Author: Joshua Craven

How Hard Is The LSAT? The LSAT is pretty freaking hard, frankly. This article explains why the LSAT is so tough, plus LSAT advice for the most difficult. Estimated reading time: 6 minutes The LSAT is hard. Anyone who tells you differently is not the sort of person who should be giving LSAT advice. Most people have to put in many hours of study to reach their potential on the LSAT. I went to one of the best law schools in the country–The University of Chicago–where I met some of the smartest people I’ve ever known, and I can count…

What LSAT Score Do You Need For Harvard Law? Although there is no “cutoff” LSAT score that you need to get into Harvard Law School, Harvard only offers admission to a small percentage of its applicants. Therefore, to gain admission to Harvard Law School, you will likely need an LSAT score in the 170+ range. An LSAT score in the 170s tied with a GPA over 3.75 will make you a competitive applicant.

The class of 2023 at Duke Law School was comprised of law school students with the following LSAT scores: The 25th %ile LSAT Score at Duke is 167The Median LSAT Score at Duke Law School is 169The 75th %ile LSAT Score at Duke is 169

If you were to check only one statistic before attending a law school, this is the one you should look at: long term/full-time employment in jobs requiring bar passage for 2018 law school graduates. These numbers give you a quick look at what percentage of students are obtaining the kind of jobs that law graduates seek. Some things to bear in mind: This statistic tells you nothing about the underlying quality of the jobs. On top of having stellar employment numbers, the top schools are placing the overwhelming share of their students into highly desirable jobs at the largest law…

The bar exam, perhaps the most gruesome testing experience that western society has yet concocted, is a two-day ordeal that determines who gets to be a lawyer. It’s so miserable, in fact, that you could be excused for changing your whole future life course just to take the test somewhere that it isn’t *that* hard. To guide you on our your way, in this post we will take a quick look at the states with the best bar passage rates. The caveat is that a whole lot of factors besides test difficulty determine whether or not people are passing in…

Where Can I Find Every Old LSAT Preptest?Now you can find old LSAT preptests, even rare LSAT preptests, discontinued LSAT preptests, and LSATs no longer published by LSAC with the helpful chart of LSAT preptests below.

Some people dream of becoming a lawyer to serve the public interest and make a positive impact on the world. Other people dream of becoming a lawyer because they want to GET RICH. In the wake of the great recession, there has been a ton of media coverage breathlessly declaring that law schools and, indeed, the entire legal profession, was in a state of “crisis.” And yes, there are still plenty of lousy law schools out there (I’m looking at you, Cooley), but today I want to take a look at the other end of the spectrum. Nearly 10% of…

Are you, unbeknownst to yourself even, a test-taking prodigy? Are you a legal genius diamond that has been hiding in the rough, just waiting to be discovered so that you can help the next generation shape legal policy in such a way as to solve society’s ills? Are you essentially a real-life legal drama character who, despite your unbearably acerbic personality, is tolerated because you are just so damn good at seeing the solution to winning the case? Can you crack the mighty LSAT with zero preparation whatsoever? There is only one way to find out! But first, I’m going…

UPDATE The LSAT has now moved to digital format, which has a built-in timer. Therefore, it is no longer necessary to have an additional watch when taking the exam. What is the best LSAT watch? No digital watches are allowed when you take the lsat. Analog Watches are the only timers that you can bring into the LSAT. So I’d like to know: what is the best analog watch for the LSAT? The best LSAT watch is the LSAT Answer Watch. It took me two years and many, many prototypes, but I can honestly say that my team and I have developed…

Law school is absolute hell on the back. Between lugging around massive tomes (casebooks) and spending most of the time hunched over a desk, you’re going to suffer a bit. If I were a chiropractor or a massage therapist, I would set up shop next to a big law school with zero hesitation. One of the best ways for law students to reduce the strain is to invest in a serious backpack. The Sisyphean task of carrying your laptop and books to and fro every day gets a lot easier if you are properly equipped. In this post, we give…

Tip #1 – Start Now stretch your prep out over 4-6 months We generally recommend prepping for at least 3 months, even under ideal conditions. But if you’ve got a full-time job or a heavy college course load, you’re probably going to want to start prepping sooner. I worked full time while I prepped for the LSAT, and I managed to fit my prep into 3 months. Still, I had everything else going for me: no overtime, a peaceful home environment out in the country, good natural ability at the LSAT, and an active job that kept me moving during…

