How the LSAT Relates to Law School
The official position of Law School Admission Counsel (LSAC) is that the LSAT is designed to measure skills that are essential for a legal career. As students approach the test, however, many of them view this test as a hurdle that must be overcome, then the skills gained can be abandoned.
This mentality does two things. First, it makes it harder to take LSAT studying seriously. If the work is only for a single test, even if that test represents the potential for getting into the best law schools, it seems to become less important and studying is harder. Second, it takes skills that you have carefully honed in preparation to the test and throws them out before they’ve filled their potential. These skills will be useful both in law school and in the legal profession.
Reading Comprehension
Though this is the section that many people feel they cannot improve upon, it is actually one of the most representative sections the LSAT offers. In law school you will read numerous briefs and opinions, each one based either on an argument or the rationale behind a ruling. Though you’ll have to know the content, what is far more important is the logic behind each piece of writing. You’ll discuss which side of the argument was strongest and why, what holes appear in the case, and what potentially important aspects have been overlooked.
Those strategies are exactly what reading comprehension tests. In fact, what most people mistakenly do is try to read each passage and absorb the content. Instead, reading it as if you’re a judge determining the relevance of each fact. How does this point relate to the main point? What is the main point to be made? Is this area supporting that point or proposing a counter to it? All these questions will be asked and hopefully answered both in reading comprehension and in the practice of law.
Analytical Reasoning
Logic games may seem the section that is least similar to real life. What it is truly doing, however, is testing your ability to deduce given a set of facts. What makes this section difficult for some is the fact that all the deductions are abstract. In practice, it can be very useful to reason abstractly. Cases and laws are written very factually and a valuable skill to acquire is the ability to create a chain of events and laws that logically follow one after the other.
Learning to create chains of logic in an abstract manner can help to ensure your logic is foolproof. You will have to be able to see effects that are absolutely certain and different possible effects in all their variations. Logical relationships and legal relationships are similar, and practicing one will help you learn another.
Logical Reasoning
This section is composed almost entirely of short arguments. The questions then ask you perform critical thinking, evaluative tasks, similar to how you’d evaluate case law. Finding the form and function of the law is vital to accurately applying precedence and understanding how two cases or laws interact.
To get more out of your studying, spend some time evaluating what skills you are using and how you will have to use those skills in your legal career. You’ll not only be able to apply those skills more efficiently on the test, you’ll also be able to keep them and use them in law school and beyond.