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5 Ways to Put Off LSAT Prep Over Labor Day Weekend

Looking for something to do this Labor Day Weekend besides study for the October LSAT? Here are a few ideas:

1. Take all white clothes from closet. Place in box marked “January 2013″.

2. Read 50 Shades of Grey. Place with Twilight series in box marked “soft porn for women”.

3. Work on fantasy football draft picks for next weekend. Remove beer helmet from box marked “essential NFL gear”.

4. Go back-to-school shopping. Place 2012 hipster gear, including red skinny jeans and American Apparel v necks, in box marked “Goodwill”.

5. Glance at Blueprint LSAT textbooks. Place back in box.
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Sep 1, 2012 - 9:00 am - By Jodi Triplett
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Study: LSAT Prep with Blueprint Makes You Smarter

A study in neuroanatomy from UC Berkeley using students from Blueprint LSAT Preparation classes verifies what we at Blueprint LSAT Prep have long suspected: studying for the LSAT makes you smarter*. In fact, reading the word “neuroanatomy” probably just increased your IQ at least incrementally.

The study, which exclusively used Blueprint LSAT Prep students enrolled in our in-class, three-month course of LSAT study as test subjects, found that when compared with a control group not training for the LSAT, Blueprint students exhibited “decreases in radical diffusivity (RD) in white matter connecting frontal cortices, and in mean diffusivity (MD) within frontal and parietal lobe white matter.” Yeah, baby.

Um, what?
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Aug 23, 2012 - 5:01 pm - By Jodi Triplett
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Geraldo Rivera’s Questionable Reasoning in the Trayvon Martin Case

The much-publicized death of Florida teenager Trayvon Martin took an interesting twist when Geraldo Rivera pronounced in an interview on “Fox and Friends” last week that “I think the hoodie is as much responsible for Trayvon Martin‘s death as much as George Zimmerman was.” Later in the interview Rivera also said “Trayvon Martin, God bless him, an innocent kid, a wonderful kid, a box of Skittles in his hands. He didn’t deserve to die. But I bet you money, if he didn’t have that hoodie on, that nutty neighborhood watch guy wouldn’t have responded in that violent and aggressive way.”

Without commenting on the tragedy of Trayvon’s death or the hoodie movement it has spawned across the country and at institutions like Harvard Law School, we at Blueprint were interested in the outrageous errors in reasoning Rivera’s comments displayed. One of the few bright spots in studying for the LSAT is that, if done correctly, it trains you to spot fallacious reasoning. This comes in handy as a law student, a law practitioner, and, in this case, as a media consumer.

Perhaps the journalism standards for someone who hosted episodes such as “My Ex Hired a Hitman to Kill Me” Read Entire Article…

Mar 26, 2012 - 7:08 pm - By Jodi Triplett
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Must be the Season of the Waitlist

It’s still winter, and that means plenty of people have already been admitted to law school. (Jerks). For those of us not touched by angels, this also means that declinations abound. (Please pass the tub of chicken). Then there’s that special third group of people in their own little circle of hell. The waitlisters.

This post, all of you waitlisted and in law school limbo, is for you.

What to do when you’re waitlisted for law school:

1. Read the instructions you’re given.
Some schools explicitly invite waitlisted applicants to send additional materials. If this is the case, you’ll want to submit a letter of continued interest, along with any updates you have.

Some schools may expressly ask you NOT to send additional information.
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Feb 17, 2012 - 10:30 am - By Jodi Triplett
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University of Illinois Law School in Hot Water (Again)

Illinois is a troubled state. In July, former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich was convicted of corruption for selling Barack Obama’s vacated senate seat. He will be the fourth Illinois governor in 35 years to go to prison. The fourth. And that doesn’t count the plethora of other politicians who brushed up against the law without being imprisoned.

So perhaps it shouldn’t come as a surprise to an Illinois-jaded public that the University of Illinois Law School is dealing with its share of negative publicity, as well. The Chicago Tribune reports that the school is conducting an internal investigation into whether the school inflated LSAT test scores and GPA’s under Dean Paul Pless.

