Those planning on submitting their law school applications this fall are likely considering their first major decision in the application process: when to take the LSAT. In this week’s post, we’ll outline the three key factors you should consider when determining when to take the LSAT and reasons the June LSAT is ideal for most applicants based on those factors.
The LSAT is offered four times each year: early February, early June, either late September or early October , and early December.
Although the questions on each administration are different, the tests are designed and scaled to create uniformity across all administrations and particularly those from the past five years. In other words, it is not any easier to get a good score on any of the four test administrations.
[Learn more about preparing for the LSAT.]
Still, there are three reasons that make the June LSAT the most ideal time to take the exam.
1. You know where you stand: If you take the June LSAT, you will receive your score in early July, approximately two months before most law school applications are made available and more than four months before most early decision deadlines. This gives you plenty of time to prepare your applications without the complication of preparing for the LSAT simultaneously.
If you are happy with your June score and choose not to retake the test, knowing your final LSAT score so early in the application process will enable you to make a much more accurate school list than you would be able to with only an estimate of your LSAT score.
An accurate school list enables you then to schedule school visits with the knowledge that you aren’t wasting time at a school that might be out of your reach because of your LSAT score. It also allows you to plan ahead in terms of preparing school-specific aspects of your applications.
[Discover these three preparation keys for the June LSAT.]
2. You have a backup test administation: Even if you aren’t satisfied with your June LSAT score and plan to take the fall administration of the test, you will receive your second score in time to submit your applications at the early end of the law school rolling admissions cycle and before any early decision deadlines.
If the December LSAT is your backup, on the other hand, schools will see your LSAT score in early January, which is significantly further along in the rolling admissions cycle, slightly decreasing your chances of admission, particularly to high-ranked schools and those with February admissions deadlines.
Retaking the LSAT in September/October also allows you four months between test administrations to prepare, which is twice as much time as between the fall and December administrations. This longer gap can be an advantage depending on where you stand in terms of preparation when you take the June exam.
[Learn how to address a low LSAT score ahead of a retake.]
If you were well prepared for the June exam, with solid practice test scores, but underperformed on test day, then the longer gap won’t benefit you. Your goal in preparing for the fall exam is not to do a significant overhaul of the strategies and techniques you have learned but rather to stay fresh and maintain consistency.
If, however, you weren’t fully prepared for the June exam, the extra time between the June and fall r exams works to your advantage. You would use this extra time to fill the gaps in your preparation and get to the place where you’re consistently scoring at or near your target on practice tests.
3. Preparation for June overlaps with final exams and papers: For those still in school — whether in college or pursuing a non-J.D. graduate degree, the June LSAT has an additional advantage: It is the only test administration that does not take place during the regular academic calendar.
At almost all U.S. schools, the spring semester ends in mid-May, allowing for at least three weeks of preparation without the distraction of school work. The other three LSAT administrations take place during the U.S. academic calendar, creating potential time-management issues when balancing academic work and LSAT preparation.
As discussed above, it is important to think about your backup plan when deciding on which LSAT to take. For those in school, taking the June administration with the September or October administration as a backup is much more preferable to taking the fall administration with December as a backup.
The December exam is a challenging administration for those in school, since it comes just before the end of the semester, when final exams, papers and projects require most of a student’s attention. The fall exam is administered approximately one month into the semester at most schools, when academic work hasn’t fully ramped up yet.
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3 Reasons the June LSAT Is Ideal originally appeared on usnews.com
