December 2010 Initial Reactions Forum

[Heidelightful]

Oh my gosh, I almost had a heart attack... I remember 23 on LG too.

[Tullstone]

Can someone explain how a test that is scaled into percentiles is curved before the test data is taken?!?

How is it possible that out of all the test takers, no one fits into the 99th percentile?? How do they predict how many students will get so many questions wrong before hand? If they did, wouldn't it be technically unfair if the test is difficult for most people who function at the 90th percentile? Doesnt that give people who attend other administrations an arbitrary advantage, depending on how LSAT thinks their own test is?

If they do, why they hell does it take a month for me to get my goddamn score?

[abb586]

During the logic games, I actually just gave up for a second and thought "why would anyone ever build a window with ONLY green, orange, and purple? Disgusting."

Congratulations Cpwilson... this is the first time I've posted on TLS and it's because your post actually made me laugh out loud. Nicely done.

[thegarciab0y]

hahaha

[bartleby]

was 65yr old ppl's sunburn in the same section as stars?

was augustus exp?

Probably. I had 3 LR and that one was easy as balls so probably won't count.

[joebloe]

Can someone explain how a test that is scaled into percentiles is curved before the test data is taken?!?

How is it possible that out of all the test takers, no one fits into the 99th percentile?? How do they predict how many students will get so many questions wrong before hand? If they do, why they hell does it take a month for me to get my goddamn score?

It's possible for there not to be a 99th percentile if the number of people who got the highest score in a given administration was greater than 1% of all the people taking that administration.

I think anyway. I suck at stats.

[akili]

That LG WAS hard. I feel like the LR and RC sections weren't that bad though and maybe they'll make up for it? I have no idea how I did. Please let me have improved! 3 points and I'll be satisfied.

[SupraVln180]

23 on LG, I am 150% sure, I checked 6 times b/c I knew there would be a thread like this where everyone starts freaking each other out.

[DukeCornell]

Good luck everyone! (I have to go beg for a few more fee waivers.)

[Tullstone]

Can someone explain how a test that is scaled into percentiles is curved before the test data is taken?!?

How is it possible that out of all the test takers, no one fits into the 99th percentile?? How do they predict how many students will get so many questions wrong before hand? If they do, why they hell does it take a month for me to get my goddamn score?

It's possible for there not to be a 99th percentile if the number of people who got the highest score in a given administration was greater than 1% of all the people taking that administration.

I think anyway. I suck at stats.

so then the 98th percentile would be a 180.. or something lower than 98?

This still doesnt make any sennse how they would manage to judge the difficulty of a test. What if they thought something easy was really hard? Then who gets screwed/boosted? This doesnt make sense if they want to ensure test validity

[cardinals03]

Oh my gosh, I almost had a heart attack... I remember 23 on LG too.

Ok--just to confirm, it was 23 on LG? I almost passed out when I read the other post!!

[bartleby]

Real test: was 26, 26, 27, 23 - I checked at least three times because I left a question out last go-around.

I also heard someone say during break (right after they said we couldn't talk about it during break) that his first section had 28... I was guessing exp. RC but maybe he miscounted. Or hopefully misbubbled - help the curveee.

[peter844]

EDITED BY MOD

[lisavj]

Can someone explain how a test that is scaled into percentiles is curved before the test data is taken?!?

How is it possible that out of all the test takers, no one fits into the 99th percentile?? How do they predict how many students will get so many questions wrong before hand? If they did, wouldn't it be technically unfair if the test is difficult for most people who function at the 90th percentile? Doesnt that give people who attend other administrations an arbitrary advantage, depending on how LSAT thinks their own test is?

If they do, why they hell does it take a month for me to get my goddamn score?

My Guess:
That's why you have an experimental section - they want to get a general idea of what questions trip people up who score 140, 150, 160, 170...I believe that's also why Feb is undisclosed. You'll notice the practice tests are only the four scored sections, not the ES.

[chup]

Can someone pm me if they got any A,s for game three, I may cancel cause I guessed on that one ran out of time

Enjoy your 24-hour vacation.

