GPA, LSAT Data Shared Between LSAC, American Bar Association

In the past, law schools haven't always been accurate in reporting the GPAs and LSATs of their entering (1L) classes. Essentially, they've sometimes lied about their numbers in order to game the U.S. News rankings.

In an attempt to verify the accuracy of these statistics, the Law School Admission Council is now partnering with the American Bar Association.

Below is a press release straight from the American Bar Association with all the details:

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India's Law School Bubble

A few years ago, some Indian law schools began accepting a modified version of the LSAT (as an alternative to the Common Law Admission Test). If you look at the CLAT website, you'll understand why.

In what other respect is India taking a page from the U.S.?

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Columbia Law School Employment Troubles

This week, the New York Post reported that Columbia Law School had updated its employment website with additional employment information after its previous update raised some questions.

The newest update includes two significant pieces of data:

-a detailed breakdown for Columbia's Class of 2011
-the number of school-funded jobs for the Classes of 2009, 2010, and 2011

The Post writes:

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Law School Employment Numbers Database

Law School Transparency, a legal education policy organization, has just released an online database containing detailed employment and salary information for the class of 2010 at all ABA-accredited law schools.

It combines information from 4 different sources:

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LSAT Requirement May Be Eliminated

The ABA's Standards Review Committee has voted, once again, to consider dropping the "LSAT requirement" for admission to law school.

In this post, I address 3 questions:

1. What is the LSAT requirement?
2. Why would the committee consider dropping it?
3. How would this affect law school admissions?

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How Will Law Schools Be Affected By The LSAT Fee Increase?

Last week, I wrote that the Law School Admission Council significantly increased the LSAT registration fee, as well as other application-related fees, in response to the declining number of test-takers and applicants.

I was puzzled by this reaction, given that it will lead to a further decline in demand for LSAC's services.

Of course, LSAC has a monopoly on the processing of law school applications and the administration of the LSAT, so it can raise its fees as it pleases. If you've decided that law school is for you, but don't qualify for a fee waiver, you'll manage to come up with the $160 LSAT registration fee, $155 Credential Assembly Service (CAS) fee, and $21 fee per CAS law school report.

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Law School Applicant Numbers Continue Decline

The Law School Admission Council's latest update indicates that the decline in the number of law school applicants is lessening little, if at all, compared to LSAC's last update.

LSAC's newest data indicates that the number of applicants to ABA law schools has declined 15%, and that the number of ABA applications is down 12.9% from the same time last cycle (through 4/13/12).

(LSAC states, "Last year at this time, we had 93% of the preliminary final applicant count.")

Based on this information, we can project that this cycle will have a total about 67,022 applicants.

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Law School Class of 2010 ABA Employment Data Released

If you've been following the law school news over the past several months, you've likely read that some law schools have attempted to inflate their employment statistics by hiring their own graduates.

In an attempt to cut down on the shenanigans, the ABA has required law schools to report the number of graduates they employ nine months after graduation.

The ABA's 2011 Placement Survey was just released this week in spreadsheet format. It provides some interesting findings, as you can see in the graph to the top-right.

So, which law schools have more than 15% of their graduates in school-funded positions?

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LSAT Test Registration Fee Increase: Why?

The Law School Admission Council has jacked up the LSAT test registration fee from $139 to $160 for the 2012-2013 admission cycle.

And, strangely enough, LSAC has acknowledged that the increase is in direct response to the recent drop in law school applicants and LSATs administered.

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Law School Admission Cycle: Who Applies First?

An LSAT Blog reader recently asked whether law school applicants with relatively higher LSAT scores apply earlier in the admission cycle than others.

I've always believed this to be the case, but not until recently did we have the information necessary to determine whether this is actually true.

Data from the Law School Admission Council indicates that high scorers tend to apply much earlier in the admission cycle than do low scorers.

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How *Much* Easier to Gain Admission to Top-14 Law Schools?

I've talked a lot recently about the fact that law schools will have to lower their admission standards and reduce class sizes.

This is due to the shrinking applicant pool and the fact that the largest percentage decrease within that applicant pool comes from applicants scoring in the 170-174 range.

The graph to the top-right displays the projected number of law school applicants by LSAT score for the admission cycle ending in 2012, compared to applicants in the previous cycle (specifically for those scoring 165+).

A graph at the end of this post shows the projected number of applicants whose highest LSAT scores are below 165.

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Will Law Schools Have To Admit Almost Every Applicant?

For updates, see my series of posts on recent trends in law school admissions.

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Will law schools soon have to admit almost everyone who applies?

As the number of law school applicants has sharply decreased over the past 10 years, law schools have been forced to admit an increasing percentage of applicants.

Here's the data from the Law School Admission Council demonstrating the increasing percentage of law school applicants admitted to at least one law school (shown in the graph to the top-right).

The second graph shows that the projected number of law school applicants for the 2011-2012 admission cycle (those applying to begin law school in 2012) is coming perilously close to the number of applicants admitted by law schools in previous years. (Projection for 2012 is based on this LSAC data.)

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Will Law Schools' Scramble for Applicants / Rankings Turn Even Uglier?

For updates, see my series of posts on recent trends in law school admissions.

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To what new lows will law schools have to sink in order to attract top-scoring applicants?

While the Law School Admission Council's newest numbers indicate that law school applicant numbers are in steep decline, they also indicate that the declines are not equal across the board.

