Birthday LSAT

I turned 25 on Saturday. It was a great day, thanks to Erin. She was even able to slip in a few surprises. (You can read more about it here.)

Unfortunately, I also had a bummer on the morning of my birthday. I went to take another practice LSAT for my prep class, and I scored lower than I had been the past three weeks. I got a 159, which I know isn't terrible but still disappointing to me.

What really made it disappointing was not so much that I got a 159, but that as I went over my wrong answers, I found so many dumb mistakes. There were so many questions I missed simply because I wasn't paying attention. In fact, I tried to count the questions I would have answered correctly if only I had focused more, and I estimated that I would have had a 166.

I blame the lack of focus on lack of sleep. And I blame the lack of sleep on school. Even in my long 25 years of life, I've rarely felt mad because of school. I've felt stressed or overwhelmed, but not mad. But I was mad on Saturday morning.

I guess I should be reassured, though, that a good night's sleep was the only thing I needed, and not that the test was incomprehensible or over my head.

Here's the latest charts!

A coupla podcasts

Hey sports fans,

I've neglected to post links to the lastest CougarCasts. I guess with all the LSAT stuff I've been pretty busy. Hard to imagine, I know.

Anyway, here's what you've missed:

CougarCast: BYU vs. Utah State

This one was fun, because I did it with a sports editor from USU's student newspaper, The Utah Statesman. Tavin Stucki was really nice...especially when there were some technical difficulties and I had to redo the whole podcast.

CougarCast: BYU vs. San Jose State

I was out of town for my grandma's funeral, so I didn't do a podcast to recap the Utah State game. But we combined that with the San Jose State preview. For this podcast, I got Briana Carr, broadcast journalism student extraordinaire and fellow New York City intern, to join me. We talked about a lot of stuff - including Jimmer's wedding.

CougarCast: BYU 29, San Jose State 16

For this one, I finally got together with Aaron Sorenson, one of the DU's football beat writers.

Later this week, when we preview the Oregon State game, we're going to have a surprise special guest. Stay tuned.

That Sly Smirk of His

It's been a long, long time since I had a cartoon in the newspaper. But I did one for today.

In case you haven't heard the story, an evangelical pastor who is a big Rick Perry supporter told evangelicals not to vote for a Mormon, because it would be bad to have a Mormon as president and that Mormonism is a cult. And Rick Perry initially did nothing to restrain this supporter, and eventually did start distancing himself.

I had a problem with this pastor before I even heard him talk. He just had this dumb looking smirk on his face, like a cat who swallowed the canary. I was just thinking how smug he looked as he said things that were just plain wrong. It's fine for him to not want to vote for Mitt Romney, and it's fine for him to not vote for him because he's a Mormon. But to say Mormons are not Christians is nothing more than a gross misunderstanding.

Way to go Anderson Cooper for confronting this guy:

October 8 LSAT Practice

Another practice LSAT this morning. It's sort of strange to take a practice one after I've already taken a real one. But, until my score comes back and it's something amazing, I'm planning on continuing to practice and prepare for the LSAT in December.

Today, I got 162. So I tied my all-time best for the third time. Here's what's interesting though: I was a little late to the practice session this morning, which meant I had less time to do the first section, which was logic games. I had to leave blank six questions. Even then, I still got almost 70% on that section, which is higher than my average. Just for fun, later I did those six questions, and got five out of six right. So, if I had only had a little more time on that section, I probably would have got 91% on that section, and would have had a 164 overall. So close!

Also after the test, I tried to remember some specifics about the real test last Saturday. I have a feeling that I probably got five or six wrong on each section. If that's the case, then I got somewhere between 74 and 80 correct, which would be right at 162 or higher. In other words, I'm predicting that my score is 162 or higher. I've got my fingers crossed!

Once again, here are my charts:

LSAT Attack

So, for any of you who have been on J.J. LSAT Watch, you've been disappointed this week. Not to worry, I'm here a few days late to catch you up on all the news.

Last week was crunch time before taking the real LSAT on Saturday. So I decided to take a break from blogging about the LSAT and just practice it. And, Practice Week was a bit of a roller coaster, but overall I got better and better as the week progressed.

It didn't help that I had a nasty sore throat and runny nose at the beginning of the week. One test, I was forced to leave blank 16 out of 23 logic games questions. Not good.

But I still managed to score a 156 that day. And, twice I got 162, my personal best. And one of those times, I got 24 out of 26 right on the reading comprehension section! So that was awesome.

Here's charting the practice week's results:

So, Saturday was the big day. I didn't get quite as much sleep as I wanted the day before, but I still felt pretty well. I rode my bike to campus instead of driving or being driven, to get my blood pumping. There I was at the Wilkinson Center, surrounded by other twentysomethings, mostly men, all carrying Ziplock bags with lunch. We filed in and checked in at about 8:20. The test didn't get started until about 8:50.

I've heard some people talk about how intimidating the BYU Testing Center is. They feel pressure from the huge, silent room full of test-takers arranged in rows and columns. Well, I've never felt that at the testing center, but I did feel that at the beginning of the LSAT. And for some reason, the proctor reading the instructions - even though I already knew the instructions and didn't need to be scared by them - added to the atmosphere.

I usually have plenty of leftover time in the logical reasoning and reading comprehension sections, and therefore have the luxury of checking my answers. But I didn't get as much time to do that on the first section. Then, on the analytical reasoning/logic games question, there were a couple I had to guess before running out of time and a few more that I was rushed through.

