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The Art of War and Law School Admission Test (LSAT) — Chapter One Planning

Wednesday, August 8th, 2007

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.

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

Tuesday, August 7th, 2007

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.

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Seeking help from Books

Saturday, July 21st, 2007

There is a fascinating article in Today’s New York Times with the title C.E.O. Libraries Reveal Keys to Success.

Actually great people always have something in common.

Venture Capitalist Michael Morit has his private library; NIKE founder Phil Knight got his library just back in his office. . . .

There are also other numerous leaders seeking help from libraries, books exactly. Books ignite ideas ignored by average people; words generate creativity out of touch; libraries provide world leaders with answers neglected by the world. The examples of such are countless: Winston Churchill “locked” him in his personal library to read before his return to power; Karl Marx “dived into” British library before he finished his Le Capital. Benjamin Franklin fled Boston to be an apprentice printer in Philadelphia, leading him to be one of the Founding Fathers of the US. Mao Zedong who took advantage of Beking University Library when he worked there before he took over China from Chiang Kai-shek. …

It can go on and on and on. Thus the take-aways is to make reading a low-hanging fruit to the extent in which you will be amazed now and be great in the future.

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Development as Freedom

Saturday, April 7th, 2007

Amartya Sen’s model

Pg 3

“Growth of GNP or of individual incomes can, of course, be very important as means to expanding the freedoms enjoyed by the members of the society. But freedoms depend also on other determinants, such as social and economic arrangements (for example, facilities for education and health care) as well as political and civil rights (for example, the liberty to participate in public discussion and scrutiny).

Pg 4

“Freedom is central to the process of development for two distinct reasons.

  1. The evaluative reason: assessment of progress has to be done primarily in terms of whether the freedoms that people have are enhanced;
  2. the effectiveness reason: achievement of development is thoroughly dependent on the free agency of people.

Pg 10

“Five distinct types of freedom, seen in an “instrumental” perspective, are particularly investigated in the empirical studies that follow. These include (1) political freedoms, (2) economic facilities, (3) social opportunities, (4) transparency guarantees and (5) protective security.

Pg 10

A CONCLUDING REMARK

“Freedoms are not only the primary ends of development, they are also among its principal means.”

Pg 11

“political freedoms help to promote economic security. Social opportunities facilitate economic participation. Economic facilities can help to generate personal abundance as well as public resources for social facilities.

Pg 14

“The ends and means of development require examination and scrutiny for a fuller understanding of the development process; it is simply not adequate to take as our basic objective just the maximization of income or wealth, ….

Pg 15

“It is sometimes claimed that the denial of these rights helps to stimulate economic growth and is “good” for rapid economic development. … Indeed, the empirical evidence very strongly suggests that economic growth is more a matter of a friendlier economic climate than of a harsher political system.”

Pg 19

“this is not to deny that deprivation of individual capabilities can have close links with the lowness of income, which connects in both directions: (1) low income can be a major reason for illiteracy and ill health as well as hunger and undernourishment, and (2) conversely, better education and health help in the earning of higher incomes.

Pg 25

“The relation of the market mechanism to freedom and thus to economic development raises questions of at least two quite distinct types, which nee to be clearly distinguished. First, a denial of opportunities of transaction, through arbitrary controls, can be a source of unfreedom in itself.

…

second… markets typically work to expand income and wealth and economic opportunities that people have.

Pg 27

“The shift in the focus of attention of pro-market economics from freedom to utility has been achieved at some cost: the neglect of the central value of freedom itself.

Pg 31

“Individual freedom is quintessentially a social product, and there is a two-way relation between (1) social arrangements to expand individual freedoms and (2) the use of individual freedoms not only to improve the respective lives but also to make the social arrangements more appropriate and effective.

Pg 31-32

“The real conflict is between

1) the basic value that the people must be allowed to decide freely what traditions they wish or not wish to follow; and

2) the insistence that established traditions be followed (no matter what), or, alternatively, people must obey the decisions by religious or secular authorities who enforce traditions – real or imagined.

Pg 33

“The motivation underlying the approach of “development as freedom” is not so much to order all states – or all alternative scenarios – into one “complete ordering,” but to draw attention to important aspects of the process of development, each of which deserves attention.”

Pg 38

“Political freedoms, broadly conceived (including what are called civil rights), refer to the opportunities that people have to determine who should govern and on what principles, and also include the possibility to scrutinize and criticize authorities, to have freedom of political expression and an uncensored press, to enjoy the freedom to choose between different political parties, and so on.

…

Economic facilities refer to the opportunities that individuals respectively enjoy to utilize economic resources for the purpose of consumption, or production, or exchange.

…

Social opportunities refer to the arrangements that society makes for education, health care and so on, which influence the individual’s substantive freedom to live better.

…

Transparency guarantees deal with the need for openness that people can expect: the freedom to deal with one another under guarantees of disclosure and lucidity.

…

Protective security is needed to provide a social safety net for preventing the affected population from being reduced to abject misery, and in some cases even starvation and death.”

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Right Choice

Monday, April 2nd, 2007

Talisse On Rawls

Pg 6

“What is ‘justice as fairness,’ and why has it stirred so much controversy?

Pg 19

“Of course, the term “justice” is used in many different ways; for example, we often hear the word “just” used to describe entities as diverse as governments, laws, court decisions, and individual actions. However, Rawls is concerned primarily with social justice, the justice of what he calls the “basic structure” of a society.”

(.. the primary subject of justice is the basic structure of society, or more exactly, the way in which the major social institutions distribute fundamental rights and duties and determine the division of advantages from social cooperation. From Theory of Justice )

Pg 24

“…individuals enter into social arrangements for the purpose of attaining benefits unavailable to them singularly; accordingly, a society is a “cooperative venture” aimed at the “mutual advantage” of the individuals that comprise it.