[Redamon1]

I had

LR RC LR LR LG


I know the first LR must have been the experimental unless the test was out of 102 (which is highly unlikely)

I had the same order. But I've seen folks on this thread argue that that the third LR was the experimental. Which was really the experimental LR?

[ffonsok]

Extremely frustrated right now. After studying all summer and preptesting religiously, I got a 153 in October. I had been preptesting 160-165.
Today, after preptesting extensively (with 15 credit courseload) I took the LSAT again.

I aced the experimental LG, 100%. It was unbelievably easy.
When I got to the second LG segment, my heart sank. While the last game was easy, I know I guessed on a ton of these.

I was hoping to apply in this cycle, not trying to go to a top-10 but I would be perfectly happy with UW or Seattle U.

What's my play here? Hope that I did better on this test than in October? I felt quite confident on LR, but I always tend to drop AT LEAST 4-5 on each. I could have dropped anywhere from 4-7 on Reading Comp.... I guessed B on three blindly. I could have dropped anywhere from 6- 12 on the LG, frankly. Although I didn't guess flat-out on more than 3-4, I did NOT feel confident at all.

After the test I broke down when I found out the real LG was the one I bombed. My score could be anywhere from 153-159 I would guess.

Ugh. I'd appreciate some feedback, but i dont know what people can tell me right now. This site should really have an emoticon with a gun in its mouth.

[SchopenhauerFTW]

.

[Tullstone]

Can someone explain how a test that is scaled into percentiles is curved before the test data is taken?!?

How is it possible that out of all the test takers, no one fits into the 99th percentile?? How do they predict how many students will get so many questions wrong before hand? If they did, wouldn't it be technically unfair if the test is difficult for most people who function at the 90th percentile? Doesnt that give people who attend other administrations an arbitrary advantage, depending on how LSAT thinks their own test is?

If they do, why they hell does it take a month for me to get my goddamn score?

My Guess:
That's why you have an experimental section - they want to get a general idea of what questions trip people up who score 140, 150, 160, 170...I believe that's also why Feb is undisclosed. You'll notice the practice tests are only the four scored sections, not the ES.

But...

This still doesn't make sense. How could they predict the distribution without even knowing how many people take the test? To find out if you fit into the 90th percentile, wouldnt they have to see how many you have gotten correctly vesus how many the others have gotten correctly, and how many test takers there are?

WTF?!

[akikaze]

I thought there were a good number of very difficult LR questions on this exam -- arthritis anyone? Privatizing parks? Symptoms of mental issues? These were all quite hard for me!

[s0ph1e2007]

Good Luck you all! You're all getting 180s I can feel it!

[Tullstone]

Good Luck you all! You're all getting 180s I can feel it!

this kind of comment means nothing to a cynical crowd lol.. But thanks

[sunnyD]

Anyone else agree that opening up the test to Lichens was painful?

True that.

I had RC LR RC LG LR and radioactivity carbon/lichens was the first thing that showed up.
I think this was the one with jewlett/caries...and can't remember the third one now.

Are you guys sure the RC with bepop was experimental?

Shit, I owned the second RC and got pwned by the first RC, mostly cuz i didnt have too much time to work thru jewlett...thanks to still warming up reading to lichens..(that so sounds wrong)......so sounds like the first one was the real deal; is this right?

Wat was up with stainglass windows?!? LR was much more reasonable than Oct I thought; games were a little more challenging (although 1 & 4 were freebies). RC too was more reasonable than Oct....now if only I wasn't so caught up with freakin' Jewlettin' lichens.....

[akili]

Good Luck you all! You're all getting 180s I can feel it!

Aww s0ph1e! (is it ok to spell it sophie?)

That reminds me. Someone should start a waiting thread. Those are the good times.

[lakers3peat]

LMAO. there is no chacne I got a 180. I felt pretty confident about every section but RC; I'm estimating -5 from LR/LG then -14 from RC. Seriously -14. I had no idea what was going on the entire time.