September 09 LSAT, Reviewed

Well. That was… fun.

What a day Test Day is, huh? If you’re anything like us, you found Saturday exhilarating and exhausting and exciting and lots of other stuff beginning with ex. Now, we understand that you didn’t ask, but since we took the test this weekend (some of us looking for that elusive third perfect score), we thought we’d share our feelings with you.

Er, scratch that. As many of you know, we don’t actually come equipped with feelings. Here instead are our thoughts:

We began the day like any other, with our customary early-morning knife fight with opponents chosen for their dexterity and lethality, followed by the usual twenty-five minute rigorous tongue-lashing administered to the TV for refusing to show anything good at all (except, of course, for 30 Rock. And The Office). Since it was Test Day, we decided to forego the usual breakfast of “little punks like you,” and opted instead for a lighter morning repast of a nice egg-white omelet, eaten enthusiastically between growls of Test Day anger and immodest expressions of the treatment the LSAT was about to receive from us and our students, yelled at coma-inducing volume.

Then it was off to the test site, where we found the following to be true:

The September LSAT had a total of 101 scored questions—23 in Games, 26 in one Logical Reasoning section, 25 in the other Logical Reasoning section, and 27 in Reading Comprehension. Reports from September 2009 test takers indicate that the experimental section appeared in Section 1 or Section 3 on most forms, though at least one test form had the experimental section appear in Section 2. September test takers reported the following variations:

You may also have received a variant form not listed here.

Here’s the breakdown of how tprLSAT students rated individual sections in relation to their diagnostic exams:

Section Breakdown

Here’s some basic information about the sections. These breakdowns can be helpful in determining which sections were real and which was experimental.

Scored Games (23 questions)

The first game was a Simple Ordering game with six questions that involved ordering monuments by year, from 601-605. The second game, with six questions, was a Binary Grouping game assigning parents to a committee. The third game, with five questions, was a Multi-Tiered Ordering game (or Simple Ordering, if you used shapes to designate Domestic v. International) that mentioned two airlines, one with two planes and a second with three planes. The final game, with six questions, was another Binary Grouping game concerning the classes a student may take at school.

Scored Logical Reasoning (25 and 26 questions)

The scored Logical Reasoning section that had 26 questions began with a Necessary Assumption question about water usage. The other scored Logical Reasoning section, which had 25 questions, began with a Resolution question. Both sections had a typical mix of question types, with a slightly heavier-than-usual skewing toward Inference and Flaw questions.

Scored Reading Comprehension (27 questions)

The first passage discussed how archaeologists don’t have much information about ancient textile production but thankfully use new methods to really figure it all out. The second passage talked about how a Nigerian computer scientist figures out how to use smaller computers linked together through the “Internet” (which was, evidently, established before 1989.  Who knew?) to solve complex problems using models found in nature. The third passage was about copyright law. It was, therefore, awesome and stuff. The fourth passage contained the Comparative Reading.  Both passages discussed music’s psychological impact on humans.

Overall

We made the LSAT pay for its crimes. Our students who stuck to their attack plans and remembered to breathe generally did well and we are so proud (like mother ducks, we are).

You guys worked hard and you’ve earned your success. Now go have yourself a nice, cold, richly-deserved adult beverage.

Cheers,

Us at TPR LSAT.