Customer Reviews

The Law School Admission Game: Play Like an Expert

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As a non-traditional law school hopeful, I was feeling lost in the sea of information (and misinformation) available online and in print about the law school application process. I came across Ann's book here on Amazon and ordered it because of the uniformly excellent reviews. Having read it cover to cover in one sitting last night, I recommend it without hesitation to anyone -- whether you are still an undergraduate or whether you're almost 20 years out of graduate school like me -- considering embarking on a quest to study law. Ann's book is filled to the brim with no-nonsense advice on every decision you're likely to face in the admissions process. Her viewpoint is unique among the books I've encountered because it is written by someone who oversaw the admissions process at two ABA law schools and who has since helped thousands of applicants be successful over the past 5+ years through her consulting business and web site. Ann's writing style is clear and concise, and she pulls no punches in debunking some common myths or misconceptions about law school admissions. The book's organization follows beautifully the natural sequence of decisions & events that arise during what can be a long and grueling process, and it should serve as an excellent reference, motivator, and reality check in the months prior to receiving that longed-for phone call, email, or acceptance letter. My review's title summarizes it quite well: if you are considering law school, buy this book.

I have read Ann Levine's book The Law School Admission Game: Play Like An Expert 3 times now and each time I read it, I am more impressed, I feel more informed and more empowered. Ann takes the mystery out of the law school admission process and makes it clear how one can put their best foot forward in this extraordinarily competitive arena.

In a very succinct and lucid manner, Ann Levine clearly shows students how to identify whether or not law school is the right choice for them. She then helps them navigate the process by identifying strengths, addressing weaknesses and overcoming obstacles. As someone who has very clear strengths and weaknesses, Ann's advice has helped me highlight the peaks of my academic and professional careers while forthrightly and effectively addressing my weaknesses for maximum success in the law school admission process.

Ann's book goes into great detail on everything from recommendations to the personal statement to LSAT scores. And, she does this in an easy to read, friendly manner. At no point will the reader feel that Ann is passing judgment or that she is discouraging one from applying to law school. Ann Levine gives every student the confidence they will need to face the challenging process of law school admissions and to find the school that is right for them.

Whether you are applying to Georgetown or Golden Gate, Minnesota or Miami or any school in between, I emphatically endorse Ann Levine's book. Any person even considering law school must read this - there is no substitute.

I teach LSAT in San Francisco, and my classes are heavily question-driven. (Students can ask whatever they want, and I do my best to answer.) I've always gotten a ton of questions that range away from the LSAT and toward the broader law school application process. So I realized early on that my job wasn't just LSAT preparation. It's also to help people make good decisions about where to apply, when to apply, what to include in the application, and what offers to accept.

To that end, I just added The Law School Admission Game to my course curriculum. I blew through it over the past two days--it's a great read--and I decided immediately to give it to all my students from this point forward. It fills a huge hole in what's offered by most LSAT prep programs, and I'm proud to offer it as part of my classes. Below, I'll give my thoughts (overwhelmingly positive, with a few quibbles) about the book. But if you're applying to law school you really should just buy yourself a copy. I promise you'll be very happy you did.

Levine is a law school admission consultant and owner of the LawSchoolExpert website. Why is she the law school expert? Well, she was Director of Student Services at the University of Denver College of Law, Director of Admissions for California Western School of Law, and Director of Admissions for Loyola Law School. That's a good start. She's also a lawyer, of course (University of Miami School of Law). But despite all that, I didn't believe she was an expert until I started reading. Inside the first 10 pages, I was a believer. It's written like an expert would write. No bull, no filler. This isn't a 500-page encyclopedia that you're never going to read. Instead, it's 168 pages of facts, real-world anecdotes to illustrate those facts, a ton of inside perspective from the world of law school applications committees, and a lot of common sense.

I'm really excited about this thing--I wish I would have discovered it sooner. To avoid writing a book myself, in this review, I'm going to bulletize my thoughts. Here we go:

PROS:

***Levine's perspective matches mine. Unlike a lot of the big test prep companies (Blueprint, I'm looking at you) she doesn't insult the reader with promises of BMWs and mansions. Instead, she talks about how the law profession is serious, demanding, and very unlikely to immediately pay you six figures. She doesn't try to talk you out of law school, exactly, but she's very honest that law isn't something to jump into without serious consideration. And it's definitely not the thing to do if you simply want to get rich.

***If you have some time off before starting law school, she advises you to "explore your passion" (skydiving instructor? viola teacher?) instead of working as a legal assistant or file clerk, where you'll slave away without really learning anything about legal practice or making any meaningful connections. I couldn't agree more.

***If you're still an undergrad, she advises you to "find meaning in what you are doing. Don't pick a major because it 'looks good'... you'll do better with a subject that interests and inspires you." I suppose I must have heard that when I was an undergrad, but I never really believed it until I was well out of college. Trust me, as someone who did three graduate degrees and held a succession of jobs I hated before finding nirvana teaching LSAT: Just do what you love, and you'll find happiness eventually.

