How best to prepare for the LNAT?

Hello,

I am a student from Toronto, Canada. Currently, I am studying philosophy at Toronto Metropolitan University. I will be graduating in 2024 and applying to study law at Oxford for the beginning of September, 2025.

I would like to apply for senior status in the BA Jurisprudence program. Does anyone have experience with admissions into this program?

If so, how did you prepare for the LNAT? There are not many resources directed towards the LNAT in Canada, as most students interested in law are preparing for the LSAT.

As well, how did you structure your personal statement? I am unsure what to include in my personal statement.

Thank you so much for any assistance and/or insight you can provide.

Reply 1

Anonymous #1

i got 28 on the LNAT and all i used were the official practice papers, and the "Ultimate LNAT guide" on Amazon, it should be available to you and they have new editions every year. As for your PS, i dont think theres a best way to do it apart from showing what ur about and how you are different. try to pick something out which is different about you and that you think no one else has in common, it will make you different to all the others just talking about a similar sort of thing. apart from that, talk about ur co curriculars in brief, and mention some academic knowledge you have learnt abt the law and why u want to study it. for context, i reckon my PS was v good because im an offer holder at warwick and they dont look at the LNAT at all

Reply 2

poppy2022

21

Original post by arcas28

Hello,

I am a student from Toronto, Canada. Currently, I am studying philosophy at Toronto Metropolitan University. I will be graduating in 2024 and applying to study law at Oxford for the beginning of September, 2025.

I would like to apply for senior status in the BA Jurisprudence program. Does anyone have experience with admissions into this program?

If so, how did you prepare for the LNAT? There are not many resources directed towards the LNAT in Canada, as most students interested in law are preparing for the LSAT.

As well, how did you structure your personal statement? I am unsure what to include in my personal statement.

Thank you so much for any assistance and/or insight you can provide.

The best thing to do is to look at exemplar Oxbridge personal statements online, as what UK universities look for is likely to be very different to what you had to demonstrate in Canada. For Oxford in particular, your statement should be 80% academics and 20% on your personal life/hobbies. For the 20% considering you've already done an undergrad degree you should probably talk about why you want to do a second degree and potentially how what you did in your 1st degree links to Law. For the 20%, you should briefly mention any clubs/positions of responsibilities you were involved in at university. For the academic content of your personal statement (the 80%) you are essentially answering the question 'why Law and why me?'. If you're only applying to Oxford (have you considered other top law unis like UCL/KCL/LSE/Durham?) then you can also consider 'why Oxford?' in your statement, although British personal statements are meant to be quite formal so considerations like the prettiness of the town or Harry Potter links won't cut it. Instead you could talk about what attracts you to the tutorial system etc, or particular law faculty staff that you have an interest in through having read their books/research. Going back to the question of 'why Law and why me?', your paragraph structure is going to look something like this:

Para 1:

1.

A particular of area of Law that the university does that appeals to you, e.g. criminal law.

2.

Conceptual reason for why X area of law appeals to you, e.g. criminal law has key role in maintaining societal order.

3.

Demonstrated interest in X area of law, e.g. mentioning a visit to a criminal court trial or a podcast/court case/book/news article you have read on the area.

4.

What stuck out to you from your personal engagement with X area of law, aka your unique takeaways from your visit to court trial or podcast/book/article, e.g. when listening to podcast Y, I was fascinated by how males disproportionately commit crimes more than females, highlighting how in order for the formal law to adequately protect members of its society and maintain social order, it needs to be paired with practical initiatives to ensure that its citizens are taught the morals and values the law promotes from a young age.

Para 2 and 3: repeat above structure
Para 4: where you cover the 20% mentioned above

Obviously this structure is just an example and doesn't have to be strictly adhered to but hopefully it helps.

Considering you're in Canada I imagine its going to be quite hard to source the LNAT guide mentioned in Anon 1's response. The first step is to go on the official LNAT website and try out one of the practice tests on there, trying your best and doing it in timed conditions to replicate the actual exam. The score you get will determine how much you will need to practice. For Oxford you should ideally aim for a score of 27/42 at the minimum in the actual exam. The LNAT is a very hard test and only 2% of successful Oxford applicants get a score above 34, so it's not the kind of test you should be aiming to get full marks on. Searching the Internet for practice tests will be your best bet, so just do as many of those as you can until you're consistently scoring 27+, making sure to review your answers and work out where you went wrong. Arbitio is also a somewhat decent resource for LNAT practice. Although there are a few things to bear in mind: a) you have to pay around £60 for it, b) the tests on there are significantly harder than the real LNAT exam, which is why some people use it for practice in order for them to master the test style before the actual exam. However, I personally found that Arbitio tests are actually quite different in style to the actual LNAT exam (alongside being inconsistent and occasionally based on flawed logic). Furthermore, I found getting much lower scores on Arbitio to be very discouraging and a cause of unnecessary worry about my abilities before the exam. For reference, I was scoring around 23/42 on Arbitio but got 34/42 in the real exam.

Reply 3

freyabeth444

8

Hi there! I got a 28 on my LNAT this year and my one piece of advice is don't pay for anything! Everyone will tell you to pay for arbitio, which is a website that offers practice papers- i understand that it may work for some people but it's so expensive! Use all of the free, official materials on the LNAT website, familiarise yourself with current global events (my essay question was on whether university should be free), and don't waste money on unofficial products! You'll be totally amazing at it! It's a testament to your character that you're thinking about it already x

Reply 4

thegeek888

18

Original post by Anonymous #1

i got 28 on the LNAT and all i used were the official practice papers, and the "Ultimate LNAT guide" on Amazon, it should be available to you and they have new editions every year. As for your PS, i dont think theres a best way to do it apart from showing what ur about and how you are different. try to pick something out which is different about you and that you think no one else has in common, it will make you different to all the others just talking about a similar sort of thing. apart from that, talk about ur co curriculars in brief, and mention some academic knowledge you have learnt abt the law and why u want to study it. for context, i reckon my PS was v good because im an offer holder at warwick and they dont look at the LNAT at all

LNAT Preparation Online | Practice Tests and Essays | Arbitio

Pay £60 for Arbitio or £250 with UCAS Personal Statement advice and mock tests.

How best to prepare for the LNAT?

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