For any HSC student hoping to study law at university, the pressure is on to get a high ATAR. But for those of you who wish to attend UNSW’s Law School, there’s the added hurdle of their Law Admission Test (LAT) to consider. While the prospect of yet another exam might seem daunting, with the right preparation it doesn’t have to be insurmountable - and from my (admittedly biased) perspective as a current UNSW Law student, it’s well worth the effort!
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How to study for UNSW's Law Admission Test?
Alright, now that you’ve successfully registered for the LAT, it’s time to buckle up and start preparing for the big day. But before you pull out your Legal Studies textbooks, it’s important to understand that the LAT isn’t a test of your pre-existing knowledge. There are no facts to memorise, no topics to review - you can take the LAT without knowing a single thing about the law and still get 100%. The LAT is an aptitude test that examines your ability to interpret new information and use it to craft effective critical arguments.
How does one study for that, exactly? Well, there’s no one right way to do it, but these are three recommendations from my own experience.
1) Do the practice exam
The official LAT site provides a sample paper that provides insight into what the exam questions might look like. This is the closest you’ll get to doing the exam before actually sitting it, so it’s obviously my first recommendation for studying. There are two approaches I would use to tackle this practice paper:
- Do the online practice paper available through your ACER account. Not only will this let you practise the kinds of responses you’ll be expected to write, but it’s also an opportunity to familiarise yourself with the format you’ll be using on test day - remember, the exam is online, so you’ll need to know your way around the site!
- Save your response and have it marked. ACER doesn’t provide feedback on practice responses, but you can always ask for feedback from a parent, teacher, or tutor. Make sure you copy your answers onto a separate document before submitting it on the ACER site though, as the online test responses are not saved.
2) Broaden your general and current knowledge
While the LAT won’t test you on any of the content you’ve learned in Legal Studies, the questions will often centre around real world issues. For example, the questions in my LAT exam required me to argue whether social media companies had a responsibility to protect free speech and whether voting should still be compulsory in Australia. It wasn’t just my writing ability that helped me ace those responses, but my pre-existing knowledge and opinions on those issues that came from being an active citizen and which gave me the tools to make relevant and in-depth allusions to historical and contemporary events in my analysis.
So, keep up to date! Read the news. Trawl trending hashtags on social media. Have conversations with your family and friends about current events. Understand the world around you so that, when you’re asked to make an argument about it, you’ll be there with receipts.
3) Hone your analytic and rhetorical skills
Ultimately, the LAT is a test of your ability to form a convincing written argument, and to do that you need to be familiar with the tools of persuasion. Luckily for you, your teachers have been teaching you these skills your entire school life. Remember learning how to evaluate and form persuasive texts in English, or how to analyse sources in History? Those are the tools you’ll want to be breaking out when answering these questions. That means that continuing on with your current studies counts as revision for the LAT. Talk about killing two birds with one stone!
And, hey, if you feel like you need to brush up on those skills, you can always book a tutor to help you out!
Time to sit the exam!
You’ve registered, you’ve studied hard - now all that’s left for you to do is receive your admission ticket, go to your specified venue at the right time (or prepare for remote proctoring, and knock the LAT out of the park. It might seem daunting now, but at the end of the day it’s just one more exam, and once it’s over you’ll be one step closer to your dream career.
Good luck!
FAQs
Will I be disadvantaged in the LAT if I didn’t study Legal Studies?
Not at all! The LAT has no prerequisite knowledge, so everybody who takes it is on an even playing field. There is no subject you can take that will give you more or less of an advantage when taking the exam.
What if both my ATAR and LAT scores aren’t high enough? Will I not be able to study Law at UNSW?
There’s always a pathway to the course you want to study, even if some take a little longer than others. If you don’t qualify for UNSW Law based on your LAT score and you don’t qualify for the alternative pathways listed above in the Eligibility section of this article, that’s okay! UNSW Law is a mandatory double degree, which means that you have to complete another degree along with Law. The great thing about this is that if you can’t get into UNSW Law right away, you can enrol for your other degree, do really well in your first year, and then apply for an Internal Program Transfer in your second year. You won’t even need to take the LAT again since it’s all based on your marks in your current uni degree!
Can I take the LAT more than once if I’m not happy with my score?
You can take the LAT as many times as you please, and your application to UNSW Law will be judged on your highest score. Just remember that LAT scores are only valid for two years, so make sure you apply within the required time. Also, double check that when you apply to UNSW through UAC, you submit the LAT identification number matching your highest score!
Want more personalized study guidance to help drastically improve your marks? A private tutor can make the biggest difference!
Written by KIS Academics tutor for HSIE/English, Adam Hughes. Adam is currently pursuing a Bachelor of Arts/Law at UNSW and is always happy to take on new students. You can view Adam’s profile here and request him as a tutor.
