Scoring and Goal Setting
Transcript
It's helpful to set your own scoring goals for the LSAT and use those to build your personalized pacing strategy. In order to do that, it's helpful to understand a bit about LSAT scores. On the LSAT, you get one point for every question you answer correctly, and you are not penalized for wrong answers. Therefore, you should answer every single question, every time, even if you're just randomly guessing in the last minute of the section.
There are roughly 77 points possible. However, you probably already know that LSAT scores are scaled from 120 to 180, not from 0 to 100. This is because the LSAT, like most other standardized tests, is a scaled test. What that means is that your raw score, which is out of 100 points, is taken and compared to the raw scores of all the other people who took the test at the same time as you.
And then you're assigned a scaled score based on how you performed compared to everyone else. The scale scores always form a bell-shaped curve. In the middle of the curve where the line is highest We have the most common scores. At the edges of the curve, over here and over here, we have the least common scores.
The most common score on the LSAT, on average, is a 150. Therefore, 150 falls right at the center of the curve. If you get a 150 on the LSAT, it means that about half the people taking the test are scoring lower than you, thus you are at the 50th percentile. As we move to the right, scores move up. By the time you get to a 160, notice how much of the area under the curve is behind you.
Getting a 160 on the LSAT means that about 80% of the test-takers are scoring lower than you. If you get a 170, more than 95% of test-takers are scoring lower than you. As your score goes up, you're being compared to stronger and stronger test-takers. Thus, it gets harder and harder to make gains as your score increases because you continually have to beat tougher competition.
That is essentially why, no matter how long and how hard we study for the test, each of us eventually hits a plateau where our efforts start to pay off less. Simply because someone else out there is always gonna do a little better than us. Only a small handful of the test-takers in the world will get a perfect score on the LSAT. The rest of us have to set reasonable goals and aim specifically for those goals.
So, how can you set a reasonable goal for your score on the LSAT. The simple answer is take a practice test. Make sure it's a timed practice test and that you do it all in one sitting so that you're mimicking the real test environment as closely as possible. When you're done with the test, use the answer keys and the scoring tables at the end of the exam to calculate your scaled score.
From there, here's a really nice formula that you can apply to set a goal for your own LSAT prep. First of all, you're gonna take 180 and subtract from it your score on the practice test. Then you divide that by three and you get some number. That number, right here, I'm marking It is X, that might be a decimal, and if it is, just round it to the nearest whole number to simplify things a little bit.
Then take that number, again, we see it right here, and add it to your score on the practice test, and that equals your scoring goal. Here's a quick example to help explain it. If you were to score a 152 on your practice test, you would do, 180 -152 = 28, that's your X value again. 28 divided by 3 equals about 9, again, I rounded the decimal in this case.
And then we take your original score, we add our X to it, and that means that a reasonable scoring goal for someone who started with a 152 on a practice test would be a 161. If you think this goal is too high, you're probably selling yourself a bit short. This formula leads to very reasonable goals for students who have never prepped for the exam before.
Of course, if you've already spent a year prepping for the exam you might not see your score move quite as much, because it's already kind of moved up from your initial practice test. On the flip side, if you think this goal is too low, don't stress out about it. Think of it as a first step that you need to take before looking further down the road.
Prove to yourself that you can attain this score and then do the calculation again and start working toward an even higher goal later. The really important thing to remember is this. Don't try to overshoot your goal. That's often a recipe for disaster. A test-taker who should be aiming for a 160 but behaves like a 170 score, may well end up with a 155.
Because that person is gonna be wasting time working on really difficult questions that are not actually the ones he or she needs. Meanwhile, he or she's missing out on easier points elsewhere on the test. On the other hand, if you should be aiming for a 160 and you behave accordingly, you may actually end up with a slightly higher score than 160. Because you're gonna be a smarter test-taker than everyone else in the room.
So to recap, take a practice test, calculate your score, check out the bell curve to just help you understand better what your score means, and then set a reasonable goal using the formula on this page.
Read full transcriptThere are roughly 77 points possible. However, you probably already know that LSAT scores are scaled from 120 to 180, not from 0 to 100. This is because the LSAT, like most other standardized tests, is a scaled test. What that means is that your raw score, which is out of 100 points, is taken and compared to the raw scores of all the other people who took the test at the same time as you.
And then you're assigned a scaled score based on how you performed compared to everyone else. The scale scores always form a bell-shaped curve. In the middle of the curve where the line is highest We have the most common scores. At the edges of the curve, over here and over here, we have the least common scores.
The most common score on the LSAT, on average, is a 150. Therefore, 150 falls right at the center of the curve. If you get a 150 on the LSAT, it means that about half the people taking the test are scoring lower than you, thus you are at the 50th percentile. As we move to the right, scores move up. By the time you get to a 160, notice how much of the area under the curve is behind you.
Getting a 160 on the LSAT means that about 80% of the test-takers are scoring lower than you. If you get a 170, more than 95% of test-takers are scoring lower than you. As your score goes up, you're being compared to stronger and stronger test-takers. Thus, it gets harder and harder to make gains as your score increases because you continually have to beat tougher competition.
That is essentially why, no matter how long and how hard we study for the test, each of us eventually hits a plateau where our efforts start to pay off less. Simply because someone else out there is always gonna do a little better than us. Only a small handful of the test-takers in the world will get a perfect score on the LSAT. The rest of us have to set reasonable goals and aim specifically for those goals.
So, how can you set a reasonable goal for your score on the LSAT. The simple answer is take a practice test. Make sure it's a timed practice test and that you do it all in one sitting so that you're mimicking the real test environment as closely as possible. When you're done with the test, use the answer keys and the scoring tables at the end of the exam to calculate your scaled score.
From there, here's a really nice formula that you can apply to set a goal for your own LSAT prep. First of all, you're gonna take 180 and subtract from it your score on the practice test. Then you divide that by three and you get some number. That number, right here, I'm marking It is X, that might be a decimal, and if it is, just round it to the nearest whole number to simplify things a little bit.
Then take that number, again, we see it right here, and add it to your score on the practice test, and that equals your scoring goal. Here's a quick example to help explain it. If you were to score a 152 on your practice test, you would do, 180 -152 = 28, that's your X value again. 28 divided by 3 equals about 9, again, I rounded the decimal in this case.
And then we take your original score, we add our X to it, and that means that a reasonable scoring goal for someone who started with a 152 on a practice test would be a 161. If you think this goal is too high, you're probably selling yourself a bit short. This formula leads to very reasonable goals for students who have never prepped for the exam before.
Of course, if you've already spent a year prepping for the exam you might not see your score move quite as much, because it's already kind of moved up from your initial practice test. On the flip side, if you think this goal is too low, don't stress out about it. Think of it as a first step that you need to take before looking further down the road.
Prove to yourself that you can attain this score and then do the calculation again and start working toward an even higher goal later. The really important thing to remember is this. Don't try to overshoot your goal. That's often a recipe for disaster. A test-taker who should be aiming for a 160 but behaves like a 170 score, may well end up with a 155.
Because that person is gonna be wasting time working on really difficult questions that are not actually the ones he or she needs. Meanwhile, he or she's missing out on easier points elsewhere on the test. On the other hand, if you should be aiming for a 160 and you behave accordingly, you may actually end up with a slightly higher score than 160. Because you're gonna be a smarter test-taker than everyone else in the room.
So to recap, take a practice test, calculate your score, check out the bell curve to just help you understand better what your score means, and then set a reasonable goal using the formula on this page.
