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I just took a diagnostic after reading just a few pages of the Logic Games Bible my raw score was a 62 which translates to a 151 for that specific test... I'm really nervous now that I see how low of a score that is. I just started an online lsat class that will hopefully boost my score.

This is very eye-opening. I want to aim for top schools like Cornell, Georgetown, UVA...

What should I aim for with a
3.65 uGPA from a top 50 undergrad
K-JD
Softs: average
URM: Puerto Rican (do they get a boost?)
Also, I'm the first in my family to go to college and am LGBT.

With those things in mind what should I get on the LSAT to make applying to those schools worth it? I'm obviously always going to aim for a 180, but I want to know what range gives me a realistic shot at those types of schools.

Thanks!

My first diagnostic was a 149. Wound up with a 170+ after 3 months of pretty intense study. Just keep grinding. Try playing with http://mylsn.info/r/pre-law/admissions/search/ to get a good idea for where you should be aiming. I'd say that 170 mark should do really well for you.

aim for as high as possible. Several of us started out in the 150's. If you dive into the LSAT thread you'll find tons of stories of people raising their score by 20-30 points. Just don't limit yourself to any deadline. Don't say "well i wanna be able to take the june test." Start studying and whenever you've raised your score to a good level, THEN set a deadline.

Diagnostic Score: 154
Test Day: 177

Don't get discouraged. You will want mid to high 16- to have a good have of chance of admit and prolly 170+ for substantial scholarship. You can do it.

as others are telling you, just study more.

another anecdote - 147 cold diagnostic, ended up at a T14 on a substantial scholarship

Started at 151 and wound up with a 165.

I started with like a 151 or 152 and ended up with a 170

Don't get discouraged. As you can see, plenty of people on this site make enormous jumps by studying the right way. Get acquainted with the LSAT community here. It's top notch for self studiers, and there are plenty of experienced people willing to help.

Adding to the anecdotes, I self studied from a 149 diagnostic to a 177 on test day. It can certainly be done.

^^ Damn, I can't beat that, but I did +14 points from my diagnostic. It can be done, OP. GL!

BP Ben wrote:Don't get discouraged. As you can see, plenty of people on this site make enormous jumps by studying the right way. Get acquainted with the LSAT community here. It's top notch for self studiers, and there are plenty of experienced people willing to help.

Adding to the anecdotes, I self studied from a 149 diagnostic to a 177 on test day. It can certainly be done.

OP, I'd recommend browsing the LSAT section and find a good self study program. I didn't use blueprint though ive heard great things about it.

Br3v wrote:

BP Ben wrote:Don't get discouraged. As you can see, plenty of people on this site make enormous jumps by studying the right way. Get acquainted with the LSAT community here. It's top notch for self studiers, and there are plenty of experienced people willing to help.

Adding to the anecdotes, I self studied from a 149 diagnostic to a 177 on test day. It can certainly be done.

OP, I'd recommend browsing the LSAT section and find a good self study program. I didn't use blueprint though ive heard great things about it.

I just started 7sage 3month online study course. Thanks for the feedback everyone!

Like the others here I had a fairly significant jump myself from a 155 on my first PT to a 176 test day. Large increases are very possible provided you make sure your course of study is not only rigorous but effective and targeted to your needs. The areas you are currently struggling with the most are sometimes the easiest to improve on (logic games for me). I say that to suggest that you don't jump into a class and expect results. Lots of them just aren't effective generally and others are better at targeting certain things. I recommend going through the forums here to find plans of study and I highly recommend going to 7sage.com for their free resources. They have video explanations for every logic game ever and an online practice test checker. You can put in your answers to PT's and it will grade and analyze them to help really identify what areas you need to work on (this part was extremely helpful for me).

Best of luck!

edit: I see you've already started 7sage. Awesome. I never did their course but heard great things. Their video LG explanations paired with powerscore's logic games bible is responsible for the majority of my increase in score.

Took a class...first diagnostic was a 147 and 8 weeks later I was PTing (under proctored conditions) at 168-171 consistently. Just stick to it, put in the work, and the questions will start to look simple after a while.

Similar to others, I went 149 -> 170. You can totally get there. Just takes a lot of discipline.

dontrogerthat wrote: URM: Puerto Rican (do they get a boost?)

Yes.

Similarly experienced a 20+ jump from diagnostic to test day, and I was pretty lazy, so it defintiely is possible.

151 without studying is actually good (assuming you timed yourself accurately)

LSAT is a learn-able test. 165+ scores are a sign of effort and intelligence, not just intelligence.

