LSAT Score Increase

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• 21 Likes

  Cant Get Right Yearly + Live Member Sage ⭐ 🍌 7Sage Tutor

  January 19 28109 karma

  Scored a 152 on my first PT, but I didn't take a PT until after 4 months of studying. So I've always figured my starting range somewhere in the upper-mid 140's.

  Scored a 170 about a year after that first test. Scored a 176 a year after the 170. (I was fully content with the 170, btw. Circumstances just so happened to play out in a way that testing again made sense.)

  I studied about 15 hours a week before that first 152 PT. And about 30 hours a week between that PT and the 170. I was tutoring between the 170 and 176, and only started my own studying again for about 3 months prior to that test, about 20 hours a week maybe.

  Advice: We all like to think we're in the effortless brilliance group. Very few of us are. I am not, and the odds are overwhelming that you are not either. And that's okay: I did just fine, and so can you. But most of us want our study experience to go as smoothly as it does for this brilliant group. And this is an extremely dangerous thing to want.

  The effect of it is to lead us to focus on the things we're good at. I did this for like six months of my own studying. Tutoring over the years, I've seen it hundreds of times. It is, by far, the biggest and most common barrier to LSAT success. Working on things we're good at makes us feel smart and capable. The things we're bad at, on the other hand, make us feel dumb and inadequate. We like feeling smart and capable; we hate feeling dumb and inadequate.

  So if you aren't struggling and suffering, you aren't progressing. You must spend as much time feeling dumb and inadequate as possible. When you catch yourself feeling good and smart and successful, stop doing whatever it is you're doing. Interpret that as a very serious problem, and search for work that'll start making you feel bad again. As you improve, it will become harder and harder to find work that will challenge and frustrate you. Dig deep, ask for help, but do whatever you have to do to find it.

  And as you progress, you will find the work increasingly rewarding. You will change your relationship with failure and inadequacy and learn to value it as opportunity. And then--for as long as you can accurately identify your failures--you will be unstoppable.
• 5 Likes

  domignat Core Member

  January 20 77 karma

  So I am not the best representation as compared to the other commenter but I did massively improve my score. My diagnostic was a 135 and my final PT was a 151. I knew I wasn't going to a fantastic school but that doesn't necessarily mean I set myself short and didn't put in work to get that score, It took me a very long time to get there. It is possible. You have to want it.
• 3 Likes

  yhtkim Alum Member

  January 20 374 karma

  Listen to @"Cant Get Right"! In a world of bogus advice, he's a true beacon of wisdom. As someone who, much like him, started in the low 150s and clawed my way through 18 months of prep, eventually to a 172, I second everything he says.

  Check out his AMA, which was a huge source of inspiration and insight for me when I was stuck in what I thought was a permanent plateau: https://classic.7sage.com/1-ama-w-7sager-cant-get-right-152-to-176/
• 1 Like

  missjurisdoc Live Member

  January 20 1065 karma

  @yhtkim that's inspiring; thanks for sharing that journey to success🙏
• 2 Likes

  attention deficit Alum Member

  January 20 18 karma

  i started at a 158 and scored a 175. i studied for about 9 months every day quite diligently, and it consumed a lot of my time, but it wasn't totally unmanageable. each day i studied between 90 minutes and 4 hours, but never beyond that amount, which i always felt was unnecessary. i also worked a full time job but it was quite lax and hybrid so it gave me time to work on the LSAT.
• cfuller42 Core Member

  January 21 32 karma

  Diagnostic test was a 159. Last PT I took before my Jan LSAT (only real test I've taken/will take) was a 170. Started studying mid October, but am also currently a full-time master's student. Awaiting Jan results right now.