The Law School Admission Test (LSAT) is a norm-referenced, or
standardized test that is administered by the Law School Admission Council (LSAC)
in the United States and Canada. It is intended to provide law schools with
"a standard measure of acquired reading and verbal reasoning skills that law
schools can use as one of several factors in assessing applicants"[1].
Formally, LSAC correlates LSAT performance with first year law school
grades. The LSAT is administered four times per year, traditionally in
February, June, October, and December, and scores are distributed on a scale
of 120 to 180—with 180 the highest possible score, and 120 the lowest. The
number of students taking the LSAT increased by over 30% between 2000 and
2002, but slowed in 2004. Although the number of test-takers dropped by
about 5% in 2005, the total of more than 137,000 examinees that year is
significantly higher than the 104,000 people who took it in 1997. Test
Composition
Logical Reasoning (LR)
There are two logical reasoning sections of 35 minutes each. Commonly known
as "arguments" or "LR", each question begins with a logical statement or
argument, usually composing no more than a few short sentences (e.g. "A is
B; therefore C must be D"), followed by a prompt asking the examinee to find
the argument's assumption, an alternate conclusion, logical omissions or
errors in the argument, to choose another argument with parallel reasoning,
or to identify a statement that would either weaken or strengthen the
argument. Per argument, one or two questions are posed.
Logical reasoning sections will usually consist of 24-26 questions each. In
its official LSAT Superprep, the LSAC scores questions on a difficulty scale
from 1-5. Most logical reasoning sections contain 2-3 level-5 questions. The
arguments section is somewhat difficulty-graded. While not directly graded
like the SAT, the hardest questions tend to come toward the end of the
section, while the first 10 often contain no questions above difficulty
level 3.
Reading Comprehension (RC)
There is one 35-minute reading comprehension ("RC") section consisting of
four brief passages on a variety of topics with 5-8 follow-up questions per
passage. The questions ask the examinee to distinguish the author's main
idea, intent, tone, attitude, and strategy for writing. Any given RC section
will typically have one passage each related to the physical sciences, the
social sciences, the arts and humanities, and one law passage. The passages
usually employ an academic tone and contain more information than can be
immediately retained by a typical reader, requiring frequent referral by the
examinee. Through the 1990s, the reading sections have grown longer, and
currently contain 26-28 questions, with the most recent exam having 28
questions.
Analytical reasoning
There is one analytical reasoning section of 35 minutes, informally known as
the "logic games" section. The material generally involves grouping and/or
ordering of elements whose number may or may not be known. The examinee is
presented with a setup ("there are five people who might attend this
afternoon's meeting") and set of condition statements (e.g. "if Amy is
present, then Bob is not present; if Cathy is present, then Dan is
present..."), and is then asked to derive various conclusions from the
statements (e.g. "What is the largest number of people who could be
present?"). The games often add or change rules in each question, requiring
the examinee to reorganize information quickly.
Throughout the 1990s, these sections have become shorter, now often ranging
from 21-22 questions instead of 22-24 as in the middle 1990s. This section
is billed as the most coachable by most LSAT test prep materials and
companies.
Experimental
There is one experimental section, which will be any one of the above types.
Although the section is graded, the performance of the examinee on this
section is not calculated or reported as part of the final score. The
experimental section is used to field test new questions for future exams.
The examinee is not told which section of the exam is experimental, in order
to avoid the distorting effects of inattention or apathy. To reduce the
impact of examinee fatigue on the score distribution of this section, it
usually, but not always, appears as one of the first three sections of any
given testing. Because multiple versions of the exam are issued, alert
examinees who have two different versions of the test can trivially identify
the experimental section by noting which sections they have had in common
thus far.
The fairness of this section is often debated. The student does not know
exactly which section is ungraded. Examinees can determine which type of
section it was before the exam is over, but only after the examinee has
already completed at least one such section. For example, if the student has
already done two arguments sections and runs into a third one, then one of
those three was the experimental section. Some examinations will include
three arguments sections; others will have two games or reading sections.
The order is also unpredictable, which allows for the possibility of, for
example, three arguments sections in a row. Depending on ordering and where
a given examinee's weaknesses lie, an examinee can severely underperform (or
overperform) on one specific testing. No formal examination of the impact of
the experimental section has ever been done, and examinee scores tend to
steadily rise with practice regardless. The experimental section also
amounts to unpaid research being done on LSAC's behalf by examinees who are
already paying for the testing.
