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Hello!
I was wondering if anyone has an experience that can shed some light on how I should move forward regarding how LSAC deals with issues that occur during testing.
Everything was running smoothly until about 8 minutes remaining in the first section. Someone who was signed up for the LSAT showed up around 9:15 am (late), claiming they were in a car accident and were told they could not write the test.
He responded poorly and consequently went on his phone right outside the testing room door screaming and directing insults and taunts at our proctor, obviously trying to intentionally sabotage/distract those writing. This went on for about 3 minutes and the proctors repeatedly told him to leave the testing area, keep his voice down, etc. Eventually he even opened the door and starting directly screaming into the room. At this point almost every test writer yelled at him to leave as well. Timer was still running at this point.
Things then escalated even further at the 5 minute warning, where he ran into the testing room and began screaming and videotaping everyone with his phone. He moved between everybody screaming loudly that he should be allowed to write and that he was being mistreated. He even grabbed a few peoples watches while they were writing and many times directly challenged various test takers, getting in their faces. This continued for about a minute, at which point the proctor paused the timer (at 3 mins 58 seconds).
Eventually security came, but he ran away only to come back into the room a few minutes later. At least at this point the timer had been paused. It then took another 10 mins or so to ensure the disruption was totally over and then another 15 mins for our proctor to call LSAC to see how to move forward. Ultimately they told him to resume where we left off (31 min mark) despite his pleas to rewind the clock to the 27 min point (or 8 mins remaining).
Aside from the obvious distraction and large loss of time, this large break also made the remaining questions difficult, especially those who had RC first. I essentially had to re-read and answer the questions for the final RC passage in 4 mins, given the distraction occurred when I was only halfway through the passage.
Would there be any benefit for me to call and complain? I am assuming they do not alter score as a result of external circumstances? I do not wish to cancel/get a refund, but would they potentially grant me free admission to the February test?
Tl;dr: Somone who was late for the LSAT ran into the classroom we were writing, screaming and videotaping people and cost us 4 mins of test writing. What should I do?
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36 comments
Greatest quote ever.
Glad I could help! The situation sounds terrible. I remember after my incident I was such a wreck for the weeks in between. It's so frustrating knowing you put in all that effort only to have something completely beyond your control happen...
Let me know if you have any more questions about the general process of filing a complaint, etc.!
At least for your situation you have multiple people to corroborate your story, and I think that is likely to get the LSAC to do something for you because a full testing center was affected.
@4728 Wow, lots of information thanks!
I honestly can't believe there was a situation in which they actually added points, that's crazy! 1 or 2 points for 25 lost minutes seems like an awful trade though.
And I agree, I thought why not just set it back to where he told LSAC the distraction started? I highly doubt any test takers would have complained. Our proctor was super by-the-book though and I am sure if LSAC had said for him to jump off a cliff he would have.
Btw, why didn't the proctor just roll it back to 27 minutes? He could have made that decision himself, lol.
I skimmed, so pardon if I am repeating things other people said...
As far as writing to the LSAT, I know you did, but for anyone else in a similar situation WRITE THEM IMMEDIATELY. There is literally no harm in writing to them for a problem, most problems will be resolved by the time they send out scores and thus will not result in a delay.
I had a very bad test experience in September (proctor did not show up until half an hour after the scheduled time and the testing center had no record of a test being held that day, construction going on in the room next door, etc...) -- not as disruptive during the exam but it did affect my entire performance. Supposedly the proctor also filed a report agreeing with me, but I have my doubts on that (she mentioned it to me today, but the reply I'd gotten from the LSAC makes me suspicious). They did the same form letter "we are looking into this, we have a hold on your file, you can wait to cancel until we reply."
About two to three weeks later-- a few days before they were set to send out scores for everyone-- I received an email basically saying that given the situation, they would allow me to cancel. If I cancelled, I would automatically be registered for the next exam for free but the test would count as one of my three times taking it and would show up as a "cancel" (and obviously I wouldn't see my score). If I got my score, I would have to sign up and pay myself if I wanted to retake. I opted for the latter, as it was counting anyways.
Having spoken with admissions officers from Columbia and NYU, I can answer that they definitely want you to write an addendum in that situation and that they will definitely take it into account. I believe NYU mentioned that if there is a 6+ point discrepancy, they will not average them together if you add an addendum, and Columbia said that they want you to write even if you felt a little sick. Columbia said that a detailed essay is not necessary, they are fine with a short "Someone came into our test room with the intent of distracting test takers in an attempt to make them fail the exam. Security was called, but we lost the eight minutes from that event."
I had seen that on one occasion, a proctor to a large group docked 5 minutes on each section and the LSAC added a point or two to everyone's score from that test center. Another post said a (different) proctor docked 3 minutes and the LSAC decided those scores were not statistically significantly worse and did not add any points. Obviously in my case, they only offered to sign me up for free. I believe that they will at least offer to sign you up for free, but don't get your hopes too high :)
So is there some kind of rule where he will be banned from ever taking the LSAT again? Like if no other consequence happens, I at least hope he's prevented from ever being able to get accepted to law school (since he tried to ruin the chance for so many other people). So sad, I am so sorry this happened to you, I honestly don't know what I would have done.
It was in Ontario, Canada.
Can I ask what country/city this was in? Just curious if it was Canada or USA (not that it matters).
Also I think someone should come up with a top 10 list of worst LSAT experiences. This would definitely be number 1, number 2 could go to that other discussion thread of the people who had to rewrite because all their tests were stolen!
2. It will be a little bit funny if I did worse today because then the letter from LSAC on my difficult situation will accompany my better score.
