I took my LSAT this Saturday, and it was HORRIBLE. It wasn't the test itself that was so bad (a lot like the SATs in that regard), but it was everything else that made it an absolutely horrible experience.

For people who don't know, the LSAT is the Law School Admission Test. It's not designed to test knowledge of the law (that's what the BAR exam is for), but to test logical and verbal reasoning skills. There are six sections to the exam, two Logical Reasoning sections, one Reading Comprehension section, one Logic Games section (Formally called Analytical Reasoning), one Experimental section that isn't graded but used to test future LSAT questions, and a Writing section that also isn't graded but sent to law schools along with my application. The exam itself lasts for about two and a half hours, but all of the time spent filling out my information, getting verified, and breaks makes the process much longer (and more exhausting). The scaled scores range from 120 to 180, with 151 being the average (although not really desirable).

Each section of the exam is designed to test some aspect that is neccessary to becoming a good lawyer, and lasts for 35 minutes. The Logical Reasoning Section tests the ability to judge arguments, understand what assumptions are made or needed, how to strengthen or weaken them, and then how to refute them. It's considered so important a skill that it's included twice in the exam. Luckily, I'm very good at this section, so having two of this is to my advantage. The Reading Comprehension tests the ability to understand large blocks of complicated and technical texts, draw inferrences, quickly find information within the large passages, and describe the structure of the passage along with the main idea. I'm also very good at this, so I like this section. Logic Games test the ability to keep track of different sets of information along with the many rules that govern them. In a logic game, a scenario will be presented (for example, five people [A,B,C,D,E] will be volunteering during the week), and then rules will be given for them (only two people will volunteer at a time, A and D don't work together, D only works with E, C and B work together only if it's Tuesday, etc) and then questions that test our ability to make inferrences about this and reach conclusions will be tested (for example, determining the proper schedule for the week, determining who's working with who once a group has been decided on, etc.) This is considered the hardest part of the exam for many people, myself included. The Writing section is always last, and it tests the ability to write a concise and logical argument on a freshly-presented subject. It doesn't require that we know everything about the subject, and it's not about law (mine in question was about choosing the better of two locations based on various factors). It's just that we have to know how to write a good essay. This is also something I'm good at, so I liked this as well (although my hand-writing sucks, so I was worried about that).

I had to wake up at 5:30AM the day of my exam because my LSAT location was over an hour away. I didn't need to be there until 8:30AM at the latest, but I was afraid of not getting a good parking spot and traffic jams. The thing is, my LSAT was at Virginia Tech, which is one of the largest colleges in the country (certainly has one of the largest campuses). One of its major draws is its football Team, the Hokies, which played the day of my LSAT (against Miami). Which means I would be forced to park with all of the people who would be arriving for the game (as I was only allowed to park in Visitor's parking, where football fans were also being directed). Because I was told of how serious Hokie fans are, I figured I needed to arrive early. I was also forced to pay through the nose for my parking, adding insult to injury as far as I'm concerned (I already had to pay $132 just for the honor of taking the LSAT).

The exam itself wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. For the hour or so I had to wait to be admitted into the exam room, I had been doing my best to keep myself calm and collected, but it was really hard. It's the waiting that really makes the LSATs hard, I think, because once I was working on the first section of the LSAT (after having spent an hour being directed around and filling out my information) I was able to calm down and become more confident. I opened with three of the easier sections, one of which was the experimental (don't know which one, though). After that I got a fifteen minute break before going into the Logic Games section. I had been sweating bullets over this section the entire time, because I know I suck at them. I had yet to even finish the section on time before taking the exam, so I was really worried about this part. But I swear, it all just came together for me. I was able to get through each section quickly, understand what the problems were, and draw good inferrences. I think I must have gotten three easy games, or maybe I'm just so bad at it that I didn't even realize how poorly I was doing (I'm hoping it's the former). It could just be the fact that I do better in the test environment than when studying on my own or doing online tests. Anyway, I was able to finish this section up on time and confident before moving on to the writing portion. All in all, despite being very tired, I was in rather good spirits upon leaving the exam room...

...Which quickly dissipated when I saw that it was raining outside. The highway between Virginia Tech and my university is really mountainous, all up- and downhill, and I had yet to take those hills in a heavy rain (also, being born and raised in Florida, I'm not very confident driving in the mountains to begin with). So, I wasn't really pleased to see that it was about to start pouring buckets (I also didn't have an umbrella, and it was cold outside). My happy mood was then completely burst when I saw not only how many football fans were in the parking lots now, but what they had done to the parking lots. For anyone who's seen that stereotypical Superbowl parking lot scene where everyone's camped out, set up tents, playing games out in the lot, and getting absolutely drunk... well, that's what I had to drive through if I wanted to leave. Just to back my car out required that I asked some group of people to move their hackey-sack game out of the way (I was very polite). Less than a foot later, I had to ask a group of about thirty drunk VT students to move along with another hackey-sack game. One of the guys there saw that I was exhausted and helped direct my car past them. It turns out he was a lawyer, and he thought that it sucked that my LSAT had been planned for a game day (I agreed). His congratulations helped make the situation somewhat better, but the LSATs had drained my mental state to that of a finicky child and I was quickly upset once again when I had to ask another group to move. This sort of stop and go driving continued for another five minutes as I carefully made my towards the exit... on the other side of the lot (in hindsight, I picked a terrible place to park, but not being a football fan, I had no clue it would really get this bad for just a college game). I think the worst/funniest part of this was after asking a line waiting to use the porta-potty to move (I asked politely), the people in the line (all rather drunk) noticed that I was 1: leaving without seeing the game, 2: had a Florida License plate, and then assumed 3: that I was a Miami fan (remember, the Hokies were playing against Miami). Upon doing all of this they began booing at me, which means that I left my big test day soaked to the bone and freezing, about as smart and patient as a five-year-old who hasn't had a nap, and being booed at by thirty drunk Virginia Tech students.

To say it was a bad day was a bit of an understatement. I can at least take comfort in the fact that my mother found this story hilarious.