Top Law Schools

Are they curved differently? Are they even the same test? So if someone takes the LSAT in Australia, do they get the same questions as people in the USA? I'd imagine, because of time differences, that they have to administer different tests and thus you aren't 'ranked' (I know that's not really how the curve works, but you get me) against students in the US.

Can anyone let me know one way or the other? I've had a look around the internet and I've not really found much at all verifying it one way or the other

Thanks

I can only say that the tests in China, Japan, and Korea seem to be similar to one another and less difficult than those in US.

But it's still similar to the US test, right? So if I downloaded prep material for the LSAT online (from US websites) and used it to prepare, it would be applicable? Or is it a whole new test?

It's a different test form but scaled the same way. So a person taking an international test talking to someone taking a domestic test would be like someone taking the October test talking to someone taking the December test: it's another LSAT, scaled the same way, created the same way, tested the same way, scored the same way, but just with different questions.

LSAC has a bank of a LOT of extra tests just waiting in the wings for use in such circumstances. Sometimes they have to use a bunch of them at once; see Snowpalooza in February this year. I think there were five separate February LSATs (one in March) that all had different test forms.

It's likely that an international test one year will (many years later) became a domestic test and get released as a PT. People who are paying REALLY close attention can probably cite instances of this actually happening.

Thanks for that, exactly what I needed to know (was worried no-one would have a clue what I was on about)

It the same Test for all of North America and the Caribbean

serdog wrote:It the same Test for all of North America and the Caribbean

yes, but my question was about tests OUTSIDE of north america.

i took the October test in Korea. Turns out that some of the sections were almost exactly the same from a past PT. See http://www.top-law-schools.com/forums/v ... 0&start=75

I doubt that the curve was generous though (score was much lower than I expected -- but thats just me saying)

sojuteacher wrote:i took the October test in Korea. Turns out that some of the sections were almost exactly the same from a past PT. See http://www.top-law-schools.com/forums/v ... 0&start=75

I doubt that the curve was generous though (score was much lower than I expected -- but thats just me saying)

almost the same??? Shit!

lifeaway1985 wrote:

sojuteacher wrote:i took the October test in Korea. Turns out that some of the sections were almost exactly the same from a past PT. See http://www.top-law-schools.com/forums/v ... 0&start=75

I doubt that the curve was generous though (score was much lower than I expected -- but thats just me saying)

almost the same??? Shit!

I believe it was from an undisclosed test a few years ago. So unless you happened to have taken that test way back then, nobody had access to the questions. It's not as if some publicly-available PT was distributed as a rehashed LSAT.

butter33 wrote:

serdog wrote:It the same Test for all of North America and the Caribbean

yes, but my question was about tests OUTSIDE of north america.

I took it in Argentina and it was the same test all of the people on the main threads are talking about. Stairs/ladders, stars, aliens on LR, stained glass, conferences on LG, RC passages about lichens, 1850 lit, dental caries and something else.

Not sure if that helps, just gives another outside of North America test taker that actually had the same North American test. Different experience than the test takers in Asia.

butter33 wrote:

serdog wrote:It the same Test for all of North America and the Caribbean

yes, but my question was about tests OUTSIDE of north america.

Your question indicated US

Benjamin J wrote:

butter33 wrote:

serdog wrote:It the same Test for all of North America and the Caribbean

yes, but my question was about tests OUTSIDE of north america.

I took it in Argentina and it was the same test all of the people on the main threads are talking about. Stairs/ladders, stars, aliens on LR, stained glass, conferences on LG, RC passages about lichens, 1850 lit, dental caries and something else.

Not sure if that helps, just gives another outside of North America test taker that actually had the same North American test. Different experience than the test takers in Asia.

I assume that's a time zone thing. Everywhere in South America is within an hour or two of somewhere in North America. Australia and East Asia are not.

And it's not at all surprising that unreleased tests get recycled. Other testing companies (*cough* the makers of the SAT *cough*) release fewer tests so that they can do this much, much more often.

serdog wrote:

butter33 wrote:

serdog wrote:It the same Test for all of North America and the Caribbean

yes, but my question was about tests OUTSIDE of north america.

Your question indicated US

You can't be serious

Glad I finally found this thread and figured out why my lsat was different from the one everyone else seems to have taken. My test center was in Munich and I fear I may have screwed up royally, I really hope the curve is going to be lenient...

+1 on everything tomwatts said, except I prefer the term "snowpocalypse" to "snowpalooza"

Anecdotal evidence suggests LSAC reuses North American February exams for:

-international administrations (those outside North America)

-Sabbath-observer administrations (which are usually the following Monday)

-cases like this past February, when the LSAT was postponed in several parts of the Northeast US due to snow. They wouldn't simply give the same LSAT that had been given on the originally-scheduled day (they're not idiots and want to preserve the integrity of the exam), so they used various unreleased exams they'd saved up for the various makeup dates.

Of course, LSAC won't confirm this. I emailed them on the off chance they would, but no such luck

I took the test in China three years ago (Dec 07) and was surprised to find it was the exact same test that everyone in the USA got. I know that usually it is a different test though. LSAT still counted it as non-disclosed, so I didn't get a copy. I know it's anonymous, anecdotal evidence, but, well, I'm not lying.

do results come at the same day as the US?

rivermaker wrote:do results come at the same day as the US?

Here's hoping...I took it China and can't wait much longer!!