***She says that working at The Gap, if it was necessary to pay your bills, is just as good or better on a law school application than an internship where you answered phones for some politician who probably didn't know your name. This absolutely matches my own perspective from the law school classroom. The kids who had obviously never worked a day in their lives always seemed to have their hands up in class, but never said anything worth listening to. (Listen kid, I don't care what YOU think the law should be. Don't you realize the professor is an international expert? Why are we listening to you instead of her?) If you've been paying your own bills since you were in your teens, say so in your application.

***She advises you, when picking an LSAT class, to talk to people who had the same instructor as you'll have. As an LSAT teacher, I absolutely agree on this point. Ask how long your teacher has been teaching, ask what they got on the LSAT, and ask to talk to other students in your area who had that same teacher.

***I love this point: She advises you to practice the LSAT in distracting conditions. This is a terrific idea. Go to Starbucks and do a 35-minute section amidst all the hustle and bustle. I've heard horror story after horror story about bad conditions on test day. You've gotta learn to ignore whatever the test might throw at you. I've heard everything from proctors with very loud shoes to jackhammering directly outside the testing room. Get over it by practicing in tough conditions.

***She offers terrific advice on letters of recommendation. One gem: "A teaching assistant may be better able to write you a detailed letter of recommendation. This is completely appropriate and the professor may even be willing to sign the letter in addition to the T.A." I never would have thought of that, but that's a great move.

***Another gem: "The only time a LOR makes or breaks a file is when it breaks a file." What she means here is that the LOR is not a sufficient condition--it's a necessary condition. A terrific one won't get you in, but a terrible one will keep you out. Plan accordingly.

***I'm raving here, but it's just so good that I have to share it: She offers tips for how to write your OWN letter of recommendation, in the very likely circumstance that one of your proposed recommenders asks YOU to write the first draft of the letter. This is incredibly hard (I'm speaking from experience here) and Ann does a terrific job of laying out a formula for drafting this letter. Wow.
The book includes brief but solid advice for transcripts and resumes. You'll have to read the book to find out.

***It's got terrific personal statement advice. One tip: Do "be likeable and impressive." Don't display "arrogance and elitism." I've read many personal statements over the years. (Not as many as Ann, but still a lot.) Arrogance is the number one failing I have seen.

***And again I'm raving here, but Levine says the personal statement is "not there to show how many big words you know." This runs a close second to arrogance on my own list of common personal statement failures. If you're looking in a dictionary or thesaurus to find a fancy word to use, use the simpler word instead. Big words show insecurity. Be conversational.

There's a LOT more than that in the book. I'm censoring myself here.

A FEW POINTS OF MILD DISAGREEMENT:

***Levine says the best times to take the LSAT "are either in June after your junior year or in the fall of your senior year, and start preparing approximately three months before the exam." I think this is a good schedule if you're really good at standardized tests, or if you are planning on taking a year off before law school. This schedule will work for some, but many, many students will end up retaking the exam, which will force delaying law school for a year if you get caught on the wrong end of the LSAT cycle. Most students should take a class, and take the test, much earlier than they probably think.

***Levine says "plan to take the test once and only once." While I agree that this is optimal, I think it's a tad unrealistic. You definitely shouldn't take the test unprepared--that's just a waste of time and money. So make sure you plan ahead, and are prepared on test day. But everybody has some natural variation in their practice test scores, and this variation occurs on test day as well. So a huge chunk of students, necessarily, are going to score less than their practice-test average on test day. These students should retake the test. Because this is the reality, I think everyone should PLAN on retaking the test, just in case they need to. One reason she advises to take the test only once is that it is expensive to prepare and to take. It's true that the test costs $100-whatever dollars every time you take it, but retaking the test does not require re-taking an LSAT class. A bad day on the test is like a bike crash--it's painful, and requires that you dust yourself off and try again, but it does not require that you relearn how to ride a bike. I have a feeling this is a point that Ann will revise in subsequent editions of the book, as more and more schools now say they only consider an applicant's highest LSAT score.

***She says "the February LSAT is not a good idea"--if you read her explanation, I agree with her. But the headline is misleading if that's all you read. The February LSAT is perfect for people who don't want to start law school until the following year. As a matter of fact, I think it's a perfect first test date for those who want to go to law school in year +1, because it allows for a backup test date in June of year 0, which will still allow time to take full advantage of rolling admissions. She's right that "taking the February LSAT for fall admission reeks of desperation." But the February LSAT one year in advance smells sweetly of good planning.

***A quibble about how to prepare for the LSAT: I disagree with Levine's tip that you should review EVERY answer, even those that you got right. The reason for my disagreement is I want you to do a LOT of practice questions. If you haven't done at least 10 full tests (that's 1000 questions) then you're not prepared to get your best score. I think it takes way too long to review all the ones that you knew you got right while you were taking the test. Instead, you should review all the questions you got wrong, and all the questions you GUESSED RIGHT. (Say you narrowed it down to a 50-50 and then blindly picked one... if you get it right, you definitely need to figure out WHY the correct answer is correct and the other answer is wrong.) I advise you to circle the questions you guess on while taking practice tests, so that you'll be able to review your areas of uncertainty in addition to reviewing the ones you missed.

