Coming soon to a screen near you...

A major update. And FULL DISCLOSURE on the Oxbridge interviews.

LSE

I heard from the LSE. It's a no.

*Suppressing the urge to freak out.*

Actually I'm pretty calm and cool about it. I think I've become emotionally detached about this whole admissions thing. I've met with so much rejection. Still waiting for the official rejection from Cambridge.

LNAT: Clarification

Hey, since people are still freaking out about their LNAT scores (one of the search terms that lead to this website was 'has anyone ever gotten an 11 on the LNAT') let me just clarify what I was saying before.

The LNAT is a bad exam. It's bad like Charles Manson. It doesn't do what it's supposed to do and it screws a lot of people.

The thing to remember is that the LNAT score is only one of many criteria used to assess you. It won't kill your application necessarily. The average is really low precisely for the reason that it's a poorly written test and that makes it extremely challenging to get the answer they want you to get.

Let me also caution future LNAT takers about one thing. When you practice LNAT, it is fine to start with the practice books, because they are very useful for learning the content and format of an unusual standardised exam; and they're good for learning strategies to tackle the exam, in a broad sense. When you want to really gauge how you're going to do on the actual exam, please, PleasE, PLEASE use official old exams from the LNAT website.

Here is a dirty little secret.

Prep books and prep book writers/publishers want you to think that they have helped you improve your performance on the test. They are always going to end their book by giving you practice tests that are either official but easier than the average exam, or tests that they have written themselves which are easier than the average real exam. I have used 3 or 4 prep books in my LSAT/LNAT career, from various publishers (including Kaplan). They all end by giving you practice exams which are easier than the actual exam. Do yourself a favour and don't get too excited when you get a 25 on your practice test. Go to the LNAT website and get the three official practice tests available there. They will give you a more accurate picture than anything else.

There, I've spoken my piece.

LNAT Freakout

A lot of people seem to be freaking out about their 2010 LNAT scores, which were released just yesterday. I just ran a Google search and there is a lot of panicking going on.

Example.

People are really confused about how they managed to do so well on practice exams (even in prep courses) and ended up with 9's on the actual test. Some people think this has to have been a computer mistake and want to complain and re-sit the test.

People, the LNAT is a terrible exam. The fact that I got a high score is meaningless because this exam is not a reliable predictor of performance in a law course. I wish it meant I was going to be really good, but I think it's just a bad exam and I think law departments are going to catch on soon enough. Cambridge stopped accepting the LNAT last year for precisely that reason.

Good (Slightly Irrelevant) News!

I got my LNAT score today, finally.

I know that in the past I may have expressed some negative feelings about this exam. Hmm... how to backtrack... ? ...

I love this exam. This exam is a perfect indicator of success in law school. Perfect correlation. Standard deviation of 0.000005.

The average score was 16.7. Let's just say I scored significantly higher than that. Exact score by request only, and only for reference.

Sorry, but I deserve to brag a bit.

Wait... I got a very high score but still got rejected from Oxford. What's that about? Humph!

There is no news!

Haven't heard anything from Cambridge. My life is in limbo!!!

Second Cambridge Interview

I went to my second Cambridge interview yesterday. I took a much more low-key approach to this one, knowing from my previous experience that advanced preparation is useless.

This one was quite short and mostly subject-related. They said they were trying to assess my potential aptitude for studying law and I failed to find the desired answer for several questions. I think my interviewers were actually stunned into silence by my stupidity, or at least that's how it felt at the time. My prediction is that I won't be accepted there either.

Which makes my American applications more important! Deadlines, deadlines everywhere!