Reddit mentions: The best legal education books

I passed the CA bar awhile ago but ended up writing this mini guide up for friends who took the bar after me who, like myself, were frustrated with the commercial bar prep courses. I ended up studying supplements (while using Kaplan only for its MBE question bank) almost exclusively on my own schedule (and passed - with a lot less stress than a lot of my peers who struggled to complete the commercial bar prep schedule). My friends found this really helpful so I thought I'd share it with you:


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Reviewing the Black Letter Law
I highly recommend lean sheets because they were compact and great for reviewing rule elements.
They also had room in the margins for me to add any other notes I wanted to make.
http://www.leansheets.com/california-bar-exam-outlines-leansheets-com/


I suggest printing the entire pdf in color - double sided - 8.5 x 11 paper
http://documents.staples.com/ASP1/
Binding/Booklet 1
Paper/8.5x11 28lb Premium White / Standard / Standard Print (Precut Size) / Color / Duplex ($23)
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Multiple Choice:
Many people say that kicking ass on the MBE section is essential because it's the one section that is truly in your control to differentiate your score. The essay and performance test grading can be arbitrary - most people will get an average of 60 something on everything if they apply the correct IRAC method to the essays. But a lot of people mess up MBEs, and there's no excuse for that because one can definitely improve this with practice.

1. Critical Pass: http://criticalpass.refr.cc/DHGJQMN (my referral link but you don't have to use it 📷. This was Great to review in the evening when I was too tired to do practice questions. They already added flash cards for the civ pro mbe questions. I was stupidly impressed with how these cards actually covered so much of the questions on actual exam. Definitely essential in my opinion
   
   
   
2. Strategies & Tactics for the MBE, Sixth Edition (Emanuel Bar Review)
   https://www.amazon.com/Strategies-Tactics-MBE-Emanuel-Review/dp/1454873124/ref=dp_ob_title_bk
   
   
   I used this book mostly for the general MBE test-taking tips and the tips were so on-point. Because I was using Kaplan and it already had a huge question bank - I practiced with those questions.
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   Essays:
   
   
   Formatting is KEY. Do NOT write big long paragraphs. I underlined, made sure to write a lot of mini-paragraphs (5-6 sentences max), then move on.
   
   
   During the exam, make sure you use every single fact in the fact pattern. Use a highlighter and highlight each fact or mark each fact after you incorporate it in some way into your essay.
   
   
   Don't worry if the question asks you something pretty obscure or you just blank on something. Just put down something reasonable and move on. Use every fact (there are almost never any red herrings - I never saw any).
   
   
   Using the call of the question--- IRAC. But the IRAC's should be really short and concise - (1 sentence for the issue; 1-2 rule statements, 5-6 for application, 1 sentence for conclusion).
   
   
   I didn't have a memorization plan for rule statements, but made sure to know certain rules very well: Community Property opener, Contract (applicable law, offer, acceptance, etc), Evidence (definition of legal and logical relevance, hearsay exceptions), elements of negligence claim for Torts, etc. You'll find good rule statements in the following book:
   
   
   Essay Exam Writing for the CA Bar Exam: http://www.amazon.com/Essay-Exam-Writing-California-Bar/dp/073550993X/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top/176-3124324-1877215
   
   
   I didn't actually practice writing a lot of actual essays. I read this book in its entirely and thought it was amazing. The only essay book you need in my opinion. I found the checklists a little hard to memorize, so I just focused on the approach this book outline for every subject. (And memorizing the rules used in the sample essays).
   
   
   And what I did is, after reading the tips, I practiced writing essays for the practice essays at the end of each chapter - read the sample essay + looked at the issue chart + rewrote it again.
   
   
   I liked this book the best because the sample essays weren't ridiculously long like kaplan and barbri. This book emphasizes what HAS to be in your essay responses, and leaves out the extraneous stuff that will hardly get you any points on the exam itself.
   
   
   My essays were much shorter on the actual exam than in any barbri or kaplan sample essay - and I think it was sufficient.
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   Performance Tests
   http://ipassedmybarexam.com/2011/02/13/the-bar-exam-performance-tests-are-easy/
   
   
   Honestly - that write-up sums up all the tips you need to do well on the performance test. Really thorough and really hits the nail on the head.
   
   
   To be honest, I practiced maybe 2 performance tests in total. The only things I think you need to do is read through all the tips above, and then print out and read all the sample performance test answers for the past 3 years from the CA bar site: http://www.calbar.ca.gov/Admissions/Examinations/California-Bar-Examination/Past-Exams
   
   
   Getting a feel for the memo structure that the bar examiners wanted was the most helpful thing.
   
   
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   Rule Statements
   I did not use this site when I studied for the bar, but someone posted this in another thread and it looks pretty good if you're looking for black letter law outlines and rule statements: By the way, I was briefly looking at this thread for the July 2018 Bar exam and someone posted this link as a good place to get solid rule statements for some of the major subjects:
   
   
   https://law.stanford.edu/office-of-student-affairs/bar-exam-information
   
   
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   Best of luck!!!

As a second-year law student, and a guy who threw his heart and soul into the law school application/admission process, I want to offer a few pointers here, maybe lead one person down the right path.

1. Too many people go to law school for the wrong reasons: their parents pushed them into it, they don't have any other direction in their life, or they just want to make money. If you just want to make money, that's fine, but you really, really need to understand #2:
   
   
2. There is a bimodal salary distribution in entry-level legal jobs. This means, when you graduate, you will either: A) Make six figures working 80 hours a week, minimum, at a top-tier law firm, B) Make $50,000, if you're lucky, doing contract jobs, or if you're really lucky, working government/non-profit, or C) Be unemployed. Law schools game the employment figures to all show 99% employment, when those actually gainfully-employed, able to pay off their crushing student loans on a reasonable time frame, are more like 10%, at a mid-level school, 25-50% at the best.
   
   
3. There are 200 law schools in America. Very seriously, if you really want a job, you have two options: Go to the best school in the region (i.e., to work in Kentucky, you can only go to the University of Kentucky, maybe Vanderbilt. People from Louisville and NKU struggle for employment). Or, you can go to one of the top law schools in the nation, the very few where your degree might actually have some national reach. Law schools are ranked annually by U.S. News and World Report, and, broken system or not, the best firms in the world hire almost exclusively from the "top 14" schools.
   
   Some highly suggested reading before you start thinking about law school:
   
   

• Law School Economics: Ka-Ching! - A NYT article from this summer that kind of brought the law school scam (spinning employment statistics, including median salaries, and jacking up tuitions) to the forefront. There was a lot of outcry from the legal profession and legal academia at its publication.
  
  
• Above The Law - A tabloid blog for the legal profession. Sometimes fun reading, they take a very cynical tack on law school and legal prospects in general.
  
  
• The Top-Law-Schools.com forums - If you really want to go to law school, this is the place to spend all your time. These are a bunch of people really dedicated to getting into, and succeeding at, the top law schools in the country. Your GPA and LSAT are everything here, so study HARD, and retake if you have to.
  
  
• Law School Confidential, by Robert Miller - This is a great guide for success once you're in law school, and I would recommend it for every incoming 1L.
  
  
• 1L, by Scott Turow - This is a really fascinating memoir of a famous author/lawyer's first year at Harvard Law, and it holds true for the 1L experience at almost any law school. The 1L year is very standardized across the country: same classes, same case method, same Socratic method.
  
  
• Planet Law School II, by Atticus Falcon - This one I recommend with a big caveat: the author is a very jaded, cynical person who hides behind the wall of a pseudonym and rails against law schools and the legal profession. It's also a pretty long book. But if you have the extra time/money, it's worth thumbing through, albeit taking what's in there with a grain of salt. It pretty much angrily tears apart the American law school institution.
  
  
• How to Get Into the Top Law Schools, by Richard Montauk - This book is gold for the law school admissions process. The TLS forums (above) will recommend this highly. If you're dead-set on going to law school, read it. And best of luck at Yale!
  
  
• The Ivey Guide to Law School Admissions, by Anna Ivey - This is another one that I recommend for law school applications, along with the Montauk book. It's shorter, and Ivey comes off as a know-it-all snob, but the information is solid.
  
  I'm not trying to out-and-out discourage you from going to law school. If you actually do research, then find out it's what you really want, go for it. Crush the LSAT out of the park and go somewhere that will guarantee you a job. Do not go to a fourth-tier law school (John Marshall, Florida Coastal, Cooley, etc.) just because they sent you a bunch of marketing materials in the mail with an offer for a free scholarship. These places are the University of Phoenix of law schools. Any law school that has to advertise by mail really isn't worth the price of the (worthless) degree.
  
  
  

Blackistheonlycolor, I largely agree with this post but I would like to share a few thoughts.

Self Study is THE way to prepare for the LSAT. I think an LSAT course is only a good option if you need more help grasping the basics than self study is providing.

