The LNat, National Admissions Test for Law, is an admissions aptitude test that was adopted in 2004 by eight UK university law programs as an admissions requirement for home applicants. The test was established at the leading urgency of Oxford University as an answer to the problem facing universities trying to select from an increasingly competitive pool with similarly high A-levels. Home applicants are required to take the test, however the requirement is not compulsory for overseas applicants although centers in Singapore, Kuala Lumpur and Hong Kong administer the test. The LNAT Consortium expects the test to be part of the requisite admissions procedure for all applicants by 2006-07.
Format
The test taker is allotted two hours to complete an essay and 24 multiple choice questions aimed at measuring reading comprehension and logical reasoning skills. The reading portion contains eight sets of three questions based around a respective short reading passage. The questions typically ask for terms and arguments from the reading to be defined by inference. The essay lasts for 40 minutes and involves the candidate answering one of five available essay questions. The questions are open-ended topics typically about student related issues or other well familiar subject matter.
The reading section is scored out of 24 and the essay is individually marked by respective universities.
Partcipating Law Programs
Results
The LNat was first administered on Nov 3, 2004. The average score for the reading portion was 13.16 out of 24. A Bristol University report on the scores expressed dissatisfaction with the ability of law candidates to develop "reasoned arguments" [1]
Men and women score approximately equal to each other unlike the distribution of A grades in A-level law which women obtain at a higher percentage.
The consortium also reported statistically insignificant differences in scores between state and independent students.
Comparison to the LSAT
The LSAT, Law School Admissions Test, is a long-standing admissions aptitude test taken by American law school candidates. This American counterpart to the LNat includes similar content such as reading comprehension, logical reasoning, and essay writing sections but in additon includes a logic games section. The LSAT formed the basis for the development of the LNat and appears to have inspired the counter-intuitive reverse acronymn although the consortium's official position on the unusual arrangement of letters is simply that "it sounds better"[2].
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