Last week, the eighty-or-so people who took the December LSAT in Santa Barbara received an email from LSAC (the people who create and administer the LSAT), that their scores had been lost. The basic gist of the story is that UPS lost the packages, which were apparently left in a dropbox, not even at the nearest staffed shipping facility.

In what could be described as LSAC’s version of magnanimity, the students were told that they’d be refunded their testing fees and allowed to retake it for free in January. For good measure – or to turn the knife or however you want to put it – the email assured students that the scoresheets wouldn’t be graded even if they eventually turned up in order to “protect the integrity of the scores.” Yeah.

What the email didn’t explain is why in 2015 LSAC doesn’t scan the answer sheets immediately, on-site at the end of each administration of the test to preserve a record. Perhaps a change is on the horizon.

This isn’t the first time LSAC has lost testing sheets. It happened in 1999 and in 2012 to larger pools of students than those who took the exam in Santa Barbara this time around.

This is an especially sensitive time for this to happen. It’s unclear how the schools these students are applying to will treat the situation, but December is the latest exam that some schools will accept. It’s entirely possible that some of these students will have to wait another year before hitting law school. Fast forward a few years, and that’s one entire year of lawyerly earnings these students could be denied. Or it’s possible some of them will end up at a lesser law school than they’d have wanted.

Chime in below in the comments. How would you feel if LSAC lost your score? Is their solution sufficient? If you are one of the students whose score was lost, we want to hear from you.

Written By: Blueprint LSAT Instructor