Last week, we got some big updates on the LSAT ticker. With the 2023-2024 LSAT year set to begin in June, LSAC let us know about some minor changes to the exam.
There’s a lot to cover, so we’re just going to rifle through the updates, bullet-point-style:
Most importantly — and despite what you may have heard — the LSAT’s format is not changing in the 2023-24 test cycle. That means Logic Games is not going away this year. LSAC promises that “[i]f and when LSAC decides to incorporate any new question types into the actual LSAT, we will provide lengthy advance notice and extensive practice questions and explanatory materials prior to any new question type being used in the scored section of the LSAT.”
However, starting with the August 2023 LSAT, you can choose whether to take the LSAT from your home in its current online, remotely proctored format or in person at a digital testing center. LSAC will use Prometric digital testing centers for these in-person exams, and Prometric will provide test-takers with computers, proctors, and a (hopefully quiet) space to take the LSAT.
If you’ve heard stories about or experienced the pre-digital, in-person LSAT, don’t expect the new test centers to look or work like the pre-2019 LSAT test centers. Unlike those pre-2019 in-person exams, 2023-24 test-takers who opt to take the test in person will not be given a paper-and-pencil version of the LSAT (unless LSAC approved that version of the exam as part of that test-taker’s testing accommodations). Also, unlike those pre-2019 in-person exams, you’ll have some flexibility in scheduling your in-person exam. For most LSATs, test-takers can choose whether to take it on a Friday or Saturday and use Prometric’s ProScheduler tool to decide when they want to begin the exam.
Whether you take the LSAT at home or at a testing center, you’ll be given the same version of the exam LSAC has used since 2021. There will be four sections: one Logical Reasoning, one Reading Comp, one Logic Games, and one unscored “experimental” section. And whether you take the exam at home or at a testing center, you’ll take the exam using LawHub’s digital interface.
However, if you take the exam at a testing center, ProctorU will not remotely proctor your exam. Prometric has its own proctors. They will observe you live, in person.
The LSAT Writing section will not be administered at Prometric test centers.
You can decide whether to take your LSAT at home or at a test center up to 30 days before your scheduled LSAT. If you pick the test center option but later change your mind, you can choose the remote option up to three days before your LSAT. If you choose the at-home option, you can only change to the test center option up to 30 days before your scheduled LSAT.
Want to learn more about the new in-person test? LSAC added some new pages to its website to give you the lowdown on in-person test centers. It also posted this video, in which people look positively stoked to be granted the opportunity to take the LSAT in person.
Test-takers who receive testing accommodations and international test-taker have lately been pushed to their own test day — usually the Tuesday following the Fridays and Saturdays reserved for most test-takers. That will no longer be the case. Accommodated and international test-takers will take the test on the same days as North American test-takers who take the digital LSAT.
The new in-person exams mark the end of loaner devices and hotel vouchers. LSAC’s website specifies that the option to borrow a tablet from LSAC or to get reimbursed for a hotel room you booked to take the test will apply to the April and June 2023 exams. So, starting in August 2023, test-takers who do not have the necessary equipment or a quiet space to take the at-home version of the LSAT will probably need to take the test at a Prometric testing center.