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5 December, 2006
Writing the LSAT

I recently wrote the Law School Admissions Test (LSAT). Before I registered, someone I know who has a law degree said the test is basically an IQ test: it measures your abilities, not your knowledge. So you can't really study for it, he said. Someone else with a law degree said at most you can do some practice tests. Yet another such person told me he did one practice test and "waltzed in there" to write the actual exam.

Sigh. If only it were that simple.

I thus left my own preparations until a week before the exam. Then I started doing internet practice tests. I did all right, but I wasn't timing myself. Then I timed myself. I did poorly.

I ramped up my practicing, doing sample questions in all my free minutes. Two nights before the test, I was still doing badly. The morning of the day before the test, my wonderful mother drove me to the airport. I was in a foul mood from my poor showing the previous night. But my mom cheered me up. She's good that way.

On the plane I did more questions. I had been focusing on the "logic games" questions, because they gave me the most headache. They're basically brain teasers, like "A developer is building eight houses, each a different colour. The red house must be east of the blue house. The green house can only be west of the yellow house if the grey house is east of the orange house. There must be two houses between the indigo house and the pink house. The grey house cannot be the first from the west or the second from the east. How many different sequences are possible?" (Hypothetical example, not an LSAT-endorsed question.)

Actually, they're less brain teasers than brain hurters.

A nice middle-aged couple sat next to me on the plane. They were calm, dozing in their seats, holding hands. As we landed, they asked what I was doing. I explained, and they cheerily wished me luck.

That evening at my cousin's new house in the not-yet-finished Saskatoonian sprawl, I was still going way over time on those cursed brain mashers.

At the exam, they wouldn't dismiss us for our 15-minute half-time break before impressing upon us that we were not allowed to discuss the test. I tried to break the ice that had kept people acting stiff to each other all morning. "So. . . well, I guess we can't talk about the test. . ." I said to a guy about my age. He just smiled and walked away. Crazy. Well, I know that lawyers aren't all like that because I have two lawyer friends.

Then came the logic games section. I skipped the first two games and worked on the third of four. After a few questions I became stumped. I skipped back to the first game and answered all of the questions on it. Hm, that one was easier than it looked. I started the third game. The test administrator called "Five minutes left".

I was aghast. I wasn't even half done the section. Time to call in my Plan B. Albert Einstein Celebrates Dave's Birthday. I filled in the remaining bubbles with that pattern, then did a couple more questions before time was up. Wow. That could have gone better. I had done a mediocre job on the other three sections, and, well, botched this one.

But seriously, I don't think more preparation would have helped me. Those games seem like ya-got-it-or-ya-don't exercises. So, tune in next month for the exciting conclusion: my score!

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