***Levine quotes Steve Schwartz of LSAT Blog as advising students not to "let more than a couple of days go by without using your LSAT books." I basically agree, but I'd actually amend this to say don't let ANY days go by without using your LSAT books. It's like exercise. If you miss one day, you risk missing two, then three, then a week. Even if you just do one logic game, or a couple LR questions, I think you should do something every single day to get a tiny bit better at the LSAT.

Yeah... just go ahead and buy it. I'm probably the most critical person in the world, and I absolutely loved the book. Worth every penny.

I first found Ann K. Levine and her limitless amount of information and tips through her online blog, but I soon realized that most of my deeper questions deserved more insight and discussion than already available online. Thus, I decided to pick up her new book in order to "play like an expert" myself in the law school admission game. While I have not yet applied to law school but will be this fall, I can say that this book has provided me with an almost unfair amount of insight into the process and has prepared me to tackle the journey with all of the necessary tools. I STRONGLY suggest this to anyone who intends on applying to law school, especially if you have not already taken the LSATs (but do so even if you have already taken them, like myself). My only gripe with this book is the vast amount of errors that were carelessly overlooked by the author / her editor / the printer. In a guide that constantly reminds you to avoid errors (especially those of the grammatical sort) in the admissions process, I would not expect to find such an embarrassing amount of mistakes. Therefore, I could not possibly award this book with all 5 stars even if the content deserves it. Despite that, I urge you to ignore the author's carelessness about her grammar and instead enjoy the wealth of knowledge which this book will impart on you!

Having read a few law school admissions books, this one really stood out for me.

This book is clearly written, very readable, brief, and to the point. Ann's viewpoint stands out as refreshingly down-to-earth in a world of books that would have you believe that top ten law schools are the right goal for everyone and that personal statements should conform to some cheezeball standard.

The book gives useful advice about how to sanely, realistically approach the application process and law school in general and was a tremendous help to me in preparing my own applications.

When I had first started thinking about law school, I had no idea what I was getting myself into. After reading the excellent reviews online for Ann's book, I decided to get this as part of my investment towards Law School. I read and read, and could not put this book down because of the information it provided. It covered all the aspects of the admission process into law school pre-LSAT and post-LSAT and how to apply and prepare for your first year. The author has first hand experience from being an admission council personnel herself and every page of the book is concise and to the point. She is available for counseling through email/phone and this service very helpful if you have any questions that cannot be answered through her blog/site. I would really recommend this book to future law students.

This book is concise and to the point. Several similarly marketed products are overwritten and take chapters to convey what Ann Levine is able to in a couple of pages. I would never have been able to put my law school application together so well without the insight and tips provided. Though helpful, online forums are daunting and sometimes confusing, whereas The Law School Admissions Game is organized and direct. On top of helping me through my personal statement and addendum, the book answered all of my random questions about the admissions process in general. I have read about five law school admissions guides, but this is my favorite and most recommended.

Quite simply, Ms. Levine knows her stuff, that much is clear from the detail in her book. She also pulls no punches and tells you straight out what works and what doesn't.
If you want to get into law school buy this book.

I'm so glad that I got this book before applying to law schools. I'm quite sure that without it, my personal statement would've been cliché. Excellent advice without sugarcoating or coddling.

Allow me to save you time and tell you that this book is a MUST-HAVE for anyone applying to law school!

Law school admissions really does feel like a game, and to win, you have to know the rules. Ann Levine has a gift for clearly and succinctly explaining what those rules are. I found out about Ms. Levine's book through her blog ([...]). Knowing how useful I found her articles and interviews to be, I knew her book would be a great investment.

I've researched, bought, and read several other law school admissions books, but Ms. Levine's has been the first one that I've grabbed whenever I had a question. Her advice is candid and actionable. Her chapter on what to do when you're waitlisted is refreshingly encouraging while still honest.

Reading Ms. Levine's book is like having your own personal consultant in your law school admissions journey. This has been especially important to me because I have been out of school for over five years. Although my alma mater has a great pre-law advisor, her priority is to assist current undergraduates - understandably so. That being said, Ms. Levine's advice is applicable to any law school applicants at any stage in their career/academic journey.

No matter what books you purchase for your law school admissions references, I can assure you - You NEED this one at the top of your stack! I would also suggest bookmarking Ms. Levine's blog. Her articles and interviews on blogtalkradio have been invaluable to me. Lastly, I recommend Law School Confidential, Revised: A Complete Guide to the Law School Experience: By Students, for Students and The Ivey Guide to Law School Admissions: Straight Advice on Essays, Resumes, Interviews, and More as other great resources well worth the money.