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Ready, set, go! After years of preparation, this is your moment. You’re sprinting towards law school, navigating the twists and turns of the track. But wait—what’s that looming in the distance? It’s not just any hurdle; it’s the LSAT.
The LSAT serves as your inaugural challenge on the road to becoming a practicing lawyer. However, it doesn’t have to be an intimidating ordeal. With information and preparation on your side, the LSAT can propel you forward toward your goals rather than hold you back.
This article is designed to provide a basic introduction to the LSAT. It’s got everything you need to know to set yourself up for a successful preparation pathway up until the day you take the test — and after.
The LSAT: Basics
The LSAT, or Law School Admission Test, is a central component of the admissions process for many law schools. It’s designed to assess key skills necessary for success as a law student, including reading comprehension, analytical reasoning, and logical reasoning.
A high score on the LSAT can significantly enhance your law school application, making you a much more competitive candidate.
What’s In This Guide?
This guide is not an all-you-need, front-to-finish, full study companion for the LSAT. There are whole books taking on that job.
Instead, this is a general overview. It’s your primer to the LSAT, to help you get your head around what’s covered in the test, how you can prepare, and what to expect on test day.
The LSAT: Overview
The LSAT is administered by the Law School Admission Council (LSAC) which is a nonprofit organization that provides a range of services for law schools and applicants. It’s responsible for the development, administration, and scoring of all LSATs across the country.
The LSAT is usually offered several times a year at various testing centers all over the world, with dates and locations posted on the LSAC website so you can pick the time and place you would like to absolutely dominate it.
Structure of the LSAT
The LSAT is made up of two main parts: the first is a set of four 35-minute sections, each consisting of multiple-choice questions, while the second is an unscored writing sample.
As of August 2024, the multiple choice portion is divided into two scored Logical Reasoning sections and one scored Reading Comprehension section, as well as an unscored section of either Logical Reasoning or Reading Comprehension.
The unscored section is for the LSAT’s benefit — it validates new test questions for use in future tests. The unscored section can come at any point during the test.
Here’s a breakdown of what to expect from the two multiple choice section types.
Logical Reasoning (Arguments)
This section assesses your ability to analyze and evaluate arguments. It’s designed to test your critical thinking, logical analysis, and reasoning skills.
The types of questions usually involve identifying assumptions, evaluating arguments, and drawing conclusions — all essential skills for a legal professional. They’re pulled from newspapers and magazines, research journals, or even advertisements and informal discussions.
Your job is to read and understand a short passage, then answer 1-2 questions about it. The skills required include understanding the structure of arguments, comparing different forms of reasoning, drawing conclusions based on evidence, and identifying flaws or weaknesses in arguments. Additionally, you’ll need to recognize and address misunderstandings or disagreements within the text.
Keys to Success in Logical Reasoning
In terms of preparing for this section, it’s all about practicing identifying argument structures and common logical fallacies. You’ll need to focus on understanding the main point of a matter and then determining the role of each element of an argument from the inside out. You don’t need to devote study time to learning specific terms and their meanings, like ad hominem or syllogism. This is more about how you think than how you write.
As you prepare, focus on understanding how to structure an argument, premise, assumption, and conclusion — and use what you know to respond to each question logically.
Reading Comprehension
You might see this section and think you’ve got it made — you can read, after all!
But the LSAT’s reading comprehension section goes beyond basic reading ability to assess whether you can take in complicated texts and comprehend them — and then come up with new insights based on what you read. The legal profession, after all, revolves around lots of reading. As the LSAC website puts it:
Both law school and the practice of law revolve around extensive reading of highly varied, dense, argumentative, and expository texts (for example, cases, codes, contracts, briefs, decisions, evidence).
The passages in the reading comprehension section come from a diverse range of subjects, including law topics but also humanities, natural sciences, and social sciences. They’re long, complex, and designed to challenge your ability to follow and build insights from their content.
Keys to Success in Reading Comprehension
To excel in this section, adopt active reading strategies such as summarizing paragraphs and identifying key points. Focus on developing the skill of quickly understanding the main ideas and structure of a passage. In the multiple choice questions following each text, you’ll be asked to pull out a variety of important components. These include:
- The main idea,
- Information that’s present in the text but not flat-out stated,
- The meaning of individual words/phrases in context,
- The structure of the text,
- How information in the text could be applied to a separate situation,
- Principles, messages, and analogies in the text,
- Inferences about the author’s beliefs or attitude, and
- How new information might affect the information found in the text.
There are three potential approaches to excelling in the reading comprehension section: reading the passage closely then answering the questions; reading the questions, reading the passage with the questions in mind, then coming back to the questions; skimming the passage and questions quickly to get a general sense of them, then reading the passage more closely and finally answering the questions.
A big part of this section of the test is your ability to separate fact from opinion.
Writing Sample
While the writing sample section isn’t scored, it presents law school admissions teams with a sample of your ability to write coherently, effectively, and with well-reasoned arguments.
Starting in July of 2024, this writing portion referred to as the LSAT argumentative writing section, will be around 50 min long with 35 minutes of that allocated for essay writing.
You’ll be given a prompt that presents a decision problem, then you’ll be asked to argue one of two options. It’s not about choosing the “right” option, but about how effectively you can communicate your reasoning behind your choice and convincingly argue its efficacy.
