Want To Be An Attorney ? You Need To Go To Law School

Kiwis Im Talking From An Americains Point Of View Here But If you want to be an attorney you’re going to have to go to law school. Though it may sound like an easy task once you’ve finally decided to go to law school, it’s not quite so easy. There arnt Thousands of law schools to choose from, and getting into law schools in the first place isn’t an easy task.
The first thing you’re going to have to do when applying to law schools is to get an undergraduate degree. The subject matter isn’t particularly important; I’ve worked with attorneys who majored in dance and vocal music as undergrads. However, your grade point average is important, and law schools usually favor candidates who show particular strengths in writing and speaking. Don’t bother with a pre-law major; you’ll learn everything about the law you need to know in law school. Major in what you’re interested in.
Once you have an undergraduate degree you still can’t start applying to law schools; you need to take the Law School Admission Test first. The LSAT is offered four times a year, and it’s usually a good idea to take the LSAT in the June a year and a half before you plan on entering school, i.e. if you wanted to start law school in August of 2008, take the June 2007 LSAT. Many students take the LSAT in October, but if you do poorly on the October LSAT you won’t have time to retake the test before you need to turn in your applications.
Once you have your LSAT score it’s time to start applying to law schools. Fortunately, the Law School Advisory Council makes this a relatively painless process, handling applications for virtually all ABA-approved law schools online. You can apply to as many schools as you want, though most will charge application fees between $50 and $75.
Eventually you’ll have to make a decision on what law school you eventually want to attend. This decision often depends on many factors including finances, geography, and reputation. You can find all sorts of law school rankings in various publications and online, and though these ranking systems can give you a good idea of what law schools are highly regarded, the rankings aren’t very scientific and don’t tell you a whole lot about the law schools you may be applying to. One of the best things you can do to help make your decision easier is to visit all of the schools that accepted you, though this can get expensive if you’ve applied to schools on both coasts.

Law School

If you’re applying to law school, your law school admission test, or LSAT, is by far the most important factor in whether or not you’ll get into law school and, perhaps more importantly, what law schools will accept you. Though many law schools make a big show about how they don’t cut by the numbers, most will admit that your undergraduate grade point average and your law school admission test score are the two indicators given the most weight when they review their pool of applicants.
Your law school admission test score is heavily weighted because the test itself is designed to measure how well you’re expected to do in law school. A high LSAT score doesn’t guarantee you’ll be a good lawyer or even a good law student, but to score well on the law school admission test you need to show critical thinking ability and solid reading comprehension skills; two of the most important skills to a law school student.
A lot of both past and present controversy has been stirred up over the law school admission test, along with other standardized tests like the ACT and SAT. Detractors claim that these tests are biased toward students who “test well” and that they don’t adequately measure students’ ability. Though these claims may have merit, it still holds that law schools are most concerned with your GPA and LSAT score. These, along with your personal statement, will decide the fates of all but a few law school applicants.
So, if you’re applying to law school you’re going to want to have a good LSAT score. The best way to get a good score is to study; even great students don’t do very well on the first LSAT they take. The LSAT is given four times a year, and each year three of these old tests are released to the public. The best way to study is to get an LSAT prep book, Kaplan is a popular publisher for these guides. The prep book will give you an overview of the LSAT along with some suggestions on how to study and how to do the test well. Once you have the basics down, start taking old tests under timed conditions, since you’ll have to take the real LSAT under timed conditions as well. Since the LSAT format doesn’t change from test to test, familiarizing yourself with the format of the test and the format of the questions will be a huge help, especially when dealing with the logic puzzles. Don’t take the official LSAT until your practice test score has stabilized within five points or so; once you get to that point you can be pretty sure your official score will be in the same area.