The Law School Admission Test (LSAT), as its name suggests, is the key component in admissions decisions at most law schools. The half-day long standardized test is administered four times a year at various testing centers around the country. Like other standardized tests, the LSAT aims to evaluate a student skills in reading and comprehension, logical reasoning and appraising arguments, all of which are necessary to succeed at law school and as a lawyer.
The LSAT exam is made up of five, 35-minute long sections that contain multiple choice questions. The test score is calculated using only four sections while the fifth section, known as the variable section, is generally used to test new exam questions. Last, there is a 35-minute writing section at the end of the test which is not scored but is instead sent to the law schools that each student applies to.
Notably, the multiple choice questions are divided into three sections: reading comprehension, analytical reasoning, and logical reasoning. The reading section contains four sets of questions, each related to a particular body of text, all of which are designed to assess the students ability to comprehend complex reading material. More, the purpose of analytical reasoning questions is to draw logical conclusions from a set of statements that describe a certain situation. Lastly, the logical reasoning section measures a student ability to critically analyze arguments.
The LSAT exam is generally administered in the months of June, October, December, and February. The LSAT exam cannot be taken more than three times over a two-year period. Additionally, all of a student's score is reported to law schools, and requests to send partial or high scores are not entertained.
There is plenty of information available on how to prepare for the LSAT and it is important to sift through it in order to prepare. While there is no fixed pattern of preparation for LSAT, it is important to familiarize yourself with exam questions and also the test format by taking a few practice tests under test conditions. If you need professional help studying for the LSAT, there are plenty of LSAT prep schools out there that will help you obtain a high score. You can find out more about these schools with the help of the Comparison Tool on our website.