LSAT 101

This is part one of a two part series that will help hopeful law school attendees study for their entrance exam.

Every year thousands of college hopefuls sit for the Law School Admission Test LSAT to find out what they’re made of. The test is required for entry by all real law schools. It is a multiple choice test scored on a bell curve that test your reading, critical thinking, and analytical skills. The test is comprised of three different section types: logical reasoning, analytical reasoning, and reading comprehension.

Analytical Reasoning

This section of the test is affectionately referred to by law school hopefuls as the “logic game section.” It will no doubt be the most foreign for most test takers, but it is also the easiest to improve on and accounts for the least number of points. A logic game is essentially a puzzle that the test taker must solve. For instance, Suzie must sit two seats to the right of Jeff, and Andy must sit immediately left of Jeff. Can you arrange the students in their proper order?

Logical Reasoning

The largest section of the test, accounting for 50% of the questions on the entire test, the logical reasoning sections essentially requires the evaluation of arguments. Test makers will present you with a short argument (3-5 sentences on average) and present you with a task. It may ask you to strengthen the argument, weaken it, or determine what must be true based on the facts. This section has been shown to be highly correlated with law school success. It is also somewhat learnable.

Reading Comprehensive

If there’s a section where you either have it or you don’t, then this is the one. The LSAT reading comprehension section is the single hardest test of reading ability known to date. It will present readers with a four 500 word passages and then ask them to answer 5-8 questions on each passage. The time limit is what makes the section difficult.