Guest Post: Ann Levine

Ann Levine, the “Law School Expert,” has helped coach 1,200+ law school applicants through the admissions process. She’s kindly agreed to share some of her thoughts here, and we’re glad to have her. For more advice, check out her pre-law blog: www.LawSchoolExpert.com/blog.

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Ann Levine, law school admissions guru.

If you’re on Knewton’s site and you’re applying to law school, you already know that the LSAT is the most important factor in your law school applications that is still under your control.

LSAT and GPA are (as I refer to them in my book) “the main ingredients” in law school admission. The primary reason is that law schools use this data to predict your ability to succeed in law school and to pass the bar exam on the first try; the second reason is because USNWR Rankings rely (unreasonably) heavily on the LSAT and law schools don’t have the gall to walk away from the rankings. So, here we are – at the crucial fact that you must prepare for the LSAT if you want to go to law school.

The LSAT is a standardized exam that requires significant preparation; it is not something you can take blind, or cold, or “for practice.” It’s expensive to prepare and to take. Trust me: You don’t want to take this test more than once if you can avoid it. In addition, while most schools now place the greatest weight on the highest of multiple LSAT scores, many schools continue to take the average.  That means that every score matters. And, when you take the test matters because it’s to your advantage to apply early in the admission cycle (September-November) as opposed to late (February-March).

For most people, the LSAT deserves 2-4 months of study, and I recommend preparatory courses or programs or tutors to all of my law school admission consulting clients. While you have the option of taking the LSAT three times in a two-year-period, no one wants to (or should) spend two years taking the LSAT. You also don’t want to be in a position where you have to explain a low score by admitting that you did not study for such an important exam; that excuse doesn’t exactly show the best judgment, so you want to avoid it when possible.

That said, the LSAT is an aptitude test. Some people will naturally perform at a higher level than others with the same preparation.  The idea behind the preparation is to get to a point where you are able to attain your best score. Once you know that score, you can craft a strategy around it when considering where to apply to law school and make your decisions accordingly.

That’s why I wrote The Law School Admission Game: Play Like an Expert. To put together the best application possible, you need to know all you can about LSAT preparation options, how ready you are to take the exam, how to prepare for test day, and even when to cancel an LSAT score. The first step to a making a stellar impression on admissions officers is knowing exactly what they’re looking for.