For more than 70 years, U.S. law schools have required the LSAT for admission. The reason is clear: Research consistently confirms that the LSAT is the single best predictor of law school success. Overall, LSAT scores provide a reliable and valid measure for law schools to use as one component of the admission process—information that cannot be adequately addressed solely by the use of college grades or other admission factors. Research reinforces the value and utility of the LSAT in finding that:
In short, the LSAT has content validity because the skills it assesses are those most important for law school success, and it does not test skills that are not relevant to the law school curriculum.
One reason that prior grades add less value in predicting law school success is that they correlate less well with 1L GPA (.42 adjusted correlation). There is substantial restriction of range in UGPA among law school applicants: Most applicants have high UGPAs, and thus there is less differentiation among applicants than may be the case for applicants to undergraduate programs. Stated another way, UGPAs often fall into too narrow a range to be very useful in making admission decisions.
The advantage of LSAT score over UGPA in terms of predictive validity increases at higher score levels and accounts for 65% of the prediction of 1L GPA at the 75th percentile. This means that the predictive validity of LSAT score increases for those schools that restrict consideration to a narrow (high) range of UGPAs. [4]
Predictive validity is generally the most direct and relevant type of evidence used to support admission practices; 1L GPA is generally used as a criterion because first-year coursework is more likely to be similar across programs, and performance in the first year is highly correlated with graduation.
Test-optional policies reduce predictive validity in undergraduate admissions by about 15%, but the reduction in predictive validity for law school admissions would be four times greater (nearly 60%).
They also show that LSAT score is a strong predictor of law school grades and that law school admission based on grades alone would introduce more unreliability into law school admission than a similar approach introduces to admission for undergraduate programs.
The LSAT is the only admissions test accepted by all law schools accredited by the American Bar Association (ABA). Take the LSAT, and you'll have a shot at joining the JD courses at any of 203 law schools throughout the US.
The number of LSAT takers worldwide, regardless of whether they applied, is around 100,000.
The LSAT costs $190 (for the 2018-19 season) each time you sit the exam. There are also fees incurred if you need to change the date or site of your test location. LSAC does run a Fee Waiver service, so if costs are an issue, it’s worth reading up on.
The aim of the test, simply, is to assess whether the taker has the required skills to succeed at law school – LSAC's website lists those as being “reading comprehension, analytical reasoning, and logical reasoning.” The bulk of the test, besides an unscored writing sample, is multiple choice. It requires no actual legal knowledge.
The LSAT contains a total of six sections, but only four actually contribute to the score that is sent to law schools. All four contain only multiple choice questions. Two of the four cover logical reasoning (sometimes called arguments). One covers reading comprehension.
A law school application provides you with plenty of other ways to impress. Letters of recommendation, a resume, a personal statement and an interview are all possible requirements in addition to your LSAT/ GRE scores. These other requirements round out law schools’ assessment of you, the applicant, and give you the chance to move the needle.
Kati Scannell “encourages students to not only obsess over their test scores. I do feel that some may focus a little too heavily on them. You have to take it seriously, but we also want students to be proactive in conveying all of their skillset and their experiences so that we can fully evaluate them. Some individuals just may not be great standardized test takers, but they would still be great attorneys.”
Why the LSAT is Important. Your undergraduate GPA is probably set in stone, or is nearly so. Therefore, your last best chance to improve your odds of admission is to improve your LSAT score. And your LSAT score is important regardless of your GPA. If you have an impressive GPA, the test can be a liability; a poor performance can call your academic ...
But the LSAT is a skills-based test. It doesn’t ask you to repeat memorized facts or to apply learned formulas to specific problems. You will be rewarded for familiarity with patterns that make the LSAT predictable, and ultimately all you’ll be asked to do on the LSAT is think—thoroughly, quickly, and strategically.
Admissions officers care about your score because the LSAT tests the skills you’ll use on a daily basis in law school. It’s the best predictor law schools have of the likelihood ...
If you have a poor GPA, the test is an opportunity; it can overcome doubts raised by your transcript. GPA and LSAT aren’t everything, but most schools will begin their evaluation process by some-how sorting their applicant pools by academic profiles. It’s fairly easy to plot your academic chances of getting into most schools, ...
Moreover, the LSAT is the one factor common to all applications. It levels the playing field for candidates regardless of background. The LSAT doesn’t care what you majored in or where you went to school. The LSAT is probably unlike any other test you’ve taken in your academic career.
While many factors should impact your decision of which law schools to apply to, there’s no denying that reputation often exerts a major influence on applicants’ views of various law programs. Despite the fact that the various annually published ratings of law schools are intrinsically flawed in their very assumption that there would be one ranking valid for everyone, the general location of the school in the top 50 or bottom 50 can be moderately useful information for you as you compile your list of chosen schools. Here’s the most recent list of the “top 10”:
But the LSAT is a skills-based test.