Zhang

Chapter Three

Tactics

The lesson here is that the best strategy is to finish the test, rather than left some questions unanswered; to finish all the sections, rather than guess which one is the unscored; to finish all the question types, rather than left some. Also be sure to read all the choices before you select the correct answer rather than only read right answers. During the practice tests, when you only figure out why the answer is right, you are yet a good test taker, even you might be incidentally get answers right. If you can also find out why the wrong answers are confusingly wrong, you will get upper hands when you take the real test. By knowing why it is so, you will get steps ahead of other test takers.

Therefore, the test taker with the highest test score ranking above 170 mostly use this strategy, then the middle ranking around 150-170 only figure out the right answer when practicing. The person below 150 selects answer nothing but the intuition. Those people never settle down to ask why it is right or what cause it wrong. That is the worst strategy, no better than no strategy. You need to get each of the three sections of the LSAT ready, which takes a lot of time. Then you need to put them together, so that you will know the amount of time needed. The test takers without patience will take the test and the score will be very low and it will impact the average of the score reporting system, designed by the LSAC. It is a disaster. Therefore, if you want to ace the LSAT, you need to get used to all the question types and be at ease with them. You ace the LSAT without using too much of your energy on your test day—you are confident and calm; every question you see on test day is so familiar to you like your old friends. It will not take too much time to find the correct answer. Therefore, you will defeat the LSAT without doubt. You can win without exhaustion and irritation by the intensity and pressure of the test.

Thus the secret of the LSAT is: if you have more time than needed, then answer all the questions numerically. If you have just enough time to answer all the questions, you might think of skip around to do the easiest one in one page before turning your page. If you just have barely time to finish, you might think of skipping around and leave some hard questions unanswered first. If you have enough time, just get them all in; if you cannot answer questions in the allotted time, just make an educated guess. If you feel you have no idea of the questions, just skip it. So make sure you get all the easy ones right so as to get the overall higher score by answering tough questions tactically.(Or you will be eroded by the time second-by-second due to the large volume of the questions; You will win small and lose big.)

Wohhh, leaders need to oversee all the tests. Here the test takers need to consider all the strategies needed to ace each questions. The more the test taker considers the questions, the better the score will be. Otherwise, the score will drop like the rain.

Therefore, there are three situations which would weaken your score. If test takers who do not know when to eliminate the wrong and when to answer the right, they are dull ones. If test takers who take the test without knowing clearly what the tactics are to each question types, they will get confused during the test day. If the test takers do not fully prepared to the test and just want to try the luck, then “good luck” will never happen, even they will not believe it. This way, the test takers are confused and overwhelmed by the intensity of the test, so it make vicious circle of making them more nervous and disoriented, leading failure to the test.

In contrast, there are 5 secrets to guarantee higher scores. The test takers who know when they are ready to take the LSAT win. The ones who know the strength and weakness of the different questions types win. Those who understand the elimination and time allocation win. Those who have strong desire to get higher score win. Those who get more rest and more relax during the test win. Those who creatively answer each question win. The five factors above are the predictor of the result of the LSAT.

Therefore, knowing you and your enemy, you will still be cool even though there are hundreds of tests; knowing you without knowing your enemy, you will get 50-50 chance. If you do not know you or your enemy, you will be confused and exhausted wherever you are in the test.

Chapter Two

Waging War

On the real test day (only four times a year), you need the four sharpened 2-B or HB pencils, one watch or timer, eraser, ticket to the LSAT, and your snacks and drinks. As long as you have the logistics ready you can go and take the test with your confident out of the practice. When you go to a test less prepared, your patience will weaken, your brain will grow seemingly dull. When the intensity is high and the pressure is on the rise during the test, you will be overwhelmed and disoriented by that. If you are preparing without necessary practice, the test will drive you crazy due to the intensity of the test and long hour of mentally exercise. Specifically, when you do the third section before the break, the time and pressure will drive you crazy: you will get overwhelmed and exhausted, your brain will become dull and unclear, you will feel sick and abnormal, and all the tests will suddenly become a monster to you to scare you. If so, you might not get only the normal result you expected, even you are super smart. Therefore, the hasty and unpreparedness of test taker will lose whatsoever. We have never heard of anyone who are unprepared can ace the LSAT. If you do not know the disadvantages of you, you will not know or better use your strength of you in a whole.

