Getting Extra Time on the LSAT Will Get Easier | Lawsuit Settled

LSAT Blog Getting Extra Time Easier Lawsuit Settled
Getting extra time on the LSAT is about to get easier than ever.

Last week, LSAC agreed to pay nearly $8 million to settle a lawsuit with the Justice Department over its notoriously strict LSAT accommodations policy.

2 big changes that will affect you:

1. LSAC will automatically grant most test accommodations if you've gotten them for another standardized test like the SAT or ACT.

2. LSAC will no longer flag the LSAT scores of test-takers who received extra time. In other words, law schools won't know whether you only got 35 minutes to complete a section or got twice as much time.

What do you think?

Was LSAC's existing policy on granting test accommodations like extra time been fair?

Should law schools know whether someone received accommodations when considering their application?

Leave your thoughts in the comments!

Does the LSAT Discriminate Against Minorities?

lsat blog does lsat discriminate against minorities
Many have argued that the LSAT unfairly prevents racial and ethnic minorities from getting into law school.

However, one law school professor recently defended the LSAT from those who argue it's a form of racial discrimination. While he admits that the LSAT may not be a perfect predictor of ability in law school, he argues that it serves a valuable purpose, and in the absence of anything better, we'd might as well keep it.

Here's a key excerpt:

While we do need supplemental measures for prediction to get students who can make it through law school into the profession, we also need to know about those who cannot. Hard as it is to take in, there are apparently 150,000 law school graduates who have never passed the bar exam, and they deserved the law schools’ best judgment regarding their likely success as much as do those more likely to succeed. Ethical issues are not the only ones in play. Who is going to defend the law schools when these students sue, claiming that they were taken advantage of much like the borrowers in the housing debacle who succumbed to the blandishments of the mortgage brokers? The larger point is that law schools need to think harder about these students. Test critics, only somewhat understandably, completely ignore their existence.

See pages 378-388 of the PDF for the entire section about the LSAT. He also discusses some potential alternatives to the LSAT.

***

What do you think? Does the LSAT racially discriminate? What real alternatives, if any, do we have?

Photo by enviied

Sample Law School Recommendation Letter


LSAT Blog Sample Law School Recommendation Letter
The below sample law school recommendation letter and analysis is from A Guide to Law School Recommendations.

Lawyer Diaries: Former Michigan Governor


LSAT Blog Lawyer Diary Former GovernorThe following Lawyer Diary comes in the form of an interview with Jennifer Granholm, formerly Governor of Michigan. This interview is excerpted from Learning From Precedent.

LSAT PrepTest 71 Explanations Available for Instant PDF Download


LSAT Blog LSAT PrepTest 71 Explanations PDF Download
Complete explanations for all 4 sections of LSAT PrepTest 71 (December 2013 LSAT) are now available for instant PDF download. Both Logical Reasoning sections, the Logic Games section, and the Reading Comprehension section have been fully explained.

Which College Majors Get The Best LSAT Scores?

Professor Derek Muller at Pepperdine University School of Law recently contacted LSAC to find out which college majors get the best (and worst) LSAT scores.

His findings:




LSAT Diary: Studying While Traveling For Work

LSAT Blog Diary Studying Traveling Work
This LSAT Diary is from Ashley, who improved from 151 to 161 on the February 2013 LSAT after using my 5-month day-by-day LSAT study plan!

If you want to be in LSAT Diaries, please email me at LSATUnplugged@gmail.com. (You can be in LSAT Diaries whether you've taken the exam already or not.)

Thanks to Ashley for sharing her experience and advice!

ABA Considers Allowing Students to Apply to Law School without LSAT Scores

The ABA regularly holds meetings to consider changes to its requirements for law schools. After all, law schools must meet certain requirements in order to be ABA-approved.

The ABA recently proposed allowing law schools to admit 10% of their students without taking the LSAT. That's right - if this proposal passes, you'd be able to get into an ABA-approved law school without having to take the LSAT at all.

Why would the ABA do this?

Maybe it has something to do with the low number of LSAT takers these days, even though that number increased slightly in February.

For those of you who can't stand the LSAT, this probably sounds too good to be true.

Well, it may be. First of all, keep in mind that this change may not become reality. If it does, though, you'd have to fall into one of two groups in order to get out of the LSAT requirement. You'd have to:

1. Be an undergrad at the same university as the law school you're applying to, or

2. Get another degree while you're in law school

So, these changes would only apply to an incredibly small number of people. Or they could have the effect of changing applicants' behavior. Maybe they'd incentivize you to go to law school at the same university where you do your undergrad. Or to go for multiple degrees simultaneously (and it's not easy to do anything else while you're in law school).

Neither is necessarily a good idea, but I'm guessing that some people really do want to avoid taking the LSAT that much.

There are a few other requirements, too. All are included below, in the actual text from the ABA document.

It's from the American Bar Association, Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar, Interpretation 503-3, Explanation of Changes (PDF, page 4):
The proposed Interpretation provides that a law school may admit no more than 10% of an
entering class without requiring the LSAT from students in an undergraduate program of the same institution as the J.D. program; and/or students seeking the J.D. degree in combination with a degree in a different discipline. Applicants admitted must have scored at the 85th percentile nationally, or above, on a standardized college or graduate admissions test, specifically the ACT, SAT, GRE, or GMAT; and must have ranked in the top 10% of their undergraduate class through six semesters of academic work, or achieved a cumulative GPA of 3.5 or above through six semesters of academic work. 

(Hat tip: The Faculty Lounge)

Number of LSAT Takers Increased in February

Shockingly, the number of LSAT takers increased in February, according to LSAC's website. By how much? Not exactly a staggering amount:

The number who took in February 2014 (19,499) was 1.1% higher than in February 2013 (19,286). 

This is the first year-over-year increase since June 2010. What, if anything, does this news mean?

Let's not jump to any enormous conclusions here. We're dealing with an extremely small number of test-takers. The difference between these two test administrations is only slightly more than 200 test-takers. The real news is that it didn't continue to drop as it has for the last several test administrations (context):

LSAT Blog Number of LSAT Takers Increased in February



Why did this happen? Maybe because the barrage of bad news about job prospects in the legal profession has softened a bit (see this recent story in the WSJ). 

Perhaps as career prospects improve, the good news will trickle down to potential law school applicants. To be sure, it'll take a while for the number of LSAT takers (and law school applicants) to increase by any significant amount. However, this recent update from LSAC suggests that the trend over the last few years may reverse itself with time.


LSAT Diary: Self-Studying for the LSAT

LSAT Blog Diary Self-Studying LSAT
This LSAT Diary is from Jen, who just took the February 2014 LSAT. Below, she shares her LSAT self-studying experience.

If you want to be in LSAT Diaries, please email me at LSATUnplugged@gmail.com. (You can be in LSAT Diaries whether you've taken the exam already or not.)

Please thank Jen for sharing her story below in the comments!

February 2014 LSAT Score Release Dates

LSAT Blog February 2014 LSAT Score Release Dates
Good luck to everyone taking the February 2014 LSAT!

The February 2014 LSAT scores / results are scheduled to be released via email by Wednesday, March 5, 2014, so you'll have to wait for your LSAT score.

However, the scores usually come out a bit earlier than scheduled.

Let's look at the trend over the past several years (click to enlarge):