This blog comes to you from special guest, Pamela Adewoyin, Esq.
Former PowerScore student Pamela Adewoyin experienced a terrific score increase after taking a prep course. Here’s her story.
Putting in the Effort
Pamela bounced from place to place as a child but learned to call the Bronx, New York, home. From a very early age, she knew that she wanted to be an attorney. Ambitious and dedicated, Pamela focused on her schoolwork throughout her childhood. She studied harder and longer than the people around her. She knew that it would take sustained, dedicated effort to achieve her goals, and she was willing to put in the effort.
That single-minded focus took Pamela to Temple University. In just three years, Pamela graduated magna cum laude with a major in Communications and a minor in Psychology. She won several academic honors and was her school’s commencement speaker. But her achievements weren’t just limited to the classroom. Leadership and service have always been important to Pamela, and she piled service projects onto her plate as well.
The “Traumatizing” First LSAT
All of this hard work, all of her time helping others, lead to an uncharacteristic failure. While still an undergraduate student, Pamela took the LSAT. The experience, in her words, was “traumatizing.” On more than one section, when the proctor called time, Pamela was only halfway through the section. Pamela’s score was a devastating blow to a person who had spent her entire life preparing her academic record for law school.
Bravely, Pamela applied to law schools with the score she had. Nineteen of them. She was accepted to one of the schools, but it wasn’t a school she was willing to attend. Understandably upset by her many rejections, Pamela was absolutely crushed when an admissions dean told her, “You have Ivy League grades but a community college LSAT score.” That statement cut to her core. It was harsh, but it helped Pamela understand the powerful impact of her LSAT score.
Preparing to Retake the LSAT the Right Way
Over the next three years, Pamela did what she’d always done. She worked. Hard. And on the other side of those years, she found that she still had the passion to become an attorney. So, she turned her thoughts to the LSAT one more time.
Hindsight had shown Pamela that it had been a mistake to try to do everything all the way. She had placed herself beneath an impossible load, and her LSAT preparation had suffered because it was just one more item on her To-Do list. But not this time. This time Pamela prioritized her LSAT study. She didn’t want to live in a world of “what ifs.” This time, she signed up for a PowerScore full-length class in New York. She dedicated herself to her study, giving it her full attention.
By test day, Pamela was ready. Still, in the back of her mind, she could still feel the desperation of her first encounter with the LSAT. And she was keenly aware of the difficulty she had always had with standardized tests. Those thoughts crowded the back of her mind, but that’s exactly where she left them. Pamela walked into the test center and she crushed it.
Fifteen Point Increase and a Scholarship
Fifteen points. That’s the difference between Pamela’s first LSAT score and her final, higher score after taking our full-length course. What kind of difference did her score make? Well, this time she was accepted by six of the schools to which she applied. She was offered a $75,000 scholarship to a school she chose not to attend. But even at the school of her choice, the University of Miami School of Law, she received scholarships.
Two and a half years later, Pamela again graduated early, this time with her J.D. Again, she was a commencement speaker at graduation, but that was just one honor among many, including her selection as an editor of the University of Miami Business Law Review.
Now, Pamela is an attorney, admitted to the New York bar. Through hard work and perseverance, Pamela turned the dreams of her childhood into a full-grown reality. When I interviewed Pamela for this post, I asked her what she wanted others who are preparing for the LSAT to know, what message she wanted to pass on. She told me that she was not just a number, not just some statistic. She was a woman who had a passion to achieve her dreams and the willingness to do whatever it took to achieve them. The takeaway here is that you can do the same.
You can accomplish your goals and achieve your own dreams. You just need faith in yourself, the willingness to work hard, and the right support team. We at PowerScore are proud that we could be part of Pamela’s support team, and we are thankful for her willingness to share her story.
Learn more about Pamela’s professional activities at her LinkedIn page.
Leave a Reply