Increased interest in LSAT forces additional test date
Because of intense demand, an additional fourth day has been added to the June administration of the primary Law School Admission Test. (Image from Shutterstock)
Because of intense demand, an additional fourth day has been added to the June administration of the primary Law School Admission Test, according to an email from the Law School Admission Council. The April 25 email, which was obtained by the ABA Journal, was addressed to all registrants.
Testing will now take place June 5, 6, 7 and 8, according to the LSAC website. As of April 26, more than 36,000 students had registered for the June LSAT, according to the LSAC. Previously, the largest LSAT administration since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic was in November 2020, with more than 27,000 test-takers.
The upper limit of test-takers typically is 10,000 to 11,000 per day, says Susan L. Krinsky, the LSAC’s vice president for operations and chief of staff.
Last June, 18,354 students registered to take the test, according to the LSAC.
“That’s probably why we assumed that three days would be sufficient,” Krinsky adds.
This year’s June administration will be the last time that the “logic games” section of the test will appear on the test. Instead, starting in August, test-takers will find a second scored logical reasoning section.
“There are people who just want to try both,” Krinsky told the Journal.
That change comes after a 2019 settlement with two blind plaintiffs who said they were unable to draw diagrams to help answer the questions in the LSAT’s analytical reasoning section, commonly known as “logic games,” which involves deductive reasoning.
The increase in the number of June test-takers follows a 5% increase in the number of applicants and 2% uptick in the number of applications for the 2024 cycle over a year earlier, according to the latest LSAC figures, which are updated daily.
The increase comes despite the late start of the enrollment year 2024. The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Students for Fair Admissions v. President and Fellows of Harvard College last June delayed application season at many law schools.
In mid-November, the number of applications was down 11.3% from a year earlier, according to the LSAC.
In addition, according to the LSAC tally, more students of color are applying to law school, with increases in all ethnic categories over last year.
As of April 26, American Indian or Alaska Native, Asian and Black or African American applicants are up 6.4%, 6.9% and 6.5%, respectively, while Hispanic and Latino applicants are up 8.7%. Native Hawaiian and other Pacific Islander applicants are up 14.8%. Women again outnumber men, just as they did in the 2023 cycle.
“We are excited about is that the pool is very diverse,” Krinsky says. “There was fear that the [Students for Fair Admissions] decision was going to discourage people from applying.”
Election years often bring more interest in law schools, she adds.
“There are some really significant Supreme Court cases that are getting a lot of attention. And that might say to potential applicants there’s a real there’s a reason to go to law school and be a part of this,” Krinsky says.
