If you are exploring the possibility of attending law school to prepare for your future, you may want to sit back and carefully consider that you will also need to prepare for entry into a quality university. Gaining entrance into a law school is not necessarily going to be as simple as submitting an application and personal essay as with many other college entrance requirements.
In order to be accepted to most law schools, you will first need to take and pass the Law School Admission Test, commonly referred to as the LSAT. This exam is likely not like most academic tests you have taken in the past and it is extremely important to research passing requirements and prepare yourself to the best of your abilities prior to engaging the exam.
The Law School Admission test is generally only administered four times throughout the year, which means if you don't pass on your first attempt you will have to put your plans for attending law school on hold until the next round of testing becomes available. This is why it can be extremely important to prepare as much as possible ahead of time.
The test itself usually takes about a half day to complete and consists of five sections, which are timed at about thirty five minutes each. The purpose of the LSAT is to determine and measure a potential student's reading and verbal reasoning skills prior to admitting them into a given university.
Simply passing the exam is not always enough either as each individual school reserves the right to make their decisions on a case by case basis and your LSAT scores may be only one of several factors that can be taken into account when considering you for acceptance into their program. For this reason, you will want to make sure that you perform as strongly as possible on the exam in order to present your application with the strongest possible case. Again, the more prepared you are ahead of time, the better your chances will ultimately be.
To that end, it is highly advisable that you engage in Law School Admission Test preparation courses. Some of these courses can come in the form of practice tests, logic games, text based lectures, or a combination of all three of these elements. While there is usually some form of financial investment required in order to participate in these preparation courses such as those available from 7Sage, it will almost certainly be worth the money.
Keep in mind that you are preparing for your prospective career and your performance on these exams can have a direct impact on your long term goals and aspirations. When you are able to look at things from this perspective, the financial investment you may be asked to make to participate in certain LSAT courses is certainly worthwhile for the ultimate purpose of achieving your dreams. The biggest mistake a person can make is to enter into the law school admissions process without making themselves as prepared as they possibly can.
Author Bio:
This article was written by Carson Hope, a recent graduate of Columbia Law School.