So my point here is whoever, good at taking the test, never stop practicing or delay it more than twice, never take breaks more than 3 times during the full test. Mastering the time and making full use the resource you available during the test, then you do not have to worry about or complain the time and paper not enough.

You are frustrated by the lack of time and paper is due to the mental sickness of the test – long hour, super intensive exam. The long hour and intensity of the test cause test takes to be exhausted. Weakened body causes your brain to consume more of your energy, and thus impacts on your blood flow to react sharply or even normally. Therefore, you will become less confident and irritated by the fact. Then you will become more exhausted and more burn more energy viciously. The loss of time in the real test is at the ratio of 10: 3. The loss of your time in the real test means: you will not finish your test, you will not remember of any of the strategies, you will get a feeling of sickness of mentally ill and physically sick. All this will cause the test result much worse.

In addition, the wise test taker would take advantage of the real time allotted rather than time needed. It accretes by seconds. One second in the real test situation equals 20 seconds in the practice test. The energy exhausted in the test is equals 20 times of that in the practice test.

In order to ace the test, you need to adjust yourself to the best of yourself during the test. Besides, you also need to award yourself if you get higher score during the test, even the practice one. Reward is a integral part of the process of acing the exam. After each, including practice, test, you need to always remember to reward yourself. For examples, giving yourself a big meal, watching a favorite movie, or watching red sox game when you get a higher score each time. The test is deadly hard, even god knows it, so it is your challenge to practice. It is challenging, and thus it is rewarding as well. But you need you to practice and practice. Therefore, it is called acing the test while you are doing the test.

Besides, it is better to ace the LSAT in shorter time rather than longer.

In conclusion, the leader who knows the questions, and who understand the tactics and rules, will take full control of the test and drive it toward test taker’s advantage.

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DISCLAIMER: THE FOLLOWING TRANSLATION IS FROM THE OPEN DOMAIN AND MAY CONTAIN SIGNIFICANT ERRORS. THE EDITING IS IN PROCESS AND PLEASE USE IT WITH CAUTION.

II. WAGING WAR

1. Sun Tzu said: In the operations of war,
where there are in the field a thousand swift chariots,
as many heavy chariots, and a hundred thousand
mail-clad soldiers, with provisions enough to carry them
a thousand li, the expenditure at home and at the front,
including entertainment of guests, small items such as
glue and paint, and sums spent on chariots and armor,
will reach the total of a thousand ounces of silver per day.
Such is the cost of raising an army of 100,000 men.

2. When you engage in actual fighting, if victory
is long in coming, then men’s weapons will grow dull and
their ardor will be damped. If you lay siege to a town,
you will exhaust your strength.
3. Again, if the campaign is protracted, the resources
of the State will not be equal to the strain.

4. Now, when your weapons are dulled, your ardor damped,
your strength exhausted and your treasure spent,
other chieftains will spring up to take advantage
of your extremity. Then no man, however wise,
will be able to avert the consequences that must ensue.

5. Thus, though we have heard of stupid haste in war,
cleverness has never been seen associated with long delays.

6. There is no instance of a country having benefited
from prolonged warfare.

7. It is only one who is thoroughly acquainted
with the evils of war that can thoroughly understand
the profitable way of carrying it on.

8. The skillful soldier does not raise a second levy,
neither are his supply-wagons loaded more than twice.

9. Bring war material with you from home, but forage
on the enemy. Thus the army will have food enough
for its needs.

10. Poverty of the State exchequer causes an army
to be maintained by contributions from a distance.
Contributing to maintain an army at a distance causes
the people to be impoverished.

