The Law School Admission Test is a test of logical and verbal reasoning skills administered by the Law School Admission Council as a service for law schools in the United States, Canada, and others. All ABA-accredited schools require the LSAT for admission (ABA is the American Bar Association). The LSAT is administered at designated locations world-wide.http://www.lsac.org/LSAT/testing-locations.asp In 2008/2009 151,400 students took the LSAT.http://members.lsac.org/Public/MainPage.aspx?ReturnUrl=%2fPrivate%2fMainPage2.aspx

LSAT results allow law school admissions officers to assess the relative strength of applicants from different backgrounds using a single standard. While the LSAT is not the only criterion used by law schools when making admissions decisions, it is the only standard one that allows these schools to compare the aptitudes of students from widely varying educational, cultural, and economic backgrounds.

The specific process of LSAT scoring takes into account such factors as minor differences in the relative difficulty of each specific LSAT questionnaire compared to previously-administered ones.http://www.alpha-score.com/resources/lsat-score-conversion/

Each LSAT is comprised of five sections of multiple-choice questions, each taking 35 minutes to complete - a reading comprehension section, an analytical reasoning section, two logical reasoning sections, and one unscored section, used to pre-assess new test questions. This last may be placed in different order in each LSAT administration. In addition to these five sections, the LSAT includes a 35 minute writing sample test which is not scored, but is forwarded along with LSAT scores to any school the applicant wishes to apply to. Completing all six 35-minute sections of the LSAT requires a half-day.http://www.lsat.com/aboutlsac/about-lsac.asp#lsat

The LSAT is designed to test the following attributes of the student's ability, considered crucial for successful completion of a law degree.http://www.lsat.com/aboutlsac/about-lsac.asp#lsat

1. Reading comprehension - law school students are regularly assigned very extensive reading and research assignments.
2. Information organization and ability to make defensible inferences - law schools train lawyers-to-be to be able to extract specific relevant information from massive tomes of case law, organize those into succinct summaries, and infer what precedent these might provide for a specific case.
3. Critical thinking - law schools require students to not simply read an memorize case law, but also to assess sometimes contradictory rulings, and conclude how a case should be argued.
4. Analysis and evaluation of others' arguments - law students e.g. in moot court are expected to hear arguments from mock prosecutors and defenders and come to their own conclusions.

The LSAT includes a total of approximately 100-103 questions, with each correct answer providing one point, and without any point debits for a wrong answer. This leads to a raw score of between 100 and 103 possible. The raw score is then modified to correct for any slight differences in difficulty level compared to previous LSAT exams. The result of this correction is the so-called "LSAT scaled score" which ranges from 120 to 180. Thus, if you answered none of the questions correctly you would receive a scaled score of 120, and if you answer all questions correctly your scaled score would be 180. As a final stage in the scoring process, the distribution of all LSAT scaled scores from the prior three years are combined, and percentile scores are calculated. These provide a standard comparison point for the new scaled scores relative to a large population of current law school students.http://www.alpha-score.com/resources/lsat-score-conversion/

Applicants to law schools are allowed to take the LSAT up to three times in a two year period unless the school to which the student applies provides timely proof to the LSAC that they have permitted or requested the student take another LSAT.http://www.lsac.org/AboutLSAC/faqs-and-support-lsat.asp#test-repeats

LSAC reports all LSAT results since June 1, 2004 (updated each year to reflect the 5 most recent years), unless the student requests in writing that older results also be included. Scores are reported separately as well as averaged.http://www.lsac.org/AboutLSAC/faqs-and-support-lsat.asp#score-report Since October 2006, the majority of law schools consider only the highest LSAT score reported to them, though a few still consider the average.http://www.powerscore.com/lsat/help/multiple_scores.cfm

The LSAT has been around since it was pre-tested in 1947.http://lsacnet.lsac.org/Research/rr/Compendium-of-LSAT-and-LSAC-Sponsored-Item-Types.pdf Since it was first officially launched in 1948 its form, length, types of questions, etc. have evolved, changed, and at times even changed back. Thus, for example, the length of the test which began at a full day, was shortened in 1951 to a half-day for a period. In 1961 an afternoon session was added to the test, only to be dropped in 1971. The LSAT's form became similar to today's in 1982, with much greater similarity beginning in 1991.http://lsacnet.lsac.org/Research/rr/Compendium-of-LSAT-and-LSAC-Sponsored-Item-Types.pdf

The consistent objective of the LSAT has been and continues to be to this day -- to provide law schools with an objective criterion predicting an applicant's likely success in completing his or her law studies, leading to graduation. As new ideas (e.g. new types of questions, etc.) have come up, they have been tried out, and if valid, added to the test. If the validity of these new question types proved to be questionable, their predictive ability low, and/or if scoring them proved too difficult (i.e. expensive and time-consuming), they were discarded. Some of these were merely tried out in the section of the LSAT which does not affect student LSAT scores, while others moved on into the LSAT itself for a time.http://lsacnet.lsac.org/Research/rr/Compendium-of-LSAT-and-LSAC-Sponsored-Item-Types.pdf

There are three methods to register for the LSAT.http://www.lsat.com/LSAT/lsat-registration-methods.asp

1. Online registrationhttps://os.lsac.org/Release/Logon/Access.aspx
2. Telephone registration
3. Mail-in registration

After registering, if an applicant withdraws their registration, this applicant is not allowed to re-register for the same test during the late registration phase.http://www.lsat.com/LSAT/lsat-registration-methods.asp

As of 2010, the LSAT registration fee is $136.http://www.lsac.org/LSAT/lsat-and-lsdas-fees.asp This fee is partially refunded if the applicant requests a refund before the deadline. The refund is equal to $88 (all but $48 covering the administrative cost involved in the very registration process).http://www.lsac.org/LSAT/Refunds.asp#LSAT_refunds Late registration adds $68 to registration cost, as does a change in test date. Changing the test center costs $35. For $42 the applicant can request hand-scoring, with the same fee applying to generating a score report for a former registrant. Reporting results to law schools costs $12 per school. If the applicant wishes to take the LSAT at an unpublished testing center in the US this adds $252 to the cost, while doing so outside the US adds $335.http://www.lsac.org/LSAT/lsat-and-lsdas-fees.asp

Since the LSAT measures aptitudes and skills that take many years to develop, and are usually mostly developed by the time a student is ready to apply to law school, cramming for the LSAT is not likely to be productive.http://www.lsac.org/AboutLSAC/faqs-and-support-lsat.asp

However, there are advantages to taking as many available sample tests as reasonably possible. This type of preparation has the following benefits.

1. Familiarity with instructions - you will be less likely to make mistakes in taking the LSAT after having taken similar sample tests multiple times.
2. Reduced anxiety - much of the fear of the unknown is dissipated when you have taken a similar exam many times. There will still be the anxiety resulting from the knowledge that the LSAT is the one that counts, but at least the familiarity will reduce anxiety to that minimum.

Since each question on the LSAT has the same point value, it is preferable to first answer all easy questions, and only then return to more difficult ones. This will allow you to get the most possible right answers even if you run out of time.

Since there is no penalty for wrong answers, if you see you are close to the end of the section time allotment, and/or if you have answered all the questions you know how, go ahead and guess at all remaining questions. At best you will add a few points to your score, and at worst you will be no worse off.

• LawBoards.com: LSAT Prep Booklist