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Tag: black girls in law school

  • The HIDDEN COSTS of Applying to Law School

    Good morning, fellow prelaw students! Welcome back to a new post!

    Unfortunately, you read that right. There are costs BEFORE you even consider paying for tuition, textbooks, or a townhouse if you’re fortunate.

    1. LSAT-specific Resources – This is the first thing everyone spends money on when they start their LSAT studying. Or any standardized test to get into a specialized program/field. As usual, there are books or programs you need to study with to create a study schedule, for explanations, for what to focus on, etc. Some people choose to do classes, which could be valuable depending on your learning style or what you’re comfortable with. I have a blog post here of LSAT resources I’ve used or am planning to use, both free and paid for.
    2. LSAC – This is where you need to take the LSAT, so it’s non-negotiable. The LSAT costs about $200, provided you don’t want to see your grades in advance or cancel your test if you don’t feel prepared or any other benefit I haven’t explored on the website. If you want access to extra practice tests (your sign-up gives you 4 in a simulated testing environment, as well as a sample essay question), you need a subscription of about $100.
    3. Applications – Hello and welcome to ‘I have to pay the province to get into the school.’ If you live in Ontario, there’s a standard $200+ fee on the OSLAS website, plus some schools require specific applications that they may have to pay for.
    4. Study supplements – My biggest surprise was how much food I’ve been eating. If you watch the YouTube chronicles of my time studying, you’ll see me get frustrated with eating almost every three hours. Intense concentration requires more brain work, apparently. The more your brain works, the more calories you use and the more you need to eat to supplement and ensure you build the stamina to keep going. And, you want to nourish yourself with good food, which costs more.
    5. Time – I saved enough money to apply for law school, finish my last semester of University and support my basic needs, including bills, for about a year. However, what I didn’t budget for was how long each application would take, how long it would take to write a good essay, to apply for multiple scholarships, to actually study, or even to ask professors for recommendations! All these things I never budgeted my time and energy for. And my mind was overloaded once I realized this.

    As you can see, there’s a lot more that goes into law school than just grades and LSAT scores. There’s a lot of pre-planning and sacrifice before you even get to step 3, so it really makes sense to make sure that’s what you want before you decide to start the journey.

    Hopefully, this post helped put things into perspective for you and helped you decide your law school journey.

    – HL

  • FREE LSAT RESOURCES for the Self-Study Student

    I have been studying for the LSAT on and off for about 3 months now. I plan to take the August 2023 LSAT and apply to law school for the Fall 2024 cycle. Fingers crossed I do well enough to make it into my top choice!

    For the way I learn, I need to have a schedule and a daily to-do list to keep me on track. I may not actually follow said list (which is why it’s taking me this long to study), but a visual spread of what needs to be done always helps. For that, I have used the LSAT Trainer by Mike Kim (3rd edition). The good thing about this is that you can view samples of chapters online, create study schedules according to how many weeks you have to study and he provides lots of supplemental resources on the site. This way you’ll be able to gauge if it’s worth your money since it is upwards of $80. I don’t have the financial resources to take a dedicated course and it has been years since I’ve been in a normal classroom setting, so the ability to go at my own pace and work in silence is golden.

    You also need to register on the LSAC website, which is where you’ll take your LSAT and communicate your scores to potential schools anyways. An initial sign-up is free and you get access to a few practice tests on the website. This is good because you’ll get the feel of how the LSAT is administered online if you’ve chosen the flex option. The flex option is when you can take it online, from home, and is new since COVID. In conjunction with the LSAT Trainer, and required to get the most out of his program, is the 10 Actuals books. We do drills from the 72-81 edition. And we do practice exams from the 82-89 edition.

    That’s it for required paid resources that I’e used. I also look in the thrift store for resources and there are usually a few books that are under $5. Now that that’s out of the way, here are the YouTube videos I’ve used so far to supplement my understanding, as well as a few apps that I have not yet tried out that come recommended. Also, some websites used the term ‘analytical reasoning’ instead of ‘logical reasoning’, however, they are the same. Note that most often, these videos may not have the specific question in the video because of copyright reasons.

    Videos I’ve used:

    LSAT Lab – for lecture style explanations (specifically for logical reasoning and logic games so far)

    Law School Grit – to explain ‘if’, ‘only if’ and ‘if and only if’ statements

    LSAT179com – to explain ‘either…or’ statements

    LSAT Unplugged & Law School Admissions Podcast – for help explaining specific games and diagramming (he does speak kind of fast though)

    LSATMax LSAT Prep – for help explaining specific games and understanding questions (she diagrams a little differently than the LSAT Trainer, but it’s still clear to me)

    Eric Wilson – for help explaining logic games (this one is my favourite recently)

    These videos helped me curate my study schedule and process:

    Banter with Babs – HOW TO STUDY effectively and her resources.

    Nadia Cianca – How I raised my LSAT Score (she talks about her resources and introduced me to the concept of blind review)

    Resources I have yet to try:

    KHAN Academy – to help with Logic Games. I have downloaded the app, so I’m currently using it just to refresh how to diagram games on the go. It does come recommended by the LSAC.

    PowerScore – to help with Reading Comprehension. I’m not sure if their resources are free, but they do have a podcast on Youtube and Spotify for specific LSAT tests administered.

    The LSAT Unlocked – no idea what this is yet, but if I still feel unprepared I may try to find it at the library/thrift store. *update: it’s not free or cheap, but it might be a replacement for LSAT Trainer if that book doesn’t vibe with you.

    7Sage – they have explanations for specific questions, which would be useful. But I just haven’t needed them yet.

     

    That’s it for now! I hope this helps to guide your studying a bit! I will update this blog post as I happen upon resources or videos that help me with specific things.

    Good Luck

    HerLife