154 on first test.. What should I do?

chmccomb

So I took the December LSAT with no preparation. I'm torn between getting an MBA and going to law school, so I just wanted to see how I'd do. I managed to score a 154, which isn't terrible, but I really need a 160+ to consider law school a serious option.

I did pretty well on the reading comprehension and logical reasoning portions of the exam, but the logic games absolutely killed me. I missed 11/23 questions.

Ideally, I would like to retake the LSAT on February 8th, so I have time to apply to a few schools for the Fall. I graduated in December, and I do not want to wait until the Fall of 2017 to start working on my JD/MBA.

Is it possible to increase your score 6+ points in one month? I would focus primarily on perfecting the logic games section because that's where I have the most room for improvement. I don't have work or school, so I can give LSAT prep my full attention. What do you guys think? Should I go for it?

shanep6k

You could increase your score by far more than 6 point in a month if you are willing to put in the hours. Go for it.

rhinofood

You won't know until you try. However, you should figure out what you want to do first.

Alejandro

You should reevaluate taking the test in Feb. You have the potential to improve much more than 6 points if you take the test in June or October. Why rush it?

jyang72

I can saw my score but not each section. Can anyone please tell me how to check each section's score? Thank you

chmccomb

@jyang72 You need to go to the LSAC website and look at your report. You can see all of the questions you missed in each section.

chmccomb

@Alejandro I'm sure I could improve much more by June, but then I would miss all of the application deadlines for the Fall of 2016. I don't want to wait an additional year to start a program.

Alejandro

Ok, if waiting another year is completely out of the picture then take it in February for sure. If my estimates are right and you hammer LG for a month to the point where you are consistently hitting -0 (which I think is doable) and keep LR/RC the way they are then you would get around a 160 best case scenario. That wouldn't be an easy feat though. Please let me know what reasons you have for not wanting to wait another year if you don't mind. If you are not at or getting close to your thirties or you are an immigrant and uncle Sam is pressuring you to start school this fall, I can't see a good reason why you would forgo maximizing your score to attend school a year earlier so I urge you to re-evaluate.

Maritzaa

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Atcolsat

@Alejandro said:
If you are not at or getting close to your thirties or you are an immigrant and uncle Sam is pressuring you to start school this fall, I can't see a good reason why you would forgo maximizing your score to attend school a year earlier so I urge you to re-evaluate.

I'm 30 years old and I just took the LSAT in December with no prep at all and scored a 159. You better believe I'm going to wait to apply for another year and study hard to reach my potential. What's the rush? Time is an illusion.

Pacifico

@chmccomb said:
I really need a 160+ to consider law school a serious option.

This is not really a very good reason to go to law school and I'm not seeing much else in your posts that really makes me think you actually want to be a lawyer, more that it's just something to do because why not. Of course that analysis could be totally off base, but statements like the above and the fact that you purposefully took an official administration with the intent of using the score without having studied don't paint a picture of someone who actually wants to be a lawyer. You're super young so you have more than enough time to figure out what you want to do and jumping into law school and taking on the debt load and whatever else comes along with it is a pretty big commitment to be so cavalier about.

If you shit the bed that bad on LG, you might be able to get a good 5-7 point bump in your raw score there by the February test, but there's no guarantee, and I don't understand why you would tie yourself to a potentially worse business school because you had to settle for a worse law school simply due to an average LSAT score. However, I would also mention that you missed almost 40 questions on the test and only 11 were in LG so you had to have done almost as poorly in each of the sections to get that score, so I'm sure you could get where you needed to be if you studied, and taking a year off would give you a bit more time to figure out what you actually want to do, because it doesn't quite seem like you know just yet and there's no good reason to put yourself in this position just because of the arbitrary timelines of this particular cycle. Neither business nor law schools are going anywhere, and in today's market, there's not much to gain for rushing into it just to get it done.

chmccomb

@Alejandro You're definitely right, there is no rush. I'm only 22. I just don't like the idea of having nothing to do for months on end. I could get a job or an internship, but I'd rather be in school.

I know most people recommend 3+ months of prep, but that usually only includes 1-2 hours of practice a day (on average) to allow for classes/work. I feel like if I can put in 4-6 hours a day for a month, I should be able to make as much (possibly more) progress in less time.

noobie1

Take it from someone who is considering JD or MBA, there isn't too much upshot to getting both degrees. Do you know exactly what you're going to be doing with those degrees? Are there specific opportunities you're looking for that requires both degrees? I highly don't recommend law school unless you absolutely know for certain that you want to be a lawyer. An MBA isn't all that useful IMO without some work experience.

chmccomb

@noobie1 I'm not too keen on doing a dual JD and MBA program. I'm mainly just trying to decide between the two.

chmccomb

@Pacifico I mainly took the test because I was trying to explore possibilities. I'm not 100% positive I want to go to law school, but it's definitely in the cards. I just want to get all of my applications out ASAP, so I can weigh my options. I don't know if taking a year off will help me realize what I really want to do with my life. There are people much older than me that still haven't figured that out.

I know I didn't do amazing on the other sections either, but the LG section is where there is the most room for improvement. That's why I plan to put my focus there if I go through with the test in February, but I will definitely practice the other sections too.

Thanks you for your advice. I will definitely take what you said into consideration.

mimimimi

Are you applying for spring programs? You won't be able to make it this cycle with your Feb retake.