LSAT Preparation: Taking a Practice LSAT

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It’s time to take a practice test! Whether you took our advice in the introduction to the LSAT blog and are doing a cold diagnostic exam at the very start of your exploration of the LSAT, or you are well into your practice program and this is just another milestone on your journey, it’s time to get into the mindset to effectively take your next practice test.

Details of Setting up the Test

You will want to take the test on the LSAC’s LawHub platform, which you can access after creating a free account. If you haven’t fully committed to LSAT prep, you will find that there are four free tests available on the platform. If you are doing your diagnostic test and just getting started with the LSAT, we recommend PrepTest 158 be your first one.

For an additional subscription fee of $120 per year, you get access to 54 more practice tests, an expanded library called LawHub Advantage. Although this is an annoying cost, just about all serious LSAT study programs require paying this fee eventually, because the resources are so valuable for practice. If you successfully applied as a low-income applicant for an LSAT fee waiver, you may also be able to get free access to the LawHub Advantage platform.

When you get ready to take the practice LSAT, there are two ways to do so: Self-Paced Mode and Exam Mode. To get the real experience of taking the test, it’s essential that you choose Exam Mode! The other option will tell you partial scores after every section, which is extremely distracting.

Once you lock into exam mode, you’ll take the whole exam just like it is the real test day, with accurate section timing and a ten minute break between the second and third sections. Remember to:

• use the highlighter, flag, eliminator, and find in text tools early and often
• write some things down to decode dense paragraphs and arguments.

You should plan to start your practice test between 9am and 4pm if you are able. This is the same as the window of time that you can register to take a real LSAT, and also if you are in the middle of an LSAT at 2am, things can get quite strange anyway!

Make Yourself a Few Tangible Goals

Everyone wants to do as well as they can on the LSAT, but going into each test with a fearful, hopeful dream of a certain scaled score is a mistake. It’s not going to work to fervently demand a “167” or a “173” of yourself, because the meaning of the number will weigh you down but not provide any plan to reach it. Instead, as you take one practice test after another, write down specific things that you are going to achieve this time. The more you get to know the LSAT side of yourself, the better these will be. Here’s a snapshot of mine from a recent practice:

Later you’ll go back and see if you actually followed through on your plan, and you can make new goals for the practice test after this one.

Get Ready and Go!

Although it might feel natural to feel repulsed by the LSAT, we actually want the test-taking experience to be a calm refuge in our busy lives. We’re just going to be doing some critical reading for a couple of hours and answering some silly questions, and we deserve this time to be free of interruption or distraction.

If you need to do some dishes, stretching, jumping jacks, emails, or just wash your face and get your hair a little under control, get that done so you have clear eyes going into this test. Make sure that friends and family are not likely to barge in during this window of time if you can help it. Have your computer on a hard and uncluttered surface, get scratch paper and a pencil, and put your phone in another room. A few deep breaths later, click to start your exam on LawHub and see what you can do this time!

After testing, you’ll get to review your results, how you did on each section, and get started on preparation! You can always review your results with a tutor to get expert advice on where to start and your individual strengths and weaknesses.