Whew!

Friday afternoon, as I realized that a huge snowstorm was about to descend on the region, I freaked out. Not so much about the snow itself, or the gloom, or anything like that, but the Law School Admissions Council was canceling the Law School Admissions Test for Saturday all over the region, and in Philadelphia, which is where I was scheduled to take my own Sabbath Observer's LSAT on Monday. I've been studying and taking practice quizzes, practice tests, practice writing samples for more than a month now. I haven't had a Sunday without a practice four hour test since January 10. And if I had to wait any longer to take this test my head would explode.

On Sunday I checked the LSAC website several times, and there was no news of canceling my test for Monday, so Michael and I headed out to Philadelphia. We took a practice drive to the test center. We hung out with Jared and watched the Superbowl (actually, I stopped caring at the end of the third quarter and decided to go to bed).

Monday morning I woke up at 6:15, which I assure you, is unnaturally early for me, ate a relatively huge breakfast (veggie sausage patty, hashbrown, half a banana and some apple juice), and got on the road at 7:00. Even though we were in the suburbs of Philadelphia, it took an hour for us to get downtown to the test center at Temple University. I don't know if that's typical or if the snow made it worse, but it was a long commute.

I arrived around 8:00, feeling a little sick to my stomach, don't worry, it was just nerves, not actual sickness. I found the room, and the proctors told me to have a seat in the lobby. Shortly before 8:30 the six of us Sabbath keepers were given instructions, fingerprinted, and assigned seats. We were not allowed to have any electronic devices, including cell phones, ipods and calculators. Other things not allowed: mechanical pencils.

Copied from my LSAT admission ticket:

Permitted in the Test Room (must be stored under the chair and may be accessed ONLY during the break)
Test takers may bring into the test room ONLY a clear plastic ziplock bag (maximum size one gallon/3.79 liter) containing ONLY the following items: LSAT Admission Ticket stub, valid ID, wallet, keys, hygiene/ medical products, #2 or HB pencils (no
mechanical pencils), erasers, pencil sharpener, highlighter, tissues, and beverage in a plastic container or juice box (20 oz./591 ml. maximum size) and snack for break only.

Permitted on Desktop
Test takers may have only tissues, ID, LSAT Admission Ticket stub, #2 or HB pencils, erasers, a pencil sharpener,
highlighter, and analog (nondigital) wristwatch. No electronic timing devices are permitted. Beverage and
snack are NOT permitted on the desktop and may be accessed only during the break.

I thought this was pretty hardcore. We had first two sections of logical reasoning, one of my favorite sections, then a section of reading comprehension, my other favorite. Each section was 35 minutes long. Then we had a fifteen minute break, in which I tried to subtly do jumping jacks in the hallway when no one was around. Get the blood flowing, you know? I had my granola bar, took an Advil to stave off the beginnings of a headache and drank a little water, not too much, since you aren't allowed to leave the test room once you enter. When we came back my first section was another logical reasoning (hooray!) and then, the bane of my existence: logic games. On each LSAT there are two logical reasoning sections, one reading comprehension, one logic game section, and then one extra that will be one of the previous three, so it could be any of those kinds, and if I had to do another logic game, I think I would have melted from nerves. Anyway, you finish with a writing sample where you are given an argument, you pick a side and defend it using evidence given in the writing prompt. So four and a half hours after we began, we were allowed to leave.

I felt approximately ten pounds lighter and much happier when I was done. Now I wait three weeks for the results. I'm curious, other graduate school graduates -- was your entrance exam this stringent? No water on the desk? No mechanical pencils?