Law School Admission Test–India(LSAT–India)

About the exam

About LSAT–India

The LSAT-India exam was the Law School Admission Council's reasoning test for Indian law schools. It began in 2009 as a paper test, went online in 2020 so candidates could sit it at home, and for more than a decade was the only admission test for Jindal Global Law School's five-year law degrees. LSAC's own India page announces no sitting after 2023, and that school now admits through LNAT-UK instead.

The Law School Admission Council (LSAC), a US-based non-profit, called LSAT-India a test "specially created for admission to law schools in India" in its LSAC news release on LSAT-India scholarships, March 2020. Its November 2018 newsletter says LSAC had offered the test since 2009, and the O.P. Jindal Global University newsroom notice on the online LSAT-India, May 2020 names Pearson VUE as the company that administered it.

The division of work in India is set out in the LSAT-India Services Agreement with Shobhit Institute of Engineering and Technology, 2021. It defines the test as owned by LSAC and administered in India through a third-party vendor LSAC appointed, while LSAG India LLP handled marketing, promotion and law forums in India.

LSAC's news archive and its Discover Law India page do not record how the test ended: neither carries an announcement that LSAT-India was closed, and the only LSAT-India item in the archive is the March 2020 scholarship release. What official pages show instead is a stop: LSAC's India notices end with the 2023 cycle, and Jindal Global Law School's B.A. LL.B. (Hons.) programme page now asks for LNAT-UK and says the school "does not accept any other law school admissions test".

At a glance

LSAT–India highlights

Calendar

Important dates

The last LSAT-India cycle on LSAC's Discover Law India page is 2023, announced as two sittings, one in January and one in June, with no days given. The earlier official notices that do give exact days, set out below, show them changing after they were first announced.

For 2020, the LSAC scholarship release of 24 March named 17 May 2020 as the test date. JGU's 2020 LL.M. admissions page gives the examination date as "now" 7 June 2020. The Report from LSAC, July 2020 says the in-person exam "had originally been scheduled for June 7" and was finally delivered online from July 19 to 29. That report does not mention 17 May, and the March release does not mention 7 June.

JGU's March 2021 notice on the two LSAT-India sittings said LSAT-India would run twice in a year for the first time in 2021, on 25 March 2021 and 14 June 2021, with applications for the March sitting closing on 14 March. JGU's April 2021 notice on the advanced June test quotes LSAC moving the June sitting forward after the CBSE Class XII exams were postponed, and gives the new window as 29 May to 2 June 2021, with applications closing on 14 May.

Who can apply

Eligibility criteria

LSAC's March 2020 release describes who used the test rather than who could take it: an entrance test for undergraduate and postgraduate law programmes, accepted by law colleges as one of their admission criteria. The entry conditions that survive in official documents are the schools' own.

At Jindal Global Law School (JGLS), the February 2021 admissions notice listed its programmes by the stage at which a student could join:

• B.A. LL.B. (Hons.), B.B.A. LL.B. (Hons.) and B.A. (Hons.) in Legal Studies, after Class XII.
• The three-year LL.B., for undergraduates.
• The LL.M., in different specialisations.

For the LL.M., the school's 2020 LL.M. admissions page asked for a bachelor's degree in law from a university in India or abroad, recognised under the law and by the regulatory authorities.

Step by step

Application process and fee

For JGLS's LL.M., registering for LSAT-India and applying to the school were separate steps with separate deadlines. For 2020, the JGLS LL.M. admissions page gave 22 May 2020 as the LSAT-India application deadline and 15 June 2020 as the deadline for the school's own form.

JGU's 2019 LL.M. eligibility and fees page gave the LSAT-India registration fee as Rs 3,800, payable online or by demand draft, and sent candidates to Pearson VUE's India registration page. The 2020 LL.M. application process page repeated the Rs 3,800 fee and both payment methods but pointed candidates to the Discover Law website instead.

That 2020 route matches the LSAC scholarship release, which directed applicants to the Discover Law website to register for the 17 May 2020 test.

Before the exam

Admit card and exam day

From 2020 the exam day happened at home. JGU's May 2020 notice explains that once registration closed, candidates received the date and slot of their test, with log-in details and instructions sent closer to that slot.

The same notice describes a virtual self-check-in with identification and authentication, after which candidates were monitored live through their webcam with the help of AI tools. JGU's Founding Vice Chancellor added that each candidate's entire examination was recorded for review so that the exam could be terminated if misconduct was detected.

For 2021, the JGU page on LSAT-India test centres records that every test was to be proctored remotely with AI-assisted technology and recorded through the computer's web camera, and it listed exam appointment information for the May administration from 21 May 2021. It adds that LSAC would help candidates arrange the equipment if they could not arrange it themselves.

Before 2020 the test was taken on paper: the May 2020 notice calls LSAT-India "a paper-pencil test since its inception in 2009".

Structure

Exam pattern

JGU's February 2021 notice gives the structure: four sections of 35 minutes each in Logical Reasoning, Analytical Reasoning and Reading Comprehension, in an objective-type test of 2 hours 20 minutes. It does not say which of those three areas took two sections, and neither it nor LSAC's 2020 release and report give a question count or a marking scheme.

The delivery changed in 2020. LSAC's July 2020 report calls that year's sitting the first-ever online remotely proctored LSAT-India exam.

