the standardized b.s.

at the end of the day at the office i found myself chatting with my boss, the named partner, and another senior associate.  somehow we were talking about the bar exam, and then the lsat, and then standardized testing in general. i have a rather strong position on standardized testing. i understand its a necessary evil but i feel that if we're really gonna do it in this country then we need to do it right and do it fair. so i refused to take the s.a.t. prep course or even study at all for it in highschool. i took it twice, getting 10 points difference between the two sittings - i was meant to get a 1310.  then it was time to take the lsat.  again i refused any overpriced prep classes. i figured that i wasn't all that wild on the idea of law school anyhow, i had better things to do with what little money i had, and if i couldn't get a high enough score on my own then it just wasn't meant for me.  kaplan offered a free lsat practice exam so i took that, never having seen an lsat before i was surprised, as were the kaplan folks, at my score.  i borrowed a three year old prep book, took some practice tests and sat for the exam. i got one point higher than the practice exam! i proved my point twice - there's a reason for standardized tests. they may suck to have to take and not be perfect, but they do try to level the playing field. what turns the playing field into a huge frickin mountain are the prep classes - only the wealthy folks get to do those. 

so back to the chat at the office - yes, i actually said the condensed version of my standardized test history and policy. only to then find out that my boss took both the s.a.t. and the lsat prep courses. so the moral of this story is that i think prep classes are evil and i'm a jackass.