Aisha Mustafa || Staff Writer || Issue 17
Most pre-law students will eventually have to take the LSAT; the Law School Application Test administered by the Law School Admissions Council or LSAC. This exam lasts up to three hours containing two scored sections and one random unscored section. However, students are not informed on which sections are scored so adequate performance on all sections is necessary.
The first section that shows up on the LSAT tests logical reasoning, abbreviated LR. In this part of the exam, students are given a short paragraph explaining a situation followed by a question stem that requires application of logical principles and reasoning skills. For example, a question might ask you “which of the following arguments is most similar in structure to the one above?” Another may ask “which of the following assumptions would be necessary for the argument to proceed?” These questions test your ability to analyze arguments and situations as well as apply tools to determine the correct answer.
The second section that shows up on the LSAT is reading comprehension, abbreviated RC. Rather than the short paragraphs in the previous section, RC provides you with long, heavy passages followed by a set of questions testing your critical thinking and information retention. The key to the RC section is to recognize that the LSAT is a standardized test. That means for every question, there is only one single correct answer. For this reason, any correct RC answer will have a clear, citable, and inarguable quote from the passage that renders it correct. Don’t fall for tricks set-up to trigger personal associations, if the author didn’t mention it then it cannot be correct. Unless the question is an inference question in which it’s necessary to search for a clear implication in the text.
Finally, the LSAT contains an unscored argumentative writing sample. This can be taken at a completely different time and location from the LSAT itself within a range. In this section the test-taker is provided with a prompt and given 15 minutes of planning time. After the time is either over or the test taker chooses to proceed, the 35 minute essay-writing limit begins. While completing the sample a proctoring system is utilized and a webcam must be used. This sample is not graded but is visible to admissions councils.
The final question concerning the LSAT is about preparation. Should students invest in a preparation course? Prep courses are expensive and can even be a waste of money unless specific conditions call for it. Instead, free online sources — such as Insight LSAT’s 8 video guide to the exam— can provide students with all they need to succeed on the exam. What’s important is practice. The LSAT is a test of reasoning, not content. Students should take the practice LSAT tests directly from the LSAC site and spend careful time on review.
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