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Three LSAT Myths Dispelled
Myth #1: The LSAT is like any academic test you’ve taken before.
Most tests are created to determine what you know. The LSAT is constructed to
determine how you think. The LSAT is a skills test—specifically, a
test of the reading, critical thinking, and analytical reasoning skills that you’ve
acquired from your years as a conscious person on this planet. If you’re taking a
graduate entrance exam and your attitude is “it’s mostly just an updated version of
the SAT . . . ,” you’d better be taking the GMAT or GRE, since three-quarters of the
LSAT doesn’t fit that description (although the other quarter, Reading
Comprehension, is pretty much ubiquitous throughout Testing Land).
The good news is that the LSAT contains no science, math, or grammar. The bad
news is that the LSAT contains no science, math, or grammar—things that are easily
accessible for review. Your major concerns will be logic and comprehension, areas
you can’t improve on by memorizing geometric formulas or the periodic table. If you
consider reading a torture, logic a luxury, and debate a distraction, you’re
probably headed for the wrong line of work. But if you relish these intellectual
challenges, then the LSAT is for you. It is unique among standardized tests. We
challenge you from the start to embrace that uniqueness,
recognizing that you may already possess many of the skills that the LSAT requires.
This book will teach you what those skills are, how to sharpen the ones you have,
and how to develop the ones you’re lacking. It is intended to guide you along the
most direct path to LSAT success.
Myth #2: The LSAT is a predictor of how good a lawyer you’ll be.
The LSAT does not predict your starting salary. It does not predict your
ending salary. It does not predict your legal specialization or clientele or chances
of arguing a case in front of the Supreme Court. The LSAT is created to predict one
thing and one thing only: your chances of success in the first year of law
school. This is, cleverly enough, exactly the kind of thing that law
school admissions officers want to know.
Myth #3: The LSAT is just another factor among many in law school admission
decisions.
Many admissions officers believe in the LSAT so much that they count LSAT
scores equally with college GPAs when deciding who to let through
their pearly gates. Talk about a “high stakes” test—the stakes don’t get much higher
than equating a three-hour performance with a four-year college career. Certainly
there is variability in how schools factor the LSAT into the admissions equation,
but no one denies that the LSAT is usually one of two major factors (the other being
GPA) that determine where law school applicants wind up.
Now that we’ve exposed some general myths about the LSAT, let’s take a look at
the specifics.
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