If you ask a non-Blueprint employee what’s on the LSAT, they’ll probably look confused. This is because most people know little about law school. We at Blueprint urge you not to talk to strangers about the LSAT. Should you ask someone in the know, however, they’d probably tell you three things: Logical Reasoning, Reading Comprehension, and Logic Games. This is what the LSAT is made of, and what we at Blueprint teach you to master. Your score, which will land somewhere within the 120-180 range, is based solely on how you do on these multiple choice questions. But in fact, there is the forgotten LSAT section. “Really, Blueprint?” you ask. “Yes, really. It’s the writing sample.” “Oh, yeah,” you say. “I forgot about that.” “That’ll teach you to question Blueprint LSAT,” we say, before moving on.

The writing sample is completely unscored. It also is always the final section of the test, so it doesn’t affect your performance on the scored sections. Why should you care about this LSAT section at all? Well, as much as we at Blueprint wish this weren’t true, you can’t totally ignore it. But nearly.

On the LSAT writing sample, you’ll be asked to argue for one of two courses of action based on two goals you’re attempting to satisfy. It’s the most mundane part of the LSAT. We at Blueprint can nearly guarantee it. For example, you could have to say whether you should go on vacation to Tulsa or North Korea. Your goals could be (i) being exposed to foreign cultures, and (ii) coming back home alive. That’s a pretty rough choice. And that’s what the LSAT’s writing sample is all about - you have to argue for one position over another when you don’t have sufficient evidence for either one; there’s no right answer. What you want to do is talk about why your choice is better than the other in relation to the intended goals, while ceding their advantages. Really, anyone taking the LSAT can do it. At Blueprint, we do cover it in our classes, but it’s the easiest thing in the world. Follow the directions, and you’ll be ok.

Furthermore, law schools tend to not care about the writing sample at all. Many law schools will directly say that they don’t even look at it. Of the ones who do consider it, very few give it anything but the lightest consideration. In fact, one of its purposes is simply to deter cheating; if law schools thought someone took the test for you, they could check handwriting samples.

So we at Blueprint do recommend that you very briefly cover this part of the LSAT, but don’t lose any sleep over it. You’ll do fine, and you should be spending your time worrying about the other, more important sections, that actually have some relation to your LSAT score.