The Law National Admissions Test (LNAT) is one of the toughest assessments out there. Designed to test the strongest of Law candidates, the questions in the LNAT will push you to your very limits. In this blog, we’ll give you our top 5 tips on how to pass the LNAT: 2016.
What Is the LNAT?
The Law National Admissions Test (LNAT) was created in 2004, as a way of assisting University Law Admissions teams. The aim of the test is to help admissions teams identify the best potential undergraduate law students for their course. Law courses are naturally extremely demanding, and therefore the LNAT is unlike any other assessment, in that it does not measure intellectual ability. The test is a measure of common sense, competency and a person’s ability to prove that they can handle a university degree in law.
Specific abilities and aptitudes need to be assessed in relation to the set skills and requirements essential to pursue an academic course in law. Fundamentally, the LNAT
is a test of aptitude rather than of knowledge. It is not a test that you can simply sit down and revise for. It is a test that requires a mature understanding of social, technological, economic and cultural differences. You will need all of these if you want to know how to pass the LNAT.
What does the LNAT test?
The LNAT is a test like no other, and will be unlike anything you have encountered before. This is due to the test measuring a particular set of skills; a set of skills required for law students. The skills required to successfully pass the LNAT, are the skills that are essential to further your legal education.
The LNAT tests a wide range of skills and attributes, including:
- Your ability in regards to Verbal Reasoning.
- Your ability in regards to Deductive and Inductive Reasoning.
- Your ability in regards to understanding, interpreting and analysing large amounts of information.
- The LNAT will also test your ability to distinguish between inferences, generalisations, opinions and conclusions.
How To Pass The LNAT: Top 5 Tips
Tip 1: Read Carefully.
Our first tip applies mainly to the multiple choice section of the exam. Many candidates will make the mistake of only skim reading the passage they are given, in order to get to the questions quickly. This is a big error. Before you start answering the questions, you need to make sure that you read the passage properly. Yes, time is limited, but that is no reason to limit the quality of your answers. Read the text carefully, to ensure you have a good understanding, before moving on to the questions.
Tip 2: Take an unbiased approach.
This might seem fairly simple but you would be surprised by the number of candidates who allow their own opinions to cloud their judgement in this assessment. Particularly for the multiple choice questions, you need to be able to establish what the author is saying and not saying; and use only the text to answer the questions. That means that regardless of whether you think fox hunting is right or wrong, if you think the author is arguing that it is right, then you need to show this in your answer. Remember that you can’t use prior knowledge when answering the multiple choice questions.
Tip 3: Plan your essay.
Planning your LNAT essay is extremely important, and often makes the difference between a pass and a fail. Some people see essay planning as a waste of time, but the reality is that forming a good essay plan can be a huge help. An essay plan allows you to map out our ideas in a clear and logical fashion, which can then be used as an easy reference point whilst writing the essay. Contrast this to someone who ‘just writes’ without any planning, and only produces the ideas that come into their head. The danger of this approach is that you’ll forget something major, and your essay could come across as unstructured and difficult to read.
Tip 4: Pick a side.
In order to gain good marks in the LNAT essay section, you will need to pick a side. This is something that many people are unfamiliar with; as traditionally we are taught not to do so when writing essays. That is to say, the majority of pre university essays conclude with the words, ‘I can see the advantages and disadvantages of both’ or words to that effect. Essentially, we are taught to fence sit. This is something that is not applicable in a legal framework, and therefore the LNAT assessors will poorly mark essays which do not clearly establish a side for their argument. Don’t make the mistake of fence sitting.
Tip 5: Practice essay writing.
One of the reasons that the LNAT is so difficult is that it’s almost impossible to prepare for. However, one way that you can prepare is to practice essay writing. This will make you familiar with the complexities of writing a good, structured essay, and allow you to practice skills such as timing, making evidence based arguments, beginning your essay and concluding it.
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