LSAT India Starts 10 May, 2021
Created by the Law School Admission Council, USA (LSAC), the LSAT—India is a standardised test that has been adopted as an admission criterion by a large number of leading law colleges for their undergraduate and postgraduate programmes across India.
The LSAT—India is a test to measure law aspirants’ reading, critical thinking, and deductive reasoning skills, which are essential for one to succeed in law school and in the practice of the law.
To enable law school aspirants to take the entrance test from the safety and convenience of their own homes, LSAC will administer the LSAT—India using a secure online test application with AI-assisted remote proctoring.
Testing will occur during the week starting 10 May 2021.
To register for the LSAT—India 2021, students should visit the official website www.discoverlaw.in
Students can avail of a special early bird price of INR 3,499 if they register prior to 15 January 2021.
For those students who register after 15 January 2021, the standard test price will be INR 3,799.
The LSAT—India assesses law school aspirants’ critical thinking skills through three types of multiple-choice questions. In the Analytical Reasoning section, the test taker must deduce what could or must be the case about a certain scenario, based on specified rules and conditions.
There are two sections of Logical Reasoning questions, which evaluate one’s ability to understand, analyse, criticise, and complete a variety of arguments contained in short passages. The Reading Comprehension section measures one’s ability to read, with understanding and insight, examples of complex materials similar to those commonly encountered in law college.
Test scores are given on a scale between 420 and 480, along with a score band and a percentile rank. Credit is given for correct answers and there is no negative marking or penalty for incorrect answers. Hence students should save some time at the end of each section to fill in the answers to questions they may have skipped.
LSAC Global Alliance
Earlier this year, LSAC announced the LSAC Global Law Alliance, an alliance with premier Indian law schools to advance the cause of justice by promoting quality, access, and equity in Indian legal education.
The alliance with noted law schools such as O.P. Jindal Global University, Jagran Lakecity University, Vijaybhoomi University, IFIM Law School, NMIMS, MIT-World Peace University, UPES, Adamas University, Hindustan University, VIT Chennai, Manav Rachna University, Bennett University and Alliance University, provides a framework and various opportunities to cooperate and collaborate amongst themselves and with LSAC’s global network of law schools.
Additionally, the Alliance members have access to networking opportunities with other members and with international law schools, fostering global collaborations and the recruitment of applicants.
Scholarships by LSAC
After the 2020 LSAT—India concluded, LSAC announced the winners of two prestigious scholarships it provides to law aspirants: The Topper Scholarship, which is awarded annually to the test taker who receives the highest score on the LSAT—India, and the Shamnad Basheer Access to Justice Scholarship for the winning entry in an essay competition.
Both scholarships are worth ₹4 lakhs to cover the tuition and boarding/hostel fees for the first year of a law programme at any LSAC Global Law Alliance college.
The awardees of the Toppers Scholarship were Shivansh Sinha from Bangalore and Shailja Beria from Kolkata, both of whom were toppers this year with 99.96 percentile.
The winner of the Shamnad Basheer Access to Justice essay competition scholarship was Kiara Dsouza, whose comprehensive, well-researched essay impressed the judges, amongst the 175 entries. Adithya S Nair and Akshata Modi were the runners-up of the essay competition.
The Shamnad Basheer Access to Justice Scholarship was instituted for the first time by LSAC Global for the 2020 academic year to honour the memory of the extraordinary visionary and influential lawyer Professor Dr. Shamnad Basheer.
Professor Basheer initiated ground-breaking efforts to increase the diversity in the legal profession by establishing IDIA (Increasing Diversity by Increasing Access to Legal Education), a non-profit organisation that empowers under-represented and marginalised groups in India by providing them access to quality legal education.
LSAC is committed to administering high quality, candidate-friendly assessments to help strengthen the legal education and legal talent pool in India. LSAC is slated to unveil many student-friendly and law school programmes in the coming months, in the run-up to the 2021 test.