KIS Summary:
- Find practice exams from the LAT site.
- Keep up on current affairs by reading the news and trawling social media.
- Work on your persuasive and analytical skills
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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!
Table of Content:
How to study for the UNSW Law Admission Test?
Now that you’ve successfully registered for the LAT, it is 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 is not a test of your pre-existing knowledge.
There are no facts to memorise, and 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. Here are my best tips on how to prepare for the LAT:
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 also my pre-existing knowledge and opinions on those issues that came from being an active citizen 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, and 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 able to give a well-explained and evidenced one about it.
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.
And, hey, if you feel like you need to brush up on those skills, you can always book a tutor to help you out!
Conclusion
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.
For more resources, check out these KIS Academics articles:
KIS Academics
Manoj Arachige
Manoj Arachige
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 skills are the LAT test assessing?
The LAT assesses your aptitudes and skills in thinking critically, analysing material, and organising and expressing ideas. The LAT doesn’t require any knowledge specific to law.
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?
Not in 2025! The LAT will no longer be a requirement after this year.
How much does the LAT cost?
The on-time registration fee for the 2025 LAT is AUD$199 (GST inclusive). The registration fee covers online registration, materials required for the test and provision of test results. Late registration incurs an additional $55 fee.
UNSW Law & Justice has waived the remote proctoring levy for all candidates in 2025.
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.
Want more personalized study guidance to help drastically improve your marks? A private tutor from KIS Academics can make the biggest difference:
