Review of Drexel and Temple University Test Centers

SuperMario929

Hi all!

Having taken the LSAT at both Drexel (July 2019) and Temple (2015 December and 2017 February) I thought I would pass along a review for those who are interested. Bottom line: Temple is great, Drexel is terrible.

Temple:

Students are about 15-20 to a room and each has their own table with a chair. You have lots of room for spreading your materials out and the lighting in the room is nice. The chairs are comfortable and there is plenty of leg room. The proctors know what they are doing and it's easy to get in/out, there is a water fountain, and the temperature is appropriate. The parking wasn't an issue either time I went, but those were weekend tests so I would recommend a parking garage for any weekday testing in the future.

Drexel:

One huge auditorium for everyone (60 people?). The auditorium has rows of chairs arranged in three columns (something like 5-10-5 on chair distribution). The geniuses in charge decided to put all of us in the middle column, so that there were four in a row. There is no space to walk out of the middle of the row of chairs without forcing people to fold down their little tables, stand up, and let the person pass. This means that if someone in a middle row needs to use the bathroom during the test, the people on the end will have to put their test away and stand up twice to let them through. When they handed out the test, they made everyone fold down their tables so the person could squeeze through each row of chairs. They then realized they forgot to collect admissions tickets, so they had to do it all over again. Repeat for pre-break and post-break. All in all, it was pretty annoying to have to put your stuff away constantly, especially when they could have put half the test takers on the side columns and thereby created free rows to walk through as proctors. Additionally, the rows are so closely packed together that anyone over 6 feet tall will have serious difficulty being comfortable during the test. I am 5'11" and my back hurt by the end of the test from being in such cramped conditions.

The tables that fold out from your chair are too small for the paper version of the test. The paper extended significantly over the edge, and I broke a pencil tip by accidentally writing off the table. It also necessitated an annoying back-and-forth motion between the answer sheets and the test booklet. I can't even imagine how the tablets are going to fit on these tables with the scratch paper. I think it will prove to be a serious challenge to anyone taking the test there in the future.

The water fountain was also broken at the test center, so there was nothing for people to drink who either didn't bring water or who brought something else (I brought some iced coffee but then had to live with dry mouth for the rest of the exam).

The proctors stamped around as they watched you take the test, and stood VERY close to you when they stopped (I had one basically brushing legs with me at one point).

The room was also insanely cold. I had jeans and a jacket on, and don't get cold easily, and thought it was on the frigid side. I saw one student who only had a t-shirt hugging herself for warmth during the break.

There were also a few semi-inflated helium balloons floating at the ceiling, which could potentially fall on a test taker during the exam. That's not a big deal but it also shows a lack of attention to detail by the test center.

All in all, I would NOT recommend Drexel as a test taking site.