LSAT score conversions can seem intimidating at first. You have no idea what a raw score or scaled score means. Fortunately, it's not that tough. Soon you'll know exactly how to find out your score.
Each LSAT has about 100 or 101 questions. You get one point for getting a question right, and there is no penalty for guessing.
Your "raw score" is just the total number of questions you get right.
Converting Raw Scores To LSAT Scaled Scores
Your scaled score is a mark out of 180, and it's the one that counts. Law schools use this to compare you against students who wrote different LSATs.
Each LSAT has it's own formula for converting raw scores to scaled scores. You can find it at the back of the test.
Take your raw score, and look at the chart. There will be two columns: highest and lowest. These show the highest and lowest raw scores that let you get a certain scaled score.
If this sounds complicated, don't worry: Just find your number in one of the columns, then read the scaled score that's in the same row. That's your score.
Example: Finding a Scaled Score For The June 2007 LSAT
I'll give you an example using the June 2007 LSAT. Let's pretend you got the following scores:
- Logic Games: 14/23
- Logical Reasoning I: 18/25
- Logical Reasoning II: 20/25
- Reading Comprehension: 19/27
Add them up: 14 + 18 + 20 + 19 = 71
Then look at page 38, which has the scoring scale. You can see 71 in the "lowest" column. It's the lowest score you could get to get a 156 (not bad for a first score!). A raw score of 72 would also have gotten a 156. That's the "highest" raw score that qualified.
Believe it or not, you now know everything there is to know about calculating your LSAT score.
You're probably wondering what your score means, and what an LSAT percentile is. Stay tuned, that's a topic for an upcoming post!
For more detailed explanation of LSAT score conversion, check out this post.
Click here to use our LSAT score calculator to figure out your raw and scaled score.