I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but Halloween has been canceled. Yes, Thanksgiving as well. Christmas is pending, I’ll keep you updated.
This has nothing to do with the Grinch. The culprit behind this unfortunate chain of events is the Law School Admission Test.
Tens of thousands of law school hopefuls received their much-awaited scores this week only to realize they weren’t going to their dream school.
I, being one of them, had to come to grips with the fact that Harvard would forever be out of reach.
But is it fair that a three-and-a-half-hour exam is weighted so heavily by admissions officers?
I’ve taken dozens of tests and exams in my time at UCLA and written dozens of essays ““ yet my GPA pales, in the level of importance to law schools, compared to the LSAT.
Knowing this, when you get your score and aren’t happy with your results, you have two choices: You can either suck it up, apply to some schools and go wherever you’re accepted; or you can spend some more money, take another prep course, study even harder for a few months and give the LSAT yet another try.
In the spirit of the “Occupy” protests I am adding a third option: Rebellion against standardized testing.
Studies have shown that standardized tests are notoriously poor predictors of one’s performance while in school or after.
What they are quite accurate at predicting is the income level of the applicant’s parents.
That is because those with money can afford better prep courses, private tutoring and, as a result, most of the time receive better scores.
The American Bar Association (ABA), which provides law school accreditation, recently considered making the LSAT optional.
An op-ed in the New York Times on Monday began to question the necessity of the Bar Exam and law school. We are so close to victory, comrades!
But, alas, we are so far. The LSAT has been around forever and the incentive to keep it is too strong.
It is a significant factor in U.S. News and World Report law school rankings which is critical to a law school’s prestige.
Since rankings are so important and the LSAT provides an easy way to plug in variables, they are retained for the convenience of the schools.
Well, the protest was fun while it lasted but let’s be real ““ we’re choosing one of the first two options.