Law Schools

Forced To Take The LSAT? Might As Well Suffer From The Comfort Of Home...Right?

The food accommodations will likely be better that way.

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Asian American woman studying studentLogical reasoning. Reading comprehension. Logic games. The test site. For any student dead set on becoming a lawyer despite the well-reasoned and experienced-backed pleas not to by their elders, these four things have been on the mind of future lawyers preparing for the LSAT. In my completely unresearched opinion, logic games and logistics pose the biggest problems to the average test goer. What if you could opt out one of those entirely? Sadly, you’re going to have to deal with logic games, but many of the students enrolled to take the test this weekend have chosen to do the test remotely. From Reuters:

More than half — 61% — of the 19,463 aspiring lawyers registered for this month’s LSAT have opted to complete it remotely, while 39% wanted to take it in-person at test centers, according to the Law School Admission Council.

Okay — I admit that this is a complete aside but give me some grace here? Am I the only one in disbelief that the parts of the survey actually add up to 100%! This generation of aspiring lawyers is already changing the world! Now that that’s out of the way, back to the stuff you came here for.

The August test, which will take place Friday and Saturday, is the first to allow examinees to choose between remote or in-person formats — a change the council announced in April. The LSAT has been exclusively offered online since May of 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic and restrictions on in-person gatherings, though it has historically been an in-person test.

The benefits to taking the LSAT at home are legion: a much shorter commute to and from the test, not to mention completely bypassing the unavoidable nervous banter that commences once the festivities are done. But doing the test at home carries risk too — you willing to bet your legal future on the stability of an internet connection? Are you holed up in an area prone to blackouts? If so, you’d probably be better off picking pen and pad over QWERTY. Even if the test goes seamlessly, the stress of wondering will or won’t your internet connection make it through the logic games section might not be the best for your already fragile psyche:

Steve Schwartz, who runs the tutoring company LSAT Unplugged, said on Thursday that he’s surprised by the relatively low percentage of in-person test takers. Many lost trust in the online exam after software problems arose with ProctorU, the company that previously administered the remote LSAT, Schwartz said.

“Over the past three-plus years, there were instances during online administrations where remote proctors took control of the computer screen mid-exam or interrupted students,” he added. “If either the student’s or the proctor’s Wi-Fi was unreliable, the exam would be disrupted.”

The determination of if you’d like to risk COVID or a power outage to take a test that may be well on its way out is ultimately up to the people who will be taking it.  Whatever you do, just try to make an informed decision — an ounce of preparation is worth a pound of cure and all that. For a more in-depth look at online LSAT preparation, this should set you right.

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As In-Person LSAT Returns, Most Test-Takers Go Remote [Reuters]

Chris Williams became a social media manager and assistant editor for Above the Law in June 2021. Prior to joining the staff, he moonlighted as a minor Memelord™ in the Facebook group Law School Memes for Edgy T14s.  He endured Missouri long enough to graduate from Washington University in St. Louis School of Law. He is a former boatbuilder who cannot swim, a published author on critical race theory, philosophy, and humor, and has a love for cycling that occasionally annoys his peers. You can reach him by email at cwilliams@abovethelaw.com and by tweet at @WritesForRent.

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