<p>I'm going to be a second-year student in the fall, and I had a few questions about the LSAT. I changed my major in the middle of the spring semester to political science, and decided that I wanted to go to law school. However, I feel a little lost when it comes to the LSAT. </p>
<p>When do students usually begin preparing for it? When do students usually take it? What types of classes (political science, economics, philosophy?) would best prepare me for the LSAT? How should I study for it to get the best score?</p>
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<li>Shape your critical thinking in class. While the LSAT doesn’t test content learned in either high school or college, some college classes can help you get in the right mindset to tackle the test. Taking classes in logic, philosophy, or critical writing can prepare you for the test because they require you to analyze complicated theories or texts and present ideas gleaned from those texts in a concise and logical manner, which is similar to what the LSAT demands. Experts note that these classes are far from mandatory for LSAT preparation or even getting into law school, but say that they can make a difference, even if it’s only a few points. It’s ultimately not what you learn in these classes that matters, but how you learn to understand and express complex concepts. “Any course that requires lots of dense reading on unfamiliar topics is helpful, as the LSAT’s reading comprehension topics are specifically chosen to be areas with which few test takers have any prior familiarity,” says Steve Schwartz, an independent LSAT tutor and author of an LSAT Blog. “Being comfortable with dense passages on new topics is very helpful when the LSAT suddenly throws you a curveball topic on test day.”</li>
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For the most part, I would say that your college courses won’t help you too much on the LSAT. Since your GPA is also important then I would say you would benefit more from taking classes you will enjoy and do well at. However, as sacchi said, shaping your skills in your classes can be beneficial, so reading an lsat book and utilizing those critical reasoning skills in class and every day life can be more beneficial.