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Law School Admission Test
(LSAT) 2009-10 TEST DATES: The LSAT is an admission requirement for all ABA-accredited law schools in the United States. It is given four times a year (usually June, September/October, December and February) and is administered by the Law School Admission Council (LSAC). The June test is given on a Monday afternoon and the others on a Saturday morning (individuals who observe a Saturday Sabbath may take the October, December or February test on either the prior Thursday or the following Monday). The LSAT & LSDAS Information Book -- which gives detailed information about test dates, sites, fees, registration, and deadlines, as well as a full-length sample test -- is available for download from LSAC. (Registration is normally online, but many applicants find it helpful to have a hard copy of the registration information.) Note: The LSAC website is very comprehensive and is updated frequently. You should refer to it often, throughout the law school application process. Fee Waivers LSAC will grant fee waivers to applicants with demonstrated financial need. Download a fee waiver packet from the LSAC website. The application must be submitted in a timely manner to be considered, usually four weeks before the test date. Fee waivers are available for the following services: two LSATs during the two-year eligibility period, one LSDAS annual subscription (including four LSDAS law school reports and access to the letter of recommendation service), and the Official LSAT Superprep book. Fee waivers cannot be applied retroactively. The standard fee for these services is approximately $250. LSAC fee waiver standards are significantly more stringent than many law schools' standards. Many law schools will waive their application fees if you have been granted a fee waiver from LSAC, but many will also waive their application fees even if you do not qualify for LSAC's waiver. You will find specific information about fee waivers on the website or in the application materials for each law school. Accommodations for persons with
disabilities Disabled students can and do become successful lawyers. LSAC will accommodate students who cannot take the LSAT at the regularly scheduled testing times or under their usual testing conditions. For instance, you can apply to take an untimed test or use a large print or Braille test if you can document your needs. You can get an Accommodations Request Packet from LSAC's Accommodations website. Depending on the type of accommodation you require, it may be necessary to submit the results of a recent psychoeducational or neuropsychological battery of tests. This can be a lengthy process so be sure to start at least six months prior to the test date. The Pre-Law Advising Office can help you with the process. More information for
people with disabilities Release of information to home
institution One item in the registration for the LSDAS/LSAT authorizes LSAC to release
your LSAT, biographical, academic, and application information to
your “home institution.” That’s us, the UMass
Pre-Law Advising Office. Please check yes! This numerical data is
extremely helpful to us in advising future students applying to
law school. LSAC produces reports for Pre-Law Advisors that help
us assist other UMass law school applicants to assess their prospects
of getting admitted to the school of their choice. The data from
these reports are only available in the aggregate, and your personal
information is protected both by FERPA and a special confidentiality agreement with LSAC -- it will never be released by the Pre-Law Advising Office without your explicit written permission. The LSAT consists of five multiple choice sections, each containing one of three different question types: • Reading comprehension questions One of the five sections is not scored because it is an experimental test question section. You will not know which of the five sections is the unscored one. After you have completed the multiple choice questions, you will have 35 minutes to write an essay on a given topic. The essay question is not scored and serves solely as a writing sample. It is sent to the law schools you apply to. You will have 35 minutes to complete each of the multiple choice sections and 35 minutes for the writing sample. With breaks and administration time, the whole process may take over five hours. A free sample test is avaiable in the LSAT/LSDAS registration book, or on line at the LSAC website. We recommend that you take the LSAT in June after your junior year or September/October of your senior year if you plan to go to law school right after graduation. (Put differently -- you should take the LSAT in the summer or fall of the year you intend to apply, a full year or more before you intend to begin law school.) If you take the test in June and are still in college, remember that you will have a number of other demands on your time through mid-May, all of which will compete with your LSAT test preparation. This is especially true if you are graduating that May. On the other hand, if you take the September/October test, you will be balancing the tail end of your preparation with the beginning of the semester. Some students, however, prefer the fall date because their minds are more attuned to intellectual matters, they are less tired than at the end of the semester, and they are less distracted by summer’s work or play. Judge the best time for yourself based on what you know about your own mind, test taking skills and work habits. We do not recommend waiting until December or February of your Senior year (or the year before you attend law school) to take the LSAT. You will not know your test scores when you have to decide to which schools you will apply. Also, most schools have rolling admissions which means they start accepting students as soon as they receive completed applications. The later you take the test, the longer it takes to complete your application and the fewer seats there are in the law school class for which you can compete. Many schools will not accept February test scores for that fall's admission. The stated purpose of the LSAT is to determine how well you have developed the skills necessary to excel at studying law. Law