LNAT with no preparation

[Dottierthanever]

So, DD is sitting the LNAT this week. She got a last minute booking having decided only last week that she wants to apply for law rather than history.

Has anyone ever successfully sat this exam without any preparation? She could only get an appointment for this week to have it done in time for 15th October. I had a quick check online and it seems people buy into preparation courses and prepare for months - she has obviously not done that. She took a practice test on the LNAT website last night and got 19 out of 42 questions wrong. Of course she can give it a go but she has a track record of taking rejection hard and (again from a quick Google) it seems likely that she gets rejected pre-interview from Oxford and perhaps others if the LNAT score isn't high enough.

Would love to hear from anyone with LNAT experience...we are university and UCAS application virgins.

Not a 'Law parent's, I'm afraid, but has your DD had a look at the Law threads on TSR? There was a long-running one for 2020 entry, with a lot of people posting re their LNAT scores and offers.

There is even a thread on LNAT Preparation ('Harrysbar' is a 'grown-up', by the way and gives a lot of advice on Law - and other

• applications).

www.thestudentroom.co.uk/showthread.php?t=6670292

DD1 and DD3 both did the LNAT with either no prep or barely any prep and both scored very highly, up at the top end (scores were released around January when they both took it, so they knew their exact score and how it fared relative to others'). I don't think many people at their school did a lot of prep either but there were several Oxford Law offers in both years (four in DD3's, three in DD1's).

If your DD is doing History she should be fine.

Thanks @goodbyestranger were your daughters at a really good school and really good at history? Mine is at a comprehensive, she has good GCSE grades and yes she is doing history and english but they have had lots of changes of teachers due to teacher shortages and she had no teaching at all in the summer term so not sure whether it's true that she'll be ok! I guess we will soon find out.

Dottierthanever they were both at a state grammar and were good at history yes, with the benefit of particularly good history teachers (it was one of the best departments). But the reason I said history helps with LNAT essays is simply because writing A level history essays will help - so not to do with flair for history per se.

The school provided no help whatsoever with LNAT prep - nor should it really.

If your DD has a logical mind (which she'll need for Law) and the benefit of knowing how to structure and evidence in essays then she should be fine with zero prep for the LNAT. Sounds to me as though she's already prepped, in the sense of doing a paper and knowing what to expect!

You really do not need any preparation for LNAT, other than being able to answer it in time like any other exam. As long as she looks at a couple of sample papers to get a feel for the type of question. The essay questions are random and varied and can on subjects as varied as Big Brother (TV show) to climate change. She will also have a choice.

It's at least arguable that that's all that's required for any of the aptitude tests - familiarizing yourself with the format and looking at a couple of the sample papers then having a go at one or two.