LSAT Podcast Episode 10: March 2019 LSAT Review and Scale Prediction

The 10th episode focuses on the four March LSAT administrations students just experienced—North American, two International, and a Sabbath-observer—detailing the scored topics section by section, the original appearance of any reused tests, student reactions, and overall impressions of difficulty, including curve predictions. There's also a discussion of the keep-or-cancel decision and advice on what to do if you're unsure about your next steps!

0:00 to 3:52:

The PodCast’s 10th episode begins on a celebratory note, as students around the world (minus a handful of delayed accommodated testers) are now finished with their March LSATs! Dave and Jon are feeling similarly festive and raising a glass of Schramsberg sparkling wine (not champagne, as Jon quickly learns) to toast all of those who’ve made it this far. They’re also listening to what they feel is a perfect tune for the occasion: Pharrell Williams’ Happy.

3:53 to 10:27:

There’s another, less obvious cause for some smiles, in the form of a comical April Fool’s Day post from Dave about Yale Law now accepting the GRE for admission. And while that post is a joke, the GRE most certainly is not, so the conversation turns to the LSAT vs GRE debate and how schools are treating both tests, which of the two seems more appropriate to use (and why), and what the future likely holds for both as schools seek to increase applicant volume.

10:28 to 15:01:

A brief rundown of a very quiet week in the LSAT World follows, including a mention of a new Law:Fully blog post on Leadership (Embracing Leadership Development in Legal Education), a look at this year’s LSAC Forums (go here to register), and a reminder to get signed up for the June 3rd LSAT by April 24th if you haven’t done so already!

15:02 to 26:57:

There were four major LSAT administrations that occurred between Saturday, March 30th and Monday, April 1st, so Jon and Dave give the highlights of each. They talk about which of those tests were new and which were repeats of old exams (and exactly which exams got reused), and how reappearances can affect both content and scoring scales.

26:58 to 49:37:

The largest of the four LSATs—and the one on most people’s minds—was the North American test on Saturday, 3/30, so that’s where the majority of the episode’s time is spent! Despite being a new test (something of a surprise), it was clear where the LR and RC sections had originally appeared as experimentals, as well as precisely what content comprised the scored sections on the official March exam, so Dave and Jon move through the test section by section, noting what topics counted and how people felt about them.

After sifting through massive amounts of student feedback posted publicly across several sites, Jon and Dave were also able to formulate what they feel is a very accurate assessment of the overall test difficulty and the curve that will likely produce!

49:38 to 53:48:

As anyone listening to this is no doubt wondering, scores for the March LSATs come out on Friday, April 19th. Dave and Jon explain exactly what to expect on score release day.

53:49 to 1:09:41:

Another common post-test concern is whether to keep or cancel your score, so the guys spend the remainder of the episode discussing how schools view cancellations versus score drops (or low scores in general), why it’s almost always worthwhile to keep your results, and the specific, outlier scenarios where a cancellation might make sense. They also discuss the process of hand scoring and how/when you should request it.

1:09:42 to 1:10:33:

Outro. Be sure to subscribe, leave us a rating, and send us any questions or topics you’d like us to cover in a future episode: lsatpodcast@powerscore.com. We appreciate you listening!