I would really like to know this too!
It sucks but ultimately their concern isn't "rectify" special cases, just to give "some" consideration. I don't know if the letter is helpful or not. I doubt it can hurt.
Two things randomly come up when I think about it.
1. Do I need to write a separate addendum if my scores are wildly disparate (most schools want this if they are but if LSAC already explains it should I also do so?)?
2. It will be a little bit funny if I did worse today because then the letter from LSAC on my difficult situation will accompany my better score.
@nessak130467 Sorry to hear about your experience and thank you for the input! Do you think there was any value in having the letter in your file? Do schools actually look at that?
LSAC sent me a few emails today saying they received my complaint, have put my file on hold and will review the case. Honestly it seems like LSAC will offer the same deal you got, which I think is certainly not enough given how much time, effort and money goes into preparing and writing the test!
I went through a crazy distracting experience on the LSAT in Sept. and at least for our test they did not cancel for everyone. I filed a complaint and so did a few others. LSAC gave me the option of canceling without seeing my score and taking the next one for free or just taking my score but including a letter in my file that explains the circumstances of the score. I do not recall if I had canceled whether that would have counted for one of my three tries. Ultimately curiosity got the best of me even though I was pretty sure I did not do all the way up to my best (I was right).
It sucks but know that there are others who support you from experience (sadly).
I took it again today and it was marvelously boring and uneventful.
@tanes25413 The reason I do not want to cancel is that outside the 1 RC passage that I was on when he starting yelling I do not feel my performance was negatively impacted. I feel extremely confident about the test as a whole and think even with the distraction I was still able to surpass my target score. Additionally, at the end of the day I would rather not have to write again as that would mean another 2 months of preparing, and going through the whole writing process again. Ideally my score will be my target or higher and I never have to think about the LSAT again!
@jclaridge202 We wrote on a university campus in a classroom that had been booked for the day. In fact many of the rooms in the building were being used for other uses at the same time, including one directly across the hall from ours. There was a sign on the door, and the proctors marked the area off but unfortunately there was not much that could have been done to keep him or really anyone out. It wasn't even possible to lock the door! Hopefully LSAC will take better steps to ensure their testing sites cannot be so easily compromised, either through selecting better sites, increased security or specific protocols that enable proctors to be better prepared to deal with crazy situations.
I am shocked that the person was allowed to enter the premises late. I think that should throw into question the soundness of the whole test administration. I recall even for tests such as the SAT that late arrivals were not allowed past the entrance, let alone into the halls and rooms where tests were being administered. This guy should have been locked outside in the parking lot.
@kp366.oleary17 Mercy! Sounds like what we all experiment in our dreams and wake up in a sweat! I'm just puzzled why he was allowed to carry on for so long. The proctor should've stopped the watch when he could be heard from outside yelling. Wow! I'm sorry you had to experience that. I would definitely try to get that free admission for February and I would personally try to have it removed from my record. In your situation, if you keep the score and write the addendum my only question would be why you wouldn't cancel the score after such an experience? Who knows how it'll be looked upon but my mind would be racing trying to figure it all out. I guess you could also include why you chanced it and didn't cancel though. I really don't know how filing complaints work but I would be sure to have something on record now that I reported the incident. Good luck! I would be livid!
This story seems like a big deal. It's also on reddit and other forums
Yes.
holy shit. I would have punched that guy in face if I was out of control. This is absolutely crazy. Sorry for your loss.
Yes, thankfully they have his name as he was signed up for the LSAT. Wonder if LSAC will ban him from ever writing in the future.
do you know if they found out his personal information? i'm really hoping they have his name.
I emailed LSAC yesterday, and hopefully they will do an investigation. The proctor filed a report and seemed to be on our side (petitioned for more time, gave us the name of the security officers for our complaints, etc.) and I am sure if enough people complain they will have to do something. So make sure your friend writes/calls to complain too!
I feel lucky that my entire test was not thrown, but I feel absolutely awful for those in the room that were unable to continue after such a traumatic event. Especially since once he came in the room this guy was verbally abusing the proctor and students using extremely vulgar language. My girlfriend, who wrote yesterday in a different location, said that if she had been there her whole test would have been lost.
Either way I will be fighting until I get some type of answer, and demanding either a refund for having to deal with such a ridiculous situation or a free retake and the option to scratch this test from our records. Obviously they can't control something like this from happening but things they could control were 1. organized better security (I heard in Toronto a few of the testing centres had 'bouncers') or 2. granted us more time when our 'by-the-book' veteran LSAC proctor is saying we need it and that in his many years with LSAC has never seen anything this bad. Altogether I think we have sufficient (lol) grounds to complain and I do expect LSAC to do something.
If it makes everybody feel any better, that guy screwed himself way more than all of y'all. Hope he had a backup plan, because he'll never be a lawyer now. I'm tempted to feel bad for him, but this kind of behavior reflects poor judgement and bad temperament on a much grander scale than this one incident. I guess I feel bad for whatever happened in his past to make him capable of that, but as for law school, he made his choice.
I was wondering if this would show up on 7sage, my friend was in that classroom as well (Waterloo). I feel awful for you guys, if there is any way we can make a petition or something, I would definitely wish to help in any was possible. If they don't give you a chance to re-write, at the very least, they should not count it towards one of the three and waive the fee for February.
Oh my god that's insane. So awful to do that to people just trying to do their jobs/get through this test. Also sorry but I'm assuming someone that reacted this way maybe didn't get into a car accident and fucked up and was looking for a way to blame the world. Well now at least you know you can handle A LOT during this test!
Will certainly update my OP and this thread if I get any!