Does the LSAT Predict Success in Law School?

The Law School Admission Test (LSAT) is a crucial part of law school admission. The purpose of the exam is to test skills necessary for the success of your first year in law school, and the skills to be tested include reading, reasoning, writing, and comprehension.

If you intend to become a lawyer, get ready to undertake the LSAT test as virtually all law schools will require you to submit an LSAT score. The infamously difficult test is designed to test you on skills that you would not have fully developed, and you only have 35 minutes per section to get the test done hence the need for proper preparation.

Reading Into Your LSAT Score

Law schools rely on your LSAT score to predict how you will perform in your first year of admission and ultimately on the bar exam. As a prospective law school applicant, you may have experienced anxiety that comes with it and how much extensive studying you require in preparation for your bar exam.

Many students still complain that the LSAT has nothing to do with the overall success of studying law. However, the test benefits go beyond the test day. As a law student, you will be asked to identify legal issues from several hypothetical facts and discuss legal consequences. All this requires the ability to analyze, compare, criticize, and make policy arguments about the merits of certain laws, and LSAT prepares you for that.

LSAT is also a test of endurance and speed. As a law student, you have to develop muscles to sustain rigorous analysis and logical reasoning, and LSAT can help you build critical thinking endurance. LSAT test also prepares you to work efficiently and analyze problems quickly.

As a Lawyer, you are required to work hard and think fast. This skill will help you in the courtroom and negotiations, carrying out due diligence, and reviewing contracts. Your clients will also appreciate the efficiency, and the LSAT test comes in handy to help you analyze and think critically.

LSAT is not an exam you will pass by cramming what you read. It does not test your knowledge of external skills, hence the need for long-term study. It would be best to have a long-term study to succeed in your law school exams and the bar exam. As your success will require diligence and months of study leading up to finals.

Success or Failure

For over 70 years, law schools in the United States have required potential students to undertake LSAT tests. Research over time has consistently proved that LSAT is the single best predictor of law school success.

Your college grades and other admission factors cannot provide reliable and valid success in law school. However, LSAT is the best success determiner for first-year grades and may not be a predictor of performance throughout law school or in your journey as an attorney. You will have to put more weight on your GPA as opposed to your LSAT score in your second and third years in law school.

Once you are admitted, you may be forced to leave behind your LSAT score and concentrate on gaining success in your career. It does not matter whether your score was high or low; what matters moving forward are the cumulative law school grades and a clear mind to help you ace your bar exam.

Scoring high in your LSAT test does not guarantee that you'll be top of your law classes. The LSAT will help you handle time pressure, but your law school journey will take a lot more than just being good at standardized tests.

If you did not score well in LSAT tests, do not worry. There is more time for you to sharpen your comprehension, reasoning, reading, and writing. Put in more effort and utilize as much  LSAT test prep as possible. 

Therefore, it is possible to come into law school with a lower LSAT and GPA score but still manage to maneuver to the top of your class. Equally, it is possible to enroll in law school with a high LSAT and GPA score and still fall behind in your law school ranking. Approach your law school admission with an open mind, keep learning key tips to law school success, get your life organized in and out of class, and work hard.

Lasting Impacts

LSAT will test you on the ability to read and understand complex texts, to reason logically, analyze critical information, and the ability to perform well under stressful conditions. Perhaps these are some of the skills you might have developed throughout your undergraduate year. However, you will be required to learn how to apply these skills following a particular format of the LSAT test.