DaRascal wrote:
I think the subject title's pretty self-explanatory. And I mean to imply that some people have ceilings that aren't 170+.
What I mean to say is... Do you think there are some people who can never really achieve a certain score even with an unlimited amount of study time because of factors such as lapses in focus, inability to process/handle multiple pieces of information at one time, inability to make correct inferences, etc etc etc.
I've read for the longest time on here that the LSAT is an exam that can be learned, but I just don't buy it. This is exam is pretty difficult. There's no way that virutally everyone is capable of getting a 170+ on this.
What do you think?
Also, just to clarify a response to OP's initial question: I think it depends on your definition of 'everyone'. If 'everyone' means literally 'everyone', than, yes, not everyone can score 170 on this test in a reasonable manner. There are plenty of people who are dyslexic, who dropped out of high school, who never read well, who are psychotic, or mentally retarded (I mean diagnosed, not just 'stupid people) who cannot take this test effectively.
However, if 'everyone' means 'everyone who takes the LSAT', then we have a smaller pool. Assuming that they all completed high school, and all have a college degree, they must have some degree of reading comprehension. This pool will still include people diagnosed with ADHD, depression, and so on. Even so, those people with those disorders can and regularly do get great scores on the LSAT, either due to medication or to sheer perseverance. This leaves us with a bit of a problem, though: what about the others who cannot perform well on the LSAT? What happened?
I don't think anything happened. I think these people have simply hit a plateau, or have let their reading skills atrophy. Either way, they have the skills they need. It might take some time to figure out the next step, but they are perfectly capable of taking it within a reasonable time period.
To take the LSAT, you must have passed high school, have completed (or are completing) a 4-year degree, and must have had approximately 16-18 years of schooling in your life. That is a lot of reading. I just don't find it plausible that someone who has completed that much schooling, and has gotten a respectable GPA, lacks so much in reading comprehension that he or she cannot take that test.