University Park ranks last in Pennsylvania and the Big Ten for test-taking conditions for the Law School Admissions Test (LSAT) exam, according to a Kaplan Test Prep and Admissions survey released last week.

However, officials from the Law School Admissions Council (LSAC), which administers the test, and Penn State's Office of Physical Plant (OPP) said neither organization has received any complaints about LSAT test-taking conditions recently.

In the Kaplan survey, Penn State's rank was 327 out of 349 LSAT testing sites nationwide, according to a press release.

The survey asked 10,939 test takers to rate criteria including "desk space, proctors, quiet and comfort and overall experience" on a scale from one to five.

Penn State University Park received an overall score of 3.33 based on 53 votes, according to the survey results. University Park's lowest category ranking was for desk size, where it received a score of 1.75.

Comments from test takers listed on the survey's Web site, www. kaplansurveys.com/rater, include "It was absolutely frigid." Another noted, "The desks were very uncomfortable, chairs were loose, and room was frigid. A hoodie was almost not enough." Both comments are from a December 12 test date.

A third comment, from a September 30 test date, reads, "The main proctor was one of the nastiest women I have ever encountered."

The LSAT exam is usually held on weekends about four times a year, Penn State pre-law adviser Barbara Rayman said. She said it is usually administered in Willard Building or the Forum Building and taken by about 1,000 Penn State students each year, although not all of them take it at University Park.

Rayman said she thought the one-arm desks in both buildings didn't provide enough desk space.

"It's not a very comfortable situation many times for students," she said, adding that the best situation would be an individual desk with a separate chair.

Wendy Margolis, LSAC director of communications, said LSAC had not received any complaints about University Park test-taking sites recently.

She said LSAC tried to find the best possible accommodations for test sites and hired its own administrators at test sites.

"We have to take what we can get sometimes when it comes to classrooms," she said.

OPP Spokesman Paul Ruskin said he was not familiar with any complaints about room temperature during LSAT administrations.

Buildings are generally kept at a temperature between 65 and 70 degrees in the winter and between 78 and 82 degrees in the summer, Ruskin said.

"The temperature of a room is a lot like Goldilocks and the three bears," he said. "We try to find an average temperature that is good for most people."

Ruskin said it was possible that temperatures could have been lowered in a building over the weekend if OPP had not been notified that the building would be occupied. However, he said OPP had staff on call 24 hours a day to respond to problems.

OPP occasionally receives complaints during finals week, but they are mostly related to noise from OPP staff performing maintenance near classroom buildings, Ruskin said. However, Ruskin said OPP tries to reduce noise levels during finals week and has workers stop or move away from buildings if complaints are received.

Steven Marietti, director of pre-law programs for Kaplan, said complaints in the survey might not have been reported if test takers considered them to be minor issues. However, he said "environmental factors" like desk size and temperature could still affect performance on the exam.