schools rely on your score as a prediction of how well you will do in your first year in law school. The LSAT does not test you on any specific body of knowledge but on your ability to read and understand complex material, to reason logically, to analyze information, and to perform well in a timed, stressful situation. These should be the skills you have been developing throughout your undergraduate career. To prepare for the LSAT, plan to spend at least 3-4 hours a week for at least two to three months prior to the test date. The most important things you can do to prepare for the LSAT are: • Review the test format, instructions, and question types. The test should look very familiar to you when you take it. • Work through sample questions and explanations to familiarize yourself with the different types of questions. • Review at least one set of commercial preparation materials for important tips on approaching the problems, especially the so-called "logic games". • Get copies of previously administered LSATs from LSAC's website -- they offer a number of different collections of old tests, some just with answers, and others with answers and explanations. Using a timer to simulate test conditions, work through a complete test. Do as many tests as you can. • Be physically as well as mentally prepared on the day of the test. Don’t try to cram the night before. Get plenty of sleep! And don't forget to eat breakfast. • Don't psych yourself out of doing well on the test. It is very easy to convince yourself that you "don't do well on standardized tests" or, for whatever reasons, can't do well on the LSAT. Don't do this to yourself. Aim for a high score and then prepare well to make it happen. There is every reason to believe that you can do well on this test. If you spend sufficient time working through previous tests, you will familiarize yourself with the test format and get practice developing your analytic and reasoning skills further. This will improve your test score. You can get practice materials from LSAC and from commercial publishers. We recommend that you only practice on actual prior LSATs. Avoid using materials which are called “model LSAT questions.” The Pre-Law Advising Office sometimes offers LSAT preparation workshops in the Spring. Check our blog for dates and times, or get on our Pre-Law email list by sending an email to prelaw@acad.umass.edu
This is the $1400 question. The decision to take a commercial prep course is a personal one. These courses are not a prerequisite to a good performance on the LSAT, nor do they guarantee a higher score than preparation on your own. The courses are very expensive and the quality of instruction can be uneven. If you are considering taking one of these courses, be sure to talk to others who have already taken the course at the same location, and preferably from the same instructor. Remember, however, that not every student has the same study skills, so another person's experience is only relevant if you are pretty sure you have the same work habits. Also remember that commercial preparation companies are in the business of making money. Alternate, less costly, means of preparation are available. Be skeptical of any course that makes extravagant claims about its ability to raise your score. Although most courses "guarantee" a higher score at the end of the class, you should realize that this is a very easy claim to make -- with even the most minimal instruction, your score is likely to go up from your diagnostic test score. Moreover, the guarantee does not usually offer you your money back, just the right to take the course over. What the commercial courses do best is provide the structure and discipline to get you to do the work you could do on your own. They may also boost your confidence so that you can relax more when you take the exam. In the end, the decision on commercial prep courses depends on what you know about your own learning skills and the conditions that will best help you prepare. If you do take a course, remember that just showing up for the classes will not be sufficient. Expect to put in significant time outside of the classes if you want to improve your score. In the past, the American Bar Association required law schools to report each admitted applicant’s LSAT score as an average of all scores that a given applicant received on the LSAT. For example, if an applicant took the LSAT twice and received scores of 150 and 160, his or her score would be averaged and treated as 155. And of course, any improvement in score had to be weighed against the cost and investment of time required to retake the exam. As a result of this policy, we formerly did not advise students to repeat the LSAT unless they were extremely confident that their score would improve dramatically. Now, however, the ABA has adopted a new policy that permits law schools to report an applicant’s highest LSAT. This has changed the calculus somewhat for students who are considering retaking the LSAT, since in theory, most schools will now permit you to receive the full benefit of any improvement in your score. However, you should still think carefully before retaking the LSAT, bearing in mind the following considerations:
In short, under the new ABA policy, it may now be to your advantage to take the LSAT a second time, but only if you think your score will increase significantly. Also, if you do decide to retake the exam, and if your score does indeed increase substantially, admissions officers will wonder what explains the disparity between the two scores. In order to derive the full benefit from your improved score, you should include a note in your application explaining why you performed below your potential the first time you took the test. Also, note that the incentive to take the LSAT in the June following your junior year is now even greater, since if you do poorly, you may wish to retake the exam in September. If you become ill during the test, or for some other reason know with certainty that you did not perform at your best, you may cancel your test score by notifying LSAC within a specified period of time after the test (usually a week). You will not know what your score is before you cancel it.
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