Significance of the Law School Admission Test

The Law School Admission Test, or LSAT, is required for admission to all law schools accredited by the American Bar Association. Almost without exception, my students approach the test with fear and trembling.

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And with good reason. Students who have taken the test often return with horror stories. Some experienced overheated exam rooms, poor lighting, or noisy distractions. Others had to work with high fevers or dripping sinuses; one poor fellow had to hold a broken pair of glasses against his forehead with his left hand while he worked. Another young man arrived late and had to sit in the only available chair, in an aisle where the proctors kept tripping over his legs while he worked. When he finished, he joked that his score would be so low they'd offer him an athletic scholarship.

Without fail, someone is sure to bring up that legendary Sad Sack- that cousin's girlfriend's roommate or roommate's girlfriend's cousin whom everyone has heard of-who put the answer to question 13 on the line reserved for question 14. Then she put the answer to question 14 on the line for question 15, question 15 on line 16, and so on, not catching her error until a split second before the proctor announced that time was up. Even though no one seems to have actually met this character, everyone is worried that such a mistake could actually happen, because the LSAT is a single, timed, make-or-break event.

Most law schools are candid about the substantial weight given to these two numbers. Boston University "places primary emphasis on an applicant's undergraduate record and score on the Law School Admission Test," considering other factors "where appropriate." Marquette says that the two factors which weigh most significantly in the selection process are the academic record and the results of the LSAT. The admissions committee, however, also considers non-numerical factors.

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If your grades are poor and your LSAT is significantly better, however, the reverse isn't necessarily true. A low GPA doesn't prove that you don't have intellectual skills. You can't prove a negative. The low GPA simply means that you haven't yet demonstrated the possession of those skills. The LSAT, with all its flaws and weaknesses, is a test, an opportunity for you to perform and to demonstrate what you can do. It's independent of grades in the sense that a high LSAT score is evidence that you should be able to do law school work even if your GPA is low. It's a second chance. In such cases, a thoughtful admission committee will weigh the test more heavily, especially if you can provide some plausible reason why your grades were low. In this way, the LSAT represents the one opportunity for a traditional candidate to compensate for bad grades.

When to Take the Test

The LSAT is offered four times a year, on a Monday in June and on Saturdays in October, December, and February. (Sometimes the October test is given on the last Saturday of September.) Your prelaw adviser will know the exact dates a year or more in advance. You need to register four or five weeks in advance or Law Services will charge a late fee. Law Services reports your score in about six weeks. Since test preparation courses are designed to work best if they are completed no more than six weeks before the test is taken, you should plan on a spring course if you intend to take the June test, a summer course if you intend to take the October test, and so on. And you'd better start saving your pennies. (You shouldn't ignore the possibility of misadventure: each year or so I have a student who misses the test, most often because of car failure or he or she couldn't find the test site on an unfamiliar campus.)

If you take the test in December, or retake it after an initial poor showing, your position is, as the military says, deteriorating. You won't know your score until after the first of the year. Therefore, you must choose either to apply to law schools "blind"-and run the risk of applying to schools you won't have the numbers to get into, or of not applying to schools you can get into-or else delay your application and risk missing a deadline. (The best strategy in this situation probably is to apply blind, but to more schools; however, though this strategy maximizes your opportunities, it will cost you more, both in time spent filling out applications and in money spent on application fees.)

If you are retaking the test in December and applying blind, be sure to mark all your application forms "HOLD FOR DECEMBER TEST." Otherwise a law school may evaluate you on the basis of your earlier (and presumably poorer) score and reject you without waiting for the results of the second test.

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The February test date is little used; it's available mainly for non-traditionals who work on getting into law school over a longer period of time, students with special circumstances, and people who aren't sure they want to go to law school and just want to see how well they can do. February is not a good choice for traditional students, not even for a retake. Some law schools now refuse to consider applicants who take the test in February for admission the following autumn.

Overview of the Test

For all the fear and trembling it inspires, the test is remarkably banal. The LSAT "consists of five 35-minute sections of multiple choice questions, in three different item [question] types, and one30-minute writing sample." Four of the five multiple-choice sections are graded, the fifth being used "to pretest new test items and to equate new test forms." The essay is not graded. A copy is sent to each of the law schools you apply to.

The three types of multiple-choice questions are probably all familiar to you from other standardized tests you have taken. The reading comprehension sections require you to read brief paragraphs and then answer multiple choice questions about what you have read. Various kinds of puzzles and brainteasers are used to measure analytical and logical reasoning ability.

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