Derek Muller (Notre Dame), An Examination of LSAT Score Inflation:
The LSAT is a scaled, equated exam, so the scores from one administration should look similar to other administrations. A 170 should reflect the same thing whether the test is taken in 2025, 2015, or 2005. Equating allows the Law School Admission Council to ensure that scores do not fluctuate because of the quality of the pool of test-takers in any given administration. They instead reflect consistency over time.
Despite remarkable stability over many years, however, … LSAT scores are rising. One could attribute that to a unique arrival of overperforming students in the last few years, who all simultaneously have been taking the LSAT at visibly higher clips than the previous decade. But, as I’ve chronicled, there are other possible contributing explanations. To wit:
- There has been dramatic rise in time-related accommodated test-takers, which accounts for a four to five point improvement in one’s score.
- There has been an increase in repeaters, and, if scholarship money is closely tied to LSAT score, the incentives for even high-performance, assured of admission at elite schools, to retake the test increase.
- More scores than ever (around 20%) are non-reportable, canceled by test-takers, suppressing lower-performing scores from being reported.
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