Harsha's LAT Success Story: How "Perception is Persuasion" Landed me at UNSW Law

Harsha Jayagopal is a LAT Academy student who scored 88 LAT Percentile and is currently studying Law at UNSW

What if I told you that getting into Australia’s #1 Law School isn’t just about how smart you are -  but how smart you seem?

In the world of the Law Admission Test (LAT), perception is persuasion and that one insight helped me climb to the 88th percentile and land a place at UNSW Law.

Hi, my name is Harsha, and I achieved an LAT percentile of 88, and am currently in my first term of Law at UNSW. UNSW is currently ranked the number one law school in Australia and ranked 12th globally. Offering approximately 300 new spots every year, entrance is highly competitive, and the vast majority of applicants are rejected. 

I have developed this guide to maximise your chances of getting accepted into UNSW law, and having the opportunity to receive a globally prestiged education in Law.

I have developed this guide based off of the skills I have learnt from LAT Academy’s Premium Masterclass. This Masterclass was essential to my LAT success as it teaches two days of what otherwise takes months of independent trial and error, including analytical techniques, argument structure, and critical thinking skills. Students benefit from exclusive insights, strategies, and practical tips shared directly by experienced LAT specialists who understand exactly what UNSW Law expects. So I highly recommend enrolling in LAT Academy’s Premium Masterclass.

My guide will cover my journey in preparing for the LAT, my specific LAT structure, and my personal study tips on balancing LAT and HSC preparation. 

Firstly, what is the LAT?

The LAT is a 2 hour exam designed to test your critical thinking skills, persuasiveness, and legal writing proficiency. The LAT consists of 2 essays, one to test your ability to formulate your own argument, and another to test your skills in analysing someone else's argument.  

Before we dive into specifics, I must stress that the LAT is NOT a typical HSC essay. HSC essay writing is very specific and honestly will not be used in your life after year 12. HSC writing also tests your understanding of content as opposed to the LAT which is strictly an aptitude test. Meaning LAT writing is a test of your skills as a persuasive writer, so any study for the LAT will be based around honing your persuasive writing skills. This may sound daunting, but my guide outlines methods to efficiently hone these skills with ease. However I will stress that due to the nature of this being a guide, I cannot include a full brief on how to fully ace the LAT. I would highly recommend signing up for the LAT Academy Masterclass, as this was probably the most fundamental thing to my LAT success, as it gave me a clear picture on how to ace the LAT. 

My Top 7 LAT Tips

1. Always arrange your arguments in the order of strongest to weakest. Perception is Persuasion. If you initially lull your marker into thinking that your argument is strong, they will overlook the weaknesses at the end, and be more inclined to give you a higher mark.

2. Always pick a side. A mistake a lot of students fall into is providing arguments for both sides of a scenario. LAT markers are testing your ability to argue for one side, so you must make your stance very apparent.

3. Keep your sentences short. LAT writing is not like English Advanced where you cram everything into one sentence. LAT markers prefer easy to read sentences. 

4. Use simple language. Simplicity is sophistication; If simple language can convey your point, there is no need to overcomplicate your argument.

5. ALWAYS take the first 10 minutes before you write an essay out to plan. I always made a full essay skeleton within these 10 minutes, consisting of my thesis, my 3 topic sentences and 7-9 individual sub-arguments. I also picked out evidence for each sub argument in these 10 minutes.

6. Learn all your language techniques and fallacies. I made a cheat sheet of these using Chat GPT, which I used initially during my timed LAT practices, before I memorised them. 

7. Signpost out each individual part of your essay. I would have subheadings for every paragraph, and my introduction and conclusion. This makes your argument seem more logical, thus making the marker more inclined to give you marks.

My LAT Preparation Journey

Start Preparing Early

The most important thing for the LAT is to start prepping early. I would recommend doing at least 1 essay a week for the LAT leading up to the HSC trials, and after trials ramping it up to around 4-6 essays per week.

