe: Are We Ready for the Next Plague? is about stopping bioterrorism attacks against the U.S. and will be published in June 2005. He lives in Los Angeles, California.

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LSAT Exam Cram

LSAT Exam Cram

Introduction

Why You Need to Become an Expert at the LSAT

If you are seriously thinking about applying for admission to one of the vast majority of law schools in the country, you need to become extremely familiar with the LSAT, or Law School Admissions Test. Essentially, if you plan to go into the legal field, there is no getting around the fact that you'll have to take the LSAT. The test is required for admission to all 202 law schools that are members of the Law School Admission Council (LSAC).

Although inclusion within the ranks of the LSAC is not necessarily a guarantee of quality, the vast majority of the legal programs in the U.S. are part of the LSAC. All law schools approved by the American Bar Association are LSAC members.

Therefore, if you plan to specifically attend a school that is not part of the LSAC, then congratulations--you may not have to face the LSAT. However, without taking the LSAT, you are giving up the chance to apply to the vast majority of schools that could offer an excellent legal education.

Who Are These LSAC People, Anyway?

The Law School Admission Council (LSAC) is a nonprofit corporation located in the eastern Pennsylvanian town of Newtown, about a half-hour's drive north of Philadelphia. Although best known for composing devilishly tricky questions on the LSAT exam, the LSAC also provides a number of helpful services such as

• Organizing law school forums, where prospective applicants can meet with and question admissions counselors and students from the schools they are interested in.

• Producing software, videos, and assorted publications to assist in admissions and law school education in general.

• Administering the MILE (Minorities Interested in Legal Education) program. The MILE project provides minority students with information about preparation for law school, with the end goal of increasing the numbers of lawyers from underrepresented minority groups in the United States.

• Running the Candidate Referral Service (CRS). The CRS is one of the two services that plays directly to the LSAC's main strength—the collection and distribution of law applicant data. If you register with CRS, you have the opportunity to authorize the release of information about yourself to eligible law schools and organizations who may be looking for candidates with a specific ethnic background or range of test scores.

• Administering the Law School Data Assembly Service (LSDAS). This is the second of the two LSAC services that specializes in the collection and timely distribution of the Law School Admission Test (LSAT) information and test scores.

Caution - On average, about 135,000 prospective law students take the LSAT annually. According to the Law School Admission Council's website, the LSAC administered about 147,600 LSATs in 2004, which is a substantial jump in numbers. Part of the jump is due to the state of the economy (which we'll discuss briefly in Chapter 1). But the uncomfortable fact remains: The overall trend in the number of people applying to law school has been increasing at a faster rate than the number of seats available.

This in turn means that with more applicants, the level of competition is steeper and the need to perform well on the LSAT is correspondingly great, particularly if one wants to get into a brand-name program. If this is your concern, then take a deep breath: You've come to the right book.

How to Use Your Exam Cram 2 Book

The main purpose of the Exam Cram 2 series is to provide you with tools and information that will help you practice for and attain the best possible score on the LSAT. It's not designed to help you decide which law school is best for you, or even to help you decide if law school is the proper career choice, though the skills taught are applicable. That said, your use of the book may differ slightly depending on your situation.

Entering or in the Middle of College and Seriously Considering Law School

Start by reading this book, which gives you insights and practice for the LSAT, as well as information about the law school admissions process in general. You would also do well to find a pre-law advisor at your school. Most undergraduate institutions offer these services, particularly if you are enrolled in a major that is a "feeder subject" into the legal arena, such as the liberal arts, humanities, and of course, "pre-law."

Consider testing yourself with the exam material found in this book. In fact, if you're a junior or senior, you may not have all that much time left to decide whether this is a field for you. Run through an exam and see whether you're comfortable--not necessarily with the questions, per se. Rather, see whether you're comfortable with exercising the parts of your thought process that you access in order to solve the problem at hand.

A College Graduate and Seriously Considering Law School

You might be interested to know that you have one strong positive and one strong (but correctable) negative off the bat. First off, the good news is that law schools have been and continue to warmly receive returning college graduates. Partly this is because of the schools pledging to continue increasing the diversity of their student body. It is also due to longer-term studies showing that people who go to law school after a few years in the business world (or spending a couple years involved in any activity that provides valuable life experience) tend to have higher retention and bar pass rates.

On the other hand, if you're four years out of college, you're four years further away than the typical college grad from your memories of the SAT. In addition, unless all of the incoming law school applicants went to Party Hearty U., you'll be in competition against people who have been taking multiple-choice scantron tests for the past three to four years. Don't let this put you off--it simply means getting into training, only with the mind instead of the body. Read this book and practice the exams, and pay special attention to the "why" of an answer.

Note - According to the LSAC, in Fall 2003, about 25 percent of all law school applicants were 22 years old or younger; about 37 percent were 23 to 25; and about 19 percent were between ages 26 and 29. Applicants who were 30 to 34 years old made up about 10 percent of the applicant pool, while 9 percent were more than 34 years old.

In College and Preparing to Take the LSAT in a Couple Weeks

What are you reading this for? Get started on the practice exams! And when you're done, for last-minute exam jitters, refer to the two-page Cram Sheet in the front of this book for key bits of information that you can use.

About This Book

Each topical Exam Cram 2 chapter follows a regular structure, along with graphical cues about important or useful information. Here's the structure of a typical chapter:

• Opening Hotlists--Each chapter begins with a list of the terms, tools, and techniques you must learn and understand before you can be fully conversant with that chapter's subject matter. Following the hotlists are one or two introductory paragraphs to set the stage for the rest of the chapter.

• Topical coverage--The main text of the chapter follows the opening hotlists. Throughout this section, topics or concerns likely to appear on a test are highlighted in a special Exam Alert layout, like this:

Caution - This is what an Exam Alert looks like. Normally, an Exam Alert stresses concepts, terms, software, or activities that are likely to relate to one or more certification test questions. For that reason, any information found offset in an Exam Alert format is worthy ...

Edition details

• Publisher: Pearson Education
• Publication date: 2005
• ISBN 10: 0789734141
• ISBN 13: 9780789734143
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 430