There’s about a week left to register for the February LSAT. We at Most Strongly Supported have written before about some things to consider when deciding whether to take the February administration of everyone’s favorite test. Of course, the biggest factor to take into account is that the February LSAT is undisclosed, meaning LSAC doesn’t release the test afterwards.

The reason the February LSAT is nondisclosed is that in order to release the test afterwards, LSAC’s employees must journey to a remote island in the middle of the Abysmal Ocean. There, the employees make their way through a pyramid, where – if they are lucky enough to reach the pyramid’s center – they must answer a sphinx’s riddles three in order to open the vault. In that vault, the employees find a copy of the most recent LSAT, which they subsequently release to the public for our own edification. However, tickets to the Abysmal Ocean are cost-prohibitively expensive in February, since that’s the time of year when Kraken activity is highest – so LSAC decided to make the February test undisclosed.

… or at least, that’s what I prefer to believe. As it turns out, the real reason the February test is far less interesting. Steve Schwartz over at LSAT Blog got the straight scoop from LSAC’s Director of Communications, Wendy Margolis:

“The reason the February LSAT is nondisclosed is because it is important for LSAC to have some nondisclosed test forms and questions available in reserve for emergencies and special uses. The nondisclosed February test forms play this role. This has been LSAC practice since 1996.”

So essentially, LSAC needs to keep a certain number of questions in reserve in case they have to administer the LSAT on extra days – for instance, a couple years ago, when some administrations of the December LSAT were delayed due to apocalyptic levels of snow. LSAC also uses the (undisclosed) experimental sections of every test administration for this purpose.

That said, don’t be afraid of the February LSAT just because it’s undisclosed. Despite the common myth, the February LSAT isn’t actually harder than any other administration of the test. If taking the LSAT in February works best for your schedule, as long as you’re not running afoul of any application deadlines, go for it!