Lsat

[lsatlsat]

Dear Powerscore,

I am a student who will be taking the December LSAT, and I am looking for fall 2015 enrollment. But I am getting very worried now, as I am not reaching my target score of at least 160. I would like to apply to the top 50 US law schools, and most of them require a 160-163 (or higher for 75 percentile, around 164-166) to be competitive, and some have a 157-159 score for the 25% percentile. For untimed practice tests, I am scoring around a 156-160 (and higher sometimes), however for times practice tests, my score fluctuates a lot, and it varies from 150-157, with average being around 154. I cannot finish the LR, LG, RC sections. I feel that when I do untimed prep tests, I can get ar least around a 158, with highest being around 163.

So my question is, 1) whether I should take the feb lsat again? 2) Is feb lsat harder than the other test dates? I know that a lot of people complained about last feb2014 lsat' being very hard, especially for the logic game, as the games were all very weird. And others have said that the whole feb LSAT is "experimental", so questions are all weirder/harder/different.

I have emailed all the top 50 law schools, and all of them say that they accept the feb lsat scores. I've asked then whether I would be disadvantaged to apply late, and most of them replied that since it is rolling admission, there will be less seats as time goes by, but it is highly unlikely that that the seats will be filled up, and in the past they have accepted many students with feb LSAT scores. Also, they said that they will review all applications.
Some also replied that no, I will be not be at a disadvantage.

I'm just not sure what I should do now with the little time remaining, so I really hope to hear some advice from you. I am having a lot of trouble reaching the time limit. For LG, I usually spend 12-15 minutes on each game, and for LR, I can finish around 17 questions in 35 minutes. Thank you very much in advance for your suggestions and input! I really appreciate it!

[Andrew Ash]

Hi LsatLsat!

You've asked a few questions, so let me try to tackle them one at a time.

First of all, the February test is not easier, harder, or stranger than the other three tests. Remember, the goal of the LSAT test makers is to create a test that is perfectly consistent, and having one test that was different from all of the others would defeat that purpose. It's gotten a bad rap because it isn't released, but trust us, we take it all the time, and it looks just like all the others. The only real disadvantage is that you won't be able to look at your own test when you receive your score, but that's a relatively minor issue.

It is an unfortunate fact that taking the February LSAT will place you at a disadvantage at some of the Top 50 law schools if you're applying for Fall 2015. If they operate under a rolling admissions process, then you would be more likely to get in applying earlier in the admissions cycle. As you've pointed out, though, this only applies to some of them, not all.

Personally, I think the most important thing is to achieve the best LSAT score possible. If you feel like you could improve your score significantly (more than 5 points) between now and February, then I would definitely wait to take the test until February. Even if it means that some schools will be less likely to admit you in this admissions cycle, you're much better off having the best LSAT score you can get.

I hope that helps!

Thanks,
Andrew

[lsatlsat]

Hi Andrew,

Thank you very much for the suggestions. They really help!!

I will be taking the December lsat for sure, however I am not sure whether I should indicate on my application to wait until my feb score to be released in order to view my applications or whether I should just let the schools look at my dec score. The thing is that most schools will not re-review my application if I have gotten rejected with the dec score. Regarding the top 50 schools lsat requirements, I feel that i might score around the 25% in dec at best, and probably around median for feb. However there is not a big difference between 25% and median score for many schools, a lot of then have a 25% of 157-158, and a median of 160-162.

So my questions is: 1) Would it be better if assuming I get a max. 157 for dec, and possibly a 160-162 for feb to submit my application early and not take the feb test, OR, submit the application after my feb lsat?

I am getting very anxious about what decision to make at this point, and what the outcome would be. Again, according to the US news ranking , I have emailed all schools ranked from 30-50, (excluding the top 20) and all of them say that they will accept feb lsat scores, and that they have admitted many students with the score, and also that there will be seats available, however they have been very vague on how more competitive and how much higher would I need to score if a apply with a feb score. So my second question is, 2) could you please give me some insights into how much higher I would need to score as a feb lsat taker, 3) and how much more competitive would the application become?

Sorry for asking so many questions!!

