Hardest & Most Difficult LSAT Sections ever listed

zaroberts1991

Hey guys, I know we only finished with the test a week ago, and even some are finishing up in Florida today (Congrats btw!). And I haven't even really given much thought to a re-take, but if I do it's because I would have scored in the high 160's or low 170's and I want to punch that up higher since I'm a splitter.

However for us high scorers that are looking to retake, we probably already know the material pretty well. The benefit we can obtain from doing the easier sections administered over the years is likely minimal. Through 7Sage I scored every test, even ones I didn't do so that I would have access to their difficulty rating for each section within every PT. I figured this could be a great tool for everyone whenever they decide to start studying again to have a list of not just the hardest questions, or hardest games/passages, but to have the most difficult sections. This way when we're just doing timed sections instead of full PT's we can target our studying on the more difficult material. I'm also slightly out of my mind and have likely lost a sense of purpose without the LSAT in my life, but therapy will come later.

Anyways the sections are ranked from 1-5 with obviously five being the most difficult and one being the easiest. For the sake of this list I only will put up those sections that are ranked at either 4 or 5 difficulty. From my own research it seems that 7Sage largely ranks these sections by how hard or easy the questions are, so even though June's LSAT RC passages were considerably dense and difficult, because the questions themselves were very straight-forward and easy the section itself was only given a two-star ranking.

Reading Comprehension:

5 Star- PT 50 Yep, only one RC was ever given a five start difficulty ranking for some reason and that was PT 50. It makes sense since nearly half the questions in the section are given a four or five star difficulty rating!

4 Star- PT 19, PT 38, PT 43, PT 45, PT 51, PT 53, PT 54, PT 55, PT 65, PT 67, PT 74 (was -9 on this one during the summer, never went below -6 any other time), PT C2, PT 79. I'm sure PT 82 will be joining these ranks soon as well.

Logical Games:

5 Star- PT A, PT B, PT C, PT 18, PT 27, PT 31, PT 34, PT 36, PT 62

4 Star- PT 9, PT 13, PT 23, PT 30, PT 32, PT 35, PT 37, PT June 2007 (Free LSAT offered through LSAC), PT 57, PT 61, PT 66, PT 68

Logical Reasoning:

5 Star- PT 14 s4, PT 24 s2, PT 28 s1, PT 45 s1, PT 70 s4

4 Star- PT Feb 97 s1&3, PT 14 s2, PT 17 s2, PT 21 s3, PT 22 s2&4, PT 23 s3, PT 25 s2, PT 36 s1, PT 39 s2, PT 40 s3, PT 43 s3, PT 44 s4, PT 47 s3, PT 48 s4, PT 49 s2, PT 51 s3, PT 56 s2, PT 58 s1, PT 59 s2, PT 63 s3, PT 71 s3, PT 76 s2

Note: I left out the first eleven PT's as they're so old and LR so different I didn't think they'd be too useful.

Takeaways: Genuinely shocked at the results in the sense that I've always felt like the newer tests were much more difficult than the older one. I felt that the RC in the 70's was way more difficult than usual, but it looks like even though the passages tend to likely be more dense, the questions themselves aren't that hard. If you really want to challenge yourself in RC it looks like using PT's in the 50's are the way to go, especially since they still have comparative reading passages.

In regards to Logic Games, though we have seen some weirder and more difficult games the past few years, they have balanced that with easier games to begin with in those sections. I can attest that some of the earlier PT's especially PT A, B, and C which are included in SuperPrep are difficult the entire way, if you really want to test your LG than this is the way to go.

The difficulty in Logical Reasoning seems to be pretty consistent over the years though this list helped me realize using some of those PT's in the 20's may end up being useful.

Overall it makes sense why the PT's over the last few years have relatively tighter curves than those from way back as the test's difficulty actually seem to be easier on balance. I hope everyone who unfortunately has to re-take or is taking for the first time can find this list useful!

Mitchell-1

If you are using 7sage's difficulty data I believe the star ratings are based on user data**. So it would make sense that older tests generally look more difficult from that perspective because people usually take those tests first. Meaning, they are closer to the beginning of their studying and thus have a lower mastery of the skills. By the time they get to the newer ones, they should in theory be closer to test ready. It's also why so few game sections are rated as difficult at all. I feel like 7sage does such a great job teaching those that we never get a great sense of the actual difficulty associated with them.

**Correct me on that if I'm wrong but that's always been my impression

OlamHafuch

I was thinking the same as @Mitchell-1 when I saw the June 2007 games section in the 4 star list. There's nothing remotely difficult about that section; it's clearly b/c most 7Sagers are taking that as there blind diagnostic, and are therefore not proficient yet with logic games.

Paul Caint

September 16, 2017: Reading Comprehension - Judicial Candor