The books that PhiPsiSciFi provided are certainly good, but I think there are a few changes which could maximize your prep. My book recommendation list would be:

• The Logic Games Bible $45
  
• Manhattan 3-book set $82
  
• Cambridge LR 1-20 $47
  
• Cambridge LR 21-40 $60
  
• Cambridge RC 1-20 $32
  
• Cambridge RC 21-40 $40
  
• Cambridge Complete LG Set PDF $90
  
• PTs 52-61 $20
  
• PTs 62-71 $22
  
• LSAT SuperPrep $17
  
• [LSAT PT 72] (http://www.amazon.com/Official-LSAT-PrepTest-72-PrepTests-ebook/dp/B00MXDVYS4/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1412298868&sr=1-2&keywords=LSAT+72) $6
  
  Total is $461. Now I realize that is significantly more money that the list given above, but if you can swing it, you will get a lot more bang for your buck. The Manhattan LSAT books tend to be a little bit better than the Powerscore ones. The Powerscore Logic Games Bible is certainly a great asset to have, which is why I included it here, but the LR Bible doesn't flow as well as Manhattan's and the RC Bible is nowhere near as good. The next big difference is that my list includes PTs 1-40 only as drills instead of complete tests. The earlier tests are quite a bit different than the modern LSAT, so while you won't get an extremely representative score by taking the full PTs, you can get improve by having the questions broken down into drills. That said, if there was anything you wanted to take off this list, The Cambridge LR 1-20 and RC 1-20 aren't 100% necessary. They are certainly nice to have, but you can only realistically do so many drills and it will be better to do the more modern ones found in PTs 21-40. But if you are planning to study for 6+ months, get 1-20 as well as 21-40. You will want to get all of the Logic Games though. Personally, I think PDF works better because you will want to re-print several of them to complete multiple times. You will also want to re-do every logic game section from tests 40+, which isn't really necessary for the LR and RC sections.
  The rest of my list is pretty much the same. I added PT 72 and you will want to get 73 when that comes out too. Overall, you will get 24 PTs from my suggestions (20 from the two books, 3 from SuperPrep, and PT 72. Obviously you hit 25 if you get PT 73 as well) which should be plenty. If you needed anymore buy the individual PTs from 41 up. I know this is a good bit of money, but it is soooo much cheaper than any reputable LSAT Course and it is more effective too.

When I said "51 onward" I was referring to PrepTest 51 and onward. PrepTest, commonly abbreviated as PT are previously administered LSATs. Every LSAT is released as such, except for those pertaining to the February administration. The most recent PrepTest is number 77, which corresponds to the LSAT that was administered in December of 2015. Each PrepTest contains the four officially scored sections of the LSAT plus the writing sample question, it however does not include the experimental section as this would compromise future LSATs. When you purchase the LSAT PrepTest volumes, you do not receive explanations, only an answer key and percentile conversion chart to each exam. However, the LSAC has released a book called SuperPrep II which includes 3 PrepTests, of which is there not only an answer key, but official explanations to each and every question, explaining why the right answer to each is the, well right answer. Although the LSAC does not have an explanation for all of their PrepTests published, there are many forums, websites and even published books which will do so for you. For example, The Princeton Review will be shortly releasing "LSAT Decoded" which will explain all of the answers in corresponding LSATs(PrepTests) I listed the following books that I purchased and recommend. Go to your local bookstore and read a couple pages of the Prep Company's book and see if their method of teaching works for you, if not, find another. Lastly, I would like to say that it is of absolutely no trouble for myself, I am more than happy to help, and thus I wish you the best of luck in your endeavour! :D

I posted the links to the books I bought and have been enjoying, please take caution before purchasing it from these links, as I posted the Amazon Canadian links as I live in Canada. Anyway, I believe either the Kaplan Premier 2016-2017 or LSAT trainer are an absolute must, although you could get away with not getting a prep company strategy set, I strongly encourage getting at the very least a comprehensive all in one. Any more questions or concerns about anything related to the LSAT please feel free to send me a message/reply.

http://www.amazon.ca/10-Actual-Official-LSAT-PrepTests/dp/0986045519/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1457253768&sr=8-2&keywords=LSAT

http://www.amazon.ca/Official-LSAT-SuperPrep-II-Champion/dp/0990718689/ref=sr_1_10?ie=UTF8&qid=1457253768&sr=8-10&keywords=LSAT

http://www.amazon.ca/Actual-Official-PrepTests-Comparative-Reading/dp/0984636005/ref=sr_1_9?ie=UTF8&qid=1457253768&sr=8-9&keywords=LSAT

http://www.amazon.ca/LSAT-Trainer-remarkable-self-study-self-driven/dp/0989081508/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1457253799&sr=8-3&keywords=LSAT

http://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/1937707784?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00

http://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/1937707776?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o02_s00

http://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/0990718697?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o03_s00

http://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/0986045543?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o03_s00

http://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/0986086231?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o05_s00

Great questions!

The Self Study package doesn't include any practice test books, but does include copies of our Type Training material which are 20 tests' worth of questions grouped by concept/type. So if you bought the three Type Training books for LR, LG, and RC for PTs 1-20, say, you'd have every question from those exams, although not in individual test form: instead those collections are designed to allow people to focus intensively on singular ideas, like Weaken questions or Science passages or Advanced Linear games, so that you can really drill down on the specific areas giving you trouble. So they're real questions from tests, but not great for taking as full tests, if that makes sense.

Instead, your best bet is to purchase the deeply-discounted (relative to single tests) 10 Actual books that LSAC has released. If you get the two latest editions of those you'll have 20 very recent exams in full, and that'll run you about $45 or so on amazon last I checked. That's far and away the cheapest and easiest manner to buy real tests.

Then our plans themselves reference tests from those collections directly as recommended PTs to take at specified times. We even go so far as to tell which tests to use for the experimental section on five-section PTs! So it's all very clear and orderly once you're in the thick of things :)

Finally, the Workbooks were all designed to correspond exactly with the Bibles, so each Bible chapter will have a supplemental Workbook section devoted to it with tons of drills and exercises and examples to help you perfect the approaches advocated in the Bibles. And again the Study Plans are extremely detailed in how they instruct you to move through the various resource and combine them for maximum effect. It feels like a lot upfront but once you begin working through it with a Plan in hand it starts to fly by...or at least it seems to move more quickly/efficiently than people expect given the volume!

Experience doesn't necessarily make him a great writer. Still, don't let him bring you down or demoralize you. Especially since you're trying to improve your writing. It sounds like a normal control thing; in my experience, lawyers rewrite things for no reason except that it's what they learned in law school or it's just what's worked for them in the past. And lawyers hate changing their writing style—since Bryan Garner's tips from TWB are the "new" style that most practicing lawyers don't really care for, he may disagree with some of it. Ask him for recommended reading and see what he says. (I had a similar experience and I can understand how it's incredibly frustrating.)

But in the short term:

1. Keep in mind that random briefs (on random topics) for one attorney during one summer don't reflect your entire writing ability. Nor is his judgment of your writing necessarily accurate. If you can, ask someone else (friend/atty not at the office) to look at a copy of an early draft that you think is good and see what they say.
   
   
2. Figure out however he wants you to write, in whatever format, and stick to it. Don't bother trying to change his mind. (Sounds obvious, I know, but the point is that you can write how he wants you to at work, and develop your own style on your own.)
   
   Long term, I recommend these for improving brief-writing skills:
   
   
3. The best book on brief writing is Winning on Appeal by Ruggero Aldisert--a fed app judge
   
   
4. For some of the best examples, read the Solicitor General's briefs that are all available online
   
   
5. I found the no-longer-secret Supreme Court Style Guide to be helpful and interesting
   
   
6. Also, not super helpful, but interesting is the OSG Citation Manual
   
   
7. Another good resource is The Art of Advocacy
   
   
8. And Plain English for Lawyers
   
   Good luck!

Much of the logic required for the test is shared among sections, so studying for one helps the others. Also, each section tends to require a slow progression because you are basically changing how you think, so a lot of people recommend intertwining the three to some extent.

Logic games are usually the quickest to improve on, so a lot of people start with more of a focus there. This allows you to shape your mind to LSAT faster and can help with the other sections. It also gives you a sense of progress and accomplishment.

Reading comprehension and logical reasoning are basically how well you pay attention to what you read and how you logically connect the provided information, so how fast and to what extent you pick those sections up depends on how well you build those skills. Sometimes that takes days to see drastic improvement (I had a student go from the mid-teens to the mid-twenties on RC in a day because he changed to a more effective approach), but often it takes months (usually because one is just practicing instead of changing what he or she is doing wrong).

