Law Students

Number of LSAT test-takers drops 8 percent in continuing downward trend

  •  
  •  
  •  
  • Print

The number of people taking the Law School Admission Test dropped 8.1 percent for the test this fall, compared to the fall test last year, after declining 9.2 percent for the June test.

Those latest figures from the Law School Admission Council indicate a downward trend over the last five years, report TaxProf Blog and the Excess of Democracy Blog. The total number of LSATs administered in June and September/October is 52,745, a drop of 40 percent from the totals for the same test period in 2009.

In a prior post at Excess of Democracy, Pepperdine law professor Derek Muller notes that many more people take the LSAT than apply to law school, and many are repeat test takers because of a change in the rules that report the highest LSAT score instead of the average. Recently, about half of LSAT test takers actually apply to law school.

For legal education, Muller writes, “the worst still may be yet to come.”

The next LSAT will be administered in December.

Give us feedback, share a story tip or update, or report an error.