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Center for Educational Measurement, Inc.

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The behavioral and content specifications for the Law School Qualifying Test, or LSQT, Was conceptualized as composed of reasoning skills necessary in the study and practice of law. The rationale behind the concept is that those who should be admitted to the law course must be conversant With more than one aspect of reasoning ability, e.g.
verbal, abstract.

The LSQT consists of four subtests and these are described as follows:

A.

VERBAL REASONING

rneosures tne obility to recognize relotionsnips between words ond tne obility to comprehend ondrnokeconclusionsbosedonwritten rnoteriols. It consists of two itern types, nornely:

I_

Verbal Amzlogies

This test measures the ability to recognize relationships among English Words. Each item in the test consists of a pair of Words that expresses a certain relationship. The task of the examinee is to choose the pair that expresses the same relationship.

2_ Reading Cgmpyehengjgn

This testmeasuresthe ability to comprehend Written

materials and his ability to draw conclusions based on the content of the selection. The selections deal with various contentor subject areas and are chosen from Works
Written for the layman; that is, they are not technical,

easily appeal to and understood by the average college graduate.

B' CRITICAL THINKING

measures Two irnoorTohT si<i||s - oornorehehsioh ohd reosohihg ooiiiiy. IT oohsisTs of Three Types of quesTiohs which differ ih The forrnoT of Their iTern sTerns ohd ih difficulty. |Ts suoTesTs ore:

I. Conclusions

Items have the simplest format. The item stem consists of one or two straightforward statement(s) provided with four suggested conclusions from which the correct answer is to be chosen.

2. Logical Reasoning

Items have more complex stems. An item consists of a brief conversation or a short passage, followed by a question that asks for the analysis and evaluation of the reasoning in the conversation or passage. Each item is provided with four alternative answers.

3. Analytical Reasoning

Items have the most complex format. A set of information is introduced, usually in two or more sentences or paragraphs numbered in Roman numerals. This information set defines conditions, relationships, and specifics in a certain situation on which questions that require the abilities to understand, analyze, and infer are posed.

C. QUANTITATIVE ABILITY

measures The ooiiiiy To oorry ouT o|QoriThrns ohd solve problems ooouroTe|y. |Terns ih This TesToohsisTsofverboiohdhohverboi ooeroTiohs ih The foiiovvihg oreos:

I. Arithmetic and Algebra

Itemsmeasureskillsincarryingoutalgorithms, transforming problem elements from one mode to another, solvingroutine problems,makingcomparisonsand analyzing data.

2.

Geometry

Items measure knowledge and understanding of geometrical concepts and relationships, skills in making comparisons, and ability in solving routine problems.

Center tor Educational Measurement, Inc.

rneosures tne obiiiiv to recognize reiotionsnips D FIGURAL REASONING among figures ond discover tne principle benina o given series of figures.It consists of items involving tne foiiovving:

1- Figwe S5795

This test measures the ability to perceive similarities of figures in a series or row and differences between the two series or rows. The task of the examinee is to select from the given choices the figure which is similar to the other two figures in the second row. This test measures the ability to discover the principle involved which makes four of the five figures similar to each other.The task of the examinee is to select the figure that is different from the other four.

2. Figure Grouping

All four subtests measure reasoning factors representing in essence what the whole test was conceptualized to measure - a complex or multifaceted reasoning ability. This means that the results on the test can be sufficiently represented by a single score. The LSQT yields five scores, one for each subtest, Verbal Reasoning (VR), Critical Thinking (CT), Quantitative Ability (QA), and Figural Reasoning (FR), and a total score the Law Aptitude Score (LAS). VR, CT, QA, and FR have a common standard score scale which makes possible the comparison of an eXaminees performance across the four subtests, as well as comparison with the performance ofother examinees.
LAS, the composite score, is based on the summation of the four subtest scores and

is taken as a general measure of performance on the whole test.

It has its own standard

score scale with a range of 200 to 800, a mean of 500, and a standard deviation of 100. The

scale has a percentile rank complement with a scale range of1-to99+and a midpercentile rank of 50 coincident with the mean of 500. These scores make possible the comparison of an eXaminees performance to that of the norm group or with other examinees. For example, a LAS standard score of 584 with an equivalent percentile rank of 80 indicates a performance that is comparable to that of the upper 20 percent of the norm group or a performance that is higher than that ofthe lower 80 percent of the norm group.

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Center tor Educational Measurement, Inc.

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