First, I recommend that you take a practice test. You can access June 2007 for free. This will help you to determine what needs the most work. You will eventually want to buy at least some of the official preptests (all are good, but newer is more relevant and therefore more important):

• PrepTest 77
  
• PrepTest 76
  
• PrepTest 75
  
• PrepTest 74
  
• PrepTest 73
  
• PrepTest 72
  
• PrepTests 62-71
  
• PrepTests 52-61
  
• PrepTests 29-38
  
• PrepTests 19-28
  
• PrepTests 7, 9-16, 18
  
• 10 Real LSATs Grouped by Question Type: Manhattan LSAT Practice Book
  
  Then, I suggest working with a set of prep books or online lessons. A lot of people like 7Sage, the LSAT Trainer, and PowerScore, but there are other options as well.
  
  Three pieces of advice:
  
  1.) Don't blow through all of your practice tests - even though there are 77 of them - a lot of people who start early tend to run out. That leads to:
  
  2.) Don't take a lot of practice tests early. Your job is not to practice your current (bad) habits; instead, it is to identify what aspects of your approach you are doing wrong and make a conscious effort to fix them. You will get much more out of slow, untimed, exhaustive, reflective study than out of plowing through lots of practice tests expecting something to change. If you are not improving yourself, do not just continue to take practice tests - instead:
  
  3.) Don't be afraid to look into a tutor. An experienced one can usually diagnose issues and sometimes that is more efficient and effective than working through it on your own, especially when you are stuck and struggling to improve. That can be expensive sometimes, but it can also be the reason why you get into your target school and/or the reason why you get a scholarship (my prep, many years ago, paid for itself many times over).
  
  Good luck!

First year lawyer chiming in. I second the not-reading-prior-to-law-school advice, but if you're really begging for it, I think these two books might be helpful:

• A People's History Of the Supreme Court. It provides an interesting context to the politics behind some of the court's most formative decisions, and it can help jump start you into thinking about some of the more complicated issues that impact the law.
  
  
• Law School Confidential. Definitely more of a guide to how to succeed in law school. I read it on then plane when I moved for law school, around July. It provides a lot of guidance about law school that people don't usually have unless they come from a family of lawyers.
  
  Edit: While you can't really "prepare" for law school prior to experiencing it, you can somewhat increase your tolerance for reading (which is a HUGE part of the law) by reading non-fiction books. This would only be if you really lack that type of discipline, but if you already love reading, it's probably less important.

OP, I just did a timed preptest with a 173 yesterday that has been falling into a larger trend, so I'm feeling the fire and if you don't mind I'll share some of my experiences to help you. Because frankly, it's a rough world out there and we need to help each other.

1. I was going to take the test in June, but the week before the test I was only hovering low 160s. I withdrew and am applying for October, since then my average has steadily increased at a linear rate. If the week before the test you are unsure, I heartily recommend that you withdraw and redouble efforts for the next test.
   
   
2. I now keep an Excel sheet where I keep my score, raw score, and fractional breakdown of each section and a running tally of my average. The far right column I list weaknesses that kept me from doing my best on that particular score, both in terms of the test itself but also in terms of the context I took the test (for example, I have personally found that being strung out on caffeine results in a far worse drop in score than simply having not enough sleep). I strongly believe that my diligent efforts to record my progress has been responsible for my sharp increase in scores recently.
   
   
3. I have done both the PithyPike method and also simply drilling tests sequentially. I think PithyPike is a great method for a foundation to the LSAT, but the drilling of tests has been best for me. YMMV.
   
   
4. I personally think the LSAT does just test you on the LSAT, but that is really irrelevant to how you should deal with it. The reason why is it's also the biggest predictor of your career in law (out of the LSAT, your law school, or the bar exam). You really shouldn't coast at any point on your path to this career, but you simply cannot afford to coast on the LSAT or you will hamstring your career before you even start.
   
   
5. I don't know if you've ever worked a corporate job before (I have), but to just about anyone fresh out of college and hasn't had that experience, they suck and they are by nature very competitive no matter what industry you are in. I thrive on that and don't mind hard work and long hours. If you can't swing an assistant/paralegal position because you live in the middle of nowhere, then a read of The Curmudgeon's Guide to Practicing Law can be helpful as a substitute to figuring out what life in law is like.
   
   In short, you probably need to go big or go home in this field, unless you get a non-conditional free ride somewhere. Johnnymd is right, though, at this stage for you your GPA is way more important than your LSAT, because the window for altering your GPA is much smaller than your LSAT, which you can do anytime.

I agree with bl1y.

I'm 3 years practicing with my second law review article getting published in around a month.

My first article topic came by looking at what I experienced as a practitioner every day. Pretty soon I got a feeling that maybe the courts were not applying a rule the way I perceived it should be applied. So, I looked into different cases where I thought the rule was inconsistent or at least not reconcilable. Turns out, there were a bunch.

My second article topic came from regularly reading decisions from the top court in my state. While doing that, I was not looking for a topic, but I did notice a pattern of things that generated dissents or concurrences. The judges almost had a funny way of discussing this topic and it caught my eye. It never occurred to me when reading that this was an article waiting to be written. Instead, it was only after about a year or so of reading cases that the topic gelled as article-worthy when someone asked if I would be interested in writing an article and they were looking for topics. It turned into a ~30-page law review article exploring the topic, history, and those recent decisions.

Not sure if your girlfriend was part of an academic journal in law school, but the idea is the same: anyone can write a case study. Rather, it is the synthesis of various cases and legal rules that adds meaning and broadens literature.

I want to say that I did all my research before I wrote a page. The truth is that writing itself is an organic process. You often need to start a little bit of writing to find more relevant literature.

-----

For me, the idea of finding a topic is like nucleation sites for crystals. For example, see this video of supercooled water. The idea of supercooled water and "instant" ice is that the water is cold enough to be ice, but it needs a place to start. Once it starts, however, the entire bottle of water changes phase. So, you could be ready to write an article, but you still need that spark, the place to start and to build from. That can come from (like the video shows) outside agitation (or impurities but lets not get to heavy into the science).


------

Eugene Volokh has a book called Academic Legal Writing. I found it particularly helpful during law school and still to this day. But I remember it being cheaper back then. In any event, it covers issues from the genesis of ideas to the methodology of good research to better writing.

If you're looking for some good prep work these books all helped me immensely.

1L of a Ride This one was my favorite and I looked at pretty often for my first month of school.

Reading Like a Lawyer

Expert Learning for Law Students

I feel like these three really gave me a good head start to law school. You cover the basic skills you'll be using your first semester (and all of law school, but you can tweak/find your own way after your fall semester). They give you some practice reading and briefing cases, help you figure out what to look for when you're studying and include some helpful tips on how to do well overall. They also include some good life tips of how to stay happy and feel comfortable outside of class.

Where to even begin?

Paul Campos' Don't Go To Law School (Unless) should be required reading for any prospective law student.

But holy shit, the LIES.

So for decades now, law schools have been churning out twice as many lawyers as there are available jobs; obviously, you can't do this forever, but boy do they try.

• At first, they didn't need to release post-BAR employment statistics
  
  
• Then, they made them as misleading as possible (if you were a barista with a law degree, LSAC and ABA considered you employed)
  
  
• If you worked part-time as a cart-pusher, the ABA, for a while, considered you employed
  
  
• 50% of graduated lawyers ended up in a job that didn't require a law degree. LAW SCHOOLS MARKETED THIS AS THE VERSATILITY OF A LAW DEGREE, when in reality grads were just taking gasping for air and taking anything--AND ENDED UP IN JOBS THEY COULD HAVE GOTTEN WITHOUT THE DEGREE!
  
  Scholarships aren't what you think they are
  
  
• You have two applying students, A and B
  
  
• A is a genius with really high scores, B would be lucky to get into your institution
  
  
• As the dean, or admissions, indeed your only real job is to increase the ranking of your school ( ^ ranking = ^ prestige = ^ money), or at least not let it flounder. How do you do that? Getting smarter kids to go to your school. Now, 'A' won't go to your school if he can help it--he's got the goods for a Top 14. But you really want him, so you offer him a generous scholarship package.
  
  
• That scholarship doesn't come out of thin air. There is no "Scholarship Vault" in the back of the Dean's office. What they do is make the lower test-score kids pay higher tuition in order to subsidize the smarter kids' tuition and, ultimately, the school's ranking. They're able to do this because a) the federal government will back students' idiotic loan amounts, 2) Student A is getting a bargain, 3) Student B thinks he's getting a bargain when in reality he's just cattle who won't see a worthwhile Return on Investment
  
  Thought grad school, in general, was a "big, cold, system"? Law school is an industrial sized grinder where the only output is marginally better rankings and jobless grads with $250,000 in debt.
  
  Law schools are thirsty whores for any type of validation, which means "rankings" news. Who is the "great decider" of rankings? Mostly US News World Report. Think about that for a second. How much validity do you think the rankings system has when one media organization runs a monopoly on the whole thing? Go try to figure out why one school is #60 while the other is #70. Seriously, go try. Meanwhile, people are reading these rankings like they're scripture.
  
  The Great Usefulness Lie
  
  One of the more recent, and clever, ploys by law schools is to sell law degrees as versatile
  
  > You don't see too many practicing attorneys because law is versatile, they're out doing a million different things, not just practicing law!
  