In particular, we're seeing a huge drop-off in top LSAT scorers applying this cycle. The decline in the number of law school applicants has come disproportionately from the top end of the spectrum.

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Law School Applicant Numbers / Applications in Steep Decline

For updates, see my series of posts on recent trends in law school admissions.

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The Law School Admission Council's latest numbers indicate that law school applicants and applications for this past cycle have dropped precipitously compared to the previous cycle.

Applicant numbers are down 15.6%, and applications submitted are down 13.6%, according to data submitted through 3/30/12.

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If The LSAT Were A Computerized Test, Cheating, and Theft

LSAC has thought about computerizing the LSAT for several years. In May 1999, LSAC published a study titled, "Item Theft in a Continuous Testing Environment: What is the Extent of the Danger?"

In this study, LSAC and ETS consider "the possibility of organized, large-scale item theft" by "professional thieves" as a result of turning the LSAT into a computerized exam.

(Sadly, they weren't talking about an Ocean's Eleven-style heist or even about hacking.)

If the LSAT were computerized, it'd probably be offered on most weekdays, like the GMAT and GRE.

Since it wouldn't be practical to write hundreds of unique exams each year, questions would be recycled. This group of questions is called an "item pool" by standardized test nerds (psychometricians). "Items" are test questions. (See my series on how the LSAT is constructed for more details.)

Your average "thief" is someone of average ability who remembers a few test questions and passes them along to friends. This has some impact on future test-takers' performance.

However, if "professional thieves" took the exam for the purpose of memorizing test questions and passing them on to future test-takers, this would have a more significant impact. (In the early 1990s, Kaplan employees took the GRE for the sole purpose of memorizing test questions - also see LA Times. It seems they were doing it to embarrass ETS rather than to give their own students an edge.)

In order to counteract these kinds of shenanigans, it's likely that if the LSAT were ever computerized, there would be several different pools of questions. Each one would be large enough so any benefit gained from memorizing previously-administered questions would be minimal-to-none. Besides, the topics of Logical Reasoning questions repeat so often that they tend to blur together in your mind unless you've done the question a few times.

For more details on what LSAC scientists do in their spare time when it comes to simulations about question-stealing, read the LSAC study. If you skip the mathematical parts, it's actually kind of entertaining.


Photo by extraketchup / CC BY-SA 2.0
Photo by grimages / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

December 2011 LSAT Curve: PrepTest 65

Good luck to everyone taking the December 2011 LSAT!

Did you know that December exams tend to have most lenient curves?

The "curve" on the most recent December exams was very generous. The December 2009 and December 2010 LSATs each allowed you to have 14 incorrect answers but still get a 170. (The average for December exams in recent years prior was only 11.375 incorrect answers).

The below chart contains recent data regarding the number of questions you could get wrong on recent exams and still achieve a particular scaled score (out of 180):








(See what it's taken to get an LSAT score of 160 or 170 on all LSAT PrepTests.)

Come back to this blog post after you take the LSAT and post your curve predictions in the comments!

Photo by blprnt_van

LSAT Percentiles and Various LSAT Scores

Wondering how to converting LSAT scores to percentiles?

Here's a chart containing LSAT percentiles for various scores (click to enlarge):

Please note that this chart covers LSAC data for the period from 2007-2010.

Percentiles shift slightly over time based upon the pool of test-takers.

Also see: All LSAT Raw Score Conversion Charts.

Photo by pforret

October 2011 LSAT Curve: PrepTest 64

UPDATE: The curve for the October 2011 LSAT: PrepTest 64 is now available.

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The "curve" on the October 2010 exam was pretty generous. It allowed 12 incorrect answers to get a 170. (The average for September/October exams in recent years was only 10.25 incorrect answers).

The below chart contains recent data regarding the number of questions you could get wrong on recent exams and still achieve a particular scaled score (out of 180):









This continues the trend of relatively generous curves in the most recent exams.

(See what it's taken to get an LSAT score of 160 or 170 on every released LSAT PrepTest.)

Come back after you take the LSAT and post your curve predictions in the comments!

Photo by blprnt_van

December 2010 LSAT Curve: PrepTest 62

UPDATE: The December 2010 LSAT Curve has been added to my raw score conversion charts (it's PrepTest 62).

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Good luck to everyone taking the December 2010 LSAT!

Did you know that December exams historically have the most lenient curves?

The "curve" on last year's December exam was pretty generous. It allowed 14 incorrect answers to get a 170. (The average for December exams in recent years was only 11.375 incorrect answers).

The below chart contains recent data regarding the number of questions you could get wrong on recent exams and still achieve a particular scaled score (out of 180):

(See what it's taken to get an LSAT score of 160 or 170 on all LSAT PrepTests.)

Come back after you take the LSAT and post your curve predictions in the comments!


Photo by blprnt_van

The Most Common Answer Choice on the LSAT

LSAT Blog reader Brett recently analyzed the LSAT PrepTest Answer Keys to find the best answer choice to guess on the LSAT.

I've done similar analysis in the past.

However, Brett has a better understanding of statistics than I do, and his results are summed-up and organized much more nicely than mine. He also included answer key data from the June 2010 LSAT (PrepTest 60).

Here's what he found (click to enlarge):






















Basically, "D" is the best answer to choose when guessing randomly, and "B," "C,"and "D" come up more often than either "A" or "E."

Please thank Brett in the comments for sharing his analysis!

Photo by cwhatuc