The LSAT, or Law School Admissions Test, is offered by the Law School Admissions Council and is required for admission to the more than 200 law schools that are members of the LSAC. Although there are hundreds of test locations, not all test dates are available at all test centers. Check the LSAC website for testing times and locations. You should sign up as early as possible to ensure you get your first choice of placement.

You can register for the LSAT either online, by phone, or by mail. But do yourself a favor and check in on time. There is a late registration period available, but you will have to pay an additional $64 for the privilege. For those students who celebrate the Sabbath on a Saturday, alternate exams are usually given on the Monday following the regular Saturday exams or the June exam is given on a Monday.

The LSAT is taken four times a year in February, June, October, and December and includes five 35-minute multiple-choice sections and a 35-minute writing sample at the end. Four of the five multiple choice sections are scored…the one that is not scored is used to check new questions on the exam. You may not know which is which, so be prepared to give all sections your full attention.

The four graded sections will fall into the following categories: Reading Comprehension, Critical Reasoning, and two Logical Reasoning. The writing sample is also not graded, but a copy is sent to every law school you apply to, so you want to do your best.

Once you’ve decided to take the LSAT, your next step is preparation. You can find sample questions and tests on the LSAC website, as well as various LSAT test preparation sites like Kaplan. The question categories are consistent from test to test, so once you’ve completed a few sample tests, you’ll have a good idea of ​​what’s to come. If sample tests aren’t enough to get you comfortable, courses are available both online and in a classroom setting. Online courses have the advantage of being accessible 24 hours a day, which is important for someone who may be juggling a busy work and school schedule. Taking the course in the classroom allows for direct interaction with the professor, as well as forcing you to concentrate to be prepared for class.

Scoring is based on the number of correct answers given. If you come to the end of a section and have multiple blanks, be sure to mark an answer. Even guessing, you will have a 20% chance of a correct answer and if you could eliminate any definitively wrong answers, your percentage increases.