Law School Admission and the LSAT

Getting into law school can be difficult.

Admissions Emphasize Mostly LSAT and GPA

Most law school's admissions emphasizes the LSAT score and undergraduate GPA, in that order. Typically, the undergraduate major is not given much weight, and only limited weight is given to the undergraduate college. Activities and honors are given only minor consideration - not nearly as much as in undergraduate admissions. This emphasis is partly due to law school ranking criteria in guides such as US News. These surveys place significant weight on the LSAT and GPA credentials of incoming students but not much on individual criteria that are harder to compare and quantify. Law schools want to know that those admitted have basic social and networking skills, but may also figure that those with too many outside commitments will not be content in law practice.

Special Consideration Given to Special Applicants: Students who fit certain demographic criteria, have overcome adversity, or have made major accomplishments typically will get in with lower scores and grades. Racial minorities and students who have compelling personal stories of overcoming adversity, such as an applicant whose parents were and out of prison when he grew up, or an applicant who came to US as a penniless child and later succeeded, will receive strong consideration. The goals are that these students will add diverse viewpoints to the law school intellectual climate and, in the case of racial minorities, improve the racial statistics for the school. In addition, there are still a substantial number of professors and deans who seek to use law schools for social reform agendas.

Affirmative action measures that are based largely on race have become controversial in recent years. Many of the minority affirmative action admits come from affluent, educated families similar to other students. Some commentators say it is not always clear if they deserve preferential treatment or are likely to add significant viewpoint diversity to the law school discussions. Rumors say that at one top-15 law school, African-American students could get in with LSAT up to 5 points lower than a comparable non-minority student.

Scholarships: Most law schools, including top 15 ones, offer significant merit scholarships or tuition discounts to applicants who are above the median in LSAT and GPA, and will therefore improve the law school's ranking. Little money is available to those under the school's medians. Also, More consideration is given to racial minorities and students with compelling stories, as with admissions in general. Basically, the question is whether the particular student is in demand by the law schools.

LSAT

The Law School Admission Test (LSAT) is a reasoning test rather than an achievement test. The LSAT tests reasoning skills, that is, the ability to think like a lawyer, rather than specific knowledge about law. It is therefore more like the SAT Reasoning Test from high school - the test with math, verbal, and writing - rather than the SAT Subject Tests or the AP exams which looked for specific knowledge of topics like Physics or American History.

Overview of the Test

The LSAT is still given only in paper form rather than by computer. The test is usually given in large rooms like this one.

Aerial View of People Taking Exam in Large Room
The test consists of 3 different types of multiple choice questions in 4 scored sections. A 5th unscored section is used to test experimental questions that may be used in future LSAT tests. The test taker does not know which section is experimental. There is also an unscored writing sample administered after the multiple choice sections. Some law schools may score and use this section in admissions; most do not. Test takers should check with their schools prior to taking the LSAT.

Logical Reasoning: Questions test logical reasoning in a verbal format. A question will have up to several statements, then ask whether the reasoning presented is flawed or what inferences can be drawn from the statements.

Reading Comprehension: There are 3 separate passages, each with several questions following the passage. In place of a 4th passage, there are two short passages, followed by questions comparing these two passages.

Analytical Reasoning: Known informally as “logic games”, this section gives some mundane logic puzzles. Usually the questions involve arranging items or people in ways that satisfy several constraints. The questions ask which of the possible arrangements suggested do or do not meet the these constraints. For example, 9 people are being seated on a bus, in 3 rows of 3 seats each. Person A can't sit next to B, and C can't sit next to D. Persons A and D must be both 2 rows apart, etc. The questions would ask which possible arrangements meet all the requirements given.

LSAT Preparation

Many students take test preparation courses offered by one of several national companies or by private entrepreneurs. Classes are commonly taught by those who recently took the test and scored well. Others buy test preparation books and study by themselves or take online courses.

Beware of Before/After Tests for Courses: In order to convince students that their test preparation courses significantly improve LSAT scores, some test preparation companies have new students take a practice LSAT with absolutely no preparation to serve as a baseline. The problem with doing this is comparison is that it includes improvement not only from the course, but also a large initial improvement that comes just from basic familiarity with the test format. Students can gain this basic familiarity without a course fairly quickly, just by studying the free materials from the LSAT website. A better comparison would be to take the “before” test after the student has already spent a few hours working through these free materials, so that way the comparison tests will measure only improvement due to the test taking strategies and practice gained in the course. Any serious test taker should obtain and study at least these free online materials in advance.

A variety of popular LSAT study guides exist. Shown here are 3 LSAT guides published by LSAC, Barron's, and Kaplan.