You can complete the writing portion separately from your multiple-choice test, as early as eight days before the date of your multiple-choice portion. The LSAT’s official proctored interface and software for taking the written portion, which you’ll install on your computer before you begin, has a built-in scratch paper section for taking notes and organizing your thoughts.
Keys to Success in the Writing Sample
Want to make the best possible impression through your writing?
Pick the argument which you feel you can back up with the most evidence and logical reasoning, and remember you can’t choose “both” or “neither.”
You’re not just being assessed on your reasoning, but also your presentation. Leave yourself time to proofread and revise your work before submitting. Make sure your writing is clear, grammatically correct, and organized in a way that makes logical sense.
Do your best to keep personal opinions out of your writing, instead focusing on opinions or assumptions. That said, remember to actually take a stance — you should have a clear thesis statement and a strong logical conclusion, and the admissions officer reading your work should have no question about which position you’ve taken.
One more tip — don’t let the writing sample dominate your test prep time. In a given week of study, it should probably only account for 5%-10% of your total study time.
Generally, the best way to practice the written portion is to complete practice essays. These can be accessed directly from LSAC as well as other online sources.
Scoring of the LSAT
Curious about LSAT scoring? Let’s uncover the details together.
Scale
The LSAT is scored on a scale from 120 to 180. Generally, a score of at least 150 is considered a “good” score. But for top-ranked schools, experts recommend shooting for 160 or above.
Just a heads-up, if you gave it your all and your score lands below 150, don’t sweat it. You can still pursue law school, though getting into the more competitive programs might require some extra work from you. Also, you’ll need to budget a bit more for those application fees.
I’ve witnessed countless people abandon their aspirations due to feelings of inadequacy or setbacks in their chosen paths. But here’s the thing—you’re in the United States of America, a land of boundless opportunity. Take the time to truly understand what you want from your law degree and carefully consider whether you need one specific school to achieve that or whether any ABA approved one suffices. When one door closes, we pivot and push forward to the next one.
Raw Score & Scaled Score
Every correct answer contributes equally to your “raw score,” which is then converted to a “scaled score”. What’s the difference between a raw score and scaled score? Basically, a scaled score accounts for slight differences in difficulty between test forms. This ensures that scores can be compared across different test administrations — the test form you get may be somewhat different than the one a student applying to the same school gets in a different testing environment. The scaled score evens out those minor differences.
Percentile Ranks
Your percentile rank indicates the percentage of test-takers who scored below you. If you scored in the 90th percentile, that means you got a better score than 90% of test takers — a very good score. This provides context for your scaled score and helps law schools understand how you performed relative to other applicants.
Preparing for the LSAT
Did you know it’s possible to have a positive experience studying for the LSAT? Preparing for the test doesn’t have to be a mind-numbing, frustrating, desperate sprint towards the finish line. With a bit of planning and diligence, you can come up with a study strategy that won’t burn you out, will make studying as laid-back as possible, and will give you the score of your dreams.
Timeline for Preparation
The best recommendation for timing your LSAT preparation is to create a detailed game plan for focusing on each section of the test, as well as regularly spaced practice tests designed to track your progress. Start several months in advance of your first test attempt, and make a detailed plan — even if you don’t follow it to a T.
One note about practice tests: don’t fall into the trap of taking a practice test every few days. It won’t help you prepare and will only serve to stress you out. Practice tests will help familiarize you with the LSAT format and gauge your progress, but they’re not a replacement for good old fashioned study.
Resources for Preparation
The good news about preparing for the LSAT is that you’re not alone — as evidenced by the fact that there’s an entire industry devoted to LSAT preparation.
Books and Online Resources
There are lots of books and online resources available for LSAT preparation, and some of them are even good! Popular options include Mike Kim’s The LSAT Trainer and online courses from Khan Academy. When you create an account for LSAC’s LawHub, you get access to four full official LSAT prep tests for free.
Practice Tests
If you take LSAT practice tests – and you should — make sure to take them under test conditions. Give yourself a time limit, which simulates the real testing environment. This will not only help you practice time management, but it will make the real-deal test less stressful, as you’ll already feel like you’ve worked under a time crunch.
Time Management Strategies
Studying for the content of the LSAT is just one part of the game. You should also research, strategize, and practice time management strategies. The people who excel on the LSAT know how to manage their time effectively, not burning too much of their available time on one section. Again, this is where practice tests can be a huge resource.
Develop a pacing strategy for each section to ensure you have enough time to answer all questions. Allocate more time to challenging questions but avoid spending too much time on any single question.
When you do come across a challenging question, make an educated guess and keep moving. Return to the question if you have extra time, but only after completing the rest of the section.
After the Test
LSAT scores are typically released online 3-4 weeks after the test date. You’ll get an email when your score is ready.
Take a deep breath, then have a look at your score. Remember that your scaled score and percentile rank can help put your performance into context. This info can help you gauge your competitiveness for law school admissions.
Not only that, but your score and percentile rank will help you determine whether you must (insert dramatic music here) retake the LSAT.
Retaking the LSAT
LSAC allows you to take the LSAT multiple times, but there are limits on the number of retakes. Review the LSAC policies on retakes and plan accordingly if you decide to take the test again.
If you do decide to retake the LSAT, analyze your previous performance to identify specific areas for improvement. Diving right back into the exact same study materials may not be the best call. Adjust your study plan based on your strengths and weaknesses, and focus on boosting the areas where you fell flat.
Final Thoughts
Remember — the LSAT is just one step in your journey, and it’s a step you can take and re-take if you’re not on firm footing the first time.
