Calmer

I studied yesterday, Sunday. And I studied today, Monday.

The difference between yesterday’s results and today’s (in terms of problems answered correctly) is minute but an improvement nevertheless. And if I want to continue seeing these teensy, incremental improvements, I have to keep studying frequently, don’t I?

A tinge of dread

It’s 9:30 on a Monday morning. The last Monday in April. The LSAT is June 8. It’s a case of it is too late to work on a design project, but it is too early to just go to class. I should probably study the LSAT, right?

I ought to, but my head is tired. Does that make sense? I feel a little burned out from yesterday. Yesterday, when I tried to do nine practice drills but only finished four, with the scores getting lower with each drill.

I think I am going to sleep for another 15 minutes, wake up and get ready and then head to the library…

In the face of discouragement

I took another practice exam on Friday afternoon. I scored two points lower than the last time.

This is discouraging, especially after I write “Let’s aim for a higher score next time!”

However, I remember the last time I was taking weekly practice exams — in January, in my LSAT prep class. My score dipped EIGHT points. So while getting a lower score is not fun, scoring two points below is not as bad as scoring eight points below your highest score.

I’ve since made this site my home page, so I can contemplate it every time I check my e-mail or icanhascheezburger.com.

I crave immediate results. Tomorrow, I plan on taking my “pacing practice” book to Love Library and going through a lengthy but realistically measured set of drills.

To explain what I will be doing: Each section of the LSAT is 35 minutes long. The categories are logical reasoning, reading comprehension and games. For my “drills,” I will do three practice sections of each category (with ample breaks) and hope that I improve with each section. It will be a long afternoon, but provided I dress in layers, bring a water bottle and pack snacks and chewing gum, I can do this. My goals, more than anything, are to clip along (it’s really easy to get either bogged down or swept away by the all the dense and often engaging text) and to get fewer and fewer incorrect answers with each drill. Because that’s really what the LSAT score boils down to: how many questions you answered correctly.

An LSAT plateau

Dear blog readers,

So I finally took a practice LSAT at home last Saturday night. It wasn’t as structured as it could have been.

But to land the plane, here’s my point: I just finished grading it, and I got the same score as my highest score during the LSAT prep class back in January.

This is good, because it means my skills haven’t fallen by the wayside.

But this is bad, because it means I have a lot of practice ahead of me if I want to bump my score up a few more points.

However, other things — namely, a project I’m editing for my media ethics class — are taking precedence. I can’t think about the next study session or practice test until I jump through some school-related hurdles.

Oh school, how you get in the in the way of school.

LSAT strategy

This entry is coming to you from a futon in Berkeley. I flew in from Phoenix this afternoon, and I’ll be spending Monday at Cal’s J-School. I’m staying at a grad student’s studio apartment, and we had a brief but reassuring conversation about the LSAT. Although she’s a grad journalism student at UCB now, the Georgetown alumna hammered in the following:

1. If I am taking the LSAT in June and studying now in April, that’s good and I should be fine. What’s important is that I study effectively (quality trumps quantitity) and that I don’t psych myself out.

2. What works: Taking one to two diagnostic exams each week, so I get used to concentrating for four hours straight.

3. What else works: Practicing the games frequently.

So far, in terms of study strategies, I have been slogging through high-difficulty args and reading sections and then trying to clip along when I time myself. This has reaped encouraging results, but I think the grad student is right. I do need to start building endurance. And through diagnostic (read: practice) exams, I can build my argument and reading comprehension skills.

I have the resources (practice books, practice bubble sheets, pencils, analog watch, etc.) to take a diagnostic. So I should probably get on that. Hold me accountable to this, readers. A diagnostic exam by next Monday.

Happening now

Blogging in a professional tone is difficult in that I have to gather my thoughts and type it up in AP style. However, I think gathering my thoughts will be easier if I take notes on Twitter and use my tweets for reference.

So I’ve added the Twitter widget to my blog. It’s the thing on the right titled “Happening Now.”

Right now, I’m at Arizona State University, twittering on the News 21 conference at the Cronkite School. So please, read my messy little tweets, and maybe I’ll write a summary later tonight in Berkeley. (BTW I’m flying to Berkeley tonight so I can visit my News 21 class tomorrow.)

Apologies for the hiatus

First, thank you for continuing to visit this blog, even though I have not updated it since March 2.

Second, I should let you, my readers know the focus of my blog will shift slightly. Because I am not working at the law office as often, I have significantly fewer anecdotes to share with you.

However, there remains a lot for me to blog. For NewsNetNebraska and beyond. Please expect me (read: hold me accountable) to blog about the following topics:

1. Adam Liptak — I’m writing a magazine-length biography about him for my senior honors thesis.

2. LSAT — I’m studying around nine hours a week for this exam, which I will be taking in June.

3. Hispanics and law — Because I am very interested in immigration news.

Please check back!

Current events

Here are some articles that are relevant to my interests as a bilingual receptionist at a criminal defense/immigration law office. Click on a headline to read the entire article, and there’s lots more after the jump.

Target of Immigrant Raids Shifted

By NINA BERNSTEIN
The raids on homes around the country were billed as carefully planned hunts for dangerous immigrant fugitives, and given catchy names like Operation Return to Sender.

And they garnered bigger increases in money and staff from Congress than any other program run by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, even as complaints grew that teams of armed agents were entering homes indiscriminately.

But in fact, beginning in 2006, the program was no longer what was being advertised. Federal immigration officials had repeatedly told Congress that among more than half a million immigrants with outstanding deportation orders, they would concentrate on rounding up the most threatening — criminals and terrorism suspects.

Instead, newly available documents show, the agency changed the rules, and the program increasingly went after easier targets. A vast majority of those arrested had no criminal record, and many had no deportation orders against them, either.

Let’s remember this is for NewsNetNebraska

And let’s remember it by watching a video I made this week.

Do Grand Theft Auto fans think online expansion packs threaten retailers? CLICK ON THIS TO WATCH GAMERS SOUND OFF.

The video corresponds to a story written by my classmates about Grand Theft Auto’s latest expansion pack, which is only available online.

An anticlimactic reply

Earlier this week I set out to ask the government: Can you make a map that shows prison admissions on a
block-by-block basis, ala this article from the Atlantic?

Things at the office were a little slow this morning, so I took a minute to call the Lincoln Police Department’s press contact, Officer Katie Flood. She forwarded my question to Chief of Police Tom Casady, who in turn wrote back:

This article from The Atlantic is the latest in a series of such projects, originated by Eric Cadora in 2004.  See the original, “Million Dollar Blocks” from the Village Voice:

http://www.villagevoice.com/2004-11-09/news/million-dollar-blocks/

The full panoply can be explored at:

http://www.justicemapping.org/

To construct a similar map in Lincoln would be relatively easy, given the quality of our geographic data and our expertise in geocoding.  But, we would need a source for the data:  a table of persons admitted to jail/prison, including the street address of their residence immediately prior to their admission to the institution.  That’s what we are missing.   I can’t think of a source for this.  We have, of course, people on parole, registered sex offenders, even people arrested or cited, but not jail/prison admissions.

Tom Casady

Well. I feel so civically active now. I encourage you to visit the links.