But, every section after that I felt pretty good about. I think my Practice Week really paid off. I felt about the same as I did while I was taking the practice tests that got me a 162. So, I'm feeling like I got a 162 or above. Of course, people feel great about the LSAT and end up bombing it, and others feel horrible and end up doing amazing. I'll find out my score on October 26 (but I hope earlier).

In the meantime, I can focus on other aspects of applying to law school. The letters of recommendation and evaluations are coming in, and I need to start writing my personal statements and putting the finishing touches on the forms.

Oh, and, here's maybe the part you're the most curious about: with this rough idea of what my LSAT score will be, I've narrowed down my list of schools I'm interested in applying to.

So, if I get around a 162, here's where I'll apply:

Texas
Notre Dame
These two are the schools I'm "reaching" for. If I get a 162, I could maybe get into these schools, maybe not.
(For any of you who are thinking, "Why would a Mormon want to go to Notre Dame?" read this: "Two faiths - LDS Church News")

UC Davis
I hadn't thought a lot about this school, but after looking at both law school rankings and the probability of getting into a law school with my GPA and my LSAT score guess, this one seems be where those two lines intersect. (And, it's close to Sacramento, so I can stay close to Jimmer, haha.)

North Carolina
A really good state school, and we've heard a lot of great things about the state of North Carolina. And, except for BYU and Utah, it's the cheapest.




 

Washington
I hadn't really thought of Washington either, until I made this list and realized that Gonzaga and Willamette were the only Pacific Northwest schools on the list, and that I could definitely get into those two schools with even a lower LSAT score. So I thought I should balance that out by finding the highest ranked Pacific Northwest school and including it. (I wanted to include the Pacific Northwest since I'm from Oregon.)

 Arizona State
This is mostly Erin's idea, but I could probably enjoy Arizona if we lived there. See, it's all about compromise! Haha. Erin got the idea from her cousin Cara, whose husband is trying to get into Arizona State. It would be great to live nearby them and go through the law school adventure together. And, I wouldn't mind going to a school named after Sandra Day O'Connor.

BYU
To be honest, I feel like I'd rather move out of the state of Utah. Not because I can't stand it here, just because I think I'd be more excited to move somewhere new and have an adventure. (That was part of what made our two months in New York City so amazing. Not just that it was New York, but because it was new for us.) But, you can't argue against the cheap tuition.

Utah
Similar to the reasoning behind choosing BYU, although at least moving out of Provo would be something new. It would be more exciting to live outside of Utah, but the in-state tuition is tempting. And, my friend Bert is going to law school there, and it would be fun to hang out with him and his family.

Baylor
Basically, this is a back-up Texas school in case University of Texas doesn't work out. (Erin's family lives in Houston, in case you didn't know.)

Gonzaga
Willamette
Good schools, but not ranked nearly as high as the rest. Even if I don't get the LSAT score I'm expecting, I have a good chance of getting into either one of these. These are sort of my back-up schools.


I also have other schools to try in case my score is higher or lower than I'm expecting.

Harvard: If I get 170 or higher (And, 'cause, hey, why not?)
Stanford: If I get 168 or higher
Michigan: If I get 168 or higher
Georgetown: If I get 168 or higher
Duke: If I get 166 or higher

What do you guys think?

CougarCast!

CougarCast: BYU 24, UCF 17

Another podcast, this one with Dallin Turner.

To preview Utah State, it looks like I'm going to be talking with a sports editor from USU's student newspaper, The Utah Statesman. Should be interesting.

Reviewing "The Student Review," Part Deux

My earlier post about the Student Review was used today as The Daily Universe's response to the alternative paper's debut.

Viewpoint: Student reviews Student Review

It's basically what I blogged earlier, just shorter.

LSAT > UCF

So, right now BYU is playing UCF, but instead I'm in the library to blog my continuing LSAT practice tests. I had to take the practice test tonight instead of tomorrow, because I'm going on a field trip tomorrow to Cedar City. I wish I didn't have to miss the game, but tonight was the best time to practice. If only I could do everything...

Well, today went a lot better than last week. I got 158. It's still not close to my goal, and the real LSAT is only a week away. I'm going to try and study and practice all week next week. I'm coming to realize that I would probably do better if I weren't preparing for the LSAT while at the same time taking 14 credits at BYU. But I don't want to wait a year before trying to get into law school, I'd rather go as soon as I can. Which I guess means accepting an LSAT score lower than what my pure, absolute, no-other-influencing-factors best would be.

Here are some new charts. I did these a little differently: they show my average score, and instead of doing an individual chart for each section of the test I merged them into one test.

UCF?

It's another CougarCast. This one is a class in "UCF 101."

CougarCast: BYU vs. UCF

LSAT practice - Sept. 17

I haven't blogged yet about how my practice LSAT went last Saturday. Part of the reason is because it didn't go very well. I can't think of any other explanation other than that the test was hard. But, I dropped to 153 from 159 the week before. It was especially frustrating after spending a week practicing the analytical reasoning (logic games).

I know it's just practice, so I shouldn't take it too seriously. Thanks to those of you who have given me your encouragement!

I won't be taking the LSAT practice this Saturday morning, because I'll be leaving for a field trip for my Shakespeare class. So I'll probably take one Friday night instead. Wish me luck!

My progress, in nerdy chart form: