LSA senior Sarah Thorton reported Friday that Elle Wood’s LSAT study strategy, as modeled in the 2001 box office hit Legally Blonde, is entirely ineffective in achieving a high score on the challenging examination.
Thorton said she waited until just two weeks before her scheduled test date to begin preparing. “The two week time frame was an estimate based on how many days I assumed passed in the film’s study montage,” admitted Thorton.
But the senior, who now plans to spend a gap year taking pictures with native children in Haiti, explained that her preparation really began in her first years of college. “I knew that, like Elle, my uniqueness would be my ticket into a top tier school like Harvard. So I decided to create my own major that included classes in Environmental Science and Art and Design, focusing on the sustainability and aesthetic of faux fur undergarments.”
“I guess my low scores are not that big of a deal,” Thorton continued. “It’s just that my boyfriend, William, is going to be a doctor, and I thought going to law school would make him think I’m smart enough for him. Now I don’t know what to do. He’s totally going to get back with Victoria—she had an internship at Goldman Sachs last summer.”
Thorton is not the only hopeful undergraduate led astray by the film’s portrayal of law school admissions. “I had all my sorority sisters make sparkly flashcards to quiz me on vocab, but the minute we started, we all began talking about who everyone was bringing to formal. I think that really hurt my scores,” shared Alyssa Evans, another senior looking to make alternate post-graduation plans. “Also, to my complete surprise, most schools didn’t provide an outlet to send in my sexy, culturally relevant video application.”
