When to Take the LSAT: Plan for LSAT Success

So, you’re going to take the plunge and take the LSAT. Then it naturally follows that you want to go to law school, right? And, naturally, you want to achieve LSAT Success, but do you know how “success” is defined? Is it a score of 180? (Wait, do you know what a 180 means? If not, we have some ground to cover!)

Let’s do a little pre-LSAT Prep work so that we can realistically set our expectations and avoid undo frenzy, frustration, and head-banging.

Plan When to Take the  LSAT

The first step towards admittance to law school IS the LSAT…and it is a very important step. So important, in fact, that planning is essential. Unfortunately it isn’t uncommon that the student has only gone so far as to say, “I want to go to law school, and everyone tells me that I need to take the LSAT, and it’s a really hard test so I should get some prep…Next test is October 6, I guess I’ll just register for that one and see what happens.” Maybe you will get lucky, score really well and the door is now wide open for acceptance to top tier law schools, but without proper prep…not likely!

Planning your LSAT test date depends on a number of things, and it is wise to know where you are going before you begin the journey:

When would you like to attend law school?

Plan this one out. Where is it going to fit into your school, family and life requirements.
Make no mistake, mastering the LSAT will require that you schedule prep time into all of your other commitments. It will require an investment of time, perhaps a restructure of your life…but it will be necessary if you want to receive offers from good law schools and after that future employers.

Remember, that only about 1/3 of law students enter law school directly after they have finished their undergrad, so having a year off between undergrad and law school is perfectly fine.

Where would you like to attend law school?

You may reason: “I’ll just decide where I can go based on my LSAT score.” You’re limiting yourself! First, determine where you would like to attend, then you will be able to set a goal for your LSAT score. Remember what we’re doing here…we’re planning for LSAT success!

Consider any family or financial restrictions that may necessitate staying in a particular region. Narrow down your geographical search first. Then do some research on requirements for admissions to the schools of interest to you. Noting, of course, the required LSAT score and other requirements.

A common error made is the failure to be realistic about your chances for admission to a particular law school. LSAC has a helpful resource to help you with this.   This page directs you to a law school database search. There is also a list of ABA approved and non-approved law schools.

In this stage, you are goal setting. So understand that you will need to remain open-minded and flexible when you arrive to law school admission phase.

Consider:  How Close are you to your LSAT goal…then decide when to take the LSAT

Now you’ve started build a framework around your goals. You have determined where you would like to attend and you have learned what your target score is. How close are you at this point to your goal? This is the time to discover how much work you must do to achieve the needed score so that you can decide when is a good time for you to take the LSAT.

Stop right now and take a timed practice test from an old official LSAT. Score it! How did you do? How much improvement do you need to make? Are you a naturally good test-taker? There is a correlation between how you have scored in other standardized tests, like the GRE, GMAT, SAT, etc. and how well you may expect to do on the LSAT.

If your current score is within one or two points of your goal, then you might be able to just do a few more practice exams and be done. If you need more than those few points then you have more work to do. If you need an improvement of more than 5-9 points, you should consider more prep time.

How much time do you have available to study. It might be possible to quickly bring your score up to your goal. Begin with a heavier study program than you think you need. Then, when you begin to see your score get closer to your goal, you can ease up. That’s a better approach than entering panic mode when the test date looms close and you are not where you would like to be.

(Speaking of Panic – see our article on managing LSAT prep stress -LSAT Prep Tips, and our post on managing stress, plan your LSAT test date.)

Tags: lsat advice, LSAT Test Date, lsat time