Legal forms are a staple of everyday life. Whether you’re buying a house, selling a home, getting married, applying for a driver’s license, signing a legal waiver, signing an employment contract, filing your taxes, paying a parking ticket, you are signing one of myriad legal forms that come with nearly every conceivable human activity. Think about it – even credit card receipts are legal forms, in that by signing on the dotted line, you are contractually agreeing to pay your creditor at some future date for those charges.

That’s right, legal forms don’t have to be signed in the presence of an attorney or a judge. Legal forms of all kinds allow regular citizens to enter into legal compacts and agreements with each other. Think about when you sell a car or buy a piece of furniture from a friend or neighbor. In doing so, you’ll almost always put together a bill of sale, which is a type of legal form. The bill of sale is a legally binding document that protects the buyer and the seller. It’s essentially a set of legal documents that explain the products or services being sold, the final sale price, warranty or return policies, and other relevant terms and conditions. The more, the better. In fact, in the car selling scenario, these legal forms will include much more detail, including the title of the car, mileage and condition statements, a full vehicle history report, initial asking price, final sale price and any other state or locale-mandated information.

Legal forms are simply a part of life. Not selling or buying a car anytime soon? Well, think about signing a legal waiver the next time you play paintball, or go on a hunting trip, or join a gym. Legal waivers are legal forms – they bind you under federal, state or local statutes to adhere to and abide by the statements and responsibilities written on the waiver itself. In the gym instance, you’re signing a document that absolves the gym of any liability should you hurt yourself while using their equipment or exercising in their building. Same with paintball and guided hunting trips – you sign legal documents in both instances that force you to agree not to sue the company providing the opportunity to play paintball or hunt wild exotic game should you injure yourself or others. Now, of course, there are exceptions – perhaps your hunting guide maliciously turns the gun on you or your paintball referee decides to commandeer the game and attack you and other players.

With entrance to law school becoming more and more competitive, the Law School Admission Test (LSAT) is playing a large role in determining the fate of the candidates. It’s not enough to just pass the test, successful applicants need to ace it. Students with a 3.5 GPA are a dime a dozen, but LSAT scores of 165 and higher show your analytical thinking ability in it’s best light.

The LSAT is offered by the Law School Admission Council and is necessary for admission to the more than 200 law schools who are members of the LSAC. Though there are hundreds of test locations, not all test dates are available at all test centers. Check the LSAC website for exam schedules and sites. You can register for the LSAT either online, by telephone or by mail. But do yourself a favor and signup on time. There is a late registration period available, but you will pay an extra $64 for the privilege. For those students who celebrate the Sabbath on Saturday, alternative exams are usually given on the Monday following the regular Saturday tests or the June exam is given on a Monday.

The LSAT is given four times a year in February, June, October and December and includes five 35 minute multiple choice sections and a 35 minute writing sample at the end. Four of the five multiple choice sections are scored…the non-scored one is used to check new test questions. You may not know which is which, so be prepared to give full attention to all sections. The four scored sections will fall into the following categories: reading comprehension, analytical reasoning and two of logical reasoning. The writing sample is not scored either, but a copy of it is sent to all law schools to which you apply, so you want to put forth your best effort.

Once you’ve decided to take the LSAT, your next step is preparation. You can find sample questions and tests on the LSAC website, as well as on various LSAT test preparation sites such as Kaplan. Question categories are consistent from test to test, so once you’ve completed a few sample exams, you will have a good idea of what’s coming. If the sample tests aren’t sufficient to make you feel comfortable, there are courses available both online and in a classroom setting. The online courses have the advantage of being accessible 24 hours per day, important for someone who may be juggling a busy work and school schedule. Taking the course in the classroom allows direct interaction with the teacher, as well as forcing you to focus to be prepared for class.

Scoring is based on the number of correct answers given. If you find yourself coming down to the end of a section and you have several blanks, make sure you get some answer marked. Even guessing, you’ll have a 20% chance of a correct answer and if you could eliminate any definitely wrong answers, your percentage goes up.