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do the people that cancel their score affect the curve? basically how does the curve work because i have heard that it is made before the test from exp ... so whats the real deal?

anybody>???

People in an earlier thread were saying that the curve is determined before the test is even given based on how people did on the experimental sections that became the actual test. If that is the case, cancelled scores are irrelevant.

so that begs the question, how is the curve determined..

It's not a "curve" because you're not judged relative to the other people who took the test the same day. Before the test is ever given, LSAC sets a conversion table, where each raw score corresponds to a scaled score (120-180). This can be adjusted after the test, but I don't think that happens very often.

LSAC calls this process "equating" and it's all done by the statistics gathered from the questions when they were experimental sections.

So no, cancels will not affect scores overall.

getitdone wrote:so that begs the question, how is the curve determined..

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Begging_the_question

Also, the reason what you're calling a curve varies test to test is because of the relative difficulty of a test. On a difficult test, a 97 raw score might be equated to a 180. On an easier test, a 97 could be a 178 instead. This has nothing to do with the people who took each of those tests, it's based on the statistical difficulty of the test (which, again, is determined before anyone takes it.)

Hope this is helpful!

MrKappus wrote:

getitdone wrote:so that begs the question, how is the curve determined..

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Begging_the_question

Wow. I actually had NO idea that's what that meant... that's really interesting! I had always heard it used as it was used earlier ITT.

eskimo wrote:Wow. I actually had NO idea that's what that meant... that's really interesting! I had always heard it used as it was used earlier ITT.

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eskimo wrote:

MrKappus wrote:

getitdone wrote:so that begs the question, how is the curve determined..

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Begging_the_question

Wow. I actually had NO idea that's what that meant... that's really interesting! I had always heard it used as it was used earlier ITT.

It's a really common mistake, since it is almost always used incorrectly. In fact, I usually avoid using it correctly because I think it confuses people and usually go with circular reasoning or assuming your conclusion instead.