In Which I Fail Brilliantly, Part 2
I took my first ever practice LSAT on Saturday (the June 1997 edition, if you're interested).
In high school, I took the SAT "cold" with the notion that I'd figure out where I was, take a prep course, and bump up my score. Calling it "taking it cold" was a bit of a misnomer, of course, because I'd taken at least one standardized test a year for the previous 10 years or so. These tests included two PSAT exams in high school (one, according to my high school, "for practice") and the SATs way back in 7th grade, too.
Before this morning, however, I had *never* looked at a question from the LSAT. Not one. This was, in the words of Andre 3000, cooler than being cool. Ice cold. Now, of course, the questions on the LSAT aren't from Mars - three-quarters of them are reading comprehension, which we've all done before (see above).
The other quarter is "logic games," with about 25 questions to do in the 35-minute period. This is a laughably insufficient amount of time. For those who don't know, a logic game looks like this:
That said, not too shabby on the first time out of the gates. Final score: 165.
Oh, and one final thought: the office is a creepy, creepy place to be on the weekend.
In high school, I took the SAT "cold" with the notion that I'd figure out where I was, take a prep course, and bump up my score. Calling it "taking it cold" was a bit of a misnomer, of course, because I'd taken at least one standardized test a year for the previous 10 years or so. These tests included two PSAT exams in high school (one, according to my high school, "for practice") and the SATs way back in 7th grade, too.
Before this morning, however, I had *never* looked at a question from the LSAT. Not one. This was, in the words of Andre 3000, cooler than being cool. Ice cold. Now, of course, the questions on the LSAT aren't from Mars - three-quarters of them are reading comprehension, which we've all done before (see above).The other quarter is "logic games," with about 25 questions to do in the 35-minute period. This is a laughably insufficient amount of time. For those who don't know, a logic game looks like this:
An amusement park roller coaster includes five cars, numbered 1 through 5 from front to back. Each car accommodates up to two riders, seated side by side. Six people—Tom, Gwen, Laurie, Mark, Paul and Jack—are riding the coaster at the same time.I used to do logic games as a true-blue pimply nerd in 8th grade math competitions. They were admittedly kind of fun. But here in LSAT-land, they give you just about enough time to say "Whaaaaaaaaa?" and rub your eyes before the entire section is over. Shoot me now. I hope to improve at these questions before they tank my actual LSAT score, instead of my practice LSAT score: I got ONE-THIRD of the questions in the logic section wrong.If Paul is riding in the second car, how many different combinations of riders are possible for the third car?
- Laurie is sharing a car.
- Mark is not sharing a car and is seated immediately behind an empty car.
- Tom is not sharing a car with either Gwen or Paul.
- Gwen is riding in either the third or fourth car.
- (A) One
- (B) Two
- (C) Three
- (D) Four
- (E) Five
That said, not too shabby on the first time out of the gates. Final score: 165.
Oh, and one final thought: the office is a creepy, creepy place to be on the weekend.
Presented for your delectation by the Hired Hand at 11:53 AM
Comments on "In Which I Fail Brilliantly, Part 2"
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Anonymous said ... (8:34 AM) :
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Selfish Country Music Loving Lady said ... (8:01 PM) :
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Yeoman said ... (12:11 PM) :
post a commentHH -- Just be grateful that the LSAT no longer includes the flogging and hot irons parts like it used to when I took it back before the dawn of time. Well, no, they didn't actually flog us and use hot irons. It just felt that way. The LSAT was then an all-day ordeal with an 800 point grading scale. I prepared for it by buying a preparation book and took the practice test in the book. As I recall, I did something like mediocre on the practice test. On the real thing, despite the pain, I did quite well (I've always tested well, as I'm sure you have). Anyway, the score was more than good enough to get me into the University of Washington School of Law. Very few things in life are as good or as bad as they are anticipated to be. The LSAT and the bar exam, on the otherhand, were every bit as dreadful as I thought they would be. But, hey, they are just tests. You'll do fine.
Law school, followed by many years of law practice, truly warps one's view. With this disclaimer, I note that one would be unlikely to make any serious money were one to represent Mark in his claim. He is plainly lying: Once we know that Paul is in the 2d car, then Mark must be in the fourth car, alone with an empty car behind him. It seems anatomically impossible for Paul to have groped Mark under these conditions. Sorry, bud.
All I'm saying is, if you ever go on the Cyclone at Coney Island, for the love of all that is holy SIT NEXT TO SOMEONE. Do NOT sit in a row by yourself. Your neck, arms, feet, and adrenal glands will thank you.
Oh well, it's a win win proposition.
Either you will do well on the LSAT, get into the law school of your dreams, and proceed to agonize over three years of studying, to be followed up by a major test that can render it all moot, or;
You will fail the LSAT such that you will not get into law school, but will instead get another career worth having, because you are smart, and thereby will be spared being a member of a profession with extremely high career disatisfaction rates, high rates of depression, and high rates of alcoholism and drug abuse.
You can't go wrong.