Anyone else doing the LNAT?

[Jaffar.Qudah]

Hi

Is anyone else doing the LNAT?

How do you study (if you do study at all)?

What's a good score?

Are you doing it in your Junior or Senior year?

[Arrowhead]

I did it in my Senior year. You can only do the LNAT in the same cycle that you submit your UCAS application in. So if you are applying to university in 2014-15 to start your Law course in September 2015, you can only sit your LNAT in the 2014-15 cycle and not earlier. Be aware of that.

A good score is usually 20+/42 in the Multiple Choice section.

Some people use the guide books that are available. I've heard a lot of students praise the Mark Shepard book for the LNAT (you can buy it on Amazon). I never used it, so I have no firsthand experience with regards to it. Practising the mock exams available on the LNAT website is usually the best thing. That's how I prepared for it.

[flinquinnster]

I did LNAT last December for the 2013-2014 UCAS admissions cycle, and all the information Arrowhead's given is right, so make sure you do LNAT in senior year. I agree that doing the mock exams available on the LNAT website is pretty much the most useful thing. However, based on my own pretty poor preparation and correspondingly mediocre results, I would suggest a few things. Firstly, don't read all the answers/explanations before you attempt the questions yourself! Also, start revising more than a day for LNAT, and if you're not already doing so, get in the habit of doing a lot of critical reading of news/politics/quality non-fiction. Whilst of course it's possible to do well with not that much study, getting used to the format and the timing of LNAT is really really useful both for ensuring that you finish your multiple-choice questions, and can write a decent essay!

[Jaffar.Qudah]

Thank you !

[iamyourmum]

btw

the cutoff for internationals at KCL this year was 26

and as a side note, UCL places much more importance on the essay

[flinquinnster]

I didn't know that universities actually released an official cut-off for LNAT, though I have read online posts speculating about the exact minimum cut-off for LNAT scores for different universities. Keep in mind though that as with minimum IB cut-off scores that universities are free to reject people with scores over whatever minimum they apply! I got over (just) 26 for LNAT and didn't get an offer from KCL. And yeah, the essay is generally quite important too - and of course, everything else in your application. So prepare, but don't over-prepare at the expense of everything else.

[Jaffar.Qudah]

Since the time I last posted in this thread, I got 3 LNAT prep books, and I've got a good feeling about the multiple choice part, but the essay is scaring me ****less. What's its grading criteria? Should I stay objective when discussing controversial/sensitive topics? Are the questions to come similar to past questions at all?

[iamyourmum]

Since the time I last posted in this thread, I got 3 LNAT prep books, and I've got a good feeling about the multiple choice part, but the essay is scaring me ****less. What's its grading criteria? Should I stay objective when discussing controversial/sensitive topics? Are the questions to come similar to past questions at all?

I wouldn't worry to much about the essay. There isn't a specific grading criteria, it's more of a test of your writing ability rather than your personal opinion so I wouldn't shy away from discussing controversial topics. The essay that I did was on wether drug addicts should be given money by the government and tbh it was more like an economic essay where I talked about opportunity cost.

[Gaby]

I did LNAT in the previous admission cycle and got 30/42 despite not being a native speaker. My preparation was... non-existent. I read a few articles from the Guardian, but they were ones that interested me and I wouldn't really call it preparation. I didn't have any LNAT books. I did one test from the website, got around 21 or 22 points and decided that it stressed me out too much to do another one. I didn't want to sit the test scared like hell. I have also asked all the first year law students at my college in Oxford if they did any preparation for the LNAT. One girl said she'd bought the book. But never touched it.

[lcdrz]

Hi

 

Is anyone else doing the LNAT?

How do you study (if you do study at all)?

What's a good score?

Are you doing it in your Junior or Senior year?

 

 

Hi, I'm going to be doing the LNAT in September/early October (because I'll be applying for Oxbridge so need to do it earlier due to the earlier deadline) My school does a few workshops to prepare those of us who will be sitting the LNAT, however they are not that helpful. We just went through sample MCQs and essay techniques, for the MCQs I take that it's literally reading attentively and critically and perhaps employing some critical thinking/reasoning skills. For the essay, the 'instructor' just gave us a basic form we should follow: thesis, antithesis, synthesis ("la forme du poisson") and told us to be creative and not write a very generic response or choose the topic which we knew most people would choose.

 

Most of the people in the year above me who took the LNAT last year said they used the Mark Sheperd book a bit and the practice tests on the LNAT website. But they also stressed the importance of not putting all your efforts on the MCQ and that the essay can be the more important section depending on the university. For example, one girl said that she focused so much on the MCQs and wrote a mediocre essay and that's why she missed her Oxford interview (she contacted them asking why they did not give her an interview-- apparently you can do that??)

 

I think the average this year was maybe 21? and that is apparently a pretty good score. 

 

Regarding preparation, I'll probably be reading a few newspapers, using the Mark Sheperd book and the online practice tests. But essentially, you can't really revise for this test as it's used to test your aptitude.

 

Good luck with it!