The University of Texas- Austin School of Law or UT Law is generally considered the most prestigious law school in the Southwestern United States. The University of Texas Law is ranked #16 in the country by the US News and World Report. While UT Law’s national reputation is burgeoning, its reputation in its home state of Texas is second to none. Students on law school forums frequently point out that as far as Texas is concerned, UT law may as well be Harvard. Given this reputation within a strong legal market, it is unsurprising that admission to the school is…

While it’s not the pearl of the UC system (that would be Berkeley), UCLA Law is the most prestigious school in Los Angeles, a major legal market. The law school currently ranks 16th on the US News rankings of the country’s best law schools. Combine the desirable location in sunny Los Angeles with a world-class school, and it’s no surprise that getting in is a competitive process. So what LSAT and GPA do you typically need for admission to UCLA Law? The numbers from this year’s enrolling class will give you a better idea of what it takes to get…

If you are new to the LSAT, welcome! This is a great place to start. This is a complete guide with everything you need to know to get started prepping for the LSAT. If you are getting started on the LSAT, bookmark this page so you can come back to it as needed. In this post, we try to include a bunch of resources from our blog that will help orient you and get you on the path to LSAT success.

We thought we’d give those of you new to the LSAT some general tips to make sure you are doing this right. If you’re a regular reader, you may have seen this advice before, but it’ll still be an excellent refresher. However, for the newbies here’s your welcome to the (wonderful?) world of LSAT prep. We have a ton of solid LSAT advice on the blog and a lot more on the way, but start with these general tips, and you’ll be on the right path.

Law school acceptance rates are an important admissions statistic to consider when you’re applying to law school. In this post, we take a look at the admission rates for every ABA-accredited law school in the US. The table below ranks all 204 law schools from the most selective to the least selective. The range is broad from the extremely selective—Yale admits only about 9% of applicants—to the unscrupulously open, with schools towards the bottom of the pack accepting a whopping 80% or more of prospective students. Acceptance rates are a fairly good proxy for how a school ranks in the…

To make this post, I took myself back to when I too was an LSAT noob and thought, what do I wish I had known when I started studying for the LSAT? Well, I wish I had known that the economy would implode later that year (2008) and take the legal market with it, but let’s forget that. This is for LSAT-specific stuff. We’ll do a “10 things I wish I knew before I decided to go to law school” post soon. Here are 7 things it would have helped me to know at the beginning of my LSAT prep. 7…

Joshua, How did you get a 177 on the LSAT? It would be helpful to know for my preparation efforts how you achieved your score increase and how quickly your score increased. My first diagnostic was 155 and I’ve studied for four weeks. I take my next timed practice test this weekend, but I’m not expecting a large increase. Any information you can offer would be much appreciated — and most likely life-changing. Thanks for giving me hope. Jump To: LSAT Prep Book Recommendations Joshua Craven UChicago Law SchoolJ.D., Class of 2012 First of all, I’m glad you are feeling…

Have you only taken a handful of full, timed full LSAT preptests? If so, you’ve got ALOT of room for improvement. I was probably only scoring around 160 or so by my 6th timed LSAT preptest. After my 20th preptest or so I was up in the low 170s and by the time I’d done about 35 full timed LSAT preptests I was consistently between 176 and 179. If you’ve only been going at LSAT prep for about a month and/or haven’t taken a significant number of PTs, I’m pretty comfortable recommending that you push back your LSAT test date. By the end of your prep, you want…

I’ve updated the full list of the top 151 law schools with the most recent data for 2022. The table below shows the official 2022 rank, along with the official 2021 rank & the change. The table is sorted by 2022 rank by default. Click the first row of any column to re-sort. Law School2021 Rank+/-2022 RankYale University1—1Stanford University2—2Harvard University3—3Columbia University4—4University of Chicago4—4University of Pennsylvania716New York University6—6University of Virginia8—8University of California—Berkeley9—9Duke University12210University of Michigan—Ann Arbor9110Northwestern University9312Cornell University13—13University of California—Los Angeles15114Georgetown University14115Vanderbilt University18216Washington University at St. Louis17116University of Texas—Austin16—16University of Southern California (Gould)18119Boston University20—20University of Florida (Levin)24321University of Notre Dame22—22University of Minnesota—Twin…