  No. The chances of you getting that environmental advocacy position is nill. You're not going to practice space law. Want to work for the public good and help the downtrodden? Great. Fantastic. Don't forget about your $250,000 in debt which will begin accruing absurd interest very, very soon. You'll be paying that debt off for half your life... unless you sell your soul and go work for a big firm for 80 hours a week (you'd better hope you graduated from a really good school at the top of your class).
  
  Mental Health
  
  Lawyers are, relatively, quite suicidal. Relatively, they suffer from depression and chronic alcoholism often. They self-report as miserable quite often.
  
  One (of many) white papers
  
  It's not spoken about much but, as someone with a history of depression and alcohol abuse already, I'm not going through this shit. For what? To slave for a firm for 80 hours a week?
  
  
  
  
  

Your plan sounds good. Another way to go, which I would recommend slightly over what you have, is to use odd-numbered tests for PT and even-numbered ones for drilling or experimentals (after pulling out maybe the most recent 10-15 strictly for PTs and the oldest 10-15 for experimentals). That way your drilling has the same variety (caused by age of test) that your PTs have. The result, if done well, is a very flexible mastery of the test.

I think it's better not to buy books of questions broken down by types, honestly. Identifying the question type is a crucial skill, so if you want to drill by types (which you should early on), make the type lists yourself.

You might consider 19-28 for the experimental set-aside (https://www.amazon.com/More-Actual-Official-LSAT-PrepTests/dp/0979305039), but you should definitely should buy 42-51 (https://www.amazon.com/Actual-Official-LSAT-PrepTests-42-51/dp/0986086290) and, individually, 72 and up.

That's a ton of material. Use it wisely and best of luck to you :)

A friend of mine's mom did this when my friend and her sister were little (perhaps 4 and 6, I don't remember exactly--this is a lifelong friend I'm talking about). The mom graduated, got a job in local government (lawyer for some agency), and became solvent, confident, and financially stable. She had a good, decades-long legal career.

Oh, and this friend's mom was a single mom when she went back to school!!!!

So yes, it can be done.

BTW I am a lawyer and I HIGHLY recommend this book. It was a massive help to me when I started law school:

https://www.amazon.com/Law-School-Confidential-Complete-Experience/dp/0312605110

Perhaps! But, I do hope you find a way to succeed on your own terms. Listen, I read a few books that really helped me shape my law school experience in school and beyond.

Here's Law School Confidential. It helped me with classes etc., interviews, and defining my initial career trajectory.

If you're looking to do commercial BigLaw, this book gave me some good perspective.

If you're more interested in something like public defense, Brian Stevenson's book Just Mercy was incredibly powerful.

Anyways, I do hope that you find something that works for you. It can be cold out there, and it's hard to get traction sometimes. Best of luck.

First: you've already taken a huge step by recognizing the problem. Some people are so bad at this stuff that they don't even recognize that they're bad at it. That's an almost hopeless position to be in. Especially people in the sciences often have a false sense of confidence about this stuff.


Second: it's damn hard and there's no easy route to getting better. You might get a CT textbook, but, honestly, most of them aren't very good/helpful.

I teach CT at the university level, and, though it's a freshman-level class, It's one of the hardest classes Iv'e ever taught. I've wasted way, way more time and energy trying to figure out how to do it well than I should have.

Honestly, I'd have a hard time giving manageable bits of advice, but here's a go at it:

[1] Get a copy of a collection of old LSATs and work through a few problems every day/week/whatever. Like this one:
https://www.amazon.com/10-Actual-Official-LSAT-PrepTests/dp/0986045519/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1483462117&sr=8-2&keywords=lsat

These are really good little problems. They're better than the exercises in most college-level CT texts. Yes, they're multiple-choice, and short, and a bit cartoonish in a certain respect...but they're very well-crafted, and you can check the answers.

It's the so-called logical reasoning problems that are really most helpful--i.e. not the reading comprehension problems or the analytic puzzles (ten monkeys sitting around a table; first monkey passes a block to the third monkey blah blah blah)--though those are also helpful.

[2] Find and follow some people who are good reasoners. I'm mostly sort of a centrist liberal, so my recommendations will be a bit skewed, but off the top of my head:
Kevin Drum at Mother Jones
Fareed Zacharia at CNN
Jonathan Chait at various places

[3] Most importantly, strive for honesty and fair-mindedness. Don't be dragged into the cesspool of rhetoric and debate. Just honestly ask yourself: what are some reasons for the thesis? what are some reasons against it? Are there any obvious problems with any of those reasons? Most people err in one of two ways: (a) they just aren't curious and don't care, or (b) they care...and so they end up getting committed to one side of the disagreement...and start consciously or unconsciously cheating.


[4] Also, PM me if you like, and I can send you some stuff and talk more about this stuff. I'm actually way better than average as a CT instructor...which means, IMO, that I still suck at it...but not as much as most.

There's no magic bullet--but you can get yourself on a trajectory toward improvement.

[p.s.: I kinda sorta disagree with chriswrightmusic, because I think that the fallacies are often of limited value, especially if not handled correctly...but I don't completely disagree with him.]

I brought my score up to be averaging 175.6 on practice exams (not sure about my actual score.... took the December exam and haven't heard back) using just two tools that are not too much money:

1. LSAC released old exams. These are sold in sets of 10 and are the bread and butter of practice exam taking since the curves associated with them are the actual curves from when thousands of students took that exam same test however many months/years ago. Also because they're quite cheap.....
   
   https://www.amazon.com/10-Actual-Official-LSAT-PrepTests/dp/0979305047
   
   
2. PowerScore Logic Games Bible. This is a great way to hammer down a system for logic games. I used a lot of their ways of "coding" logic game rules for when I took LG sections. Using this method, missing 0-2 per LG section almost every time should be well within reach. Also quite cheap....
   
   http://www.barnesandnoble.com/p/powerscore-lsat-logic-games-bible-david-m-killoran/1122994650/2675778825810?st=PLA&sid=BNB_DRS_Marketplace+Shopping+Textbooks_00000000&2sid=Google_&sourceId=PLGoP20436&k_clickid=3x20436
   
   
   I used exclusively these resources for self-prep and feel extremely confident about a 170+ on my exam (but only time will tell). The key is really just putting in the hours, whether you do it solo or with some help. I took 37 full length practice tests before the real deal, and even that is less than what some people take.
   
   BEST OF LUCK!!
   
   

Book wise: The Curmudgeon's Guide to Practicing Law https://www.amazon.com/dp/1590316762/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_7NK6Bb635GG00

It was down right raw. Some funny parts. I’m not a lawyer. Short read.

From my experience:
Always learn to create and build something. Not just operate it. You are valuable when you know how to build. It can be anything, build a building, a computer, a program, a team, a business. Anything.

Make your curiosity ample and wide. Specialize a bit but not too much. This makes you marketable.

Stay positive. Avoid nay sayers. Avoid negative people. They tend to hold you back.

Stay in good communication with those that are good at their craft. They will become something one day. You never know when you will need them.

At the office, recognize when someone is using you to make themselves look good. Find a way to get the recognition.

Aim for the office. The salary will follow.

Stay practicing your craft. It so true, while you are sleeping someone else is grinding and hustling to out perform you. Stay hungry!

Find a way for companies to pay for your trips. Like conferences etc. Keep your money.

Be acutely aware that most companies see new grads as cheap labor. You are hungry and have lots of time with no responsibilities. Means you can work long hours for cheap. Meanwhile most bosses go home. So do the math, your salary divided by your hours worked.

Follow most of this and you will be making very good money soon. Ignore it and you will be making someone else good money.

I make ridiculous good money at 40hr weeks. I enjoy my work. I have made mistakes and my suggestions avoid those mistakes.

Good luck!

For MBE: Strategies & Tactics for the MBE (Emanuel Bar Review) https://www.amazon.com/dp/1454873124/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_Ah0XDb3NXPZHR

For essays: https://www.gabaradmissions.org/essay-and-mpt-questions-and-selected-answers

Lots of practice! The way I approached it was to answer an essay question as best I could from memory (usually just writing a quick outline of issues + facts), then go look up the rules for any issue I noticed, but didn't know the rule for, and amend/correct my outline with that, then go to the model answers and amend/correct my outline with anything else I missed. I should try to get a picture of one of these, they are all 3 colors and covered in checks and scratch outs and :| faces. Anyway, I think this multi-step approach really helps to solidify both rules and issue spotting skills. It requires a lot of active thinking about the rules and how they apply, vs just ticking off a list of what you got right or missed. I'm not sure if it will help or hurt you that you get 3 sample answers instead if a single "model" answer written by the NCBE that covers every issue, but make sure you look at all the sample answers, unless you grow confident that every one addresses every possible issue (most passing, and even "good" answers miss an issue or two). Also, I don't think it's worth writing out full essay answers until you've gotten decent at issue spotting, and read a fair number of sample answers. Use the sample answers as models for your own. No need to figure it out from scratch!

