Questions regarding the LSAT and Coronavirus/COVID-19

[lathlee]

Dear powerscore and Dave,

I am writing this in Canada, corona virus relatively less rampant hit area.

I am sure you guys know , lsac announced extension of March last deadline and cancelled couple testing locations due to Coronavirus complications. What does a exogenous impact like this .... Tend to impact rest of lsat in remaing year 2020. Can you Possibiliy explain using historical references, (Particular few examples: Sars virus back in 2004ish, and MERs virus back in 2015ish), did?

do you guys foresee rest of year , appplicate deadline for lsat for remaing lsat will also be extended in future lsats? Or are there possibility of already announced test date is changed to couple days later? And accommodated testing ?

due to viruses, there were cancellations for many students decide to delay one or two lsats and many might decide to write later time, therefore cancellations made, therefore increase in the number applicants in rest of lsat increase per tests than average year for that date expected, is that a realistic expenation of the pattern? Also due to that, in order to better seperate more number of test takers lsat related skills, does lsat tends to feature a particularly difficult lg or rc game(s) or passage (s) to distinguish solid skill test takers from weaker ones in remaining year lsat?

testing being cancelled, and many decide to write lsat later time, in that particular year, law school admission committee generally more tolerant for late score comer or applicant than non-virus rampant year ?

If these questions answers would be likely too wordy , just give your best analysis and forecast what corono virus will bring to lsat and law school application world.
Thx

[Dave Killoran]

Hi Lathlee!

Some thoughts below:

I am sure you guys know , lsac announced extension of March last deadline and cancelled couple testing locations due to Coronavirus complications. What does a exogenous impact like this .... Tend to impact rest of lsat in remaing year 2020. Can you Possibiliy explain using historical references, (Particular few examples: Sars virus back in 2004ish, and MARs virus back in 2015ish), did?

SARS and MERS had no impact on the LSAT cycles here since their influence was minimal. Thus they offer no precedent for what could happen. There really isn't a precedent out there!

do you guys foresee rest of year , appplicate deadline for lsat for remaing lsat will also be extended in future lsats? Or are there possibility of already announced test date is changed to couple days later? And accommodated testing ?

We won't know until any tests are cancelled. Even then, with the increase in LSAT administrations, I doubt serious they would add new tests; they'd just allow students to transfer to a later exam at no change (as we're seeing already).

due to viruses, there were cancellations for many students decide to delay one or two lsats and many might decide to write later time, therefore cancellations made, therefore increase in the number applicants in rest of lsat increase per tests than average year for that date expected, is that a realistic expenation of the pattern? Also due to that, in order to better seperate more number of test takers lsat related skills, does lsat tends to feature a particularly difficult lg or rc game(s) or passage (s) to distinguish solid skill test takers from weaker ones in remaining year lsat?

That initial scenario is fair, but the conclusion drawn afterwards about the LSATs used is not. The test itself is built as a separator, and it doesn't matter whether 100 or 10,000 people take a particular administration. So, an increase in registration would have no impact on the test used

testing being cancelled, and many decide to write lsat later time, in that particular year, law school admission committee generally more tolerant for late score comer or applicant than non-virus rampant year ?

Considering the position in the calendar this is happening, the impact would be the tail end of this cycle, not the next cycle. So yes, I would expect that law schools—who were expecting March results to make some decisions this cycle—would change policies if that test is cancelled, and be more accommodating and use later test results.

The key thing here is that while I can predict what happens if certain things occur, like a test cancellation, it's all speculative until actual steps are taken, and then it depends on the length of time this issue remains a problem. One missed test administration is a minor problem; add more to that and the problem grows :/

[lathlee]

Dave, I am sorry to be pain in the butt...but what if a delayed or cancelled testing occasions end up to be 2 or 3 occasions ...then is that still a minor problem in eyes of lsac and law school admission ? which is possible given April lsat is not that far away (as I write this post) and it seems like Korea and China lsats centers would be likely affected in April lsat in addition that those two nations have pretty big lsat taker populations.

What do you expect in law school admission in Canada and US ? Ontario Canada law school ADMISSION SEEMS like somewhat to considerably going to get affected while I predict Western Canada from Ontario (tends to be more tolerant to later dates lsats taking ) seems to be more strongly affected by the aftermath.

I am sure everyone understand no one cannot perfectly forecast future, but a few words of wisdom from a wise guy are always great assurance to many.

Thx

P.s. thank you for modifying my posts title to be more appropriate access for all other students.

[Adam Tyson]

While Dave is certainly the better authority here, lathlee, I'll share my thoughts on the subject.

First, I think it is a bit dangerous to try and predict anything right now, because we neither want to add to any level of panic nor downplay the seriousness of the situation. Too much focus on "what if" scenarios is unproductive and gets more and more inaccurate the further into the future we project.

That said, I will speculate. IF the March and April tests are both cancelled, and if I put myself in the mindset of an admissions officer at a law school, I think at that point I will no longer wait for new scores before offering up all of my available seats for this Fall. I will be in possession of all the information I can reasonably hope to receive for all of my applicants and there will be no reason to hold off on making decisions about to whom I will be extending offers. I still may find myself with some open seats when June scores come out due to a few students accepting offers elsewhere, and in that case I will probably consider those scores for any students sitting on my waitlist, but for the most part I will have a fairly good idea of what my new class of rising 1Ls will look like.

Will I, as a sympathetic human being who understands what's happening in the world, think about students who may have been holding back their applications? Of course. As applications come in from students with low LSAT scores and addenda that say "I was registered for March/April but now plan to retake in June or asap as soon as they start testing again" get reviewed and possibly set aside to see what happens? Probably. But at some point I will need to do what I must to ensure that I have filled seats in the Fall, and I will have to take action on what I have rather than what I might get later.

What affect this might have on class sizes, acceptance rates, application numbers, etc., I won't speculate, but that it will have some effect seems certain. For now, just continue to prepare yourself as much as you can and build the best applications you can, hope for the best and prepare for the worst. And remember to wash your hands, minimize social contact, help your neighbors and those less fortunate and more vulnerable than yourself, and remain calm!

[lathlee]

Thank you very much adam

[Dave Killoran]

I'd say Adam nailed it there