Anyone who wants to go to law school soon learns about the importance of the Law School Admission Test (LSAT). Stories abound about those who have been challenged, frustrated, and confused by the LSAT. It can defeat even the brightest, best, and most hard-working students.
What is the LSAT?
Why is it so important?
What can you do to achieve the best results
when you take the LSAT?
Since 1948, the LSAT has given law schools a standardized way to consider applicants in addition to their GPA. The test assesses key skills needed to be successful in the first years of law school as these skills align with the logical reasoning, reading comprehension, logic games, and the experimental and writing sections of the LSAT.
Every law school receives far more applications than they have places in their first-year class. As a result, the LSAT is an important part of the assessment of candidates in the law school’s admission process. Applicants’ test results help admissions officers decide who is best prepared for law school and will therefore be an important factor in the decision about who will receive an offer.
Unlike other standardized exams, the LSAT does not test you on information that you learned in high school or in your undergrad or even that you will likely use in law school. As a result, people might tell you that you “can’t study” or “can’t prepare” for the LSAT.
Those people are wrong.
You can prepare for the LSAT. Part of that preparation requires you to understand the format of the LSAT and have strategies for answering the type of questions that the LSAT will include. This information is included in a separate note on each section of the LSAT, how to study and strategies for success on each section.
You can prepare for the LSAT in an efficient and effective manner and be ready on the day for the challenges which the test presents, improve your performance and obtain a high score.
You can prepare for the LSAT with planning, practice, and a lot of focused, hard work before the day of the test and by being ready, organised and calm on the day of the test.
You can prepare for the LSAT with these top tips on how to study for and succeed on the LSAT.
TOP TIPS ON HOW TO STUDY FOR THE LSAT
No matter what your GPA was, you will need to put in some hard work and study for the LSAT. These tips will help you to prepare in the days, weeks and months leading up to the day you write the test.
1. Establish your baseline by taking a practice exam “cold”.
Before you do anything, take a practice exam cold before you begin studying. Make sure this is under appropriate test-day conditions (which are described below). You take a practice exam for two reasons.
First, you should know where you stand with your LSAT proficiency. The practice exam will show you what you already know and what you don’t know, so you know which areas to concentrate your studying. This will help you to develop the right strategy for preparing for the LSAT. If you don’t do well on the practice exam it will help you determine what you need to focus on to achieve a higher score. If you perform better than you expected, then you can isolate the specific areas you may want to improve.
Second, taking a practice exam cold will help you choose a target LSAT score.
With that knowledge, you can then measure how many points you need to make up to achieve that score, where you can find those points (assuming you review your results as is discussed below), and what LSAT prep materials will help you bridge that gap.
2. Make a study schedule and stick to it.
Your study plan will be determined by two preconditions:
- The results of your baseline practice test; and,
- The test date you have chosen.
Because the LSAT is a skills-based test, you can prepare best over a period of several weeks or months during which you can learn how to apply LSAT strategies efficiently and consistently. This means it will be important to create a study plan that is suitable for your goals, priorities, and daily activities. This also means that you will need to choose a test date and register for the LSAT.
Doing so will tell you how much time you have to study before the exam day. Registering for the LSAT will also help you plan out everything else you may need to do in between studying such as work, other studying you may have to do, holiday plans and any extra-curricular activities. More importantly, knowing the test date for the LSAT will help you determine the number of hours you should spend studying per week, which will vary depending on important factors such as the results of your baseline practice test.
Once you have taken that test (hopefully several months in advance of the date you plan to take the LSAT) you will know how much time you will need to boost your score, and which sections need the most improvement. You should leave yourself enough time to take as many practice tests as possible, determine your personal strengths and weaknesses, and set up a reasonable study schedule that will keep you on track.
How much time do you actually need per week to prepare for LSAT? Unless you are among the lucky few who naturally test well, in most cases, 1-3 months is a reasonable amount of time to dedicate to preparation. During that period of time, a good benchmark is spending about twenty hours per week on your LSAT studies.
You will get the most out of that time if you have a good idea of what you need to accomplish during each study session and plan accordingly. For example, you could consider practicing a different section each day.
In addition to studying and practicing the specific sections of the LSAT, you should also set aside one hour per week to work on vocabulary review. The LSAT requires a high level of verbal competency and uses sophisticated vocabulary. As you take your practice exams and study, write down any words that you don’t know the meaning. Then make some flashcards and drill regularly. Improving your vocabulary will pay off by raising your LSAT scores.
