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LSAT Writing Sample
The LSAT includes one written essay. The essay does not receive a score, but a copy is sent with the LSAT score to all law schools to which you apply.
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Is it really important?
According to a 2006 LSAC survey of over 150 law schools in the US and Canada, almost all of them use the writing sample when assessing the applications of some students. When deciding between two students with similar LSAT scores and GPAs, for example, something that occurs quite often according to admissions officers, the writing sample could well be one of the deciding factors.
Law schools and the legal profession consider strong writing skills and rhetorical competence to be very important. Blogs are full of mockery about prepping for the LSAT Writing Sample that counts for nothing. But you have invested so much, and there is so much at stake – Why risk it? In our view, no law school applicant can afford to neglect some practice of the writing sample.
What is it all about?
The writing sample is used to measure the applicant's reasoning ability, clarity of thought and expression, ability to effectively structure and organize an essay, rhetorical skills, and level and sophistication of English usage.
The topic, or prompt, presents a decision problem. You are asked to make a choice between two courses of action or positions, and you are supplied with facts and criteria for both on which to base your decision. Both positions can be justified to the same degree. It is therefore not which decision you make but how skillfully and persuasively you argue in favor of your decision that is taken into account.
The Writing Sample is the final section on the LSAT. You have 35 minutes to plan, write, and review your essay. The essay is handwritten, on two sides of lined paper minus space for the prompt.
Given the degree of fatigue you will feel when you get to the Writing Sample section, given the challenge of producing an original and intelligent essay under stringent exam conditions, you are advised to prepare in advance for this section.
Preparation includes familiarizing oneself with the type of decision problem that is always used on the LSAT; memorizing a good "template" that could be applied on the exam to any decision problem; and practicing writing one or two essays in 35 minutes when doing a complete, timed practice LSAT at home.
We at TestPrep-Online have tried hard to make even this relatively minor section of the LSAT as easy and worry-free as possible.
Continue to:
LSAT essay sample
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"It helped improve my logic games techniques."
Steve, LSAT Student, Jan 2011
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