The Last Five Months: What I did on my Matt-Cave Vacation (Part One)

I think I’ve been going through my quarter-life crisis this summer.  It’s a tad early since I won’t be 25 till April, but it’s definitely been a time of unsettling reflection.  But it has spurred me to make some very big changes and actual life goals.  Fancy that.  Not proud of the accomplishments I’ve had and not excited about the prospects of a future career that did not seem to exist for me, I turned to a dream of mine.  I’ve always wanted to be a lawyer, but for some reason had all the excuses in the world as to why it would never happen.  Money, time, ability, boyfriends.  With nothing holding me back lately, I decided to find something to propel me forward and actually do something with my life.

So this summer I have decided to attend law school.  I have dedicated much of the last few months to studying for the LSAT.  I highly approve of the LSAT as opposed to other graduate level assessment tests because one needs not know anything to succeed.  Unlike the MCAT for med students or the GRE for everyone else, where you must know facts and actual skills, the LSAT tests your way of thinking, analyzing, and reasoning.  So while you can study strategies, there is very little use for dreaded flashcards or memorization.  

I’ve always been a fan of standardized tests.  Maybe it was the weight and smell of a freshly-sharpened No. 2 pencil, or perhaps the fun of shading in those perfectly-organized ovals on the scantron sheets.  Or perhaps it was the 3 half-days we would get every March for the MATs when I was in grade school.  Whatever the reason I was uber-excited to take the LSAT.  

I put myself on a very strict study schedule that I actually followed.  That is a first for me.  All projects I begin have great intentions at first, but quickly dissolve into procrastination and excuses.  So by Week 4 of my personal five-week course (Kaplan my ass!) when I actually found myself on schedule I realized this whole law school thing might actually happen. Logic puzzles, reading comprehension, argumentative reason, and a few thousand essays later, it was time to take the test.  I was striving for a 160 (which is decent), but found I had plateaued just below at 159 on the practice tests.  

The night before the test I gave myself a little break and decided to relax, go to bed early, and not try cramming.  So what did I decide would make for a great distraction?  An episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer seemed in order.  Next episode up in my continuing effort to slowly watch every Buffy in order or the course of a year was “The Body.”  That’s the episode that easily should have won the show an Emmy that year, the most affecting hour of television ever crafted.  Buffy’s mother dies of an all-too natural cause and the Scoobies have to deal with the lose. What was I thinking?!  From beginning to end, you cry.   All thoughts of logical reasoning evaporate as you are reduced to one emotional puffy heap.  I had exhausted myself from the weeping like a schoolgirl enough to fall right to sleep.  Perhaps that insanely upsetting show was good for my test-taking skills after all as I was well-rested come 6:30 the next morning.  

The morning of the test I was amazed at the quality of my fellow test-takers.  Sitting in a chilly college classroom on the Rutgers campus, I noticed the many young fratboys and clueless princesses whose parents must have forced them to take the test.  If only this thing is graded on a curve, I thought. During the pre-testing instructions, everyone is required to write out a statement saying we won’t sell LSAT secrets to the highest bidder on eBay or something to that effect and sign it.  The instructor told us to handwrite this; do not print.  The boy behind me actually raised his hand and asked “what if we don’t know how to write in cursive?”  Then you should go back to the second grade and give up any hope of doing well on this test!  And who uses a word like cursive who isn’t a 70 year-old Catholic school penmanship teacher?  Obviously someone very self-conscious and defensive of his inability to handwrite.  

When all was said and done, I felt great about the test.  Two weeks later I found out I scored 165, which to those of you who know anything about the test know is a pretty great score.  It’s very little fun to tell people you scored 165 and have them ask “is that good?”  No fault of their own; I would have no idea if I had never taken the test.  But it’s hard to be proud of something that means so little to so many people.  I’m hoping it means a good deal to the admissions committees though.  I’m now currently in the process of applying to schools.  I’m hoping to get into Rutgers Law since it is possible I could afford it.  We shall see. To be continued.