The bar prep materials I used had two indexes for the essays and answers, one organized by year, and the other by topic. I found this extremely useful, and I suggest you make yourself a topic index. I would study my con law outline, do con law flash cards, do con law MBE questions, and then do con law essays. Everything reinforces each other.

You'll also obviously want to do some mixed sets -- I would probably do the essays, writing out full answers, not just outlines, from 4 or 5 exams under timed conditions.

You want to do IRAC (issue, rule, analysis, conclusion) for every issue. Even better, imo, is CIRAC--use topic/sub-topic headings that include your conclusion. You should be citing at least one fact from the problem in your analysis for every issue, and you should be citing every major fact in the question at some point in the answer (if not, you are probably missing an issue -- at least that's the case with the MEE).

I am really big on practice questions, and I would do, at a minimum, every essay given since 2012. Because hey, once you've done 60 essays, what's another 4, right?

Did you get back your essays with any comments? If so, I would pay special attention to the weakness they identified and figure out how to improve in those areas. If you aren't clear on what the comments are getting at / how to fix them, I think it's ok to show them to other people and ask for help with that??

I made a huge post during July study time about essay strategies that I'll C/P below, too. It's specifically for MEE, but lots of it should still apply.

Pretty sure the Dec 2015 LSAT is quite rare right now as it recently came out. You could try amazon, as it ships really quickly.

Link: http://www.amazon.ca/The-Official-LSAT-PrepTest-77/dp/0986086231

To be honest, don't worry about how recent the preptest is in terms of how valuable it is. Any LSAT preptest from June 2001 onward is generally the same in terms of the questions asked.

Instead of just prioritizing this one test, make it a habit to do as many questions as possible. I started studying the LR heavily just a few weeks ago and I don't use specific preptests. I just have an app that contains a database of all preptest questions and I try to solve a question per minute.

Managing to consistently break 170 now in LR .... time to move on to LG :).

Good luck on your LSAT!

Mostly, you can find them on amazon for pretty cheap -

Like this one from PT62-71

This one goes to PT71 which is Dec 2013 (I believe). For even newer ones, you can buy them off of any test prep company like Manhattan for around 6-8 dollars per test.

Also, for finding answers and explanations, you can find them through 7sage online for free.

Let me know if you need any additional help finding any! Best of luck.

I am sorry I cannot help you more. But, just as a heads up the idea of "legal speak" is being pushed out of the legal industry. The book Plain English for Lawyers could help your writing potentially if that is something you are wanting to improve. Legal writing is less about using terms such as "henceforth, therefore, notwithstanding, etc." and more focused on being concise and clear in your writing. Best of luck to you.

I thought I wanted to be a lawyer, but now I'm totally jaded. There's no money in law anymore, there's little justice in law, and the average lawyer isn't 'my people'--ie: they are often conceited, selfish, self-absorbed, substance addicted, insincere, etc.. Being a lawyer isn't what you see on TV- its paperwork mostly, there's not very much litigating, its a lot of transactional headache, and long hours for little pay. Public interest attorneys often make as much as elementary school teachers. Jobs in big law are rare these days. Many big law firms are glorified 'good ole boy' clubs and my girlfriends who have worked in those settings were slated in secretarial roles despite their law degrees. I'm going nearly 100k in debt and will likely end up in non-profit management or something where a law degree is irrelevant. I'd just suggest you think critically about your career goals versus a career. Think about what makes you happy and how you can make that a career. The average lawyer isn't happy I would also think about the relevancy of becoming a lawyer in the next decade or two and whether or not they will be obsolete...read this book

I just encourage you to think about if you have to be a lawyer to effectuate change in whatever field of law you are interested in! Wanting to make a difference was my drive for going to law school and now I realize I've dug myself in a big hole that has set me back in actually making a difference. A lot of lawyers get caught up in the system without being able to actually change anything. They don't have the leisure to make any changes because they risk losing their job and in this market- that is a very real risk. These lawyers just become the government's bitch in the same way that environmental lawyers do (that's the field I'm interested in). Personally, I know I'm not meant to be a pencil pusher and most of what lawyering is is filling out forms, filing motions, and apologizing to people that you can't help because your hands are bureaucratically tied- all of which sound miserable for me to do for the next 40 years. I just think that lawyers are over-worked, under-paid, and keep an unfair institution running for no reason other than that they have loans to pay off. Law schools take the best and brightest out of society and stick them in jobs where they aren't truly going to make a difference. It is a shame, and I am not going to let that happen to me!
All I'm saying is that maybe your talents are better invested in the public school system, the policy making movement, public health administration, or even elected office! There are so many ways you can effectuate real and direct change in the lives of others that don't require a law degree. Just some food for thought!
I don't want to kill your dream- but if it could save you a few hundred grand, a bunch of stress, and three years of your life- it was worth it! All I'm saying is that if you have any doubts about going or if you are getting pressure from others to go -- don't go. Take a year off, work as a paralegal, go do the peace corps, just please don't go straight to law school.

You can probably find it somewhere but honestly just pay the money and buy the books.

http://www.amazon.com/10-Actual-Official-LSAT-PrepTests/dp/0986045519/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1463626813&sr=8-1&keywords=lsat+practice+tests

Less than $20 and they're all printed out and easy to write on and take.

I was once in your position and fucked around with PDFs for a long time... and it's ok to an extent... but I think it's worth it to just fork over $15-20 and buy it. Law school is hundreds of thousands in tuition, living expenses, lost wages, and years of your life, if $15 improves your score even by 1 point and gives you a better chance at a good school or more scholarship money then it was worth it.

I thought I wanted to be a lawyer too, but now I'm totally jaded. There's no money in law anymore, there's little justice in law, and the average lawyer isn't 'my people'--ie: they are often conceited, selfish, self-absorbed, substance addicted, insincere, etc.. Being a lawyer isn't what you see on TV- its paperwork mostly, there's not very much litigating, and its a lot of transactional headache and long hours for little pay. Public interest attorneys often make as much as elementary school teachers. I'm going nearly 100k in debt and will likely end up in non-profit management or something where a law degree is irrelevant. I'd just suggest you think critically about your career goals versus a career. Think about what makes you happy and how you can make that a career. The average lawyer isn't happy I would also think about the relevancy of becoming a lawyer in the next decade or two and whether or not they will be obsolete (read this book)

That's my completely unsolicited advice and I don't want to kill your dream- but if it could save you a few hundred grand, a bunch of stress, and three years of your life- it was worth it! Good luck either way! :)

Congrats!

Success in biglaw is so much more than doing great work. Find a partner in a strong practice area who can be your advocate at the firm. Seek out cases with him/her. Let him/her run interference with other partners who may not care if you burn out after one year. Also, learn how to say no to work. Hint: don't say "no."

Pick up a copy of The Curmudgeon's Guide to Practicing Law. It's an excellent book about firm life that contains a lot of invaluable advice for new lawyers.

Hell yeah brother. Rising 2L here. Started practice tests getting a 145, first real test 155 and second test 161

Different people will tell you different things. Some people work well with courses others with tutors others with books. Taking a logic course in college helped me study as well.

The advice I was given: take as many practice tests as possible. Like 25 is where you become the most effective. By 25 tests you get the lay of the land and the question types and can anticipate patterns.

Links for books with past test here

10 Actual, Official LSAT PrepTests Volume VI: (PrepTests 72–81) https://www.amazon.com/dp/0998339784/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_rNH7CbS8G3Q30

I found the LSAT powerscore study bible also helpful brand of books. Link to those here

The PowerScore LSAT Bible Trilogy https://www.amazon.com/dp/0990893405/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_.NH7CbKEDHM6J

Finally, where you can always improve your score the most is the game section. BEFORE you take any practice test, make 4 of 5 copies of the games section of the test. Do a Timed cold run through. Then once you are finished, go through it. Go on the site 7 sage, they are good for games and other things, also have a good YouTube channel (link below). Watch how he does it, then try it again. Fail and then watch him again and try on another copy. Get them wrong and then try again. Do this until you can go through and get everyone right. By doing it multiple times you get the games down pact and can move through them Quickly.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=gorK9SLc2as

Good luck kid. I found the LSAT immensely frustrating. You eventually hit a wall where improvement becomes difficult. Keep grinding and you will get there. PM how you do, and where you end up going

r/lawschooladmissions is cool group but veryyy discouraging tbh. Take your time be confident but apply yourself. Good luck

Thanks for all the advice guys, I have a couple other questions. I'm about half way through this book and he mentions some things I'm curious about. What exactly is a supplement to the reading? Do I have to buy it and is it helpful in understanding things better? Also, what are commercial outlines and what do they do for you? Thanks again for all the help.

The Curmudgeon's Guide to Practicing Law is a good one. Amusing and practical, and very on point. I received it as a gift from one of my mentors early on in my career and thought it was a wonderful aid.

