Preparing to take the Law School Admissions Test (LSAT) is one of the most important steps toward your law school application.

There is no one “right” way to do this: everyone’s learning style and study habits are different.  But there are a few principles everyone needs to be aware of.  One: you’ll need to start preparing sooner (ahead of actually taking the test) than you probably expect.  Two: there is simply no substitute for taking as many practice tests as you can.  Three: most law school applicants take the LSAT two or three times (law schools will only see your best score and won’t know how many times you took the test), which again means starting sooner than you may be expecting in order to be confident you’ve given yourself every opportunity to achieve your best score though multiple testings.

Basics

The Law School Admissions Council (LSAC) administers the LSAT. There is no single more important source to learn about the test – upcoming dates of test opportunities, how to register, ways of taking it, and so on – than their site (lsac.org).  You’ll need to register with LSAC anyway to apply and should have done so well before the point of application.  Take time to study the LSAT section of the LSAC website very carefully.  You’ll also see that they offer some practice tests; take advantage of that.

Timing

Assume you are planning to apply to law school in your senior year of college (more actually apply after college graduation than apply during college, but let’s assume for a moment that you’ll apply as a senior).  Law school applications open in the early autumn (think beginning of September) and you will want all your credentials to be in order before then (you could in theory wait till you have the results of a fall test date – usually this means September or October – but that’s cutting it pretty close).

That means you would want to achieve a high score at latest during one of the summer test-taking opportunities (usually this means June or August), and that might mean taking your first test in the spring (usually April), in order to give you the chance for one or two more retakes to satisfy yourself of your best score. That in turn means that you should be planning to begin your preparation for the LSAT during the winter and early spring preceding the autumn when you’ll apply, and this is true if you plan to apply after graduation as well.

Preparation

Most people preparing to take the LSAT choose to work with one or more of the firms that offer test prep, whether via online/real-time courses or printed/digital prep materials, or both.
This site does not, as a matter of principle, recommend any particular firm: almost all are good, and they tend to have slightly different looks and feels.  In recent years CUA students have tended to deal with Kaplan, Princeton Review, Khan Academy, and TestMasters most often.

See our detailed guidelines for LSAT prep for more on prep choices.

BEAR IN MIND: we have relationships with some of these firms, and they – along with LSAC – offer workshops, information sessions, trial tests, and other facilities (mostly online) from time to time over the course of the academic year.  To learn about these opportunities sign up for the Catholic University pre-law email list.