I hope everyone enjoyed their two days of summer here in Seattle.  I apologize to the Saturday class for the heat of the room.  It looks like that was it for sun this year so we should be okay from here on out.  We still have room in this round of classes so if you know anyone who is thinking about applying for the fall of 2013, have them give us a call.  New and interesting from the LSAC world, they are not posting next year's testing dates until January of 2013.  Much later than what they normally do so we will not be able to set our class dates until early next year.  They assured me that they will be the same 4 written tests spread out along the same time frame throughout next year.  I am not sure why the delay in releasing the testing dates.

It looks like a great summer to study for the LSAT!  We like it when the weather is not great, easier to stay focused.  The classes for the October 6 LSAT start Saturday, August 4; Tuesday, August7 and Wednesday August 8.  There is room in all of these classes.  There is another test on December 1 and both of these will work for applying to law school for the fall of 2013.  Law schools don't start the intense part of the application review until January.  However, if you can squeeze in studying for this test now, it is better to try for the October test and have the December one as a back-up.  Plus, if it goes well in October, then you have the rest of the fall to pull together your application without it adding addition stress to your studying and practice test taking.

I am back!  I spent several weeks in a very wet England.  Between Wimbledon and the upcoming Olympics, there were many newspaper articles on athlete psychology that translate very well to the LSAT.  It is essentially a performance.  Not only maintaining your focus and not allowing yourself to get psyched out by your opponents but I now have some interesting ideas about taking practice tests with the goal of "sure wins."  The analogy is to boxing where they set up fights where it is an easy win for the boxer.  This gives the boxer a sense of confidence that he takes with him to the next fight.  Same with the LSAT.  Create goals that are sure bets, things like setting up sequence games or tacking main point logical reasoning questions.  Don't set scores are your goal.  It is harder when you are taking the test to know that you are reaching your goal.

Also, 2 weeks left before classes start for the October test.  Sign up soon!

I am heading out on vacation but Steven and Ellie will be taking care of things until I return on July 16.  Please contact us when you get your scores so we can start planning on where to go from there.

With another 10 days or so before the scores come out, now is a good time to think about some of the application components that you can get done during the summer.  The two best would be getting your transcripts sent off and start working on the letters of recommendation.  Make sure to contact all of the schools you attend, including running start and community college institutions.  For letters of recommendation, the form can be found after you "add a recommender" under the letters of recommendation section in your account at www.lsac.org.  Once you have added them, you will see a "print form" button.  Let me know if you have any questions about the process or if you want to talk about who will write a letter for you.

We wish all of our students the best of luck today on the LSAT.  Please get in contact with us if you want to talk about your test, find out where your experimental sections is or what other people thought of the different sections of the test.  Because LSAC does not allow discussion on the internet about specifics of test, I will not be able to post anything about it.  You are welcome to call and listen to the message or come meet with us.

With one week to go until the LSAT, a couple of thoughts.  One is make sure that you read the instructions that come with your ticket very carefully.  Your ticket is in your account on LSAC, located under the LSAT header.  Don't mess with the instructions.  You can be turned away from the test if you don't follow them.  The big ones being, everything comes in a 1 gallon ziplock plastic bag and then other - no cellphones.  As silly as the rules may seem, they are for your protection.  Also, it is time to start thinking about if you are going to take the June test.  If you are good with where you are scoring right now, then go for it.  We can talk afterwards about where it felt good or not.  If you are not where you want to be and think with a few more months, you can get there, then it might make sense to wait until October.  You can't change your test date at this point.  Just don't go next Monday.  The law schools will see that you were registered but didn't take it.  They truly don't care.  If you decide to put this off, get in touch with us so we can create a study plan for over the summer.    The best of luck to those of you who take it on Monday!