People who get a 150 on test day are either unintelligent or didn't put the effort in.

TheCurrantThyme wrote:Diagnostic Score: 154
Test Day: 177

Don't get discouraged. You will want mid to high 16- to have a good have of chance of admit and prolly 170+ for substantial scholarship. You can do it.

How long did you study?
My cold diagnostic score is the same as yours and am aiming at a 175+
There are four months for me to study full-time.

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from 149 diag to 178 on this past June LSAT and if anything i regret every second I didn't study more. Not complaining about my score, just saying hard work and you can get any score! I believe you can overcome the test day anxiety if you have prepared a ridiculous amount. I could hardly sleep (got about 4.5 hours) the night before my test day and the anxiety from the night before still carried over to test day. With some deep breaths and a feeling of dominance after that first section I'm very pleased with my score and am applying to law schools in a few months. GL! I believe in you

I took the test masters online course and went from 152 to 179, so definitely don't give up hope. As others have said, it's a very learnable test if you put the effort in.

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OP this was a thread I made but I decided to just post the first post for you to read here. It's a little long but it's my motivational story of lsat awfulness to success.

This is my experience with the LSAT and it should be read by anyone who is looking for LSAT motivation.

In college, I started thinking about the LSAT and law school. I went to a free kaplan session where there is a proctor (tutor) and he gives a full exam. I had not prepared at all and left with a 143. My head was spinning and I went to talk to an advisor of mine. He said if someone wants to go to law school, they should have started studying in high school. That was his serious advice. It takes 3-4 years to master the LSAT at a minimum (he went to HYS law and Princeton PHD so the dude is extremely smart himself). That did not help my confidence.

Fast forward a year. Just graduated college, I was headed to graduate school. It is June 1st, 2014. It was the first time I seriously tried to study, aiming for the September exam. I was doing okay, never really breaking 160. Games was my worst section, going -15/-20 at a time. Having access to some family support, I reached out to a tutor to teach me games. Worth every penny and started going -10, then -5, then -1. Progress! Unfortunately reasoning wasn't progressing as I would have liked, but I was getting tutored on Skype as my graduate school was far away. I was doing what my tutor told me all the way up through the September exam and was pting mid 160s. Eventually September came and I received a high 150's score. I was devastated. 4 months of work, lots of money, and still not even breaking 160. I was distraught, a failure, a waste. This was all in the mist of graduate school and it was just awful.

I take a month off of studying and decided to try again in December. I dumped my tutor (but LG was a massive improvement getting to -0) and decided instead of trying to learn everything just focus on LR. I had games down and just needed LR help. I buckled down for a few months and studied hard. December came, did great on games and not as great on LR, but a significant improvement. I had been pting from 164-174 on any given test. Come December, I went -6 on RC. Received a mid 160s score. Was devastated again, how could I possibly get into a t14? My dreams were over.

I applied everywhere and had a good cycle. Got serious scholarship money from top 20 schools and wl at a few t14. I decided on one top 20 with a nice scholarship and my parents were proud, I was proud, it actually was all okay. But something was bugging me, it was the LSAT. I felt like twice it had won, twice it beat me yet I wanted to try again. My parents said no, why even go through this again?

So I signed up for June. I threw out everything I knew about the LSAT and started at PT 1. I took EVERY SINGLE LSAT from 1-76 (or whatever it is) and then redid 60-76 again. I wasn't trying to beat the test or learn the test, rather I was just going through it systematically. If I got a RC question wrong, I spent 15 minutes breaking down every answer choice and trying to figure out where I went wrong and which one is more right. I did this for 4 months, on top of grad school.

It now brings me to this moment. I received a mid 170s score in the 99th percentile in June. Within 12 hours of the score, I had received a call from a t14 I was rejected from offering me unsolicited admission along with 2 others just outside the t14. It looks like I will be sitting out a year and reapplying.

What this is all about ultimately is I had around a 30 point increase from first pt to June 2015. It was a full year of studying with small breaks in between. You don't need a tutor. What he taught me I found the same on youtube for free. What matters is you determination to really work at it. Actually take every single PT ever given over and over. By my actual count, I have taken over 150 full pts this past year (obviously repeating each one at some point). My professor was wrong, you don't need 4 years of study. You need 1 and the determination to do it.

tl;dr I started from the bottom (143) and now I am here (mid 170s). Good luck, you can do it.

SAT: 2160 (98.X)
LSAT Diagnostic: 150 (44.2)
First Attempt: 164 (89.6)
Second Attempt: 170 (97.4)

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