I would also look at templates and examples of court documents on Practical Law's "Standard Documents" portion of its website (along with the website in general). Very, very good baseline materials and law on several important topic areas for the modern practitioner.

What's up dude. Took the LSAT in June. Went from a cold diagnostic of 154 to a 167. (Retaking in Sept for a 170+). Books I used/recommend:

https://www.amazon.com/LSAT-Trainer-remarkable-self-study-self-driven/dp/0989081508/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1469539064&sr=8-1&keywords=lsat+trainer

https://www.amazon.com/PowerScore-Logic-Games-Powerscore-Preparation/dp/0988758660/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1469539126&sr=8-1&keywords=powerscore+logic+game+bible

https://www.amazon.com/PowerScore-LSAT-Logical-Reasoning-Bible/dp/0991299221/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1469539163&sr=8-1&keywords=powerscore+logic+reasoning+bible


Books I used but don't recommend:

https://www.amazon.com/PowerScore-LSAT-Reading-Comprehension-Bible/dp/099129923X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1469539188&sr=8-1&keywords=powerscore+reading+comprehension

Get your practice tests here (seriously, do 20+ under timed conditions while filling out LSAT bubble sheets):

https://www.amazon.com/10-Actual-Official-LSAT-PrepTests/dp/0986045519/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1469539233&sr=8-1&keywords=10+lsat+preptests

https://www.amazon.com/Actual-Official-PrepTests-Comparative-Reading/dp/0984636005/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1469539233&sr=8-3&keywords=10+lsat+preptests

Also, use https://7sage.com/

Sign up for a free account, and use their logic game explanations. They also have analytics that will track your progress and spit out analysis concerning where your weak areas are.

Good luck!

THIS helped me tremendously. It's super short and super useful. I recommend it.

I only used book 1. Can’t speak for book 2 but I’m sure it’s a great help too.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1454873124/ref=tmm_pap_title_0?ie=UTF8&qid=&sr=

I found it much harder. As others have said, it's a ridiculous amount of work to keep up with - think hundreds of pages a reading a week. I did well in UG, and this 1L year has been a kick in the teeth. I knew going in that it would be hard - spent time lurking here and on other forums - but it's a whole different level.

The traditional saying is that in undergrad, professors expect you to know the facts and regurgitate them on exams. In law school, knowing the facts (in this case, the law itself) isn't enough to get a decent grade. You have to be able to apply the facts/law + analyze in order to get a decent grade. On an exam, probably 25% of the grade is based on knowing the law. The rest is your analysis of the facts that the professor presents in an exam, and how the law applies to the facts. To get a better idea, go here and take a look at the "Torts" sample exam questions and answers.

Course-load wise - don't think that because you took 18 credit hours in UG that you can do the same in LS and not die. I took 13 credits first semester, and it was much more work than an 18 credit semester.

1L year - you should not under any circumstances work. I took a 6 hour a week student job helping in one of the clinics, and it's been a giant pain in the ass. Take loans - you are competing against every other person in your class so don't shoot yourself in the foot by wasting hours a week working. Keep your living expenses under control to keep borrowing down.

I'd suggest reading 1L of a Ride to get a better idea. Your school's library probably has it. Check out /r/lawschooladmissions and /r/lsat for test prep. If you're looking at applying for Fall 2018 that ship has sailed. If you're thinking about Fall 2019, you should start studying now for the LSAT and plan to take it in September (and again in November if you decide you want to retake).

Really appreciate the thorough response, and thanks for the encouragement. I really think I'll end up incorporating a lot of this.

If I can ask a couple questions about your resources: Were your custom LeanSheets just two/three-pagers you boiled down from bigger resources?

Also I'm the same way when it comes to learning from getting questions wrong and just continuing to drill. I've considered investing in the Emanuel MBE alongside having some old BarBri resources from a friend, but wasn't sure if there were some MBE resources you liked beyond BarBri's.

Again, thanks a lot for the response.

Great answer. Read some Hemingway. Short direct sentences.
"For sale, baby shoes, never worn."

Get Volokh's book on legal writing. It won't make you quicker, but might increase your confidence.

https://www.amazon.com/Academic-Legal-Writing-andGetting-University/dp/1599417502

The three trustworthy LSAT prep are 7Sage, PowerScore, and LSAT Trainer.

I recommend learning logical reasoning (LR) for LSAT Trainer, logic games (LG) from the PowerScore logic games bible. Use 7Sage for their free LG explanations for when you move on to the prep tests.

So, for the self studying LSAT student, purchase:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0988758660/ref=mp_s_a_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1501893820&sr=8-3&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_QL65&keywords=powerscore&dpPl=1&dpID=51OJB5MwfNL&ref=plSrch

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0989081532/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1501893890&sr=8-1&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_QL65&keywords=lsat+trainer&dpPl=1&dpID=41XYSgqXD6L&ref=plSrch

And as many of these as you can: https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0986045519/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1501893927&sr=8-1&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_QL65&keywords=lsat+preptest&dpPl=1&dpID=41nM%2BRt7N9L&ref=plSrch

And here's 7Sage: https://7sage.com/

I'm posting on my phone, so I'm sorry for the format of all this

Haha the way you write is how they specifically train us not to write in law school because it's not plain enough. This might be a useful book even for non-lawyers to make their writing simpler and more sophisticated: http://www.amazon.com/Plain-English-Lawyers-5th-Edition/dp/1594601518

What you're talking about is a really huge decision. I would recommend thinking about your motivation for going to law school and if its worth taking on all the potential debt. Give this book (https://www.amazon.com/Dont-Law-School-Unless-Opportunity-ebook/dp/B009D13IA6) a read before quitting your full time job and moving away from your serious gf.

Take a diagnostic test under timed conditions and figure out where you're starting from. If you have to apply this cycle and want to get into the top law schools--I would say, yes, quit your job and study full time if your goal is 170+.

1L of a Ride is what I'd recommend, but in reality - nothing is going to be out there that's truly going to help you. It's a learning curve right the beginning for how to read the cases, and then you'll develop your own strategies. The rest of the tips are just fluff that apply to going back to school for any program.

The LSAT is carefully designed to determine which minds can succeed in law school. Start by taking a timed full exam on your own at home (it's called a "diagnostic") and seeing how well you do. Follow these two links...
https://www.amazon.com/10-Actual-Official-LSAT-PrepTests/dp/0998339784/
/r/LSAT
...And check the admitted applicant profiles for the universities you're interested in.

I would look at Law School Transparency. That website will allow you to get an in-depth look at the employment outcomes at each school, as well as the cost of attendance. Outside of the top 20-ish schools, every school is a regional school, and so location, employment outcomes and cost of attendance are more important than ranking.

In my opinion, you should totally ignore US News rankings outside of the top 20. Schools can do things that harm their students in order to boost their ranking. For example, a big part of the reason that Wake Forest is ranked above UNC is that Wake Forest charges higher tuition. This means that their expenditures-per-student are higher, which boosts their ranking.

I found this book to be really helpful. Just be aware that the job market situation is not nearly as dire today as it was when it was published, and so there are now more law schools that are worth attending.

I liked Law School Confidential and used their suggestions regarding how to highlight cases in 5 colors to make it easier to find information later.

There are lots of blogs out there about how to succeed in law school and call out how ridiculous it is sometimes - Girls Guide to Law School, Above the Law, and Lawyerist are a few. I blogged my way through law school and here are my law school survival posts.

I am not sure about the tutor thing -- but one resource I do recommend is Emmanuel's strategy and tactics for the MBE: https://www.amazon.com/Strategies-Tactics-MBE-Emanuel-Review/dp/1454873124

​

It wont substitute a substantive study or bar prep, but it is really helpful to understand how the MBE questions are designed to give you some test taking strategy.

Law School Confidential: A Complete Guide to the Law School Experience: By Students, for Students https://www.amazon.com/dp/0312605110/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_lpqnDbRQRCCFB

Writing Essay Exams To Succeed in Law School: Not Just Survive, Fourth Edition (Academic Success) https://www.amazon.com/dp/1454841621/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_XpqnDb593S6GG

1l of a Ride: A Well-traveled Professor's Roadmap to Success in the First Year of Law School (Career Guides) https://www.amazon.com/dp/1634607899/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_qqqnDbW2K5BJC

If you're referring to previous tests administered I believe there's over 80 available now. You can get them pretty cheap used on Amazon or at Barnes and Noble. They are called the "10 Actual, Official LSAT PrepTests Vol. ____" . I have provided a link to one of the test books here , the used ones start at $5

I'd recommend purchasing at least the 20 most recent lsat preptest on amazon, and to take your diagnostic somewhere in the 62-71 book. They come in packs of 10 for around $40 CAD, dunno what it is in the US. I believe LSAC has a free test somewhere on their website as well but you're gonna need more anyway if you want to practice well for december.

https://www.amazon.ca/gp/aw/d/0986045519/ref=mp_s_a_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1509557680&sr=8-2&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_QL65&keywords=actual+lsat&dpPl=1&dpID=41nM%2BRt7N9L&ref=plSrch

Thanks! Honestly I practiced exclusively for the logic games section. I gave up on studying for the other sections within a week of buying my first practice book - just drill them like you've never drilled anything before, so that you don't get the 'wait, how can I diagram this?' shock that can kill you from the starting gate when approaching a problem. I didn't have a particularly sophisticated routine to study with, frankly that was it - I'd strongly recommend the published LSATs as your main if not exclusive resource once you've had a basic introduction to diagramming (this was mine,) but would be happy to answer any further questions.