11. On the other hand, the proximity of an army causes
prices to go up; and high prices cause the people’s
substance to be drained away.

12. When their substance is drained away, the peasantry
will be afflicted by heavy exactions.

13,14. With this loss of substance and exhaustion
of strength, the homes of the people will be stripped bare,
and three-tenths of their income will be dissipated;
while government expenses for broken chariots, worn-out horses,
breast-plates and helmets, bows and arrows, spears and shields,
protective mantles, draught-oxen and heavy wagons,
will amount to four-tenths of its total revenue.

15. Hence a wise general makes a point of foraging
on the enemy. One cartload of the enemy’s provisions
is equivalent to twenty of one’s own, and likewise
a single picul of his provender is equivalent to twenty
from one’s own store.

16. Now in order to kill the enemy, our men must
be roused to anger; that there may be advantage from
defeating the enemy, they must have their rewards.

17. Therefore in chariot fighting, when ten or more chariots
have been taken, those should be rewarded who took the first.
Our own flags should be substituted for those of the enemy,
and the chariots mingled and used in conjunction with ours.
The captured soldiers should be kindly treated and kept.

18. This is called, using the conquered foe to augment
one’s own strength.

19. In war, then, let your great object be victory,
not lengthy campaigns.

20. Thus it may be known that the leader of armies
is the arbiter of the people’s fate, the man on whom it
depends whether the nation shall be in peace or in peril.

Chapter One

Planning

The secret of LSAT is important for your application to the law schools. It is a determining factor of whether you will win or lose when applying to the law school, and thus cannot be neglected.

The secret of LSAT is governed by five factors: Law, Heaven, Earth, Leader, and maintenance. The Law is the way in which the LSAC conducts the test. The Haven means the settings of the test. The Earth means the derivatives of the test. Leader means the test taker with the virtue of wisdom, sincerely, benevolence, bravery and discipline. The Maintenance consists of the scheduling, relaxing, timing, logistics, and et cetera. These five determining factors are so important that the one who knows it wins, and the one who knows nothing about will not win. Thus you need to pay more attention on it and ask yourself the following questions before you take the test.

Which test taker has more discipline?

Which test taker has more capability?

Who can maneuver the environment and different settings of the test?

Whose practice is more systematic?

Which test taker is good at the test?

Which test taker is good at timing?

By examining those questions, we (or yourself) can predict whether you will beat the crap out of LSAT.

By test takers who take the advise would ace the LSAT; who without taking note of it will definitely lose.

You have to be consistence with this strategy. Then for awhile practicing this strategy, you will get used to it and then it is becoming more powerful, thereof helping you to ace the most difficult test. By learning the strategy, you will also be at ease with the law school exams after you are in.

The LSAT, in a word, is deception. When the argument is in flaw, it asks you to strengthen it. When it is solid, you are asked to weaken so. When it seems difficult to understand, it asks very simple questions, vice versa. Thus the test takers need to use the solid and systematic training to conquer it. Use the wisdom to beat it. Use the principle derived from the practice to beat the variations of the test. Use your strength to tackle the test’s weakness. Use your timing skill to skip around to find the weakest point of the test to guarantee the easy points. Use your confident to surpass others without the preparedness. Prepare the test thoroughly to stand out than others. When you do not understand the questions or the subjects thereof, just skip it. Attack the test where you prepared most, and skip the questions you had most trouble with. It, all the secret of the LSAT, is unprecedented.

Before you take the test, whenever practicing, showing you are ready, you will be better off when you do the real test; whenever practicing with negative result,

you have less chance to get better result on the test day. More practice is better than less practice, more calculation is better than less, let alone no practice or no calculation at all. By calculating the practice result, we can predict who will get 180 and who will get at least 120 (everyone will at least get the minimum 120.)

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DISCLAIMER: THE FOLLOWING TRANSLATION IS FROM THE OPEN DOMAIN AND MAY CONTAIN SIGNIFICANT ERRORS. THE EDITING IS IN PROCESS AND PLEASE USE IT WITH CAUTION.

