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Originally posted by DeltaSig
I've always wanted to be a lawyer and will die trying. I love the research and dedication behind becoming one and applying it in future situations. I've always been a thinker and heavy arbitrator, love law and politics as well. Looking at law school in Boston, and planning to go into mergers and acquisitions.
1 year from law school and getting ready for the LSAT....Question for anyone who has already taken the LSAT?...what's the best way to prepare, because I'm just using kAPLAN and Princeton Review's study guides.
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I took it more or less cold and did pretty well, but I have a tendency to do well on standardized tests. I probably would have done better had I worked through a lot of example problems first. That was in 1998. I hear they might be changing the test format soon, but that's just rumor. Of course, I don't keep track of it anymore.
People who took the test more than once might have a different view on it than I do.
I think that URL=http://mowabb.com/ai/archives/2002_09_04.html#000886]this person[/URL] is probably on the mark as far as study courses go.
The very first thing to do if you want to start learning a bit about the test is to grab an application packet for the LSAT,
even if you're not going to take it in this year's testing cycle. Your school's career services office probably has them. There are sample questions in there.
The
LSAC would love to sell you even more sample questions, but I bet that there are plenty of sample questions in the review books.
Review books usually contain some of the questions that have been released by the testing organization, but the bulk of the questions are probably test questions that they made up to emulate the harder test questions that the testing organization is more hesitant to release.
I would say to spend a bit of time familiarizing yourself with the kinds of questions they ask and the different processes you can take to solving the questions they present. Learn their tricks. When you've learned what to watch for and what kinds of approaches you can take, you've done about all you can.
Most people find that the hardest part of the test is the logic / problem-solving section.
Most law schools use a composite of the LSAT score and the undergraduate GPA as their starting point for admissions considerations. There is usually a way to find out just what weight law schools give to each of them -- not all law schools treat them equally. I don't remember where that information is, but I remember it being out there.
Finally, try not to stress about it too much. Focus, but don't stress. This is a 3-5 hour aptitude test. This ain't the bar exam (which is a knowledge and skills test that takes 12 to 18 hours or so of actual test time, depending on the state). For the LSAT, you should spend some time learning your way around the kinds of questions and learning what their tricks are, but you shouldn't make it your life.
Good luck to you!