If this sounds familiar to you, there’s good reason.
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Sep 16, 2011 - 4:46 pm - By Jodi Triplett
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LSAT Scores: To Law School and Beyond

Do prospective employers care about your LSAT score? Career social networking site LinkedIn thinks they might.

Digital Trends reports that last month LinkedIn added a service targeted for students to enhance their member profiles. These include places for students to list any organizations to which they belong, coursework, honors and awards, and (cue the dramatic pause) standardized test scores.

I get that students don’t have much work experience to put on their résumé beyond “Starbucks Barista” or “Manager of Customer Service Relations at Hot Dog on a Stick,” so additional information can be extremely useful. However, do prospective employers really care about your LSAT score? Doesn’t the importance of your LSAT fade away after law school admissions?

For the most part, no and yes.
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Sep 6, 2011 - 4:41 pm - By Jodi Triplett
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Villanova Scandal Shows LSAT Scores Matter to Schools, Too

There’s a lot of buzz going on right now about Villanova’s Law School. Diverse Education reports that “Villanova’s average LSAT scores were padded by two to three points between 2005 and 2009…The median GPA was raised by up to 0.16 points.”

While the law school didn’t lose its ABA accreditation, it certainly could have. Instead, the bar association issued a public censure that the law school must display on its web site for two years. Not exactly great for the law school’s image.

As a student you’re probably interested in a high LSAT score to get into the best law school possible. But why would a law school care enough about its average LSAT scores to lie about it and run the risk of losing its accreditation?
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Aug 26, 2011 - 1:23 pm - By Jodi Triplett
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Le Tour de France of LSAT Studying

The Tour de France officially ended this week. Comprised of three grueling weeks over varied terrain including the French Alps and Pyrenees, it is the most prestigious bicycle race in the world. You might be familiar with the tour from one Lance Armstrong, who won the tour a world-record seven times with only one testicle. Which is why he’s such a badass. (Also because he dated Sheryl Crow).

Anyhoo.

I find watching the tour every year a riveting experience, and this time around was no different. From Dutch cyclist Hoogerland getting hurled into a barb wire fence to the first time stage win by America sprinter Tyler Ferrar, it was packed full of excitement.

So what does the Tour de France have to do with the LSAT, you might wonder?
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Jul 29, 2011 - 4:52 pm - By Jodi Triplett
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These Go to Eleven.

Every three years or so, we survey our spring classroom students for the Blueprint score increase study. We do this to make sure that we’re doing a good job of teaching our students. After all, if your students aren’t improving their performance on the LSAT during the course, then you’ve failed as an LSAT prep company.

In spring 2008, our average practice exam score increase was 10 points. We were a smaller company then, with classes throughout California and an outpost in New York City. Since then, we’ve been adding locations and this spring expanded into five new cities – Boston, Washington DC, Philadelphia, Austin, and Phoenix (in addition to our extant California and New York classes).

The big question became: was it possible to become a national company and still maintain our massive score increase of 10 points? So many companies grow and lose all quality control. (You know what I mean, Starbucks – you actually served good coffee, once upon a time).

So what are the results?
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Jul 14, 2011 - 3:40 pm - By Jodi Triplett
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Why You Should Take a Prep Course, and Also Shop at Ikea

This weekend I moved. In the past, I moved perhaps twice a year for roughly five years in my twenties and had it down to a science. One U-haul, some hastily packed boxes that eventually gave way to drawers emptied into garbage bags, and voila! I was done.

Then I moved from a condo where I have been residing for approximately seven years. Using inductive reasoning, I thought the condo move would be the same as the numerous apartment moves I had experienced in my (relative) youth. Right? Wrong. Three days, one very sore back, and two workers who weren’t amused that an 8 hour work day stretched into 12 hours later, I learned my lesson.

Where is the LSAT in all this, you may wonder. Don’t worry; it’s tied to the lesson. Here’s the deal.
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Jul 1, 2011 - 2:43 pm - By Jodi Triplett
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