Everyone wants to improve their LSAT abilities, and a metric we often use to monitor progress is practice test scores. Whether they’re taking a practice test or an official LSAT exam, students often strive to see their improvement represented in the form of a new personal best score. While these scores may be the clearest, most satisfying indicators of progress, they are not the only ones. Test scores are better understood in the context of variance—which can be understood as the “spread” of your scores.
You may have an idea of the best and worst you tend to perform in each section. These can be represented in ranges (e.g., getting between 2 and 7 wrong in RC). Rather than fixating on the individual score, there is substantial value in tightening the range a bit (e.g., to missing between 2 and 4). I consider any given person’s LSAT score as existing on a probability score, with your “ceiling,” “floor,” and the number of retakes each playing a role in the likelihood of you achieving your goal score. If there is someone capable of getting a 180 with 100% reliability on LSAT exams, I would love to meet them—but for everyone else, it can help to understand your results in the context of variance. Moreover, law schools are primarily concerned with your top score, and tools like score cancellation can allow you to purchase the ability to drop a score from your report after you’ve gotten the chance to view it and weigh your options. By understanding the variance of your results, you can have a better idea of whether or not a
retake is the best option for you.
One helpful tool to understand your section and practice test results and evaluate your “score ranges” is the score conversion statistics tool on 7Sage. Keep chasing improvements, whether they come in your highest scores overall or more consistently positive results. If you’re interested in learning more about 7Sage tutoring, here is a link to sign up for a free consultation: https://calendly.com/7sage-tutoring/7sage-tutoring-free-consultation.