JGLS used the scores as percentiles. The February 2021 notice says every seat in JGLS's flagship five-year programme was filled only on the basis of the LSAT-India percentile score.

What to study

Syllabus

LSAC's March 2020 release says the test "measures skills that are considered essential for success in law school". JGU's April 2021 notice describes LSAT-India as a standardised exam of analytical reasoning, logical reasoning and reading comprehension.

JGU's Director of Law Admissions, Professor Anand Prakash Mishra, set out what it left out in the May 2020 notice: the test, he said, asked no questions of general knowledge, legal knowledge or mathematics, or of anything that could be learnt by rote or through coaching.

How to prepare

Preparation and books

LSAC pointed candidates to free material. The March 2020 release told applicants they could prepare with material free to download from the Discover Law website, and the Discover Law India page promoted LSAC LawPrep, an online tool for first-time and repeat test takers to practise at their own pace.

JGU's February 2021 notice adds that past question papers could be downloaded free. Neither LSAC's 2020 release nor JGU's notices from 2020 and 2021 recommend a book or a coaching class.

Where it is held

Exam centres

The 2020 and 2021 sittings had no test centres. The July 2020 report says about 5,670 candidates took the test "in the safety of their own homes".

JGU's 2021 test-centres page says the arrangement continued for 2021, with candidates testing from home without paying anything additional or travelling to a test centre.

After the exam

Answer key

Scoring was LSAC's job: the 2021 services agreement refers to "the scoring of the Test by LSAC". Neither that agreement nor the LSAC scholarship release of March 2020 and JGU's notices on the 2020 and 2021 sittings mention an answer key being released to candidates.

Scores

Result and scorecard

The score cards for the May 2021 administration were due at the end of June 2021, according to JGU's 2021 test-centres page.

At Shobhit, scores arrived through LSAG India LLP. Under the 2021 services agreement, LSAG was to send the school the details and scores of candidates with a reportable score within 5 days of LSAC completing the scoring, but only once the school's outstanding fees were paid.

In 2020 LSAC also attached money to the test. The March 2020 LSAC release set up two scholarships of up to Rs 4 lakh each: the LSAT-India Topper Scholarship for the highest reported score, and the Shamnad Basheer Access to Justice Scholarship for the winning essay, with entries due by 8 May 2020. Both covered tuition and halls of residence fees for the first year of the law programme. At the school level, JGU's April 2021 notice says LSAT-India scores had been used to award over 200 scholarships at JGLS.

Scores you need

Cutoff

JGLS gave its LSAT-India cutoff in passing, as an example. Its February 2021 notice opening admissions for 2021-22, which presented the second 2021 sitting as a chance to improve a score, states that in 2020 the cutoff was 60 percentile, so a candidate at 59.99 percentile could not get an offer for the five-year B.A. LL.B. or B.B.A. LL.B. programmes, and it warned that the 2021 cutoff might be higher.

Getting a seat

Counselling and seat allotment

Each school ran its own admissions on LSAT-India scores. The services agreement required Shobhit's law school to tell LSAG, within 30 days of completing its admissions, how many seats it had allocated, with each candidate's name and LSAT-India registration number.

JGLS used the two 2021 sittings for early offers. Its February 2021 notice says the first set of offers would go out immediately after the March test, and the March 2021 notice says the school anticipated admitting up to 75% of its seats on that sitting, with the June test as a second opportunity.

Where it is accepted

Participating institutes

The Report from LSAC, July 2020 says LSAT-India was then accepted by 22 law schools in India, and that 12 Indian law schools were members of the LSAC Global Alliance.

For Shobhit's School of Law and Constitutional Studies, joining meant a contract with LSAG. In the 2021 agreement the school warranted that it was a degree-granting institution recognised by the Bar Council of India, and agreed initial fees of Rs 1,20,000, made up of Rs 1,00,000 for membership and candidate data and Rs 20,000 as a one-time membership fee. The school had to state on its admissions page that LSAT-India scores were accepted, and LSAG would name it on its own website as a school that accepted them.

Institutions also recorded their use of the test on their own sites. The Adamas University LSAT-India page, written for the 2021 cycle, described the university as a member of the LSAC Global Law Alliance and promised its highest-scoring enrolled 2021 applicant a scholarship equal to one year's tuition fee of Rs 1,28,200. JGU's May 2020 notice says LSAT-India had been the only admission test for JGLS's flagship 5-year programme for the last 11 years.

JGLS's route has since changed. The JGU law admissions page, which advertises admissions for 2027, says admission to its 5-Year Integrated Law Programmes and its 3-year LLB (Hons.) is through the LNAT-UK test, and that for LL.M. programmes it accepts CLAT PG. One older JGU page disagrees on the LL.M.: the residential LL.M. FAQ page, which invites applicants graduating in 2024, lists LSAT-INDIA with CLAT PG and CUET PG as accepted tests. The FAQ gives no date for any LSAT-India sitting.

Get help

Contact

The March 2020 LSAC release gave Discoverlawindia@LSAC.org as the LSAT-India contact. The Discover Law India privacy policy, last updated on 14 April 2020, names LSAG India LLP as the company that ran the Discover Law website and gives the same address for questions to its data protection officer.

Source

Official links

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Disclaimer

Disclaimer

LSAT–India is no longer conducted. This page is kept as a record of a former exam and is written in the past tense; it is not a guide to a live admission route. Expertie does not conduct any exam, process applications or charge fees.

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