LSAT

Law School Admission Test

Law School Admission Test-LSAT is administered by the Law School Admission Council to anyone who wants to study law in American bar association approved law schools and most Canadian law schools. Most law schools will require its candidates to sit the Law School Admission Test-LSAT before admission. The LSAT tests verbal and communication skills of the applicants and is administered four times a year in centers all over the world. It consists of multiple choice questions. Excellent verbal and communication skills are needed for anyone who wants to practice law, so this is the reason why there is a lot of emphasis on verbal and communication skills of the applicants.

The LSAT is conducted in June, September, October and February. If you want to get admission into any of the above law schools in 2012, the cycle of the LSAT you are supposed to sit will start in June 2011. The exam consists of six sections, all of which have to be answered by the applicant for admission in to the law schools mentioned above.  The law school you have applied to has to be subject to the LSAT for one to be eligible to sit this examination. Four sections of the six sections are multiple choice questions. There is an experimental section and a long writing section that will test the applicants’ skills in writing.

The applicants will be tested in logical reasoning. The questions come in the form of several sets of facts which will test the candidates’ skills in reasoning and application of this reasoning. The skills in writing will also be tested since the applicant will be required to answer these questions in prose form. Applicants will be required to evaluate the logic of the situation and present arguments well. The reading comprehension part of the LSAT requires the applicant to read through a passage and answer the questions drawn from the passage. This will test a person’s skills in understanding the English language. As for analytical reasoning, the logic of the applicant will be put to the test. The person’s logical ability will be tested depending on the inferences he draws from the ‘logic games’ of this section.

The un-scored section is 35 minute long and tests the writing skills of the applicant. The applicant will be required to write an essay that will grade his communication skills. This is one of the most important parts of the examinations even when it is not going to be graded. Since this is an examination for admission into law school, it is expected that all applicants are able to communicate well in the English language therefore it is one of the most important.

LSAT can be taken multiple times although data shows that there is not much of a difference in scores when the first and second scores are compared. Keep in mind too that the second time around your scores may come even lower than the first time you took the exam, so it may not be a good idea after all to go for it the second time. If you feel that you were not able to perform well for one reason or the other, you can always take the exam a second time. The LSAT often view large score differences with suspicion so they will make a handwriting analysis of your exam paper to ensure that you did not have any unfair advantage when you took the second paper. You cannot take the LSAT more than three times within 2 years not unless the law school you have applied to requires a more recent score and requires you to take the test.

Last modified: 2011-04-25 09:06:29