Something is Better Than Nothing

I get it, it sounds like a lot, and we are all humans and we all slack off. I definitely slacked off myself a bunch, but something is better than nothing. In this case, that something is writing out essay skeletons to several questions. While this is not as beneficial as writing a whole essay, it is better than doing nothing, and on those days when you just cannot be bothered, an essay skeleton is an easy alternative to a full essay.

Timed Practice Papers

I would also do all my practice papers timed, so 1 hour for each essay, with the first 10 minutes always being dedicated to planning.

Choosing Your Study Space

My study space was probably the most important aspect for me. I simply could not study at home. This is a common issue among many HSC students—home is just our place to relax, so being in that environment automatically tells our brain to power down. This is why I used libraries. I would advise against university libraries as these are normally social gathering places for uni students (Trust me, UNSW is not the place to lock in at), and instead would recommend public libraries. I was a State Library abuser, and would almost always study there, but honestly, any public library should suffice. In fact, I still study at the State Library at times despite having full access to UNSW’s numerous libraries, as there is something about the environment of the State Library that makes it easy to get into the flow state.

The Importance of Planning

Planning is also one of the most important things. I would use Google Calendar to plan out my weeks to balance HSC and LAT prep. In the earlier months of the year, I would do 2 hours of LAT prep maximum per week, usually 1 essay in an hour and 1 hour to annotate my weaknesses. However, post trials, I escalated this to around 12 hours a week as the LAT deadline was fast approaching.

Using Google Calendar to Organize Your Study

I also planned all my study for both the HSC and the LAT out, on Google Calendar. I cannot stress enough how important scheduling your study out is. Without a calendar, I would have been overwhelmed with the sheer load of tasks I had. Below I have attached a screenshot of my calendar post trials, as an example.

Harsha's Google Calendar

Ok so now, with all the general study tips done, let's get into the LAT Question specific study tips. 

How do we answer a LAT Question 1?

This LAT question is designed to test your skills in analysing a provided written argument. These written arguments are typically opinion pieces arguing about various societal issues. For example the LAT sample paper’s Q1 is written by a sports blog owner arguing against the Australian governments decision to ban Sports gambling advertising during prime television viewing hours. 

The most important thing with Q1 is that there will almost ALWAYS be several logical fallacies within these arguments. These are always poorly persuasive. Spotting these requires critically thinking about the logic behind the author's statement. For example in the LAT Q1 from the sample paper, the author claims “But if gambling was really harmful, it wouldn’t be legal in the first place”. While on the surface this seems like a reasonable statement, when critically thinking about it, one discovers it is far from the case. The author is appealing to legality, attempting to negate the harm of gambling purely because it is legal. However other harmful substances such as cigarettes and alcohol are legal as well, exposing the logical fallacy within this statement.

This is the primary skill required to be able to efficiently answer question 1. The only way to hone this skill is through practice. I always asked Chat GPT to create a fake opinion pieces for me to analyse and I would pull out the logical fallacies within to hone my skills. I also made a list of fallacies which I found commonly scattered through every opinion piece. I recommend before starting LAT preparation for Q1 to make a list of around 10 fallacies, to draw upon, while analysing opinion pieces.

So now we know how to analyse poorly persuasive points in their argument; how do we analyse strong points? This is thankfully much easier. You can simply discern what points seem personally persuasive to you. As long as you provide reasoning on why these are persuasive, LAT markers will not mark you down for this. Try, however, make sure these arguments do not have any logical fallacies to strengthen the credibility of your authorial tone.    

So how do we put this all together?

A good LAT Q1 essay consists of an intro, 2 - 4 paragraphs and a conclusion.

I personally recommend 3 paragraphs as the sweet spot.

Introduction

So your intro should firstly state your opinion on the arguments persuasiveness to you.

E.g. is it persuasive or not? Then it should outline 3 of your points on why the argument is persuasive/unpersuasive. Your intro should be simple, short sentences, around 4-6 max. I have attached an example down below.

