GRE vs LSAT: Which One Should You Take? (7 Differences)

LSAT stands for Law School Admission Test, whose main purpose is to test the skills necessary for success in any number of law schools. It was a test created and run by the Law School Admission Council to weed out poor candidates. An LSAT score has the possibility of getting you into any of the major law schools, granted you score well enough.

A competitive university school of law will require an LSAT score of at least 160. In the law school rankings, even the most average school has applicants with that type of score.

To have a good grasp on the LSAT test, you’ll need to understand each section and the questions they will ask. This particular test covers the following areas: logical reasoning, reading comprehension, analytical reasoning, and a writing sample.

Logical Reasoning

This portion of LSAT is broken into two sections with roughly 25 questions in each. An hour of the test is devoted to this section. These questions test your ability to determine the main point of an argument, apply logic to various concepts, find important information in dense text, and analyze different arguments.

Reading Comprehension

Reading comprehension is one section of roughly 27 questions that lasts one-half hour. You’ll be asked to read four different passages and draw inferences from the text. The text will be quite dense and scholarly, making it that much harder to determine the main idea and find the important information.

Analytical Reasoning

This portion of the assessment is sometimes known as logic games. In a half-hour, you’ll be asked to correctly understand the effects a rule has on a decision and an outcome. These logic games test one's ability to draw conclusions, analyze situations, and apply logic to complex situations.

Writing Sample

In this section, the test-taker is given 35 minutes to form an argument based on given facts that uses written English to properly and eloquently defend a position and express an idea. At any one of the law schools, you’ll be writing briefs and essays constantly through your studies.

The GRE is a general assessment that features questions that reflect typical human thinking. GRE scores will get you possible entrance into most graduate programs and some law schools. It will measure your verbal reasoning, quantitative reasoning, critical thinking, and analytical writing skills.

However, these are the same skills that have been honed in school and daily life.

Let’s take a look at three test sections: Analytical Writing, Verbal Reasoning, and Quantitative Reasoning.

GRE Verbal Reasoning

This portion of the GRE measures your ability to analyze and draw conclusions. Are you able to read a text and reason out the missing information or identify the author's perspective? You’ll need a good grasp of word meaning, both literal and figurative. How do sentences relate to one another, and what's a major or minor point? This particular section tests your reading comprehension skills.

Quantitative Section

The quantitative reasoning portion will assess one’s ability to understand and interpret quantitative information. Can you take numbers and put them in a logical sequence? You’ll need to have a strong understanding of basic arithmetic, algebra, geometry, and data analysis to perform well here. A calculator is allowed and provided through the computer program.

Related Article: Can You Use a Calculator on the GRE?

Writing Section

This section measures a prospective student’s ability to clearly articulate an otherwise complex idea clearly and effectively. Are you able to take the claim, examine it and create a reasonable, well-thought-out response?

The key to writing this essay is remaining focused and having a coherent argument from the opening line to the conclusion. This is not an open-ended section, so you must be able to respond to a specific prompted question or claim.

Check out this post to learn how long should a GRE essay be.

“The greatest challenges are the inevitable pressures of ease, accommodation, and complacency.”

 

- Robert J. Zimmer, President of the University of Chicago.

When you apply to law school, it’s important that you make the right testing decision. Originally you took the GRE for graduate school and the LSAT for a college of law, but things have changed. After discussing the two tests, let's now compare the most stand-out differences between them.

The Difference in their Verbal/Reading Sections

One distinct difference between the LSAT and the GRE is that the LSAT includes logic games. These questions are trickier than the transitional reading standardized questions found on the GRE. A logic game looks like something out of a puzzle book that involves a situation with rules that asks you to respond to certain hypothetical situations.

Many students find this to be the hardest part of the test. At a university school of law, you’ll be constantly asked to perform these types of logic feats.

The Difference in their Quantitative Section

After reviewing both test types, you might have noticed that the GRE has a math section, while the LSAT does not. The reason for this is that the GRE is an entrance exam used for any type of graduate study.

You’ll find that engineers are taking this same test. On the other side, the LSAT is only for students looking to go to a university school of law. Not a math fan? Take the LSAT. Law schools don’t put as high of a priority on this area.

While we have analyzed the differences between the GRE and the LSAT, it’s important to note which law schools accept scores from each test. Below are just a few of the schools in the United States of America.

All of these are law schools that accept an LSAT score and a GRE score. Which law school, university, or program do you want to study at?