Editor’s Note: All opinions, columns and letters reflect the views of the individual writer and not necessarily those of the IDS or its staffers.
After 136 weeks of classes, midterms, finals and endless assignments, I realized how much time and effort it takes to earn a basic degree. Three to four summers of internships and multiple clubs or leadership positions to prepare for a career in law. For aspiring law students, all this hard work feels as though it can be overshadowed by four letters, LSAT, and the test’s final three-digit number.
The Law School Admission Test has played a major role in incoming law students’ futures since 1948. While the LSAT can serve a particular purpose for the admissions process to a school, a singular, standardized test score should not determine an applicant’s opportunity to continue their education in law.
The LSAT is meant to test and measure skills that law schools believe will be found successful in school. These skills include logical reasoning, analytical thinking and reading comprehension. Although these skills are useful within the legal field, the score on the LSAT does not completely translate to an individual's intelligence or potential to succeed.
The “three digit number” does not include work ethic, communication skills or leadership abilities, and the list goes on. For students, months of hard work at leadership positions, internships preparing them in the law field and strong GPA’s proves significantly stronger than a three hour long standardized test.
If law schools are looking for students who have the potential to succeed as a future lawyer, the question becomes whether the LSAT score outweighs everything else a person has done to prepare.
One of the biggest issues with the LSAT is that not everyone gets the same resources and opportunities to prepare. Factors such as access to prep courses, private tutors, study materials and, most importantly, available time contribute to individual differences in test preparation. The average cost of an LSAT prep course can range from around $800 to $1,500, a price that is simply not sustainable for many individuals looking to improve their test scores.
While applicants are often told to obtain pre-test materials directly from the Law School Admission Council website, after finishing the few practice tests given, the applicant is expected to pay a charge of about $200 for additional practice. That is on top of the hundreds of dollars applicants already pay to register for the test.
For some individuals these costs may be manageable, but for many it simply is not. It becomes another barrier between students and their future. Everyone sits down to take the same test, but not everyone has the same time or money to prepare for an impressive score. Nevertheless a score that can significantly improve and affect admission opportunities.
Those who support the use of the LSAT score in admissions argue that it works. The LSAC says that LSAT scores have been an indicator of predicting a student’s first year law school academic performance. It has also been found that combining this with the student’s undergraduate GPA creates an even stronger indicator of one’s first year academic outcome. It helps admissions predict how students may perform in their first year.
However, predicting a student’s first year of law school grades does not mean the LSAT can predict everything that influences why a student may become successful during and after law school. Admissions officers may look at this test information as useful, but it is not at all defining one’s overall abilities, which is important in the real law world.
An LSAT score should matter, but it should not be the only thing admissions relies on. An applicant’s GPA, work experience, internship experience, personal statements, leadership roles and other accomplishments should all be weighed too.
Ava Couch is a senior at Indiana University studying psychology with minors in criminal justice and political science. She serves as vice president of Women in Law and plans to attend law school after graduation.
