PSU ranked worst LSAT test site

Having trouble getting into law school? Maybe it’s your desk. Portland State has been ranked as the worst test site in a national survey by the Kaplan company for students taking the LSAT law exam.

Since 2002, Kaplan, a nationally recognized test preparatory company, has devoted a webpage to ranking the conditions of LSAT testing sites across the country, based on feedback from students. And Portland State ranked last out of 349 schools on the Kaplan ranking system.

The rankings for each testing facility are based on four criteria: proctor quality, level of quiet and comfort, desk space, and overall site experience. Students are asked to assign rankings of 1-5 in these areas, from which Kaplan creates an overall score ranking.

“With all the rigors of trainings for the test, people forget about the conditions at the actual test site itself,” said Steve Marietti, director of pre-law programs for Kaplan.

“If it happens to be noisy or the test base is small, there is the potential to negatively impact you,” he said.

Each of the four criteria is ranked on a 1-4 scale. PSU received a 3.5 in proctor quality, while the other scores ranged from 3-1, desk size scoring a 1.35.

“What really hurt was the desks,” Marietti said. “For the amount of space you need to work in, you should definitely have a little more than a little less.”

Students who commented on Kaplan’s website had similar concerns. Nearly all of the comments concerning PSU had to do with desk size, complaining that the desks were too small to work with. One of the major complaints was about there being too much outside noise.

PSU’s test site had an overall score of 2.9, worse than any other test site in the region.

The LSAT test is offered by Law School Admissions Council (LSAC), which has its own set of criteria that each testing facility must meet, according to Diane Smith, assistant director of testing services at PSU.

“LSAT gives us guidelines. They tell me when they need me to be available and I tell campus scheduling,” Smith said. “They find me the rooms that are acceptable, and there are only a handful of rooms that meet that criteria.”

The guidelines are given in an LSAT supervisor’s manual, maintained by the LSAC.

“Work surfaces should be large enough to hold an open test book, and tablet arm chairs are acceptable,” Smith said of the guidelines. She said the desks in Cramer Hall, where the tests are generally held, meet that requirement.

One particular classroom, Room 221 in Cramer, not only received several complaints on the website about desk size, but about a lack of working clocks as well.

“Every time we use 221, we haul a large clock there,” Smith said. Complaints about room condition are reported to campus scheduling, she said.

“We don’t do the programming, we just schedule room testing services ask for us. We don’t know anything about what the criterion are,” said Mark Russell, the PSU events coordinator. “We just get requests for testing services for certain rooms and we fill those rooms.”

The number of rooms available on campus is scarce, Smith said, and because no computers can be present there’s only a handful to choose from.

“We really established the testing site as a courtesy,” Smith said. “PSU charges an outside agency and gets money for the room rentals, whatever the room’s condition.”

With several other available test sites around Portland, Smith said any attendance at PSU is because of its convenient placement.

“They use us because of the location,” she said. “I have heard that from candidates.”

More information on LSAT test-site ratings can be found at kaplansurveys.com/rater.