My Marathon, part 3

As I continued to pound the pavement, or in my case, prep books and practice tests, I did improve my new skills of picking the answer that would most strengthen or most weaken the argument above. My ability to read dense passages about science, history, or law stuff and answer questions about the passages got easier. I made progress in solving the dreaded logic ‘games.’ I’m pretty sure my kids thought my prep book had grown attached to my arm, as I was rarely seen walking around the house without it.

Besides reading the “how to” pages and doing a few practice questions, I started taking previously administered actual lsats. I would reserve a study room at the library (so my kids couldn’t interrupt me!) and lock myself in the stark room with a new-to-me test , my number 2 pencils, my timer, and my bubble answer sheet. Just like the real deal. Obviously, these "long runs" would not have been possible without so much support by my wonderful husband, in-laws, or when Brian was out of town auditioning somewhere, my new friends would take my kids in for playdates.  By the time June 10 rolled around, I had taken 9 previously administered lsats. PS that’s a time consuming hobby! When I first told a couple friends that was I going to take the lsat I told them I was just shooting for average, the median score of the lsat. I thought there was no way I could ever hope to do better than that. But scoring my practice tests proved exciting as I found myself getting above the median and very slowly inching my score higher.

About a month before the lsat...I got sick. Like a runner crippled by shin splints, I caught a cold. A dumb cold. I had a sore throat, coughing fits throughout the night, lost my voice, went through boxes of kleenex, lost my sense of taste, ears filled up, goop coming out of my eyes, cold. All I wanted to do was sleep. And I did for a couple days. But then I pushed through and kept getting up at 6 to study. My inlaws looked at me, worried, as I hacked and coughed all over my prep books. My annoying cold symptoms did improve but they just wouldn’t completely go away. Finally on the 19th day of not feeling like myself, I went to an instacare and a 5 second look in my throat got me a diagnosis of a sinus infection and some antibiotics. I don't know if I had ever had a sinus infection before but when webmd says that sinus infections eventually go away on their own, I now believe they’re lying. Why had I waited so long and put up with the coughing fits that interrupted my timed test section practicing?! (Well to try to save money of course, a mom going out like a martyr...sheesh.)

During this time, a little less than a month before the lsat, we found out that our French horn professor, Dale Clevenger, who was retiring after 47 years as Principal Horn of the Chicago Symphony, was being lauded with a concert in his honor on June 10 in Chicago. That’s right. June 10, the day of my lsat. We had known there was going to be a special concert but hadn’t been made aware of the date until then. I was devastated that Brian was going to get to go hear the concert and have an awesome time in Chicago while I would be home, taking care of the kids, and going to take a three and a half hour test on that day instead. “Why don’t you take it in Chicago?” Brian asked. I looked into and it was super easy (and only $35) to change my registration to Northwestern Law School. We booked our tickets to Chicago and I looked forward to our awesome trip together, without kids, and also dreaded my looming deadline.

About 2 weeks before the lsat I took a weekend lsat boot camp class downtown. Eight hours on Saturday and eight hours on Sunday of lsat drills. Six students and one Harvard Law educated instructor who had scored in the 99th percent on his lsat in a room together, nerding out on logic games. It was intense and very helpful.

Before I knew it, 10 weeks of studying had come and gone, and I was packing my bag for Chicago.

part 4 tomorrow