Introduction Example:

"Thomas Wrights's opinion piece presents an overall poor argument, and will most likely fail to persuade his target audience. Firstly Wright opens his argument with claims that are false for the majority of Australian sports fans, automatically limiting his audience. Secondly Wright’s argument assumes the premise that gamblers cannot gamble without advertisements, which is simply not true. Finally Wright uses a series of poor analogies in attempt to prove to his readers that gambling is not harmful for children. Therefore Wrights opinion piece presents a poor overall argument, that will most likely fail to persuade his target audience due to a lack of logic. "

For your body paragraphs I would firstly begin with a topic sentence outlining the particular paragraphs analysis. 

E.g. Wright’s argument protesting the ban on gambling ads is poor as it assumes the premise that gamblers can only access sports betting apps and websites through ads

Body Paragraphs

For each of your paragraphs I would then recommend using the PEE structure.This is Point, Evidence, Explanation. So your point should outline why a particular argument the author is persuasive or not. Then your evidence should be the particular quote from the piece, and finally the explanation is explaining why it is not persuasive. I have attached a sample paragraph down below. 

Body Paragraph Example:

"Wright's attempt at a counter argument on the Government's claims on the dangers of gambling for the youth is poor, due to his use of illogical analogies to “prove” that gambling advertisements are harmless. Wright opens his seventh body of text by comparing gambling ads to shooter games; claiming that no child had turned into a homicidal maniac like speculations claimed they would after paying games, so why would they get influence poorly by gambling? This is a poor argument as it compares an online game with no repercussions depending on the impact to a real life financially depleting pastime that has been known to throw people into debt, and even cause homelessness. Then he claims that if gambling was harmful it would not be legal in the first place. This is a poor argument as it assumes the premise that all harmful things are illegal; this is simply not true, alcohol and smoking are both very harmful yet are still legal. He then questions the lack of evidence for gambling spoiling children. This argument is invalid as these effects are long term effects, and evidence for them can only be viewed after the children grow up, so his assumption of no evidence does not mean no harm. Then Wright claims that the age limit on gambling will prevent children from partaking in it. This is simply not true as there has been substantial evidence of children gambling online under fake aliases, using their parents' money. Wright ends his argument by claiming that TV companies will have to bring in more ads, which will force children to go online, where he claims all the gambling ads are. This argument is wrong on many fronts. Firstly TV companies will simply swap allocated time slots for gambling companies out with other ads, adding no length at all. Children accessing the internet online does not mean that they will be exposed to gambling adds, however if they are on TV they will certainly be exposed to them. Therefore Wright's attempt at a counter argument on the Government's claims on the dangers of gambling for the youth is poor, due to his use of illogical analogies to “prove” that gambling advertisements are harmless."

Conclusion

For the conclusion I would just summarise my intro, using words like”thus” and “therefore”. Down below I have attached an example.

Conclusion Example:

In conclusion Wright's opinion piece presents an overall poor argument, and will most likely fail to persuade his target audience. Firstly Wright opening bodies of text start his argument with claims that are false for the majority of Australian sports fans, automatically limiting his audience. Secondly Wright’s arguments on gambling advertisements assume the premise that gamblers cannot gamble without advertisements, which is simply not true. Finally Wright uses a series of poor analogies in attempt to prove to his readers that gambling is not harmful for children. Therefore Wright's opinion piece presents a poor overall argument, that will most likely fail to persuade his target audience due to a lack of logic. 

So that is how I would answer an LAT Q1.

How do we answer a LAT Q2?

The LAT Q2 is designed to test your skills to formulate your own argument. This question will give you a particular prompt that you must argue for or against. It will also give you a number of various sources that you must refer to as evidence for your argument. A few of these sources will support one side of the argument, and a few will support the opposing side of the argument. The key is to rebut those sources that are opposing your side of the argument. Rebutting simply means to prove an accusation from the source is false. I will attach an example of this down below in the paragraph section.

So firstly how do you write an intro for Q2? It is more or less the exact same as Q1, however instead of evaluating the persuasiveness of an argument you are arguing for a particular side. I have attached an example down below, where I am responding to the prompt “Should AI be used in the workplace?”