The Art of War

By Sun Tzu

Translated by Lionel Giles

Chapter One. Laying Plans

1. Sun Tzu said: The art of war is of vital importance to the State.

2. It is a matter of life and death, a road either to safety or to ruin. Hence it is a subject of inquiry which can on no account be neglected.

3. The art of war, then, is governed by five constant factors, to be taken into account in one’s deliberations, when seeking to determine the conditions obtaining in the field.

4. These are: (1) The Moral Law; (2) Heaven; (3) Earth; (4) The Commander; (5) Method and discipline.

5,6. The Moral Law causes the people to be in complete accord with their ruler, so that they will follow him regardless of their lives, undismayed by any danger.

7. Heaven signifies night and day, cold and heat, times and seasons.

8. Earth comprises distances, great and small; danger and security; open ground and narrow passes; the chances of life and death.

9. The Commander stands for the virtues of wisdom, sincerely, benevolence, courage and strictness.

10. By method and discipline are to be understood the marshaling of the army in its proper subdivisions, the graduations of rank among the officers, the maintenance of roads by which supplies may reach the army, and the control of military expenditure.

11. These five heads should be familiar to every general: he who knows them will be victorious; he who knows them not will fail.

12. Therefore, in your deliberations, when seeking to determine the military conditions, let them be made the basis of a comparison, in this wise:–

13. (1) Which of the two sovereigns is imbued with the Moral law? (2) Which of the two generals has most ability? (3) With whom lie the advantages derived from Heaven and Earth? (4) On which side is discipline most rigorously enforced? (5) Which army is stronger? (6) On which side are officers and men more highly trained? (7) In which army is there the greater constancy both in reward and punishment?

14. By means of these seven considerations I can forecast victory or defeat.

15. The general that hearkens to my counsel and acts upon it, will conquer: let such a one be retained in command! The general that hearkens not to my counsel nor acts upon it, will suffer defeat:–let such a one be dismissed!

16. While heading the profit of my counsel, avail yourself also of any helpful circumstances over and beyond the ordinary rules.

17. According as circumstances are favorable, one should modify one’s plans.

18. All warfare is based on deception.

19. Hence, when able to attack, we must seem unable; when using our forces, we must seem inactive; when we are near, we must make the enemy believe we are far away; when far away, we must make him believe we are near.

20. Hold out baits to entice the enemy. Feign disorder, and crush him.

21. If he is secure at all points, be prepared for him. If he is in superior strength, evade him.

22. If your opponent is of choleric temper, seek to irritate him. Pretend to be weak, that he may grow arrogant.

23. If he is taking his ease, give him no rest. If his forces are united, separate them.

24. Attack him where he is unprepared, appear where you are not expected.

25. These military devices, leading to victory, must not be divulged beforehand.

26. Now the general who wins a battle makes many calculations in his temple ere the battle is fought. The general who loses a battle makes but few calculations beforehand. Thus do many calculations lead to victory, and few calculations to defeat: how much more no calculation at all! It is by attention to this point that I can foresee who is likely to win or lose.

The Art of War and Law School Admission Test (LSAT)

Sun Tzu is one of the greatest strategist in Ancient China, Han Dynasty, and his book the Art of War is also the oldest war book in the world. It heritages until now and there are numerous world leaders using it, it has been translated to hundreds of languages worldwide…. All the facts is that there is the treasure of the world and therefore should be available to the global citizens. It is very short and very easy to read if you are Chinese, even it is written in a traditional way. It is very easy to read even if you are foreigners, it is not a problem either. I will show what I learned what he told me through his words, representing of the wisdom of the world assets.

I am so delighted to be born in Chinese and educated in different countries so as to be able to read this concise but meaningful work by Sun Tzu (aka Sun Zi). Success by itself has no meaning to my life but help others to success is better. I am going to give you the translated version of the book in a way in which law school applicants can use it to launch the Art of War to ace the LSAT.