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ShareBangalore: For those aspiring to get admitted to reputed law schools in the country, introduction of a globally-followed standardised entrance test holds promise.
Unlike most Indian law admission tests including the Common Law Admission Test which gives a lot of importance to the general knowledge sections, the Law School Admission Test (LSAT) instead gives weightage to the applicant's logical and analytical abilities.
"There is no need to test a candidate's general knowledge in a law entrance test. Our focus is on critical thinking as it is one of the most important attributes for an aspiring lawyer or someone who is planning to take up law as a career," said James M Vaseleck, executive assistant to the president and associate general counsel at the Law School Admission Council (LSAC).
LSAC, a US-based non-profit body, conducts the LSAT for nearly 200 colleges in the US, Canada and Australia.
"The test is of two-and-half hours duration and the score is calculated on the basis of the percentile system," he added.
The paper-pencil test was conducted in 14 cities across the world. LSAC conducted it in partnership with Pearson VUE,and now intends to rope in nearly 30 local colleges across India for LSAT-India.
Globally, LSAT can be taken four times a year, but in India, it is being held once a year, keeping in tune with the admission cycle here.
Each candidate will have to pay an exam fee of Rs 3,500, LSAC and Pearson authorities stated. This introductory price would continue for some more years.
"We will conduct the test in May 2010; the dates will be fixed so that it doesn't clash with other entrance exams. LSAT-India score can be used by law schools to rank their applicants and select them through their own group discussions or personal interviews," said Divya Laul, marketingmanager, Asia Pacific, Pearson VUE.
