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?

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…

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.

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.

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.

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.)

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!

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.

U.S. Military Will Offer Path to Citizenship

By JULIA PRESTON
Stretched thin in Afghanistan and Iraq, the American military will begin recruiting skilled immigrants who are living in this country with temporary visas, offering them the chance to become United States citizens in as little as six months.

Study Shows Sharp Rise in Latino Federal Convicts

By SOLOMON MOORE
Latino convicts now represent the largest ethnic population in the federal prison system, accounting for 40 percent of those convicted of federal crimes, according to a study released Wednesday by the Pew Research Center, a nonpartisan research organization.

Latinos made up only 13 percent of the United States adult population in 2007, but they accounted for one third of federal prison inmates that year, a result the study attributed to the sharp rise in illegal immigration and tougher enforcement of immigration laws.

Nearly half of Latino offenders, or about 48 percent, were convicted of immigration crimes, while drug offenses were the second-most-prevalent charge, according to the report.

Death by Detention

Posted by:     William Wheeler on February 23, 2009 at 10:01 am
When illegal immigrants waiting to be deported die in custody, who is to blame?

Guido Newbrough was “Raised American.” That is what the tattoo on his arm says. For most of his life—growing up in Virginia, attending its public schools, and serving time in its jails—he was treated like an American. Then, one day last winter, the police came looking for him.

(For more thorough background information, read this article from the New York Times.)

]]> http://astridmu.wordpress.com/2009/03/02/current-events/feed/ 0 astridmu http://astridmu.wordpress.com/2009/02/26/lets-remember-this-is-for-newsnetnebraska/ http://astridmu.wordpress.com/2009/02/26/lets-remember-this-is-for-newsnetnebraska/#comments Thu, 26 Feb 2009 03:00:49 +0000 astridmu http://astridmu.wordpress.com/?p=99 ]]> 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.

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.