Students hoping to study law now have a few more rules to memorize.
The Law School Admission Council recently announced changes to the LSAT, including restrictions on items students can bring to the tests.
These changes will take effect starting in June, the next time the test will be given.
The permitted items - ID, a wallet, keys, writing materials, tissues and food - must be carried in a large Ziploc bag.
The penalties for bringing non-permitted items to the test center range from confiscation of offending items to cancellation of test scores.
The body of the test will also be affected: One of the test's five reading passages will be replaced with two shorter ones.
Additionally, the new test will only have one type of essay question. The two-year-old "argument prompt" writing samples, in which test-takers have to articulate a specific argument, will be eliminated.
The remaining sample is based on a "decision prompt" question that requires the defense of a decision in a given scenario.
Prior to the change, students chose between the two prompts.
"They're constantly working to refine the test and make it a better determinant of a student's candidacy, so an LSAT score is actually worth what it says it's worth," said Jeffrey Meanza, national director of graduate programs at Princeton Review.
Meanza added that he has not heard of any specific incidents that prompted the security changes.
"Because they've said so explicitly that students must adhere to this and could be ejected even if they don't know, they must be pretty serious about it," he said.
But not everyone agrees with the LSAC's list of permitted items.
"I can't really see how they could rationalize forbidding" timers, said first-year law student Nicole Maltz, who spent three years tutoring students in preparation for taking the LSATs.
"I think that it's really beneficial to know how much time you're spending on each section or each question," she said.
However, Maltz said the changes to the test itself will have a positive effect.
"It just seems a lot fairer for people to have the same essay," she said.
Other test-takers say their plans for preparation will not change in response to the new types of questions.
"I'm fairly confident that preparation will enable me to perform fairly well on each new section, regardless of what it may be," said College freshman Pamela Kaplan, who plans on attending law school.
"Whatever it is, I'll study for it," said College junior Joe Gross, who also plans on eventually going to law school.
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