Thank you very much for your patience and help!

[Lucas Moreau]

Hello, Lsatlsat,

I recommend you wait for February, in general. You said in your initial post that the law schools wouldn't prejudice you for taking the February test, and it sounds like your score would benefit from spending more time studying. There are tricks there. Here's one method I find is useful for decreasing the amount of time you take to finish sections:

When I was studying for the LSAT, I took a single practice section (it was Games, but this works for all sections) and timed myself for how long it took to complete it fully. I found that I took on average 70 minutes to complete a full Games section, at first. This was obviously way too long!

So I set up a new section and set a timer for 65 minutes. I just barely did not finish. So I tried a few more, over time, and soon I was able to reliably finish under 65 minutes. Then I reduced the timer to 60 minutes. And so on, and so forth. I found I was able to reduce my Games time much faster than through struggling to meet a 35-minute time limit from the beginning, and I ended up getting a perfect score on my Games section.

You can use this method for yourself without much difficulty. Time yourself to see how long it usually takes you to finish a section, then gradually reduce the amount of time you give yourself. Over time, you'll hopefully find yourself finishing faster and faster, without the stress of continuously missing large portions of the section.

As far as how the February LSAT will look to admissions officers, I don't think you'll need a significantly higher score than if you took the December LSAT. I do think you're capable of attaining a higher score by then, though, and I think it's worth it for you to try.

Hope that helps,
Lucas Moreau

[lsatlsat]

Dear Powerscore,

Thank you very much for the reply and suggestions!!

I just have one more question to ask. For the feb test, is it true that there are usually more weird, challenging, and hard games than the other test dates? I remember seeing discussions about this year's feb 2014 LSAT having extremely difficult and weird games for the LG section.
As of preparation, would I need to study more or look into some other material for the feb lsat?

Thank you very much for the help!

[Morgan O'Donnell]

Hi lsatlsat-

Let me give you some advice from an admin standpoint, and I'm sure one of the instructors will also chime in! Regarding your question about the February test, it looks like Andrew responded to that one from your initial question. The February test is not harder, weird, or inconsistent to the other LSATs. The experimental section could be a little stranger than normal, but when it comes to the 4 scored sections, those are going to resemble any other LSAT.

If you have taken an LSAT course with PowerScore, you will absolutely want to take advantage of all your resources available in the Online Student Center. Depending on when you took the prep course, your online materials will expire after the 2nd LSAT following your course. If they expire before the February LSAT, you can call our office to purchase an extension. The cost is $150 per test administration. I would highly recommend using those resources when prepping for the Feb exam. Some questions to ask yourself, have you used all the supplemental material, practice tests, and virtual modules (over 50 hours worth)? Have you scored all of those practice tests to see areas of potential weakness? Have you completed all of the Lesson and Homework questions? Just something to consider when prepping (and deciding on purchasing more books). The material you received in your Full Length Course should be enough to carry you over to the February exam. However, if you are looking for more practice, then you may want to purchase some additional Practice Tests- you have access to 26 in your Supplement (plus the 4 in your course book) or the Question Type Training books- which allow you to work on questions based on the question type. When taking PT's, it is a good idea to look at each section after you score it to see if you are consistently missing certain question types- where are you getting hung up? The scoring template in your Online Student Center identifies question types so you can see if you are consistently missing the same kinds of questions, then you can focus on practicing those types!

Here is a link to those Question Type Training books: http://www.powerscore.com/lsat/publications/?lqc

If you come across questions you do not understand, please feel free to post them to the Forum!

Let me know if you have any questions!

Best of luck,

Morgan O'Donnell
PowerScore Test Prep

[lsatlsat]

Okay! Thank you very much for all the advice!!

[BethRibet]

Hi Lsatlsat,

Thanks for writing in. Just want to confirm that the February test shouldn't vary either in breadth of question types, or in overall difficulty, from any of the other test administrations. The LSAC goes through a fair bit of process to ensure that the test dates are all comparable, in order to ensure fair scoring. You also shouldn't need material that's any different from the standard Powerscore or LSACT materials.

Hope this helps!
Beth