Career Center, Career Files, LSAT, Pre-Law

Blueprint LSAT Prep Survey: What Students Think About an Online LSAT

Blueprint Test Prep gets law students' thoughts on moving the LSAT to an online format.

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With the SAT likely to move online, the LSAT may soon be one of the last remaining standardized tests given in pencil and paper format. The GRE and GMAT are already given on computers, as well as the DAT (for aspiring dentists), OAT (for aspiring optometrists), and BLT (for aspiring sandwiches).

There are many reasons for the moving-all-standardized-tests-online-craze. Not only is it cheaper to administer exams on the computer, online testing also provides more flexibility for the test-takers regarding when they can take the exam. Additionally, students receive their scores immediately, rather than waiting for the test to be scored—which, in the case of the LSAT—can take up to three weeks.

With so many standardized tests already on or heading to the interwebs, it seems at least plausible that the LSAT will follow. Indeed, LSAC, the LSAT’s governing body, has already conducted several studies on the feasibility of providing the LSAT in a computer adaptive format. CAT, for those of you collecting standardized testing acronyms.

Given this background, we here at Blueprint wondered what our students would think of the LSAT moving online. Accordingly, we teamed up with Above the Law Career Center and surveyed our spring 2013 LSAT students to find out if they enjoy being an anachronism in the 21st century, or if they want to embrace the online testing revolution. Here are the results from 402 of our students:

Eighty percent of those surveyed prefer to keep the LSAT in pencil and paper format. The most common reasons cited for this include using paper to diagram logic games and underline passages and the fatigue of looking at a computer screen for four hours. One respondent wrote, “[while] it’s still possible that scratch paper would be used in the online version…psychologically there’s more of a connection for me writing on paper and selecting answers on paper.” Another cited “less stress on the eyes.” Then there was our personal favorite, “I am old fashioned.”

Of the twenty percent who preferred that the LSAT become an online test, their reasons included saving time and a quicker turnaround for scores. One respondent wrote, “clicking is faster than filling in a bubble.” Another cited “convenience,” while another wrote, “faster score reporting.” Our favorite answer? The fatalistic, “everything is geared towards online use. It is only a matter of time.” So true, young one, so true.

We also asked our students which section, of Logic Games, Logical Reasoning, and Reading Comprehension, would be the most difficult to translate to an online format. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the breakdown followed the sections of the test that require the most writing:

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 69% Logic games
 25% Reading Comprehension
 7% Logical Reasoning

So, law school hopefuls, if indeed the LSAT, one of the last bastions of pen and paper testing, is headed the way of the dinosaurs, the Aztecs, and Lance Armstrong’s reputation, then it appears that:

1. it’s not a universally welcome change and
2. the worst casualty would be Logic Games

So for the roughly 80% of you (assuming a representative sample) who are happy with your pencil and paper, congratulations on choosing a career path with an entrance exam stuck somewhere between the invention of papyrus and the Middle Ages. For the other 20%, you can always take time off before law school and wait for LSAC to come into the 21st century.

Article by Jodi Teti of Blueprint LSAT Preparation. 

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