As you set up a study schedule for the LSAT, avoid cramming as it is important that you go through a stress-free preparation for the test. This would mean setting ample time to prep for LSAT, especially because developing the skills to do well on the test, such as critical thinking and analysis of facts, can take time.
3. Practice, practice, practice (tests)
To get the most out of your preparation for LSAT, it is best to take full-length practice tests so that you are familiar with how the LSAT is structured and how the questions are asked in each section. Because the LSAT is entirely a skill-based exam rather than memorization you need to improve your skills through practice.
Here are the who, what when and how’s of practice tests.
When: Take practice tests frequently.
The baseline test you take will be the first of many as throughout your study plan, you should continue to take periodic practice tests. Taking practice tests under time constraints will help you estimate how much time to spend on each question. It will also identify which question types you need more practice.
Knowing in advance what the test instructions and the question types look like will minimize distractions from your main focus on test day.
With whom: Study alone and gain the knowledge you need.
While from time to time, the company of others who are also preparing to write the LSAT may provide support for the studying that you need to do, it may be a mistake to always study with a friend.
The aim of the LSAT is to expose your strength and weaknesses, which is different from standardized exams which examine your knowledge of a specific subject. As such, what is difficult to you on the LSAT may not be for a friend. Get together with others from time to time to compare notes and progress but concentrate on your own learning and knowledge first.
With what: Practice with actual LSAT Exams
Try to practice with actual LSAT exams as the more you expose yourself to the LSAT and actual LSAT exams, the more you will become comfortable with it. You might even start to like it.
Preparing with past exams helps you understand how the test writers prepare these questions, how they might continue to do so in the future and anticipate what you will see on the next exam. Specifically, practicing with actual exams will help you become familiar with (a) the logical principles that appear on the LSAT, and (b) the question types the test writers frequently use to test these principles.
How: First, practice under non-test conditions.
When you first start to take practice exams, read through your practice material once with no time constraint. Just take note of the different sections, passages, and questions.
Once you have a good understanding of the overall test, practice taking each section for a timed 35-minutes. Timing yourself during a practice test will help you gauge how quickly the time passes and how long you can spend on each question.
You should time yourself to create the same pressure you’ll experience on the test. If you typically study alone in a quiet space, you should consider taking a full practice test in a public area, such as a student centre or coffee shop to acclimate yourself to having people and noise around in a high-pressure situation.
How: Second, practice under test-like conditions.
Practicing with actual exams is a good start. However, taking a practice exam while you munch on cookies, watch TV, or have a conversation with your flat mate will not advance your skills much further.
To maximize your practice, you must take these exams under conditions that are as close to test day as possible. That means you must re-create several critical elements of that environment:
Time yourself accurately: You must time yourself the same way you will be timed on test day. 35 minutes per section. No more. No less. One bathroom break between sections 3 and 4.
Add an experimental section: Your practice exams only contain four sections. On test day, however, you will have to answer a fifth experimental section. When you practice, you need to replicate those circumstances. So, pick a section from a different exam and add it to the mix.
Replicate the test day physical setting: The best place to take a practice exam is not in your bedroom or in your dorm room. Those are areas where you are likely comfortable. The LSAT, however, is anything but comfortable, especially since you will have to sit in a brightly lit, cold room with many other stressed-out people taking the exam. As uncomfortable as it may sound, try, and mimic that physical environment. Take a practice exam in a library, an empty school classroom, or in a coffee shop. You should ensure that the location you choose will enable you to work uninterrupted for three and a half hours.
Take practice exams at the same time of day you will take the real LSAT: If you are taking the LSAT at 8 a.m., then take your practice exams at 8 a.m. If you are taking the real thing at 1 p.m., then take your practice exams at the same time. Our bodies function differently depending on the time of day. If you are taking an 8 a.m. exam, and you are usually groggy at that time of day, yet you take your practice exams at night, your scores may not reflect how you will actually perform on the LSAT.
Pretend it’s the real thing: The worst thing you can do when you take a practice exam is to “mail it in.” That mentality will undermine your effort and waste your time. You must imagine that you are taking the real LSAT. That attitude will ensure you perform at your peak, and that your score will reflect how you perform on test day.
4. Assess, reflect, correct, improve.
The review process after taking practice tests is important in order to get the most out of the practice process.
