As the August 2024 LSAT sitting marks the final run of the test’s Logic Games portion, current and incoming law students are the last generations who had to be tested on these pesky games in order to be admitted to law school. An additional Logical Reasoning section of the test will be added to replace the games in the three-part test, and the Law School Admission Council (LSAC) has stated that the change will have “virtually no impact” on the relationship between the test and success as a law student.
A brief history of the Logic Games
These games, more formally called analytical reasoning exercises, receive mixed reviews among the students who had to master them. Most of us have a similar experience with Logic Games: they were intimidating, letter-math and diagram questions that looked like learning a new language. While challenging to master, they became more palatable with each study session and were rewarding to improve in. According to the LSAC, while Logic Games were often the most challenging section to grasp, students regularly made the greatest improvements after mastering the right strategies. Therefore, for those who were able to progress in Logic Games, they reflected commitment and perseverance.
The LSAT was first imagined in 1945 by Frank Bowles, Admissions Director at Columbia Law School. Bowles thought a "law capacity test" was necessary to assess applicants objectively. Before his idea for a standardized law school entrance exam, law schools were using different ways to test literacy, analytical skills, and reading comprehension. Logic Games as we know them first debuted in the LSAT in the early 1990s, which was over 40 years after the test was administered in 1948.
Inaccessibility of LSAT Logic Games
In 2019, Angelo Binno, a legally blind LSAT candidate, argued that the Logic Games section of the test was inaccessible. The student argued that Logic Games heavily disadvantaged sight-impaired testers due to the importance of diagramming when solving problems. Following the lawsuit, the LSAC has revaluated the test and decided that Logic Games should be removed from the testing process.
Moving forward
Some LSAT tutors predict that this change will benefit those whose strengths lie in linguistics, literacy and verbal analysis. However, the test will likely become more challenging for those with STEM backgrounds as well as non-native English speakers, who will need to master the extreme specifics of English for their LSAT studies.
On a personal note, Logic Games were the first real challenge of my law school application. Opening the LSAT preparation textbook, I felt uncertain in the uncharted waters of if A, then B and if A then D and C but not A and D and Z and so on. Upon entering law school, my classmates and I bonded over memories of studying Logic Games as a kind of collective experience to roll our eyes about.
Greater accessibility in standardized testing and law school admissions is always welcomed as we strive for more inclusive legal institutions. With that, we say farewell to logic games.
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