A recent change in the way the American Bar Association (ABA) asks for the LSAT scores of law school applicants may change law school admissions procedures across the nation and provide a benefit to law school applicants.

Prior to the summer of 2006, the ABA asked law schools to report applicants' average LSAT scores. However, since June they have changed the policy and now ask for the highest score, but law schools can still decide how they prefer to handle admissions.

"The decision doesn't have any direct affect on admissions — law schools are free to look at LSAT scores in whatever way they choose," said Steven Marietti, Kaplan Test Prep and Admissions' director of pre-law programs.

The reason the ABA asks for LSAT scores is because the association accredits U.S. law schools and needs to collect data on admissions, according to the Kaplan Web site.

Officials at Kaplan expected that the policy change would, however, have some impact on law school admissions, and that they would move to using the highest score rather than the average, said Marietti.

To test this hypothesis in the fall of 2006, Kaplan surveyed 170 law schools across the nation. They found that before June 2006, 87 percent of schools used averaged LSAT scores, while after June 2006, 74 percent of schools had already changed to using the highest score, or were planning to do so in the future, Marietti said.

The question is if this change will actually benefit law school applicants.

"For those students applying to law school [who are] taking the LSAT more than once, there is a lesser risk than before," Marietti said.

As to whether the policy will affect admissions at the UW School of Law, Dean W.H. "Joe" Knight, Jr. is doubtful it will.

"I'm not certain that you are going to see that much difference, if schools decided to stop averaging," Knight said.

He explained most schools usually take the average if two scores are close together, and if there is a large difference between the two scores — although this is rare — the higher score is used for admissions purposes.

"Ideally, students should only take [the LSAT] once," Marietti said, citing the time and effort that goes in to preparing for the test, and the hefty $118 test registration fee.

"If you think you could improve with the proper preparation, then go for it," he said.

However, applicants should keep in mind that the Law School Admissions Council (LSAC) stipulates that the LSAT may only be taken three times in any two year period, according to the LSAC Web site.

"Law school admissions should consider you as the best candidate you can be — not the averages of your achievements," said Pamela Saunders, a music and English major considering applying to law school.

"Some students argue that the averaging brings their score down, but if it's a four or five point difference, it doesn't really change your score that much, and if it's not close to what our medians are, it doesn't really matter," said Knight.

Reach reporter Sonia McBride at news@thedaily.washington.edu.