I am a non traditional First Gen College/Law Student and have somehow found myself on my last LSAT attempt. My first attempt was a 142-Cancelled, 2nd was 148-Kept, 3rd and 4th were cancelled they were 147/148 (don't remember which was which). I am fully aware of how bad that looks and do plan to do an LSAT addendum. My GPA was 3.84, but my LSAC GPA is a 3.09, there is an addendum with support from my undergrad as to why.
In 2024/2025, I applied with the 148 and was waitlisted and ultimately denied at my top choice (which is very surprising because their median LSAT averages 169-172 and GPA 3.8-3.9), denied at my 2nd and 3rd. Got in to quite a few others, some with scholarship, but not enough to make it, especially now with the borrow limits.
I do have a master's now that I did not have the first time I applied, and my GPA was 3.93, which I know doesn't count, but figured it will look good.
My question is- Has anyone ever gone from 148 or similar to mid 160s or higher? How long did it take you, and what did you do to get there? How often did you study, and what did those study sessions look like?While I don't have a set time frame, I am in my 30s and feel like time is ticking.
11 comments
It seems like you are running out of official attempts so I would suggest not signing up for a test until you start PT’ing at the score you want. Anything is possible, you just have to find the way that will work for you and sometimes that’s the toughest part.
hai hai! (this is my personal experience!)
I recently graduated this past May and I'm trying to apply for the Fall 2027 cycle so we're on the same boat (ish!). My diagnostic score was a 140, and I'm registered for the September test in a week (eek!).
As I've been studying, my PT scores have been a stable mid-160s (with an average blind review score of 174-176; ik crazy jumps). I started studying in June but that was almost like shits and giggles because I was in the process of moving out and figuring out my life after college. But I really locked in to my practices in July, so for the past 2 months, I've been doing the lessons on 7sage as well as practice sections daily, in addition to 1-2 full PTs per week.
Everyone's speed and path is different, so asking "is it possible" (which, don't get me wrong, I do too lol) is hard to determine from an outsider's perspective. My personal take/advice on all of this is that I would focus on accuracy over speed/timing, DEEP review of the questions you 1) missed and 2) were unsure of (like second-guessing, picking multiple ACs, etc.). This way you get exposure and an understanding of your weakest question types.
Since there are 2 scored LR sections, I've mainly been putting my energy into LR practices, but I've realized that RC has been getting harder in the more recent PTs, so I've added in RC passage drilling here and there.
Also, going back to your worry about "you running out of time because you're in your 30s" --> I completely understand the stress you feel; HOWEVER, if you look at most law school demographics and the info pamphlets/website/etc., the average age of accepted students range from 20-45! (and hey! you're right in the middle!) In the grand scheme of things, being in your 30s is still young (also given the fact that law school is "only" 3 years and not like med school where you need like a billion years of experience and shadowing and schooling).
TLDR; accuracy over speed/timing, keeping giving yourself exposure to questions and practice (BUT don't burn yourself out), DEEP review your missed questions (I would say I spend more time on my reviews than anything)
you got this and it's amazing what a positive mindset can do for your sanity
I feel like this comment got really long (I'm a big rambler) but ik what it feels like to be overwhelmed with stress and the feeling of impending doom, but recently I've been trying to tell myself that one test one score doesn't determine my worth, and even GOING to law school (regardless of ranking or stats) will get me to my end goal of becoming a lawyer and pursuing my passion.
sorry for the LONGGGGGG comment! I just felt that you were in the same boat as me and we're all here to help each other out!
@y00nislee hello , for reading comprehension, how much time did you put into studying reading comprehension? I'm struggling balancing struggling with both reading comp and LR at the same time. Also how did you improve your speed? I'm struggling answering the questions in such time constraints
@y00nislee Hi! Have you been doing the weekly PTs during the foundational section of the curriculum? Or did you wait until you got into the LR section to start doing PTs and practice?
@KiyahB @HamzaSoto
I actually just recently started practicing/drilling RC. (maybe like a week or two ago). I enjoy reading throughout my life and such so that might've played a big part. I will say I despise the humanities passages because I tend to zone out while reading and every sentence, name, law ends up sounding the same, so I'm mainly focused on reading thoroughly and actually understanding what I'm reading. At the end of the passage, I try to really quickly paraphrase what I read (as if I'm explaining it to my younger brother), and as I move along to the questions, I'll remember seeing a key term or main idea that I've already paraphrased which helps! (Your biggest helper is that search bar to quickly look for words and phrases)
As for speed, I get really bad anxiety with speed.. So I actually covered the timer with a post it note when I first started studying because all I could think of was the timer running out. And eventually with exposure and enough pattern-recognition, the speed will naturally come. What helped me most was also flagging and moving onto the next question. Each question is essentially one point, so it won't matter if you get a Level 4 or a Level 1 question right. What matters is getting as many individual questions right regardless of the difficulty. Maybe you can try drilling Level 1 to 2 questions first to get "warmed up" and then jump into the harder ones and adaptive drilling.
During the foundational section, I didn't do any PTs. I only did the lessons and some light drilling. After I finished those, I moved onto sections (like 1-2 LR sections a day and some adaptive drilling). I started doing full PTs maybe closer to August (maybe like the second week of the month).
Like I said, I would focus more on LR, since that's the biggest chunk, but I wouldn't completely disregard RC. Maybe try doing 1-2 passages a day (not full RC sections if you're crunched for time!) That way you're still getting practice but not worried about sitting down and spending a lot of time on 4 passages.
(this comment also got really long... sorry you guys!)
@y00nislee hahaha this comment is long but I really appreciate it! Thank you so much for the insights here!!
I had a 149 first score. Read the Powerscore books and went to a 155. Then did the 7Sage Lessons and went to a 169. I started to study in may. I study every waking moment that im not at work or school, and still study a bit at work. For me learning how things work boosted my score alot more than just practicing and reviewing.
Hey! As someone whose diagnostic PT was a 144, I was able to bring it to a 172 on my most recent PT. But, I have been studying for more than a year now. Ever since I began to take section testing a lot more seriously, I saw the biggest increases. I made sure to deeply review each question I got wrong (sometimes, I'd take 10-15 minutes analyzing each question) and took at least one section per day. This is my own personal experience, though.
@Nathanng How did you not run out of sections? Did you reuse some? I'm starting to run out unfortunately.
@DDD Definitely reusing some! But, I tend to forget the details of a lot of old questions when I see them again later on.
@Nathanng Adding onto my comment: I think it's actually a good thing, too. If I get a question wrong twice after seeing it again, it makes me analyze the details even harder to see where I overlooked the first time.