About the LSAT
The LSAT is an aptitude test. Like all aptitude tests, it must choose a medium in which to measure intellectual ability. The LSAT has chosen logic. Other tests, such as the SAT, use mathematics and English.
What does the LSAT Measure?
OK, the LSAT is an aptitude test. The question is—does it measure aptitude for law school? Now if you think analytically and like to fiddle with crossword or logic puzzles, then you will probably warm up to the LSAT. On the other hand, if you think intuitively and synthetically, then you will probably find the medium (Logic) less palatable. Whether the ability to determine the possible arrangements of people around a circular table is an important skill for a lawyer is debatable. Nonetheless, the Law School Admission Council has chosen this type of question to test your aptitude for law school, so you must master their solution.
No test can measure all aspects of intelligence. Thus any admission test, no matter how well written, is inherently inadequate. Nevertheless, some form of admission testing is necessary. It would be unfair to base acceptance to law school solely on grades; they can be misleading. For instance, would it be fair to admit a student with an A average earned in easy classes over a student with a B average earned in difficult classes? A school’s reputation is too broad a measure to use as admission criteria: many students seek out easy classes and generous instructors, in hopes of inflating their GPA. Furthermore, a system that would monitor the academic standards of every class would be cost prohibitive and stifling. So until a better system is proposed, the admission test is here to stay.
Format of the LSAT
The LSAT is a three-hour-and-twenty-five minute test. Only two hours and twenty minutes of the test count toward your score—the experimental section and the writing sample are not scored. There are five parts to the test.
| Format | ||
|---|---|---|
| Analytical Reasoning (Games) | 24 Questions | 35 Minutes |
| Logical Reasoning (Arguments) | 25 Questions | 35 Minutes |
| Experimental Section | ?? Questions | 35 Minutes |
| Logical Reasoning (Arguments) | 25 Questions | 35 Minutes |
| Reading Comprehension | 27 Questions | 35 Minutes |
| Writing Sample | n/a | 30 Minutes |
The order of the format is not fixed: the sections can occur in any order—except for the writing sample, which is always last.
The LSAT is a standardized test. Each time it is offered, the test has, as close as possible, the same level of difficulty as every previous test. Maintaining this consistency is very difficult—hence the experimental section. The effectiveness of each question must be assessed before it can be used on the LSAT. A problem that one person finds easy another person may find hard, and vice versa. The experimental section measures the relative difficulty of potential questions; if responses to a question do not perform to strict specifications, the question is rejected.
The experimental section can be a game section, an argument section, or a reading comprehension section. You won’t know which section is experimental. You will know which type of section it is, though, since there will be an extra one of that type.
Because the “bugs” have not been worked out of the experimental section, this portion of the test is often more difficult and confusing than the other parts.
This brings up an ethical issue: How many students have run into the experimental section early in the test and have been confused and discouraged by it? Crestfallen by having done poorly on, say, the first—though experimental—section, they lose confidence and perform below their ability on the rest of the test.
Knowing that the experimental section can be disproportionately difficult, if you do poorly on a particular section you can take some solace in the hope that it may have been the experimental section. In other words, do not allow one difficult section to discourage your performance on the rest of the test.
Writing Sample
The final section of the LSAT is the writing sample. This part of the test is not scored, but a copy of it, along with your LSAT score, will be sent to the law schools to which you apply.
It is unlikely that a person’s writing ability can be accurately measured with thirty minute essay, especially when it is administered after a three and one half hour, time pressured test. Many people who write well, but only through repeated revision, will bomb this part of the test. Even natural writers can do poorly. The law schools realize this, so it is unlikely that anyone will look at your essay. Hence, your preparation strategy should be to concentrate your studies on those parts of the test that are scored.
Some claim that the writing sample can make or break an applicant whose score borders between acceptance and rejection, or that it can be used to decide between two people with equivalent LSAT scores. However, your best bet is to study the scored sections and bump yourself out of that situation. Besides, it is doubtful that the writing sample is actually used in that manner. Put yourself in the position of an admissions officer who, working against a deadline, has to make a decision on X number of applicants. Would you want to spend the time (and it would be time consuming) to evaluate and contrast two essays? Keep in mind that these essays are often nearly illegible and painfully dull.
Don’t sweat the writing sample.
Pacing
In your undergraduate studies, you probably learned to quickly read through reams of material. You were also probably taught to seek out truth and knowledge. This academic conditioning will serve you poorly on the LSAT. The LSAT does not measure your academic knowledge; rather it tests your ability to detect patterns and relationships. Often these patterns are invalid, such as fallacious arguments. Searching for knowledge and truth can be ruinous to your LSAT score. Instead, seek out patterns and relationships.
Although time is strictly limited on the LSAT, working too quickly can also damage your score. Many problems hinge on subtle points, and most require careful reading of the setup. Because undergraduate school puts such heavy reading loads on students, many will follow their academic conditioning and read the questions quickly, looking only for the gist of what the question is asking. Once they have found it, they mark their answer and move on, confident they have answered it correctly. Later, many are startled to discover that they missed questions because they either misread the problems or overlooked subtle points.
To do well in your undergraduate classes, you had to attempt to solve every, or nearly every, problem on a test. Not so with the LSAT. In fact, if you try to solve every problem on the test ,you will probably decimate your score. For the vast majority of people, the key to performing well on the LSAT is not the number of questions they answer, within reason, but the percentage they answer correctly.
Scoring the LSAT
The LSAT is designed so that it is nearly impossible for anyone to answer all the questions correctly . A “perfect score” can include as many as 3 wrong answers. The LSAT is scored on a scale from 120 to 180, and 150 is the average scaled score.
In addition to the scaled score, you will be assigned a percentile ranking, which gives the percentage of students with scores below yours. For instance, if you correctly answer 77 of 100 questions, then you will score better than 90% of the other test takers. In other words, you can miss nearly one-quarter of the questions and still be in the 90th percentile. This further substantiates the claim that you need not complete the entire test to get a top score. Since 150 is the average scaled score, it marks the 50th percentile.