LSAT Practice Tests

The organization that writes the LSAT, LSAC, publishes one free practice test on their website. All serious test takers should download and review this test. LSAC also publishes several books each containing 10 actual old LSAT tests. These books are one of the best, and most cost effective ways of preparing since the questions will be most similar to actual test questions. These questions were made and normalized using the similar criteria as the current test. For recent tests, the writers of those published questions may still be writing current test questions. The format, tone, and linguistic nuances of the questions will be similar. A test taker can both consciously and subconsciously pick up on these subtle details, and therefore do better on the actual test administration.

Immediate Feedback

During preparation, immediate feedback is helpful so a test taker can know instantly whether he or she answered a test question correctly. Details of the question will be fresh in the test taker's mind, and he or she can reenforce beneficial habits or shortcuts once he or she is confident they are helpful, and avoid having to unlearn bad habits. One easy way to do this is to photocopy the answer key, then place a cover sheet over the photocopy while taking the practice test. As soon as a question is answered, the test taker can then move the cover sheet down just enough to look at the answer for that question, without accidentally viewing the answer to the next test question. Test takers may not want to tear out the answer key, as it can then become lost. While this method of test preparation does not simulate actual time limits (see below), test takers should still limit themselves to approximately 1 minute per test question to approximate real conditions.

Timed Conditions

Time constraints are an important element of this test. In most cases, test takers must average under a minute per question. Test takers should practice at least a few full-length versions of the test under the actual time limits, and in sequence with the appropriate breaks between sections. Due to test fatigue, a person's score will typically be lower when doing the full-length test than when taking only a portion of the test. However, it is helpful to simulate actual test conditions since most students can better optimize their time and attention if they have practiced under these constraints.

These two strategies, checking the answers to get immediate feedback, and simulating actual testing conditions, usually cannot be done at the same time. Looking up an answer and reviewing the question where necessary prevents a test taker from completing future test questions in the allotted time. It will be helpful to take multiple practice tests to allow the test taker to benefit from both strategies. The books of old LSAT tests each include 10 tests to allow for a variety of test preparation approaches.

Test Preparation Timing And Scheduling

Students should conduct preparation well in advance of the test, ideally starting several weeks or even months prior. Students should relax the evening before the test; it is probably wise to take full-length practice tests in advance, not the day before the actual test. Test preparation the night before should be limited to a going over a few questions to stay in the test-taking mood.

Other LSAT Preparation Materials

A variety of books are published by other third party organizations not affiliated with the LSAT. Many of these books include their own “simulated” LSAT questions. The downside of these guides is that their practice questions are written by different people from the real LSAT, and these questions must be at least somewhat different from the real questions to comply with copyright law. Certain nuances in the questions may therefore differ from the real test. These guides do have some benefits. Many focus on test-taking strategies that make best use of the time and help students avoid common pitfalls from not fully comprehending the question.

Students have reported the biggest score gains in the “Logic Games” section, also known as “Analytical Reasoning.” This section tests the ability to juggle and sort through mundane logic puzzles with numerous constraints. It is often considered the hardest by test takers at the start of test preparation, but responds best to strategies and practice.

Are Older Test Prep Materials Still Helpful?

The short answer is these materials are still helpful, but the cost savings is probably not enough for most people to justify using older materials. The LSAT format changed slightly in June 2007, but otherwise has remained mostly the same since the early 1990's. One of the 4 reading passages in the reading comprehension section was replaced with two shorter passages, which the test taker is then asked to compare. There is also a slight change to the unscored writing sample. In addition, as test question writers change over time and as popular language changes, the nuances of the test questions may also change a bit. Thus a now-published test that was made in 2007 is more helpful than one given in 1997.

Compared to the total cost of law school, or even the cost of just applying to law school, the cost of most new test preparation books is fairly small. The official books of recently-published LSAT tests usually cost around $30 per 10 published tests; 3rd party books usually sell for under $60. At least for the official books of LSAT tests, test takers may want to start first with recently-published material where the nuances of the questions will best resemble the actual test they will take.

Conclusion

Anyone taking the LSAT should do at least some preparation in order to become familiar with the test format. The LSAT website contains one free, old LSAT for studying. The organization that writes the LSAT also publishes books of previous tests. Third-party materials teach various test taking strategies. In addition, there are more expensive in-person courses which often meet for months prior to the test date. Whether these courses meet the needs of a particular test taker is hard to answer in advance; many test takers who are sufficiently motivated can get extensive practice and feedback from numerous books available. However, law school admissions are competitive, and several LSAT points will make the different between getting in or not, or in getting a substantial tuition discount. Compared to the total cost of law school, a test preparation service may be worth even the expensive fees often charged if it can boost an LSAT score even just several points.