I highly recommend spending $5 on a copy of Planet Law School. It will answer a lot of your questions.

Don't go to law school unless (1) it's free and (2) you get into a Top 14 school.

So in college I actually didn't do a ton of extracurricular. I was part of a Fraternity (held a couple positions there), played intramural hockey, and was part of the Astrophysics Society, plus research and school. After that, I went on to get my Master's in Astrophysics, which I just got in December, but that was all I did in Grad school.

To prepare for the LSAT I bought [this] (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0986045519?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o09_s01) book back in December and just went through it and did all the tests. I was averaging around 170-173 so 177 was pretty unexpected!

Drill games from the 29-38 PT book, those games pretty similar to a lot of the newer games in that they are often more complex and sometimes require unconventional diagrams. I actually think they are a bit harder than the 60s and 70s games which is actually a good thing! If you can ace the games from this book anything you'll see on a modern LSAT will be a piece of cake.

And also watch the 7sage videos for EVERY game you attempt regardless of how you do.

https://www.amazon.com/Civil-Procedure-7th-Examples-Explanations/dp/1454815485

This is along the lines of something that I’ve been told could help. In theory it gets us comfortable with what we will be reading during L1.

Plain English for Lawyers is a great book and pushes us in the right direction. Not for simplicity's sake, but because being understood and persuasive require clear meaning.

Your friend should definitely read this book

I am not sure which of these you are asking for but here goes:

From the headline of your post you are looking for California Court Rules- and that you would find online.

But your text asks for basically a summary of a law school class. There are lots of these, for example: here or here . I bet you could get old editions on ebay for next to nothing and for your purposes that is good enouhg.

Another version, the kind lawyers actually use, is called a horn book, and you could find that at a public legal library. Anyone can enter them, just not borrow. They are not set up in a narrative type form so they are more reference books for specific issues. I think you are looking for an overview and this is really granular.

I think the 'in a nutshell' summary is what you want though.

I highly recommend the Examples and Explanations book for Civ Pro. Even an old edition (cheaper) will do a fine job of helping you work through the fundamentals.

I would definitely recommend getting this LSAC book of ten tests (62-71):
http://www.amazon.com/Actual-Official-LSAT-PrepTests-Volume/dp/0986045519/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1408062773&sr=8-2&keywords=10+actual+official+lsat+preptests

Then filling in the gaps with Everylsat pdf downloads:
http://everylsat.com/official-lsat-preptests-4-section-lsat-practice-tests-c-45_36/?zenid=b08e2023a8e64b8b815a338cf68bb49b

I read a few - none were worth it in my opinion except for 1L of a ride - it covers everything and is extremely witty and humorous - keeps things light but gives you a few tips to look out for. I found every chapter to be true at least in part.

I found Law School Confidential to be helpful and interesting.

Although the book is aimed at lawyers, it should help accountants as well. It helps the writer to stop using wordy phrases that professionals tend to use.

http://www.amazon.com/Plain-English-Lawyers-Richard-Wydick/dp/1594601518

This is all I read, easy read and gives you a good idea of the process.

Everyone else recommends Volkoh, but I barely cracked the cover though.

This may not be relevant to you anymore, but in case anyone else comes to this page and is interested:

https://smile.amazon.com/10-Actual-Official-LSAT-PrepTests/dp/0998339784/ref=sr_1_7?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1503856494&sr=1-7&keywords=10+official+lsat+tests

The link is broken right now, but the June 2007 LSAT is normally free: http://www.lsac.org/docs/default-source/jd-docs/sampleptjune.pdf

Otherwise, you can buy a book of ten LSAT preptests on amazon.co.uk. Should be enough.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Actual-Official-LSAT-Preptests-Volume/dp/0986045519/

More people should read this book before even taking the LSAT. Would save a lot of heartache to a lot of people.

Law School Confidential was pretty accurate.

To begin with, I'll tell you my methods are regarded by my friends as unorthodox.

I began with going online onto a blog which had some LSAT questions. I got like 3/5 right, and I was like fuck, what have I gotten myself into? I'm poor, so I immediately decided to study on my own. I bought this, this, and this. After taking like ten tests, I decided to spring for the Logical Reasoning Bible and Logic Games Bible. Overall, I read through those two bibles from cover to cover doing the exercises through and through, not trying to cheat myself of any material. I did it for a month, cause that's all the time I had, but I wish I had spent at least a month and a half. That consisted of four hours of studying (three of which were taking a diagnostic and re-checking wrong answers and another one or two reading the bibles) every day on the weekdays and six or seven on the weekends with no breaks.

I've heard Kaplan is shit. A good friend of mine took Blueprint, and did really well his second time, but knowing him, he would have done so studying himself. If you're going to be using the prep books, I recommend, if you can, doing so at least three months in advance of the June test. The thing is that if you fuck up, you wanna retake Sep/Oct as opposed to retaking Dec. Because admissions are rolling, you're at a huge disadvantage having your app done in December. So your 11th year around March is when you wanna start looking at it. April and May would have to be intense but seeing as finals can be around that time, I would suggest February and March.

In the end, whatever works for you. Just know that Dec applicants are at a huge disadvantage compared to October ones. Also, I was told by students in the admission committee that they look for students who've taken time off after their undergrad. Cal's ratio is 60% who haven't and 40% who have, so keep that in mind. I went straight, because I didn't trust myself.

If you want to be more critical about $ and law school options, just read Don't Go to Law School (Unless). It's written by an actual law professor who shows you how to analyze the choice to go to law school and where best to go.

​

https://www.amazon.com/Dont-Law-School-Unless-Opportunity-ebook/dp/B009D13IA6

You're going to learn that LSAC is VERY protective of their information, so there aren't really any free online resources for old tests. You're probably going to have to pay one way or another. I would recommend buying one of the practice books that have 10 tests in them, like this one here: https://www.amazon.com/10-Actual-Official-LSAT-PrepTests/dp/0986045519/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1468434136&sr=1-2

Use the LSAT questions for reading comprehension and critical reasoning. LSAT is the 'GMAT' for law school aspirants. The questions are designed in a similar way to how GMAT questions are designed and more importantly, tested in a controlled environment. It's an invaluable resource.
You can buy them in paper format only and they come in packs of 10 tests usually. Check this out:


https://www.amazon.com/More-Actual-Official-LSAT-PrepTests/dp/0979305039/ref=sr_1_12?crid=1M3GTJPKTLEJQ&keywords=lsat+practice+tests&qid=1562685057&s=gateway&sprefix=LSAT%2Caps%2C298&sr=8-12

​

Note that there is an extra section of logic games that you can ignore. The rest is fair game and very helpful for improving your Verbal.


As for sentence correction there is unfortunately no more than the ones available through GMAT, but they can be more than enough if you review them thoroughly.


Whatever you do, avoid questions that are not designed by an official testing board. They do more harm than good.

​

Cheers.

I highly recommend The Curmudgeon's Guide to Practicing Law for BIGLAW associates and summers.

On this point, I highly recommend Don't Go To Law School (Unless). It's not a fun read for those planning on law school, but I think reading it with an open mind is important.

You're going to kick yourself.

I also recommend Plain English for Lawyers.

https://www.amazon.com/10-Actual-Official-LSAT-PrepTests/dp/0986045519

Or you could buy them at bookstores. There are different sets of tests ranging something like 20 + years.

Here is the amazon link for 72-81:

10 Actual Official LSAT PrepTests 72-81

The rest can be purchased individually on amazon for about 8 dollars each.

Have you seriously not heard about the abysmal legal employment market? And yes, that includes for grads of top 20 schools.

What did you major in? Computer science, STEM, etc. are where it's at if you want to make a good living. My best friend from high school did computer science and he's killing it while I live below the poverty line with my top 20 law degree.

Edit: if you still unbelievably want to think about law school, read this: http://www.amazon.com/Dont-Law-School-Unless-Opportunity-ebook/dp/B009D13IA6

Law school is just a VERY VERY risky proposition and if you don't do ALL of the right things, there is no safety net on which to land. I speak from my own shit life experience.

