The LSAT-India exam has been postponed from 14 June to 19 July, due to an apparent clashing with students’ preparations for the CBSE board exams, which are scheduled between 1 to 15 July, continuing the long-running Covid-19-triggered experiment of being the first to hold a law university entrance test where the stakes are high and the risks are many.

Yusuf Abdul-Kareem, the US-based vice president of LSAC, which administers the Indian LSAT, commented in a press release: “By moving the testing period to the week of 19 July, we are accommodating the needs of students who need to sit for their CBSE board exams, and we can also help students be better prepared for the new LSAT—India online format.”

We have reached out for further comment to Abdul-Kareem about the number of applications and whether the board exams were the only reason for postponing the test.

Update 18:12: Abdul-Kareem commented: “Our commitment to deliver the test with the right balance of convenience, security, and reliability is always our top priority. The decision to move extend the test date was taken with our priorities in mind.

He added that the LSAT had seen more than 11,790 applications so far. That figure has broken LSAC’s informal target of 10,000 back from March 2020.

LSAT noted in its statement that it would be releasing more information about the online format, and noted:

The LSAT—India will be delivered in 3 time slots over 4 days starting 19 July. Candidates will be assigned a time slot. Test takers who have technical problems will have the opportunity to retest 2-3 days after the closing of the main testing window.

The LSAT had in early May been postponed to 14 June, while announcing a conversion to a purely online mode.

As we had reported earlier in the week, the Common Law Admission Test (CLAT), tentatively scheduled for some time in July, was keenly watching what is happening over in LSAT land, though the CLAT convenors were currently not in favour of following the LSAT to hold the exam entirely online.

LSAT’s postponement will have put the ball straight back in the CLAT committee’s court, which won’t have the advantage of seeing how LSAT’s online experiment pans out and whether it’s successful - at least not without another postponement, which is certainly within the realms of the possible at this point (especially considering its last postponement having been a rather open-ended one).

“We may get a bit late in admitting the students and starting the semester but we want to do justice with every student who has applied for CLAT 2020,” CLAT 2020 convenor Prof Balraj Chauhan had said.

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