Writing sample
Finally, there is one writing sample, which is a brief essay that the
examinee hand-writes at the end of the examination on lined paper that is
provided with the test booklet. The writing sample is unique in that it is
not scored and its order is known beforehand. The topic of the essay is
given by either a Decision prompt or an Argument prompt. The Decision prompt
provides the examinee with a problem and two positions on what decision
should be made to solve it. The examinee is challenged to write a brief
essay in support of one position. The decision generally does not involve a
controversial subject, but rather something mundane about which the examinee
likely has no strong bias, such as where to locate a new restaurant. For the
Argument prompt, the examinee is given an argument and then asked to
critique that argument. The time limit for either prompt is 35 minutes. The
writing sample is essentially an extemporaneous essay, hand-written in
pencil at the conclusion of a four- to five-hour examination. This essay is
then photocopied and sent to admission offices along with the LSAT score.
Between the quality of the handwriting and that of the photocopy, the
readability and usefulness of the writing sample can be marginal.
Additionally, most programs require that applicants submit a "personal
statement" of some kind. These factors sometimes result in the writing
sample portion being ignored completely by admission boards. Regardless,
most prep materials and courses encourage practice on the writing sample; a
handful recommend that examinees ignore it and focus on improving their
performance on the graded portions of the exam.
Preparation
Due to the importance of the LSAT in law school admissions, it is strongly
recommended that all applicants prepare thoroughly before taking the exam.
The structure of the LSAT and the types of questions (and quantity of each)
that will be asked are generally known ahead of time, which allows students
to practice on question types that show up frequently in examinations and
avoid wasting time on question types that may appear only once or twice.
Because of this, the exam responds, in most cases, to preparation, and the
Law School Admission Council recommends that students prepare beforehand.
Considering that the LSAT is usually taken only once, that most students
experience at least some improvement, and that admission to law programs in
America has become increasingly competitive, any student wishing to qualify
for a desired program should therefore probably take the time to prepare
well for the exam. Doing so will likely significantly improve their odds of
success. When preparing, students should keep in mind that only tests after
1990 are considered "modern tests." The LSAT has undergone many significant
changes since the early 1990s.
Scoring the LSAT
LSAT score distributions taper off significantly at the extremes (high and
low scores) and tend to congregate near the median score. That is, an
examinee who scores a 175 may have missed only 4 questions more than an
examinee with a 180. However, the number of uncredited responses that
separates a 155 from a 160 could be 9 or more. Although the exact percentile
of a given score will vary slightly between examinations, there tends to be
little variance. The 50th percentile is typically a score of about 150; the
90th percentile is around 163 and the 99th is about 172. A 178 or better
usually places the examinee in the 99.9th percentile.[2]
All examinees may cancel their LSAT score within nine calendar days of the
exam. LSAC still reports to law schools that the student registered for and
took the exam, but releases no score. Although there is no appeals process
for examinee complaints (e.g., proctor called time early, a cell phone went
off, a question has ambiguous wording, etc), a specific question may, on
rare occasion, be omitted from final scoring.
Use of the LSAT in Law School Admissions
Unlike other standardized examinations in America, the LSAT is the most
important criterion in its corresponding school admissions process. The
second most important criterion is GPA. Most prestigious law schools receive
far more applicants than they can accommodate; the examination offers
admissions officers a simple and generally effective way to eliminate a
large number of applicants from the pool. In June 2006, the American Bar
Association (ABA) revised a rule that mandated law schools to report their
matriculants average score if more than one test was taken. The new ABA rule
now requires law schools only to report the highest LSAT score for
matriculants who took the test more than once. In response, most (but
certainly not all) law schools will now consider only the higher score in
admissions, for applicants with more than one score. Still, students can
only take the test 3 times in a 2 year period (an overwhelming majority of
students take the test only once). More importantly, given the high-stakes
nature of the test and the amount of preparation normally involved, it is
highly recommended that applicants take the test only once. More about
LSAT Test Preparation:
The statistical correlation between LSAT score and first year law school
grades is currently being debated. LSAC claims their own research supports
the use of the LSAT as a major factor in admissions, saying the median
validity for LSAT alone is .41 (2001) and .40 (2002) in regards to the first
year of law school.[3] Although the correlation varies from school to
school, LSAT scores are far more strongly correlated to first year law
school performance than undergraduate GPA.[4] As it stands no better
individual measure is currently known to exist. Admission boards almost
universally employ an admission index that weighs both the LSAT and
undergraduate GPA on a combined scale. The admission index is essentially a
mathematical formula that applies a weight to each factor and adds them
together to form a composite statistic. This composite statistic has a
stronger correlation to first year performance than either GPA or LSAT score
alone. The amount of weight assigned to LSAT score versus undergraduate GPA
varies from school to school, as almost all law programs employ a different
admission index formula.
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