Keep a log of practice test results.
You will want to can see how close you are getting to your goal so you should keep a log of your practice test scores.
Write down the number or name of the LSAT prep test, the amount of time it took you to complete each section, the number of questions, and the number you answered correctly. Write notes to describe things like timing issues that you ran into, the type of question that you got wrong and any other issues or problems that came up.
Figure out what’s challenging for you.
The key to an effective prep for the LSAT is to identify your weak spots and work on them. While practicing, try to determine the patterns. Before checking the answer key for the practice test, you should first identify what caused you trouble answering a particular problem. Was it timing or was it the content? Identifying this pattern will be crucial in your review process and once you identify a problem, work to solve it through more practice. Try to dig deep and find out what made you arrive at the wrong answer.
This is another reason why it is not recommended that you study in a group or with a partner all the time. The LSAT is a skill-based test, and what you find challenging might not be so difficult for others. In preparing for LSAT, self-awareness is key.
Review your practice exam results.
You should review the results of your practice exams. A thorough, question-by-question review will maximize the benefit of your effort. It will reveal which questions you answered correctly and incorrectly and, in turn, help you identify your strengths and weaknesses on the exam. Having this knowledge will then provide you with opportunities for improving your score.
Isolate and improve your strengths.
The first thing you should focus on when reviewing the results of your practice exams is emphasizing your strengths.
The traditional advice says to improve your weaknesses. However, this is not necessary in every instance. If you are scoring above average, and your target score is not in the high 160s or 170s, you do not need to worry too much about your weaknesses. Instead, focus on your strengths. If you are doing particularly well on the Logic Games section, make sure you are perfect in every aspect of that section. Likewise, if you are a talented logician and cruise through the Logical Reasoning section, then ensure that you can correctly answer as many questions as possible on that section.
Isolate and improve your weaknesses.
You also have to addresses your weaknesses directly and determine how to overcome them.
The best way to improve your weaknesses is to practice as much as possible. If Logic Games are a thorn in your side, and you can’t finish all of the Logic Games within 35 minutes, then focus heavily on that section until you can overcome that hurdle. If conditional reasoning questions perplex you, find similar questions, and focus on them until you can improve your capability in that area.
TOP TIPS FOR SUCCESS ON THE DAY OF THE LSAT
These general tips are important to achieving success on the day you take the LSAT.
Relax on the day before the LSAT but be prepared.
What you do the day before the LSAT can make or break your performance on the actual test day. Don’t try to cram and pull an all-nighter before the test. It won’t do you any good. Instead, you should spend the day relaxing your mind and body, so you’ll be in your best condition come test day.
Don’t be complacent, however. Prepare everything that you will need for the test the day and go to bed early, so you can wake up early.
Be mindful of where the test centre is and the start time for the test. Plan your way to the test centre so you won’t have delays. Most importantly, relax and believe that you’ll do a great job!
Timing is Everything.
One of the challenges that the LSAT brings is time pressure. When you answer practice tests, you’d probably feel like the given time is not enough. Don’t worry because that’s just natural. Success on the LSAT comes down to answering the test efficiently rather than quickly.
In taking the test, don’t try to read the passages or texts really fast. If you do, chances are, you might need to reread the text and waste a lot of time. Don’t compromise your analysis with speed reading. Instead, use the skills you have practiced on how to analyse an argument after reading it once to save time.
Another timing tip you should consider is to save the more difficult questions for the latter part of the test. Parallel reasoning and parallel flaw questions, for instance, take a lot of time to answer compared to the strengthen or weaken questions. It is recommended that you answer them later in the test.
Pick Your Battles.
Every question is worth the same, but some are more difficult than others.
This is especially true with the games. Typically, you will have a mix of easy, medium, and hard games. If you have practiced and can identify what type of board you need to solve the game, you can identify which games should be the easiest to solve. Do those ones first! It is worth the time to identify which games are easier rather than struggling with a very hard game just because it came first in the section.
Answer everything.
The mistake that you might make is to answer some questions and leave some. It is good to answer as many questions as possible so as to increase your scores so you should always give an educated guess to those questions that you’re not sure of rather than not give any answers.
Remind yourself about two important points.
First, you do not need a perfect score. You can get several questions wrong and still do well on the multiple-choice exam.
Second, there is no penalty for a wrong answer, so make sure you do not leave any questions blank. Even if you are not sure, at least make an educated guess.
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