LSAT Preparation - Workshops & Practice Tests

The School of Law is offering virtual and in-person LSAT Prep Workshop and Practice Test events to help prospective law students prepare for the LSAT.

Both the Workshop and Practice Test session includes instructions with Erin Decker '16 who will teach you what skills you need to succeed in getting the best LSAT score possible. 

No refunds are available 48 hours prior to the workshop. The following in-person LSAT Prep events will take place in O'Brian Hall, University at Buffalo, North Campus.

Our comprehensive workshop teaches valuable techniques and skills to master the LSAT.  Workshops cost $100 and includes instructions with Erin Decker.

Schedule:

9:30 a.m. – Registration for in-person workshops will take place in the lobby of O’Brian Hall
10:00 a.m. - Workshop begins
1:00 - 2:00 p.m. – Lunch Break
2:00 - 5:00 p.m. - Workshop continues

Dates:

• Saturday, September 24, 2022 
  
• Saturday, October 22, 2022 
  
• Saturday, December 3, 2022
  

Be prepared for test day! Learn valuable test-taking strategies.

A Practice Test costs $50 and includes a 3-hour review of LSAT Prep Test, and Q&A with Erin Decker. You must subscribe to LSAT Prep Plus® to have access to the digital version of Prep Test. 

Before taking the digital LSAT on your laptop, please ensure that you have reliable Wi-Fi service. (Information on UB guest access) Log into your LSAC account prior to 9:30 a.m. so testing may begin on time.

Schedule:

8:30 -9:00 a.m. - Registration for in-person workshops will take place in the lobby of O’Brian Hall
9:00 -9:30 a.m. - Test Taking Strategies
9:30 a.m. -12:00 p.m. - Administer LSAT Prep Test
12:00 - 1:00 p.m. – Lunch Break
1:00 - 4:00 p.m. – Review

Dates:

• Saturday, October 1, 2022 (LSAT Prep Test 86)
• Saturday, January 7, 2023 (LSAT Prep Test 83)

The LSAT is a standardized test required for admission to all American Bar Association (ABA)-approved law schools in the United States, most Canadian law schools, and many non-ABA-approved law schools. Administered by the Law School Admissions Council (LSAC), the LSAT is an important standard that aids law schools in the evaluation of applicants.

The LSAT test measures reading and reasoning skills that are considered essential for success in law school. The test is given 4 times a year: June, September (or sometimes October), December and February.

The School of Law will accepted all four test administration for fall admission.

The test consists of five 35-minute sections of multiple-choice questions followed by a 35-minute writing sample. 

• Reading comprehension
• Analytical reasoning
• Logical reasoning
• Writing sample (not scored)

Scores range from 120 to 180. Your LSAT score is based on the number of questions you answer correctly within the 4 sections of the exam. You will not be penalized for incorrect answers.

The writing sample is not scored by LSAC, but is forwarded to the law schools to which you are applying and can be used in the evaluation of your application.

Erin Decker '16, a recent law school graduate, tests well. 

Decker is one of only a handful of test-takers who aced her LSAT, answering every question correctly to earn a perfect score of 180.  Fortunately, her passion for education extends to sharing that knowledge, and she is happy to teach the secrets of her success to the next generation of aspiring law students.

“Of all of the graduate admissions tests, the LSAT is the one most strongly correlated with grades in the first year, so schools appropriately place a lot of emphasis on the results” Decker says.  “That makes sense, because the LSAT, unlike most other tests, is not content-based.  There is nothing to memorize and regurgitate; you need to be able to think on your feet, and you need to be motivated to learn from your mistakes.”  

“The skills you need to succeed on the LSAT – the ability to read critically and precisely, and to identify logical connections or flaws within arguments – are the same skills you need to succeed in law school and beyond.  It’s not enough to know the background facts and final outcome of a case, an attorney must also understand the factors that led to a decision in order to effectively mount an appeal or use precedent in a new matter.”  

Decker is a bona fide expert on the subject.  She began teaching LSAT prep courses for Kaplan, Inc., the national test prep company, while earning her Masters in math at Binghamton University.  Teaching the LSAT in that context, she says, “got me thinking seriously about law school.  I never saw a disconnect between math and the law.  When you get to a certain level of studying math, it’s all about theorems, logic, and intuition.  It’s not about numbers.  To me, the biggest difference was that as a lawyer, I could be an advocate for people facing immediate, real-world challenges, while as a mathematician, I would be focused on abstract concepts.”

Advocacy, according to Decker, was “definitely the right the choice.”  As a practicing attorney, she focuses on civil and business litigation as well as trust and estate law, leveraging her law degree as well as her MBA education from Cornell University to represent her clients' interests in business and financial matters.   

For the School of Law, Decker developed a day-long LSAT preparation workshop for college students and adults considering a career change. The workshop includes six hours of instruction punctuated by a lunch hour at which law school staffers lead a question-and-answer session about the admissions process. 

Is it really possible to coach someone to earn a higher score on the LSAT, which after all is supposed to measure innate skills?  “Of course!” Decker says: “Part of it is understanding the structure of the test and what the questions are really asking, and the rest depends on honing your critical reading skills.  You can absolutely teach those, and we have seen our students excel because of it.”