johnalm

I was going to start a new thread with the same question until I did a little search and found this thread-

following on what this_is_sparta was saying, I also was curious about the same question concerning LEEWS

Quote

I didn't feel that Mal addressed those points- I also don't understand how their case briefing, and hypo approach methods are only for American system? I thought case briefing was the same in America/Canada..?

Also, aside from Getting to Maybe- I heard talk on TLS that "Logic for Lawyers: A Guide to Clear Legal Thinkings" was also a worthwhile book for 0L- any word on that?

EDIT: O.K., my apologies- Mal kind of did address those points. But maybe I am looking for someone who bought LEEWS (or heard about someone who did maybe?) who had more direct opinion on its usefulness. My apologies, its just money I don't want to throw in the ground, but then reading the primer makes it sound pretty convinving...

The couple days before the exam, I was scoring max 153~155 on 3/4 prep tests I did-I was freaking out btw. I scored a ~162 on the actual test (even slightly higher because I could see that I forgot to fill out some of my bubbles! big mistake). With all fairness, there were somethings I did differently on exam day: woke up super early and spent a couple hours reviewing old tests was probably the biggest difference- waking up and writing the exam straight away was definitely something I learned not to do. Also, I was loaded on caffiene and adrenalin-my attention focus was just bezelous. Also, I just 'coincidentially' did the RC in reverse on test day-it was my weakest section, but apparently the first passage was the easiest, so I did it in 4 min and got 100% lol (other people who did it in order didn't have enough time to do the last passage- which needed alot of time, they spent more time doing the first/easiest passage). Finally, I usually didn't study by doing prep tests-I usually break it down: and I used to do decently good when I did it that way (so the prep tests weren't very representative).
But let it be known- I was freaking out before the test!

Edit: In 20/20 hindsight- I think I did about the same on my actual test per section as I did when I practicised each section by itself (usually the way I did things). I guess when I did each section by itself, I used to warm up before doing the respective section (but I never warmed up during my prep tests). But I only say this now- when I was getting 152 on the PT the day before the LSAT, believe me- I was just screaming in my head in panic!!!

danman99, on 21 April 2012 - 01:01 PM, said:

At the risk of being totally off base, and getting bashed for it- I spent alot of time researching and writing my PS this application cycle. However, over the last few months I got the very, very strong vibe that the Canadian admission process (totally unlike the American one), almost disregards the PS in its admission process. It seems that everything was really based off your Gpa+ LSAT: In many ways, once I got my GPA+LSAT combo from OLSAS, I could nail on which schools I got into, and which I did not: and for the large part, I was pretty right.

If I could go back, I'd probably just write my PS in a day and a night! It seems maybe PSs play a larger role at some universities if you have border line stats: (i.e. I read somewhere on LS.ca that in Manitoba, they were looking for 'writing style' when they were filling the very last spots in their class). Maybe a PS can radically change your prospects if you have some absolubtely incredible story: and by that, I literally mean- absolubtely, incredible, story (AIS).

But for the average joe-folk, if you have a 3.5/161, not access/aboriginal, etc: no PS in the world (except for AIS) will get you into UofT.

So what Im saying is- I don't really think it matters in our system how you write the PS. But again- I could be totally wrong!!!!

Speaking in specific to extracirriculars- I think alot of law schools look at ECs at a secondary level, while attaching more weight to grades. I think Alberta is a prime example of that: you literally don't need any ECs..
... but I could be wrong, and I'll leave that to someone who might know more about the topic lol.