Aspen Publishing appreciates your assistance and usage of the JD-Next program and examination results. For any questions regarding JD-Next, please contact David Klieger at David.klieger@aspenpublishing.com.
Helpful Information
Validity of the JD-Next Program
The American Bar Association’s Section on Legal Education recently voted to stay the course, asking law schools to request a simple variance to use the JD-Next entrance examination in lieu of the LSAT or GRE for use in admissions decisions.
While the report conducted by their expert concluded that JD-Next is a valid and reliable predictor of law school success, that report also suggests additional research, including data collection, should continue. We agree and are looking forward to collecting even more robust validity and reliability research findings as thousands of new students go through our program this year.
With over one quarter of all law schools now possessing the variance, and with surging student demand, we expect more law schools will want the option of using JD-Next.
The process is simple and straightforward. To request a variance, please visit - This Form
The submission deadline for the next ABA meeting is July 12, 2024.
Score Report
The Score Report provides results test takers requested be sent to your institution. These results are found in the Territorium LifeJourney platform.
Go to LifeJourney, https://life.territorium.com/#/login
We also provide Score Report interpretation guidance here:
How to Access the JD-Next Score Report
Enter User (email) and Password and select Log In.
The email from JD-Next contains your default login information. Please update your password at any time by selecting Forgot Password.
On the Score Report screen, you can Search by JD-Next ID, LSAC ID (if provided to us by the student), tester name or email. The dropdown filter will list the individual test dates.
To download all the reports, select Download all reports. Reports will be zipped and downloaded into one file. To download individual reports, check the appropriate boxes and select Download selected reports. Selecting Clear filters will remove the filter and any checkmarks.
The Score Report naming convention is TesterName_LSAC ID_JD-Next ID.
Exam Overview
The JD-Next exam allows test takers a standard of 4.0 hours to complete, including one 10-minute break and 30 minutes to complete an ungraded essay. The multiple-choice section includes 80 questions across 15 topics. There are 60 graded questions, plus 20 ungraded questions that allow JD-Next to evaluate new exam questions for future use.
What represents a good score?
Examination scores will range from 400 – 1,000 and are designed to serve as an indicator of the test taker’s preparedness for law school. Individual success on the test is based on how high an individual score is in comparison to the scores of other test takers.
Interpreting the Score Report:
The score report consists of two sections that evaluate the test taker. In the first section, there are two bar graphs showing percentiles of how the test taker performed relative to two comparison groups. The first comparison group (see the graph on the left) consists of those who took the JD-Next final exam in December 2023, after the American Bar Association began granting variances to law schools allowing them to use JD-Next for admissions. The second comparison group (see the graph on the right) will be based on students over a three-year increment. The advantage of reporting for this larger group is a larger sample on which to base a student’s performance. Larger samples can provide more statistically stable estimates. The percentiles for the two graphs usually will be close to each other, but they might necessarily differ at least slightly. Each group has its advantages in terms of making comparisons. As a rule of thumb, we advise taking an average of the two percentiles.
Below the graphs are the means (averages) and medians (50th percentile scores) of the comparison groups. Medians can be helpful when there are extremely high or extremely low scores that can result in a misleading sense of how the prototypical test taker is performing. In most cases, the mean and median will be very close to each other, if not the same. The “Current Term” refers to those who took the JD-Next final exam in December 2023. The “Rolling Three Year” refers to everyone who will take the JD-Next final exam over the next three years. The Confidence Intervals reflect the fact that a person’s performance on any test can vary somewhat, and you can be 95% confident that the means and medians fall within the reported confidence intervals. The “Actual” means and medians are the best estimates. Test performance above the means and medians is above-average performance in comparison to others in the groups for which we reported.
In the next section are indications of preparedness for specific topic areas. There are legal doctrinal topic areas (in the top half of this section) and non-doctrinal topic areas (in the bottom half of this section). For each learning objective, you will see a rating of four stars (****), three stars (***), two stars (**), or one star (*). Most students will receive two or three stars for most learning objectives. Some students will receive four stars which indicates areas of strength. These ratings can be used to inform students about areas which they should consider strengthening to improve their law school performance. We have not yet conducted extensive validation or fairness research to determine the extent to which these ratings predict academic performance at your law school in an accurate and fair manner. Therefore, we advise you to use only the total test score to make admissions, financial award, or other high-stakes decisions.
The remainder of the report provides helpful descriptions of the topic areas, the exam, and interpretation of this report.
JD-Next Advisory Board
Aspen Publishing has gathered together a group of skilled professionals with diverse backgrounds and extensive expertise to offer guidance and support for the JD-Next Program. This carefully selected team brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to the table, ensuring that the program benefits from a comprehensive range of perspectives and insights. Their collective efforts are aimed at enhancing the success and effectiveness of the JD-Next Program.