After cheating scandal, LSAT moves to in-center testing this summer
The Law School Admission Test will move toward in-center testing in the United States and internationally starting in August.
Following cheating services scandals in the remotely administered test in mainland China last year, the switch “will help to ensure the long-term security and integrity of the test,” Susan L. Krinsky, the executive vice president and chief of staff of the Law School Admission Council, announced in a blog post Feb. 11. “Moving toward in-center testing will provide another important deterrent to anyone who tries to undermine the integrity of the test.”
“We knew LSAC had to do something big, and they have,” Mike Spivey, the founder and CEO of Spivey Consulting, told the ABA Journal. “It is great news for students, unless you’re in the small number of cheating test-takers. It will be interesting to see how many people score at the top LSAT bands in the future.”
Last year, online testing in mainland China was suspended in an attempt to shut down cheating services. The LSAC does not offer in-person testing in China, and the October 2025 test was the last test conducted on the mainland until further notice.
The LSAT moved online in September 2019 for North American test-takers and in 2020 for international candidates.
“Remote testing with real-time proctoring was a vital service for both test-takers and schools during the pandemic, and we understand that some test-takers may prefer remote testing for convenience, comfort or other reasons,” Krinsky wrote.
Candidates with medical conditions making in-center testing impossible will be offered an appropriate secure remote testing option, she added.
For students who have been preparing to take the LSAT at home, “it’s important to adjust preparation strategies as the exam switches to in-person testing,” says Glen Stohr, the lead instructional designer for Kaplan’s LSAT programs. “Becoming familiar with a testing-center environment, such as working through full-length practice exams in quieter, more structured settings, can help reduce test-day surprises.”
Additionally, the LSAT user interface will change, with a new delivery platform added in LawHub, according to Krinsky’s blog post. An interactive model of the user interface is expected to be available by late March, and practice tests in the new interface by May, she wrote.
The new interface “likely has an underlying technology platform to add an additional eye to detect cheating,” Spivey adds.
Last month, some LSAT test-takers found an unannounced format change in the test, according to Law.com. In a move to combat cheating, some tests had no comparative passages in the reading comprehension portion of the test, a type of question used for nearly 20 years, according to the story.
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