practice test scores

dgnorton

from those of you who have already taken the lsat after completing practice tests. how close is your practice score to what you scored on test day?

10000019

7Sage uses official LSAT exams

Frank Jaeger

It varies depending on your level of understanding, timing and nerves also play a role. The PT is basically used to gauge when you are ready to take the exam. If your achieving your target score consistently while PTing, you are likely ready to take the actual test. If your nervous about your performance or still don't understand concepts fully, you are probably not ready. Nerves can be mitigated with proper preparation. If your looking forward to the test then you are probably ready.
Your mind frame is important.

Alex

@dgnorton said:
from those of you who have already taken the lsat after completing practice tests. how close is your practice score to what you scored on test day?

Most people tend to score fairly close to their PT scores on test day. It tends to vary a bit but you can usually expect a +/- 3-5 points in either direction. However it is usually on the lower side due to test day nerves.

Also, according to this article, luck officially accounts for +/- 2.6pts. The rest is up to you.

http://academic.udayton.edu/thewhitestlawschools/2005twls/chapter2/scorebands.pdf

OlamHafuch

@"Alex Divine" said:

@dgnorton said:
from those of you who have already taken the lsat after completing practice tests. how close is your practice score to what you scored on test day?

Most people tend to score fairly close to their PT scores on test day. It tends to vary a bit but you can usually expect a +/- 3-5 points in either direction. However it is usually on the lower side due to test day nerves.

Also, according to this article, luck officially accounts for +/- 2.6pts. The rest is up to you.

http://academic.udayton.edu/thewhitestlawschools/2005twls/chapter2/scorebands.pdf

I've made this point before, but it's worth making again. The score band of +/- 2.6 is based on a single standard deviation, which means that it yields a confidence level of 68%. In other words, a third of the time, you'd expect to score more than 2.6 points off your "true" score (whatever that really means). Real science always uses 2 standard deviations, so the real score band should be 5.2 points in either direction, which would give you a confidence level of over 90%. In short, it is not at all out of the ordinary to score 3 or 4 points off your "true" score, and even 5 or 6 points, while rare, would not be shocking, and in a sample size of tens of thousands of test takers would occur to a few hundred test takers at least.

OlamHafuch

Oh, and I forgot to add. The reason that LSAC uses a single standard deviation for its score band is not for any good reason; it's only because if they used to more accurate two standard deviations (5.2 points in either direction), it would yield a score band that was so large that it was basically meaningless. Not that schools actually care in the least about score bands, but LSAC likes to pretend that they do.

Alex

@uhinberg said:

@"Alex Divine" said:

@dgnorton said:
from those of you who have already taken the lsat after completing practice tests. how close is your practice score to what you scored on test day?

Most people tend to score fairly close to their PT scores on test day. It tends to vary a bit but you can usually expect a +/- 3-5 points in either direction. However it is usually on the lower side due to test day nerves.

Also, according to this article, luck officially accounts for +/- 2.6pts. The rest is up to you.

http://academic.udayton.edu/thewhitestlawschools/2005twls/chapter2/scorebands.pdf

I've made this point before, but it's worth making again. The score band of +/- 2.6 is based on a single standard deviation, which means that it yields a confidence level of 68%. In other words, a third of the time, you'd expect to score more than 2.6 points off your "true" score (whatever that really means). Real science always uses 2 standard deviations, so the real score band should be 5.2 points in either direction, which would give you a confidence level of over 90%. In short, it is not at all out of the ordinary to score 3 or 4 points off your "true" score, and even 5 or 6 points, while rare, would not be shocking, and in a sample size of tens of thousands of test takers would occur to a few hundred test takers at least.

I definitely think we've discussed this before, haha. I remember us talking stats a few months back, though I'm not sure I remember the exact context. Good point and certainly worth repeating, however!

Alex

@uhinberg said:
Oh, and I forgot to add. The reason that LSAC uses a single standard deviation for its score band is not for any good reason; it's only because if they used to more accurate two standard deviations (5.2 points in either direction), it would yield a score band that was so large that it was basically meaningless. Not that schools actually care in the least about score bands, but LSAC likes to pretend that they do.

Haha! I never considered how it doesn't seem to make much sense how the LSAC uses a single SD as opposed to two. I guess you're right that if they used two it would be a meaningless score band. Haha you're probably right about the schools not caring either way, too.

OlamHafuch

@"Alex Divine" said:

@uhinberg said:
Oh, and I forgot to add. The reason that LSAC uses a single standard deviation for its score band is not for any good reason; it's only because if they used to more accurate two standard deviations (5.2 points in either direction), it would yield a score band that was so large that it was basically meaningless. Not that schools actually care in the least about score bands, but LSAC likes to pretend that they do.

Haha! I never considered how it doesn't seem to make much sense how the LSAC uses a single SD as opposed to two. I guess you're right that if they used two it would be a meaningless score band. Haha you're probably right about the schools not caring either way, too.

Yeah, this is all part of my complicated relationship with the LSAT. I really enjoy the test itself, but I think LSAC is a disingenuous organization that pretends (on the basis of pseudo-science) that their test is some great predictor of law school success, when the data shows that it is actually laughably poor [It's only claim to fame is that it's a better predictor than GPA. That's like Saddam Hussein saying that he's not cruel because he's better than Stalin]. I've read some great scholarly articles pointing out these flaws, but as long as US News rankings reign supreme, all this matter not one bit.

Alex

@uhinberg said:

@"Alex Divine" said:

@uhinberg said:
Oh, and I forgot to add. The reason that LSAC uses a single standard deviation for its score band is not for any good reason; it's only because if they used to more accurate two standard deviations (5.2 points in either direction), it would yield a score band that was so large that it was basically meaningless. Not that schools actually care in the least about score bands, but LSAC likes to pretend that they do.

Haha! I never considered how it doesn't seem to make much sense how the LSAC uses a single SD as opposed to two. I guess you're right that if they used two it would be a meaningless score band. Haha you're probably right about the schools not caring either way, too.

[It's only claim to fame is that it's a better predictor than GPA. That's like Saddam Hussein saying that he's not cruel because he's better than Stalin].

Facts.

https://media.giphy.com/media/GpyS1lJXJYupG/giphy.gif