At the time Rawls wrote A Theory of Justice, the dominant liberal theory of justice was utilitarianism.

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Justice is dead or alive?

Sunday, April 1st, 2007

John Rawls model of justice

Pg. XI.

Editor’s Foreword,

“A political conception of justice is justified by reference to political values and should not be presented as part of a more “comprehensive” moral, religious, or philosophical doctrine.”

Pg. 2

“One is that political philosophy may contribute to how a people think of their political and social institutions as a whole, and their basic aims and purposes as a society with a history — a nation – as opposed to their aims and purposes as individuals, or as members of families and associations.”

Pgs 2-3

“… the members of any civilized society need a conception that enables themselves as members having a certain political status – in a democracy, that of equal citizenship – and how this status affects their relation to their social world.”

Pg. 5

“Society as a fair system of cooperation.”

Pg 6

“The central organizing idea of social cooperation has at least three essential features:

(a) Social cooperation is distinct from merely socially coordinated activity – for example, activity coordinated by orders issued by an absolute central authority. Rather, social cooperation is guided by publicly recognized rules and proceduresaccept as appropriate to regulate their conduct. which those cooperating

(b) The idea of cooperation includes the idea of fair terms of cooperation: these are terms each participant may reasonably accept, and sometimes should accept, provided that everyone else likewise accepts them. Fair terms of cooperation specify an idea of reciprocity, or mutuality: all who do their part as the recognized rules require are to benefit as specified by a public and agreed-upon standard.

(c) The idea of cooperation also includes the idea of each participant’s rational advantage, or good. The idea of rational advantage specifies what it is that those engaged in cooperation are seeking to advance from the standpoint of their own good.”

Pg. 12

“We view justice as fairness not as a comprehensive moral doctrine but as a political conception to apply to that structure of political and social institutions.”

Pg 13

“In justice as fairness the question of justice between peoples is postponed until we have an account of political justice for a well-ordered democratic society.”

Pg 14 (back to editor’s Foreword)

“Finally, I stress a point implicit in what we have said: namely, that justice as fairness is not a comprehensive religious, philosophical, or moral doctrine – one that applies to all subjects and covers all values. Nor is it to be regarded as the application of such a doctrine to the basic structure of society, as if this structure were merely another subject to which that comprehensive view is to be applied. Neither political philosophy nor justice as fairness is, in that way, applied moral philosophy. Political philosophy has its own distinctive features and problems. Justice as fairness is a political conception of justice for the special case of the basic structure of a modern democratic society. I this respect it is much narrower in scope than comprehensive philosophical moral doctrines such as utilitarianism, perfectionism, and intuitionism, among others. It focuses on the political (in the form of the basic structure), which is but a part of the domain of the moral.”

Pg 15

“Justice as fairness adopts … the fair terms of social cooperation are to be given by an agreement entered into by those engaged in it. One reason it does this is that, given the assumption of reasonable pluralism, citizens cannot agree on any moral authority, say a sacred order of values or the dictates of what some view as natural law. So what better alternative is there than an agreement between citizens themselves reached under conditions that are fair for all?”

“The difficulty is this: we must specify a point of view from which a fair agreement between free and equal persons can be reached; but this point of view must be removed from and not distorted by the particular features and circumstances of the existing basic structure.”

My own words, the just society should have the following features: respect, diversity, tolerance.

Diversity includes a ray of different elements, such as white and black, rich and poor, English and Spanish. There is no fairer society than one with diverse elements of one society.

Pg 18

“Justice as fairness regards citizens as engaged in social cooperation, and hence as fully capable of doing so, and this over a complete life. Persons so regarded have what we may call ‘the two moral powers,’ explained as follows:

i. One such power is the capacity for a sense of justice: it is the capacity to understand, to apply, and to act from (and not merely in accordance with) the principles of political justice that specify the fair terms of social cooperation.

ii. The other moral power is a capacity for a conception of the good: it is the capacity to have, to revise, and rationally to pursue a conception of the good. Such a conception is an ordered family of final ends and aims which specifics a person’s conception of what is of value in human life or, alternatively, of what is regarded as a fully worthwhile life.

Pg 19

“Here it is important to keep in mind that justice as fairness is a political conception of justice: that is, it is designed for the special case of the basic structure of society and is not intended as a comprehensive moral doctrine. Therefore, the idea of the person, when specified into a conception of the person, belongs to a political conception.

… the conception of the person itself is meant as both normative and political, not metaphysical or psychological.”

Pg 21

“The relevant meaning of free persons is to be drawn from the political culture of such a society and may have little or no connection, for example, with freedom of the will as discussed in the philosophy of mind. Following up this idea, we say that citizens are regarded as free persons in tow respects.

First, citizens are free in that they conceive of themselves and of one another as having the moral per to have a conception of the good.

…

A second respect in which citizens view themselves as free is that they regard themselves as self-authenticating sources of valid claims.”

Pg 25

“We cannot tell in advance whether the idea of social cooperation, and its tow companion ideas, will provide the organizing ideas, will provide the organizing ideas we need for a workable political conception of justice. … All we need claim is that the idea of society as a fair system of cooperation is deeply embedded in that culture, and so it is not unreasonable to examine its merits as a central organizing idea. The point is that whatever idea we select as the central organizing idea cannot be fully justified by its own intrinsic reasonableness, as its intrinsic reasonableness cannot suffice for that. Such an idea can be fully justified (if at all) only by the conception of political justice to which it eventually leads when worked out, and by how well that conception coheres with our considered convictions of political justice at all levels of generality in what we may call wide (and general) reflective equilibrium (§10).”

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