LSAT Day

Tomorrow is LSAT Day. For this reason, I am at home today relaxing, running a few light errands (hair cut! yes! it's been 12 weeks!), baking bread and oh yes preparing for the test (printing my ticket, gathering my pencils, etc). Tomorrow promises to be a long day; the test does not begin until 2pm here (for the record, the sun sets at 3:30pm; brain sets at 5:00pm) to align with the US test start time of 9am (the poor kids in OZ and NZ have to test on Sunday). Fortunately, I'll be taking the test in London which is an easy 45 minute train ride from Cambridge. Hopefully everything will go as it should and we test takers won't be held anywhere close to the 7 hours that the LSAC allots for testing (just in case).

So what is the LSAT? I've been getting lots of questions about what exactly the test entails from family, friends, and of course non-Americans. The LSAT (Law School Admission Test) is an exam administered by the Law School Admissions Council (LSAC) that attempts to measure logical and verbal reasoning skills. It is, as its name indicates, one of the many requirements for admission to American Bar Association approved law schools. The test in its modern incarnation (since the early 90s) consists of 4 scored sections, 1 non-scored experimental section, and 1 non-scored writing sample which is sent to law schools along with your LSAT score. Each of 4 scored sections contain 25-28 questions which you have 35 minutes to complete. These scored sections include logical reasoning (2 sections), logic games (1 section), and reading comprehension (1 section). When I started studying (British English: revising) for the LSAT a couple of months ago, I felt unsure about the logical reasoning sections. I had encountered basic conditional logic ('If p, then q' stuff) before in 10th geometry and 12 grade philosophy and hated it. Logical reasoning on the LSAT, however, is more than 'If p then q' (sometimes the LR question might be as simple as 'what is the main point of the argument?'), and my study books were extremely helpful in explaining why 'If p then q' when it came to that (current & future teachers take note: "because it is" is never a helpful answer). As a result, I feel much more confident with the logical reasoning sections, though I still don't find them as fun (yes, I said fun) as the logic games or as easy as reading comprehension (what can I say, it's always been my standardised testing forte). Following the test, the performances on each of the sections are tallied. This raw number is then converted into a scaled score from 120 to 180. The higher up the scale, the better the score. Do I have a particular score in mind? Well, I have an idea of where I would like to be of course. Depending on how I perform, I could take the test again; you can take the LSAT multiple times, however when applying to law school, the LSAC sends all scores regardless. Schools then tend to average the scores so it could hurt or help. But right now, I'm not thinking about that. I'm focusing on tomorrow and doing my best.

And so, I'm off to relax! Thanks to everyone for all the well-wishes and encouragement; I'll let you know how it goes. :o)