It’s time to start prepping for the June LSAT. Some of you will be taking the LSAT for the second or third time. Others have no idea what they’re in for. If this is your first encounter with the LSAT, then this post should help.
Here are 5 things every newcomer should know about the LSAT:
1) Studying For The LSAT Will Make You Smarter
The LSAT is nothing like your traditional college exam. There will be no info-dumping frenzy. There will be no long list of facts, or vocabulary to memorize. Specialized knowledge of bee behavior or electoral systems won’t help – and might actually hurt. Instead, the LSAT will test your ability to – well, frankly – spot B.S.
The LSAT is a test of logic. Logic is the skill you use to avoid falling for those late night infomercials about get rich quick schemes “they don’t want you to know about.” It’s what you used in grade school to prove that the red Power Ranger was objectively better than the green Power Ranger. It’s how you know that there aren’t really tons of hot singles waiting to talk to you online.
So studying for the LSAT will make you a wee bit wiser, and won’t fill your head with useless facts.
2) The LSAT Is Really Hard…Brutally Hard
The LSAT has about 100 questions, and it is scored on a scale from 120 to 180, with most people scoring below 152. That means most people will miss about 45 questions out of 100. If the LSAT gave letter grades, most people would get an F. Imagine if one of your professors curved your grades so that most people would fail. Welcome to the LSAT.
But this isn’t all bad news. You can miss about 10 questions on your LSAT and still score better than 99 percent of all LSAT takers.
So while the exam is brutal, you don’t need to be perfect to get an awesome LSAT score. In fact, one of the best ways to pass the LSAT is to practice taking it as much as you can. Here’s a free practice test to get you started.
3) You Can Study For The LSAT
A lot of people will tell you that your LSAT score is measuring some innate, unreachable, and static intelligence. This is wrong. The LSAT is a test of skills that anyone can acquire.
Studying for the LSAT will feel a lot like taking a math class. You’ll learn some fundamental rules and methods, you’ll practice applying these, and during each lesson you’ll add something new.
The really bad thing to do would be to miss a lesson. Remember what happened when you missed a day in math class? Yup, you were completely lost during the next lesson.
And just like a math class, prepping for the LSAT can be incredibly boring and soul-sapping if you have a bad teacher. That’s why here at Blueprint LSAT Prep, we make sure you have some fun during your LSAT course (and pizza, and sometimes burritos, too).
If you do show up to all of your lessons, and do all of your homework, you will improve your LSAT score. You might also lose a few friends and acquire a cat – I speak from personal experience.
There’s actually a ton of ways to prep for the LSAT. There are LSAT classes, Self-Paced Course, and private LSAT tutoring.
4) Your Diagnostic LSAT Score Doesn’t Mean Much
I’ve been prepping students for the LSAT for about three years now. Before every diagnostic LSAT, I tell my students not to worry about their first practice LSAT score.
But people always freak out. “Maybe my mother was wrong. Maybe I’m not special.” Sigh.
Taking a diagnostic LSAT before any LSAT prep will let you to track your progress, and this will make prepping more rewarding. Your first practice LSAT score is not a good predictor of your best LSAT score. I have personally seen many students improve on their first practice LSAT score by more than 20 points.
So try to relax.
5) You Can Retake The LSAT And Law Schools Will Only Count Your Highest LSAT Score
This should help take some of the pressure off: these days most law schools are only interested in your highest LSAT score.
Law schools only have to report their students’ highest LSAT scores for their official stats, which also get churned into the U.S. News law school rankings (often referred to as “the rankings”). So even the schools that use a more “holistic” approach have an incentive to only care about your highest LSAT score.
June is early enough for you to have a complete meltdown during the LSAT, retake in September, and still apply to law school early in the cycle.
If you have any questions, feel tree to post a comment. If you have more questions, or you’re ready to get serious about your LSAT prep, schedule a free LSAT consult with our Academic Managers! Good luck with your June LSAT prep!