Dear executive team, as the company's Technology consultant, it is my firm belief that Artificial Intelligence (AI) should be incorporated into customer service operations, as it can improve customer wait times, improve the quality of service, and improve customer loyalty, increasing profits. Firstly AI can improve the quality of customer service as it can tailor itself to the customers needs with efficiency. Secondly, incorporating AI into customer service can improve customer wait times, as the automated AI will be able to respond instantly, opposed to having to wait in a queue to talk to a human. Thirdly AI can increase company profits, through improving customer loyalty and decreasing the need for physical customer support. Thus incorporating AI into customer service operations will benefit the company.

So now how do we write paragraphs for Q2? Again it is the same structure as Q1, except you must include rebuttals. I would have a ratio of 2:1 arguments arguing your case to rebuttals. To rebut, you must either consider the context of the source, or the logic of the source. Almost all LAT sources will be provided with a context and it is your job to manipulate the means of this context to adequately rebut the sources argument. I have attached a full paragraph example down below. The particular rebuttal in this paragraph is rebutting the logic of a source.

The use of AI into customer service can tailor help to the specific needs of the customer, providing a better experience and increasing profits. Technology has evolved to the point where it can do algorithmic tasks better than humans, due to its ability to optimize itself to previous customer data. The cartoon in (ITEM 6), uses visual personification to depict a toaster beating a man at chess, with the quote “I remember when you could only lose a chess game to a supercomputer”, a testament to the evolution of technology, surpassing human ability. AI can thus be used to provide a better experience to customers than humans, due to the evolution of technology providing AI with a vast range of resources such as previous customer data to tailor the service experience. AI can also personalise customer experience which can increase customer satisfaction rates. A study conducted by the Global Tech Research Institute found that AI was able to personalise customer experience due to data analysis, which led to a 35% increase in customer satisfaction scores (ITEM 2). This data shows the potential of AI to increase customer satisfaction scores which will lead to more company profits in the long run, as satisfied customers will return back to the company. The argument that personalised AI customer service will lead to the emergence of bias or discriminatory outcomes is invalid (ITEM 5). AI is an algorithmic system thats sole goal is to complete the algorithm. A human would demonstrate infinitely more bias than an AI could if given access to the same data due to personal opinions, which AI’s do not possess. Thus the use of AI in customer service to provide a personalized experience, can boost customer satisfaction and lead to increased company profits.  

The structure of the conclusion is the exact same as Sample Q1, but I will attach an example for ease. 

In conclusion Artificial Intelligence should be incorporated into customer service due to the three factors that were explored. Firstly AI can provide customers with a personalised experience, increasing customer satisfaction rates. Secondly AI can improve customer wait times, enhancing customer satisfaction. Thirdly AI can improve customer loyalty and increase company profits in the long run. Therefore it is for these three reasons that AI should be incorporated into customer service. 

So that is how I would answer an LAT Q2

Conclusion

Once more I would like to reinforce how crucial the LAT Academy Premium Masterclass was to assisting my LAT preparation. Students save valuable preparation time by using LAT Academy’s proven methods, allowing more focus on Year 12 subjects, improving ATAR results, and maintaining personal wellbeing. You also benefit from exclusive insights, strategies, and practical tips shared directly by experienced LAT specialists who understand exactly what UNSW Law expects. Taking the Masterclass provides students an immediate competitive advantage, maximising their chances of successfully securing a place at UNSW Law.

Honestly the most important thing I can leave you behind with is this; Consistency is key. As long as you stay consistent with LAT and HSC preparation you will be rewarded. Do not over stress about these exams; if you adequately prepare you WILL ace them. Remember to go into your HSC and LAT with an open mindset, and relaxed mood. I will leave you all with these parting statements: “Something is better than nothing” - some study even if minimal is better than no study, and “perception is persuasion” - if your marker perceives you as persuasive, then you are persuasive on all fronts. I wish you the best of luck and hopefully I will see you on campus at UNSW sometime in the near future.