Career Center, Career Files, Pre-Law

Jumping The LSAT Hurdle

Other than the rare examples of law schools here and here, you’re going to need to take the LSAT to get into law school.

By Ann K. Levine  
on

 

LSAT 2 RFOther than the rare examples of law schools here and here, you’re going to need to take the LSAT to get into law school. If someone tells you it’s no big deal and you don’t need to prepare, or that you should take it just to see what it’s like because you can always take it again, just smile, nod, and run the other way. It is a big deal, you do need to prepare (three to six months), and you should never take the LSAT without preparing.

Here are some strategies for approaching the LSAT the right way, and some resources to help you achieve your goals:

Timeline

The LSAT is given four times per year: October, December, February and June. If you are applying to start law school in fall 2016, you should plan to take the LSAT in October 2015. (The June 2015 administration has already occurred at the time of this article’s publication.) If you don’t have time to prepare for October or don’t feel ready when the test rolls around, then register for the December exam. The February offering is the test of last resort. While you can get into law school with a February score, you’re less likely to be accepted at a reach school and less likely to get scholarships. Law schools conduct admissions on a rolling basis, meaning that earlier applicants often have an advantage over similar candidates who apply later in the cycle. If you take the February LSAT, your application won’t be reviewed until March or April, by which time others are already reserving their seats and schools are maintaining waitlists.

If preparing for the LSAT will be your primary activity for the two to three months before the test, and if you generally perform reasonably well on standardized tests, then you may only need to start studying three months before your test date. However, if you will also be going to school, working, or maintaining family responsibilities, then space out your preparation time to four to six months.

Don’t let the three to six month time frame seem daunting! The goal is not to take practice tests eight hours each day for several months, but rather to give yourself enough time for slow and steady prep and for your new skills to sink in and become instinctive behavior.

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If you are taking the October LSAT, submit your applications when scores are released. They usually come out four to six days before the official score release date (scores were out October 22nd in 2014) so you can still submit all of your applications by the end of October upon receiving your score, which is very early in the admission cycle. One Dean of Admissions told me that this year only one-third of her school’s applicants had submitted by early December! If you are taking the December LSAT, submit applications in early January.

 Types of LSAT Prep

Instead of breaking this up into the standard three categories—Prep courses, Private Tutoring, and Self-Study—let’s make it four categories:

  1. Prep courses that charge a lot and only schedule you to take three timed practice tests.
  2. Prep courses that encourage you to take five to ten full-length, timed practice exams.
  3. Private tutoring: It’s not necessarily more expensive than a prep course, but it’s only as good as your tutor. The fact that your tutor was able to score a 179 doesn’t convince me that she can teach you to do the same. Find a tutor with a track record of results. Ask to talk to a former student or two, preferably someone similar to you in terms of academic background and standardized testing history. A tutor who meets with you via Skype is more convenient, and often the better, more in-demand tutor, so don’t rule it out.
  4. Self-study: This isn’t for everyone: if you generally struggle with standardized tests, you aren’t going to be able to teach yourself the LSAT. Luckily there are some great, affordable online options to help you through the sticky parts, and you can supplement with tutoring if you have difficulty with a particular section. Just like with the prep courses, the key will be taking lots of timed, full-length practice tests, and if you’re not seeing an upward climb and you don’t know what you don’t know, it’s time to invest in outside help. In taking practice tests, use real, past LSATs (rather than practice tests written by third parties) and focus on recent administrations, as these are the most similar to what you will see on test day.

Budget

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A private tutor may run between $60 and $500 an hour, and perfectly great tutors are available to you for under $250 an hour. If you start working with someone and feel you don’t gel with him, abandon ship! Find a new tutor. Use your time and money wisely. Don’t rely on a tutor who constantly tells you how brilliant he or she is: if you’re not getting it—if you’re not seeing results—find another option.

A self-study course may run around $300 for books (assuming you’re not using your roommate’s scratched up versions) and/or $600 for a study schedule and online software and support.

Prep courses generally run between $1,200 and $3,000, with a few outliers that cost a lot more and include room and board.

Don’t skimp on LSAT prep – do whatever you can afford. If you do it once and do it right, it will save you money and time. After all, you don’t want to try it on the cheap the first time, only to have to go back and invest in tutoring for a re-take. Also remember that whatever you spend on LSAT prep is an investment that could pay off many, many times over in scholarship offers.

 Re-taking the LSAT

You are allowed to take the LSAT three times in a two-year period. You can withdraw from the test beforehand if you’re not ready or not feeling well. If you know you did not perform well, you can cancel the exam for a limited period of time after the test, and it will not be scored. This will count as one of your three test administrations but is not something you will be punished for – it just puts more emphasis on the next test sitting and means you’ll be pushing your application cycle out later (a later application is far better, however, than scoring below your ability).

People often ask me whether it looks “bad” to take the test three times. The answer is simple: it is worth taking again if you are likely to improve your score. The highest of your scores is what matters, so, while I wouldn’t advise anyone to plan on taking the LSAT more than once, I would recommend taking the test again if you are likely to boost your score. How can you know whether a re-take will net an improved outcome? If your timed practice exam scores were three or more points higher than your actual score, then your score may improve on a retake. Additionally, if your score was in line with your practice tests but you realize now that you should have prepared more for the test, then you may be able to improve your score.

 

 

 

 

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