Law School Admission Test
The Law School Admission Test, or LSAT, is the examination administered by the LSAC (Law School Admission Council) in the United States, Canada, Australia and other jurisdictions worldwide, to test prospective law school candidates. The LSAT is given four times per year (June, September/October, December and February) and is designed to assess logical and verbal reasoning skills. The most popular test date is during September/October, and all test dates are administered on Saturdays, expect for in June when the test is administered on a Monday. Most law schools want a test taker to have completed the exam before the December date to qualify for the following fall semester. This is why many schools advise candidates to take the test earlier in the year, either during February or June dates.
This exam is the only exam out of the various State bar exams that is administered by all States nationwide. There are five 35-minute sections to the exam and only three of them are scored; 3 multiple-choice, one writing sample and one experimental section.
The three multiple-choice sections to this exam are:
- Logical reasoning- These questions are designed to test your ability to analyze, critically evaluate, and complete arguments as they occur in ordinary language. During each question, the test taker will need to read and comprehend a short passage, then answer the question about it. Law schools want to see how well your skills are when drawing well-supported conclusions, reasoning by analogy, determining how all evidence affects an argument, applying principles or rules and identifying argument flaws.
- Reading comprehension- This section contains four sets of reading questions. Each one consists of a selection of reading material, followed by 5-8 questions that test reading and reasoning abilities. This section tests you mainly on your ability to read, with understanding and insight.
- Analytical reasoning- These questions reflect the kinds of complex analyses that a law student performs in the course of legal problem solving (so study this curriculum again!). Law schools want to make sure you have the ability to understand a structure of relationships, and know how to draw logical conclusions about that structure, using sets of statements, rules or principles that describe relationships among persons, things or events.
The writing sample is generally given at the end of the test, and test takers are given 35 minutes to complete the section. Writing samples are usually not scored, however, copies of the section are sent to all law schools that you’ve applied to. The experimental section usually blends in with the other sections and test takers have no idea which section is the experimental one.
Cost of the LSAT
Test takers are only allowed to take the test three times within a two year period before becoming exempt from a law school. As of 2009, the cost of the LSAT was $130 in the United States and $137 in Canada. The LSAC offers fee waivers for those candidates who can afford to pay for the exam. Each approved LSAC fee waiver is good for two tests (within the two year period), one registration for LSAC’s Credential Assembly Service, letters of recommendation, access to electronic applications, four law school reports and one copy of the Official LSAT SuperPrep. Please visit the LSAC website for additional details. http://www.lsac.org/lsat/fee-waiver.asp
Registering for the LSAT
The best option any test taker has to register on-time for the LSAT is by going to the LSAC’s website ( http://www.lsac.org/lsat/about-the-lsat.asp ). There are three different methods of registration; online, telephone and mail-in. You can find all of the information you’re looking for on their website, including deadlines, fees, times, etc.