I have maybe a unorthodox suggestion: LSAT prep materials. I took the GMAT on a whim (to apply to a JD-MBA program) a week after taking the LSAT, and the GMAT's RC was cake, comparatively. The passages are shorter, more interesting, more straightforward, and you get way more time per question. You can buy ten-packs of previous LSAT tests on amazon (https://www.amazon.com/10-Actual-Official-LSAT-PrepTests/dp/0986045519/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1481700897&sr=8-1&keywords=lsat+preptests).

On a related note, The "Logical reasoning" sections also translate well to the critical reasoning on the GMAT, though I though the difficulty was more comparable for this question type.

As Graeme said, sidebar should be your starting point.

I went from a 156 to a 171 on test day.

Materials:

• Powerscore bibles
  
• Superprep 2 (got it for free from LSAC)
  
• Prep tests 52 - 61 (link)
  
• Prep test 77
  
• 7 Sage LG youtube videos for LG games I struggled with
  
  If I could redo my studying/dedicate more time, I'd have done twice as many pt's and maybe bought the LSAT Trainer.

Two books I can suggest:

1. Wydick, Plain English for Lawyers
   
2. Kuney & Looper, Mastering Legal Analysis and Drafting

http://www.amazon.com/Academic-Legal-Writing-andGetting-University/dp/1599417502

The drill sets are based off the Actual LSAT exams that you buy directly from LSAC. Depending on which study plan you’re using the practice sets with differ I believe.

10 Actual, Official LSAT PrepTests Volume V: (PrepTests 62–71) (Lsat Series) https://www.amazon.com/dp/0986045519/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_CezBCb2J05F6Y

62-71 is what is used for the 12/16 week plans I think; the 72-81 exams are used for full prep tests at the end of studying, so I’d suggest buying both.

... Did you even look?

Strategies & Tactics for the MBE (Emanuel Bar Review)
https://www.amazon.com/dp/1454873124/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_8jc7BbQX419TF

The first book is out of print but the second one is here: https://www.amazon.com/10-Actual-Official-LSAT-PrepTests/dp/0979305047

10 New Actual, Official LSAT PrepTests with Comparative Reading: (PrepTests 52-61) (Lsat Series) https://www.amazon.com/dp/0984636005/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_HcsyzbR1FMCB2

Start with this one! I worked through this one in the weeks before June.

The 10 Actual, Official LSAT PrepTests 42-51 https://www.amazon.com/dp/0986086290/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_pdsyzbEVWV2X5

Then this one! I’ll be mostly using this one before my retake.

Amazon and Barnes and Noble both say October 4th.

When are you taking it?...

http://www.amazon.com/10-Actual-Official-LSAT-PrepTests/dp/0986045519/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1417620729&sr=8-1&keywords=lsat+62-71

https://www.amazon.com/Dont-Law-School-Unless-Opportunity-ebook/dp/B009D13IA6

Don't Go To Law School (Unless)

Third year law student. Incoming students, for example, are 1L's. Here is one of the books about being a 1L.

Read this: https://www.amazon.com/Curmudgeons-Guide-Practicing-Law/dp/1590316762



>I don't have all the documents they asked me to bring.

What documents are these? It's Sunday. Why cant you go get them?

Mark Herrmann's "The Curmudgeon's Guide to Practicing Law"

http://www.amazon.com/The-Curmudgeons-Guide-Practicing-Law/dp/1590316762

The Curmudgeon's Guide to Practicing Law
http://www.amazon.com/The-Curmudgeons-Guide-Practicing-Law/dp/1590316762

Don't go to law school (Unless) by Paul Campos.

The LSAT is divided into 5 multiple choice section plus a 6th essay section. The sections are all in a single booklet. They are numbered from 1 through 5 with the essay at the end.

Each section is 35 minutes long. During that section, you're only allowed to answer questions from that section. You can't look into earlier sections or later sections.

If you'd like, you can skip around WITHIN the section, but do not leave the section until instructed to start the next section because this is considered cheating and can affect your life.

I'm not sure what country you're in but if you have amazon there, order this book:

https://www.amazon.com/10-Actual-Official-LSAT-PrepTests/dp/0986045519/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1472802434&sr=1-1

they are actual LSATs that have been given in past years. The formatting on the LSAT will look like the tests in this book.

They are cheapest if you buy the books of ten instead of single preptests. The titles are a little confusing, so check to see which test numbers are included. Here are the three most recent (and most relevant):

Preptests 72-81

Preptests 62-71

Preptests 52-61

This might sound mean, but I'd recommend Paul Campos' book "Don't Go To Law School (Unless)". It really made me think about the decision I was making, why I wanted to go to back to school, etc - it's so easy to lose sight of that in the slog of the admissions process and in sifting through schools' various sales pitches.

> I'm not trolling, I'm genuinely curious, but aren't we supposed to be a little pretentious as lawyers? Isn't that just assumed with the territory?

No, use plain english as much as possible, unless a term of art is unavoidable. Didn't they cover this in your legal writing class?

Check out Plain English for Lawyers by Richard C. Wydick.

I had no problems with ordering them.

Here's a link to one. Just look for the author Law School Admissions Council to be sure.

Strategies & Tactics for the MBE When I bought it, it was down to $41 or $42. The price fluctuates greatly throughout the two Bar Exam seasons. My recommendation is to do practice questions from your bar prep course and then, 3 weeks before the exam, do the questions in the book, chapter by chapter. These are actual MBE questions which I found helped me immensely as the made up questions from barprep companies got a little outrageous near the end of the course.

You might want to try /r/LSAT or /r/lawschooladmissions for this. Most of the people over here are already in law school.

But as far as studying for the LSAT, I think the most effective thing is to buy the PowerScore books and just do practice test after practice test from the LSAC. The LSAC sells books of ten LSATs (like this one) that you should be practicing on. The LSAT is incredibly repetitive as far as skills it tests, so it is likely to be a much better use of your time to just buy some basic books then take lots of tests. Unfortunately, all too often LSAT courses move at painfully slow paces that won't be as efficient as reviewing just the issues you're missing on tests you've taken.

I only did this in the last week, but Khan Academy also gives you some free full digital tests. Maybe get a book of practice tests, but if you have to work like I did you probably won't get as many in as many other people here. I found it helpful to write down the numbers of the answers I got wrong per section and then blind review/reanswer just the ones I got wrong to try to understand where I messed up. If you have a section you know you are satisfied with (I'm no 170+, so I was happy to only get 2-4 wrong on LR, so focused on LG) then do more of those sections than full tests, unless you have time for full tests.

First off, if you have the resources/time, try taking the bar next July instead of Feb. You'll thank yourself for having more time to spread out and study. I didn't do that (I took all 3 of my exams back-to-back-to-back), but had I failed a third time--which was possible--I would have moved back to my parent's place and taken the test a 4th time in July instead of Feb.


I started studying a week after my results both times. I got a local CA bar exam tutor the 2nd and 3rd time (fuck barbri) that assigned us essays that we later discussed together in small groups. Each day was about 10-15 hours of studying, which consisted of doing and reviewing about 3-4 essays that were assigned by my tutor and 50 MBE's. But make no mistake, I took at least a day off a week. Otherwise, I would have gone insane.


As far as essays go, barbri's aren't that bad, but, at least for CA, they're WAY too in-depth given the time constraints. I used this book for the CA bar exam essays: https://www.amazon.com/Essay-Exam-Writing-California-Bar/dp/073550993X If you can find a NY one similar to the one I linked, then you're golden.

As far as MBE's go, again, get a hold of the Kaplan/PMBR ones, and do these Civ Pro ones from Emanuel: https://www.amazon.com/Strategies-Tactics-MBE-Emanuel-Review/dp/1454873124/ref=pd_sbs_14_t_1/164-3132343-7414359?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=3YN7A1AYTGD6BXWMQA79

Finally, I'd review the black letter stuff--which, frankly, is the entire bar exam, as it's almost impossible to grade policy answers--while practicing/reviewing. You also memorize better by practicing. I'd dedicate barely any separate time solely to black letter stuff.

Again, YOU CAN FUCKING DO THIS

Supplements aren't essential, but they can be one of many tools you use. I rely heavily on supplements and have done very well in law school. Here are the one's I used for those courses:

Civil Procedure: The Glannon Guide and the E&E (also by Glannon).

Criminal Law: Understanding Criminal Law by Dressler.

Property: Understanding Property by Sprankling and Siegel's Property.

after you finish law school, do not start living like a rich lawyer.
continue to live like a broke person and aggressively pay down your college debt. don't buy a BMW or move to an upscale part of town. keep your expenses low until you pay off the debt. afterwards, you'll potentially be earning a $100k+ income and have no debt ... that's a very strong position to be in.

if you haven't read Paul Campos's book Don't Go To Law School (Unless), I urge you to read it. It's one of the most balanced and realistic examinations of the costs and benefits of law school. I know several people who went to law school and regretted it because they didn't have all the facts and had naive expectations. https://www.amazon.com/Dont-Law-School-Unless-Opportunity-ebook/dp/B009D13IA6