December 2016 LSAT Score Release Discussion

[Administrator]

LSAC icons have gone grey and December LSAT scores are coming out today! Remember that not all scores are released at once, so if you don’t see yours at first, don’t panic. It typically takes a few hours for all scores to show up. We will be using this thread to discuss the scoring scale and answering any student questions about the test results.

Learn more about the LSAT scoring scale here: https://www.powerscore.com/lsat/help/scale.cfm

[TigerJin]

So, I took the LSAT all through 2016. My scores went 160, 163 and now today I got a 157. It's infuriating that I got punished like this for trying to do better. I also, don't like that it shows my score range going down (160-166 and now 154-160) as if I got dumber.

I told all of the schools to hold my application until the new scores came out. What now? Do I have to write an addendum? Ask them to only consider the highest score? Do I look like a bad student now?

[daisybao]

I took the exam in Asia, my score is 167 and ranks 94%, I'm wondering if this year's score is lower than before?

[DGriff]

I took the Powerscore live online course in August/September 2015 for the October 2015 administration and ended up with a very respectable 169 on the test. I just retook in December 2016, and am super psyched about my score: 175! Take that, LSAC! Also, thank you, Powerscore! I am in a very good mood today.

[Adam Tyson]

TigerJin: you won't need to tell schools to only consider the high score, because that's what they will mostly do anyway (and those that don't do that won't pay any attention to you asking them not to!) Probably no need for an addendum, and I am not sure you should even draw attention to it unless you have a very special reason why your December score decreased (like a major disturbance in the testing center, you were seriously ill, some other outside distraction, etc.) It doesn't sound like that's the case, just normal fluctuations, so it might be best to just leave it alone. Sorry that happened, I know how frustrating that must be! Your 163 is a perfectly respectable score and should open the doors to plenty of good schools.

Daisybao: LSAC does a pretty good job of weighting the LSAT each time around so that students can be fairly compared from one test administration to another. The scoring scale does change slightly from test to test, although usually within a narrow window. Your raw score may be a few points higher or lower than someone else with the same calculated score and/or percentile ranking, but it's the calculated score and percentile that the schools are most interested in. Have the scores gone down? Yes. Have they also gone up? Yes. It all depends on which tests you are comparing this one to, what their scoring scales and percentile tables were. For further discussion of scoring scales, see this blog post from my colleague Jon Denning: http://blog.powerscore.com/lsat/the-dec ... e-analyzed

DGriff: Congratulations, you rock! Job well done, and we are happy to have played a small part in your success. You've improved our mood, too!

For further analysis of certain sections of the December 2016 test, see these blog posts and feel free to comment:

http://blog.powerscore.com/lsat/decembe ... ning-recap by Jonathan Evans

http://blog.powerscore.com/lsat/the-dec ... n-reviewed by yours truly

Check back soon for some discussion of the December 2016 Logic Games, in the blog and also in this forum, where we anticipate sharing some video explanations.

Thanks for everyone's participation in the December 2016 LSAT post-mortem!