The LSAT Tries To Be More Competitive With The GRE

Will this help stave off the GRE onslaught?

test-anxietyThe LSAC, the organization that administers the LSAT, the widely accepted law school admissions exam, isn’t saying that it is scared the GRE will displace its test as the leader in the clubhouse. But, well, there will be some changes ahead.

The LSAC has announced it will be increasing the number of times the LSAT will be administered and doing away with the cap on the number of times a student can take the test in a two-year period:

Starting with the September 2017 LSAT, there will no longer be any limitations on the number of times a test taker can take the LSAT in a two-year period. LSAC has revised this policy as part of its planning for additional administrations of the LSAT. We will provide more information about the LSAT schedule in the coming weeks.

As you may be aware, there’s been a recent push from law schools to accept the GRE in lieu of the more rigorous LSAT. It started with Arizona Law, and when LSAC tried playing hard ball over that decision, a whole slew of other deans had Arizona’s back — even if they had no immediate plans to accept the GRE. The move, which decreases the barriers to entry, coincides with a decrease in applications, particularly for lower-tier law schools (and some argue that lower barriers aren’t necessarily a good thing). Then Harvard Law decided to accept the GRE, which pushed the move into the mainstream.

Against this backdrop, it makes sense that the LSAT would make a move to be more competitive with the GRE. More sittings for the exam and the ability to take it more frequently would appear to be LSAC’s first attempt to do so.

The good news is that students are the ones who will largely benefit from the change. Jeff Thomas, Kaplan Test Prep’s executive director of pre-law programs, sees this as a way to take some of the stress out of exam day:

LSAC removing its testing limit and potentially offering additional testing dates is very student-friendly. The additional flexibility could go a long way in destressing the admissions process. Dean Kellye Testy, LSAC’s newly announced president and CEO, has shared desires to evolve the organization, so this would seem to fit the bill. LSAC is also likely concerned, understandably, about losing marketshare to ETS, now that Harvard Law School has announced that it will begin accepting scores from the GRE in addition to scores to the LSAT. Other law schools may be waiting in the wings to do this too. Offering the test more times throughout the year and allowing students to take it more than three times over a two-year period might make the LSAT a more attractive option for test takers. But our advice to students will always remain the same: prep once, get one killer LSAT score, and leave no doubt to admissions officers about your candidacy to your top law school choices.

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It remains to be seen if this will help stave off the GRE onslaught.


headshotKathryn Rubino is an editor at Above the Law. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter (@Kathryn1).

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