Hot off the digital presses, the Law School Admissions Council just announced that there’s a new LSAT in town. For the first time ever, there will be an official LSAT given in July. Monday, July 23rd, 2018, specifically.

Cue the 1980s Stevie Wonder, because the only thing that’s hotter than July is this news.

This is a crazy, more or less unprecedented move for LSAC. I mean, as we’ve been talking about for quite some time, the old schedule of four LSACs per year has existed since the inception of the current LSAT in 1991. LSAC made waves when it announced that it would expand to six LSATs administered per year, but we didn’t expect that the Council had this up its collective sleeve.

So there’s now going to be five LSATs in the calendar year 2018: the upcoming February 10th exam, one on June 11th, the brand new July 23rd exam, and the previously announced September 8th and November 17th exams.

It should be noted that the July exam will only be administered in North America. And it’s unclear if this exam will administered at 12:30 pm like the June exam, the only other test given on a Monday (shout out to the late risers out there).

Why this sudden (seriously, LSAC, that was abrupt — maybe give your test prep pals a little heads up next time) change? I don’t have any inside information, but I think this page on LSAC’s website, which tracks the number of LSAT test takers per administration, tells us everything we need to know. Take a look at the December 2017 LSAT. Notice how it says there’s been a 27.9% increase in the number of test takers, compared to December 2016. Try as you might, you won’t find a bigger change on that page. 40,096 lucky ducks took the test in December 2017, more than any LSAT since 2011. Also, more people took the December LSAT than the September LSAT. That has literally never happened before.

So yeah, long story short, way more people are taking the LSAT now. Thanks, 45. So instead of having a bunch of impacted testing centers, causing students to get waitlisted and eventually sent to some inconvenient testing center 100 godforsaken miles away from them, it seems like LSAC decided to just add another test date.

But what does this mean for you? Well, if you’re planning to take the LSAT in 2018, you have another test date to choose from. This is especially helpful if you’re planning to study for the June 2018 exam. Now, you can sign up for one of our spring classroom courses in preparation for the June 11th exam. If you’re ready by June, you can take that exam. Or if you decide that you’d like another six weeks of time to do practice exams, you can opt to take the new July 23rd exam. You can extend access to our premium online resources at a discounted rate to give you the last push before the LSAT. Or you could, as always, simply enroll in our online course, which given as a monthly subscription, giving you the flexibility to take any LSAT the Council decides to spring on us. And remember, you can get huge discounts to both the online and classroom courses if you attend one of our two webinars next Wednesday.

There have never been two LSATs given this close together, and that really gives you the flexibility to decide whether you’re ready to take the test, without the old downside of having to wait three months before the next opportunity to take the exam. This is a semi-rare moment of generosity from LSAC (who, as you study for this exam, may occasionally draw your ire), so let’s savor it.