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refuting answers to LSAC

Posted: Tue Dec 10, 2013 8:07 am
by lawschoolplease1
has anyone done this?
there is a particular question that I just cannot get over in the LR section.

Re: refuting answers to LSAC

Posted: Tue Dec 10, 2013 9:33 am
by crazyvix
which one?

Re: refuting answers to LSAC

Posted: Tue Dec 10, 2013 12:04 pm
by lawschoolplease1
am i allowed to say what it was about without breaking the rules?


edit-
when we buy PTs, there are sometimes ones that have been removed for grading.. how do those appear? aren't they the result of people refuting?

Re: refuting answers to LSAC

Posted: Tue Dec 10, 2013 12:24 pm
by tomwatts
lawschoolplease1 wrote: when we buy PTs, there are sometimes ones that have been removed for grading.. how do those appear? aren't they the result of people refuting?
Yes, every test dozens of people complain about virtually every question, and every now and again, one of them actually succeeds. But sometimes LSAC withdraws the question of its own accord, simply because it seems the patterns of answers, checks the question again, and decides it wasn't right somehow. I don't know what the ratio of successfully challenged to withdrawn sua sponte questions is, but my guess is that your odds of winning a challenge are quite low.

Re: refuting answers to LSAC

Posted: Tue Dec 10, 2013 12:34 pm
by midwest17
Probably, you're wrong.

But if you insist: http://www.lsac.org/docs/default-source ... es-web.pdf

Re: refuting answers to LSAC

Posted: Tue Dec 10, 2013 1:05 pm
by lawschoolplease1
yea, probably i'm wrong. but why not try? :lol:

Re: refuting answers to LSAC

Posted: Tue Dec 10, 2013 7:19 pm
by Wrong Marx
lawschoolplease1 wrote:yea, probably i'm wrong. but why not try? :lol:
Is it even to your advantage to seek having the item removed from scoring? If it is removed, then I assume that it would be because a significantly higher than expected number of test takers answered it incorrectly -- that is, LSAC probably would look at whether the question performed based on their expectations in order to validate your claim. If there was an issue with that question, then the item is removed from everyone's score, so you probably end up being equated to the same scaled score that you would have had sans the effort it takes to argue your case. It seems like a high-cost (effort) low-reward (no change in scaled score) proposition.

Re: refuting answers to LSAC

Posted: Tue Dec 10, 2013 7:48 pm
by Jeffort
The question has to be flawed/defective or unfair in some way to be removed from scoring, like having two answer choices or zero answer choices that logically satisfy the question stem based on what is in the stimulus. A question being harder/easier than expected with a different amount of people than expected getting it correct/incorrect doesn't necessarily mean the question is defective/unfair in a way that would justify removal from scoring.

If you can prove that a question is actually logically defective in some way, you could succeed in getting it removed, but usually contested questions are fine and the problem is with the test taker just not seeing/understanding the logic behind it correctly. People occasionally try to argue against certain questions here on the forum claiming one is flawed, but the issue usually turns out to be user error, not a problem with the question. There is a nice big recent thread with a guy unsuccessfully trying to argue that a question from PT70 is flawed, but it isn't, and there are many other similar threads from the past for other questions.

If you do find an actually flawed question that somehow made it through quality control, it will be a rare find and one to be proud of! but don't count on that being the case, LSAC quality control is pretty good. Very few defective questions have made it onto a test and been removed after being administered in the last 22 years, somewhere around ten-fifteen max or less out of over 7500 questions if memory serves.

Re: refuting answers to LSAC

Posted: Tue Dec 10, 2013 8:50 pm
by midwest17
Jeffort wrote:The question has to be flawed/defective or unfair in some way to be removed from scoring, like having two answer choices or zero answer choices that logically satisfy the question stem based on what is in the stimulus. A question being harder/easier than expected with a different amount of people than expected getting it correct/incorrect doesn't necessarily mean the question is defective/unfair in a way that would justify removal from scoring.

If you can prove that a question is actually logically defective in some way, you could succeed in getting it removed, but usually contested questions are fine and the problem is with the test taker just not seeing/understanding the logic behind it correctly. People occasionally try to argue against certain questions here on the forum claiming one is flawed, but the issue usually turns out to be user error, not a problem with the question. There is a nice big recent thread with a guy unsuccessfully trying to argue that a question from PT70 is flawed, but it isn't, and there are many other similar threads from the past for other questions.

If you do find an actually flawed question that somehow made it through quality control, it will be a rare find and one to be proud of! but don't count on that being the case, LSAC quality control is pretty good. Very few defective questions have made it onto a test and been removed after being administered in the last 22 years, somewhere around ten-fifteen max or less out of over 7500 questions if memory serves.
Link to thread?

Re: refuting answers to LSAC

Posted: Tue Dec 10, 2013 9:03 pm
by Jeffort
http://www.top-law-schools.com/forums/v ... 6&t=220773

I even provided a nice info-graphic at the end to illustrate the logic behind the CR. :)