Law Schools, LSAT

Toss Those Pencils, A Computerized LSAT Is Coming!

Whoa. This is a fantastic development.

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See ya, Scantron.

See ya, Scantron.

The legal profession is reluctant to change, and prospective law students get up close and personal with this unfortunate fact when they sign up to take the Law School Admission Test. The LSAT has been a pencil-and-paper exam for almost seven decades, despite technology that would computerize the test being available for years. Now that prospective law students are rushing to take the GRE, a computerized exam, instead of the LSAT, the Law School Admission Council seems to have changed its tune.

On May 20, the LSAC will administer its first-ever digital exam, and about 1,000 prospective law students will take the test on tablet computers. According to a report from Law.com, the exam is only a pilot — scores from the exam will not be official, and they won’t be provided to law schools for admissions purposes. LSAC has purportedly been thinking about how to computerize the LSAT for 20 (!!!) years. Here’s more info:

[LSAC] has spent “tens of millions of dollars” researching digital options, but has moved cautiously to preserve the integrity and security of the exam.

There is no timeline for an official digital LSAT, and further testing would be necessary to ensure that the experience and results of the tablet-administered test are comparable to the paper exam, [Troy Lowry, director of candidate services, product development and deputy chief information officer at the LSAC], said.

The LSAC’s move toward digital has not been a result of any competition coming from the use of the GRE in law school admissions, Lowry said.

Lowry claims that the new digital version of the LSAT had nothing to do with expected competition with the GRE for law school admissions. In fact, he says this slow-moving project has been in the works for years:

The current concept—using tablet computers provided to test takers by the LSAC at traditional testing centers—emerged in 2012, with a prototype coming the following year. The tablet model has been tested in small-scale exams taken by people specifically recruited by the LSAC. Next month’s pilot is different both in its scale—it’s being offered at 20 different locations across the country—and the fact that participation was open to the public.

No matter what the case may be, let’s hope that this test run goes well on May 20. Future LSAT test takers will be forever thankful, and as an added bonus, they may be able to receive their results in a more timely fashion if the exam is computerized.

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Embracing Digital, LSAT Loosens Its Grip on the No. 2 Pencil [Law.com]

Staci ZaretskyStaci Zaretsky is an editor at Above the Law. She’d love to hear from you, so feel free to email her with any tips, questions, or comments. You can follow her on Twitter or connect with her on LinkedIn.

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