Desiring not to spend my post-college life in the same way, I determined to take the LSAT and gain admission to one of the nation's top law schools. My first practice LSAT, which I had taken a year earlier, was a disappointing 164, which had caused me to enroll in a Princeton Review course on my college campus as a junior. The Princeton Review course was not very good, and only increased my score by about 5 points.

My mother sought out the advice of a private law school admissions counselor, who told us that Princeton Review LSAT prep classes were not very good, and that we needed to go with PowerScore or TestMasters instead, as these were the two best companies. Well, "there are some better ones, but they're only out on the east coast. Those two are the best around here."

Summer of 2006 was when I would take a TestMasters class, learning the methods of the man who set the world record for most 180's on the LSAT. The course was not offered in my home town, so my mother had to drive me 40 minutes each way to a wealthy suburb where the class was held. It was something she was willing to do twice a week: after all, she had moved to this country so I could get a quality education and become a member of the elite, and TestMasters was going to help me get there.

My instructor was a pot-smoking hippie who had graduated with a degree in Philosophy from a small, liberal arts college. As far as I could tell, teaching the LSAT was his only job. He had gotten a 178 on the test. It was bizarre to me that he would work as an LSAT instructor. With that kind of score, I figured, he could have easily gotten into Harvard. He could now be a corporate lawyer making $200,000, and yet here he is teaching LSAT classes for far less? I prayed for his soul.

My TestMasters instructor told me that I needed to chart out all of the arguments and games on the LSAT, reduce them to if/then statements and then coldly apply the rules of logic. "Every single one?", I said. "Surely, that is impossible".

"It is the only way," he replied.

At first, it took me forever to do it, and I ran out of time. But as I practiced more and more (on real LSATs, not on the fake ones Princeton Review gives you), I got fast at it. Some of what I was doing seemed counterintuitive - for example the fact that I could not assume that "most" meant over 50% - but it mattered not that the responses this method gave me made sense, it mattered only that they were CREDITED.

School started again in the fall. I got a 178 on a practice test. I was ready.

It was a cold, rainy October day when I finally took the real LSAT. My mother waited in the parking lot for me to finish, all 5 hours, rain pouring on her windshield. I methodically bulldozed my way through the logical reasoning and games sections, reducing everything to a chart. I ran into some bumps on the reading comprehension - it was heavy with science. My instructor told us there was little use practicing for reading comprehension, it could not be gamed the way the other parts could.

For weeks thereafter, I had nightmares of waking up to a 169. But finally my score came. I got a 175. I called my mother, and we had a celebratory dinner at a Thai restaurant. Her son would be going to an elite law school.

"I have often doubted if moving to this country was the right thing to do," she told me. "Not anymore."

(https://autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=2989388&forum_id=2#28754531)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pocKf4-pfhM

(https://autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=2989388&forum_id=2#28763676)

which raises the questions

why would anyone believe a pumo?

why would anyone care about a pumo?

(https://autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=2989388&forum_id=2#29028879)

i wasn't that popular of a teacher because my second or third order of explanation pretty much boiled down to "instead of picking an incorrect answer, like you just did, you should instead pick the correct--i.e., "credited"-- answer like i do."

sounds like you at least got what you paid for. i always liked to tell myself i did some favors to the students i had who clearly didn't get it by not forcibly dragging them to the maximum score their intellect would allow.

(https://autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=2989388&forum_id=2#29029576)

what was the name of your lsat instructor?

(https://autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=2989388&forum_id=2#36513234)