Law school test preferences: Comparing the LSAT and GRE

The question that arises repeatedly in the minds of applicants is the following: Do law schools prefer LSAT or GRE scores? There is no clear answer, but rather a more complicated one, depending on which law schools you apply to.

Traditionally, the LSAT has been the only test option available. Moreover, it was designed specifically to assess performance in law school in the first year, and there are decades of proof that support its validity, which is one of the reasons why LSAT scores are accepted by all ABA-accredited law schools. This long history gives admissions committees a known benchmark to rely on.

The GRE appeared much later, after research proved that it also predicted law school success. In 2021, the American Bar Association recognized it officially as an alternative test to the LSAT, and a significant number of law schools, including the highly ranked ones, accept GRE test results. Those schools accepting both tests usually claim that they assess them equally, translating the results with the help of concordance tables.

But "accepted" does not mean "preferred" or "required by all." A significant number of law schools still require the LSAT either because they have yet to develop a method for evaluating GRE scores, or simply because the LSAT scores seem to be a better predictor among their applicants.

For a practical answer, however, the key question is not which test is more popular with admissions officers in general, nor whether LSAT or GRE scores are preferred. The question is which test is accepted at each particular school you are considering attending. The only sure way to know is to find out what the admission policies of those particular schools are.

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