For many seniors, one of the next two weekends represents the first hurdle in the time-consuming and stressful race for their futures at graduate school.
More than 200 students will take the Law School Admissions Test and the Graduate Records Examination at Dartmouth on the next two Saturdays.
According to Associate Director of Career Services Susan Wright, the test roster indicates that 106 individuals are registered to take the LSAT at Dartmouth tomorrow. Because the College is one of the area's test centers, not all of the test-takers are Dartmouth students.
On Oct. 8, Wright said 123 students are registered to take the GRE at Dartmouth.
Seniors have mixed feelings about taking these important exams.
"Of course, I'm nervous, but at this point, extra stress will do me no good," said Elizabeth Wilson '95, who is taking the LSAT this Saturday.
Other students are not as concerned.
"I'm taking the chemistry subject GRE in two weeks and am not concerned about it," said John Alexander '95.
Some students think the GRE resembles the SAT test that students took for admittance to college.
"I'm not that stressed, because the GRE kind of reminds me of the SAT, with the addition of logic and analytical sections," Kiyoe Hashimoto '95 said.
Many Dartmouth students took courses to prepare for the LSAT and GRE.
"I took the Kaplan [LSAT] class this summer, listened to the tapes, and took timed practice tests on my own," Wilson said.
Others feel that test preparation courses are overrated.
"I tend to think prep courses are overrated, and they're definitely too expensive for my budget," Tim Rodenberger '95 said. "I worked with a Barron's LSAT prep booklet."
Seniors believe that both the LSAT and the GRE tests are very important criteria for admission to graduate or law school.
"As far as determining chances for admission, doing well on the test is paramount," Louis Spelios '95 said. "Your GPA is also important, but law schools do not hesitate to remind you that your LSAT score counts about twice as much as your grades. A one or two point difference in score often means the difference between acceptance and rejection."
Some argue that law schools and graduate schools sometimes place too much emphasis on scores.
"The emphasis placed on scores is somewhat extreme given the one-time nature of the exam," Rodenberger said.
Other seniors think standardized testing helps admissions officers compare candidates on an equal level.
"I think the LSAT will be very significant in gauging how my academic career at Dartmouth can be interpreted against those of students from other schools," Wilson said.
Wright said the test score report received after last October's LSAT revealed that 148 Dartmouth students and alumni took the October LSAT last year at various testing sites around the country.
"Based on the survey of [Class of 1994] seniors taken at graduation, about 60 seniors indicated that they were entering law school this fall," said Wright. "About 60 students said they were entering master's or Ph.D. programs this fall."
The LSAT test lasts a half-day and has five 35-minute sections dealing with reading comprehension, analytic reasoning, logical reasoning and a pretest section of future test items. The Law School Admission Test guide states that it is designed to measure the skills "essential for success for law school."
"The most selective law schools admit students with a strong academic record as well as a high LSAT score," Wright said.
Wright said many graduate and professional programs require the GRE.
The General Test is three and a half hours and has seven 30-minute sections designed to measure verbal, quantitative and analytic abilities "important for academic achievement," Wright said. "There is a Computer Adaptive Test this year as well. In addition, some graduate programs require the Subject Test which is nearly 3 hours long."
The GRE can be taken either traditionally or by computer. After 1997, the GRE will be administered completely by computer.
Using the computerized method, all students begin with a question of medium difficulty. If the student answers correctly, the computer will assign a harder question. If a student answers incorrectly, an easier question appears on the screen.
Each question's value depends on the level of difficulty.
The computerized version is offered more than 150 times a year. Students can find out their scores instantaneously.
However, students can take the computerized version of the GRE only once because the Educational Testing Service, the agency that administers the test, has not come up with a long-term strategy to deal with security problems, said Kevin Gonzales, an ETS spokesman in an interview with The Dartmouth last November.
The computerized version costs $93, compared with the $48 for the current paper and pencil version.
Wright said she did not know of anyone taking the computerized GRE.
