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My original plan was to take the LSAT on October 9. I am not sure i am ready. My goal was to score in the 167-170 range but i have yet to score a 170 on a prep test. (169 is highest). My average would probably be in the low 160's. The majority of the mistakes on the LG section are usually stupid mistakes. I probably average a (-5) on that section. My worst section is reading comp as i never really tried any strategies besides reading the passage and answering the questions. On LR i usually make a couple of really stupid mistakes and miss some of the hard questions. (probablly like a -10 on both sections, usually less).

Should i try to tighten things up between now and october or should reschedule till december. (deadline is the 20th)

I have a 3.36 gpa and i am looking at ohio state, wayne state, MSU, illinois, minnesota, and maybe boston college and boston u. This is not the only schools i am looking at but these would probablly be the main ones. I am trying to go somewhere good but still get decent scholarship money. (michigan is actually my number 1 but yea...)

ADVICE??

Anybody?

Take it now. Do not wait. You will get in to Wayne and MSU without getting above a 167 on your LSAT as long as you apply early, wait until December and it is much less certain and you may still be scoring in the same range.

artichoke88 wrote:Take it now. Do not wait. You will get in to Wayne and MSU without getting above a 167 on your LSAT as long as you apply early, wait until December and it is much less certain and you may still be scoring in the same range.

I would like to consider wayne and MSU my back up options. And i do not think i will go there without alot of money. i was hoping a high lsat would give me a good amount of money at wayne and MSU which would be great.

Thank you

As someone who took it in December last year and got owned, take it in October.

If you screw it up, you could always retake in December, but if you bomb in December you are done. Having two scores doesn't seem to be a huge issue now that they just report the higher score.

akili wrote:As someone who took it in December last year and got owned, take it in October.

If you screw it up, you could always retake in December, but if you bomb in December you are done. Having two scores doesn't seem to be a huge issue now that they just report the higher score.

This is not always true, some schools take only the higher score, but some consider both or average your scores.

akili wrote:As someone who took it in December last year and got owned, take it in October.

If you screw it up, you could always retake in December, but if you bomb in December you are done. Having two scores doesn't seem to be a huge issue now that they just report the higher score.

Thanks for the advice. I think that is what i am going to do. The annoying thing is i have gone through alot of material and if i push hard for october i will use up the majority of what i have left. I have a really good memeory so unless i take alot of time off i will remember the majority of the questions i see.

You could always just study until you have reached your peak and then take it. Taking a year or two off is not the worse thing in the world as long as you have some form of employment to tide you over. Even if you don't have employment make sure to do something (travel/volunteer/peace corp/etc) so there isnt a gap on your resume.

If you really feel like you can improve I would wait till December, then app to a few of your reach schools when your score is returned. If you get accepted, attend... if not take a year off and get your apps ready to submit as soon as they are posted next cycle.

Talked to my testmaster instructor today and he gave me some solid advice. He said he did not like the idea of having the first try in december because no there is no fall back option. If i have a bad testing day or nerves affect me too much then i am screwed because i cannot take it again. He said to work as hard as possible and take it in october. If i am not satisfied with the score to take it again in december.

I think this is what i am going to do. I am still going to work like crazy till october but i think i will be more relaxed when i take the LSAT because i have another chance in December. This might even help my score.

It seriously perplexes me how so many people seem to believe that "a lot" is one word, to be written as "alot." It is not a word. N'existe pas. Non est verbum.

Anyways, I would say go for October so you have the back up of December, like everyone else is saying.

eit wrote:It seriously perplexes me how so many people seem to believe that "a lot" is one word, to be written as "alot." It is not a word. N'existe pas. Non est verbum.

Anyways, I would say go for October so you have the back up of December, like everyone else is saying.

Thank you. I did not know my post was being graded for spelling and grammar. I will make sure my future posts are edited and peer reveiwed to make sure there are zero mistakes.

313D313 wrote:

eit wrote:It seriously perplexes me how so many people seem to believe that "a lot" is one word, to be written as "alot." It is not a word. N'existe pas. Non est verbum.

Anyways, I would say go for October so you have the back up of December, like everyone else is saying.

Thank you. I did not know my post was being graded for spelling and grammar. I will make sure my future posts are edited and peer reveiwed to make sure there are zero mistakes.

reviewed*

Sorry i had to do it

But regardless, definitely take it in October. Your issue is different than others who come on here and are PTing at 158 and want a 170 in 3 weeks despite never having even broken 160. You KNOW you have a 169 in you so prepare vigilantly and I bet you can start hitting that number consistently on practice tests. 3 weeks is a ton of time to study, but you really have to be fully committed to it.

313D313 wrote:

eit wrote:It seriously perplexes me how so many people seem to believe that "a lot" is one word, to be written as "alot." It is not a word. N'existe pas. Non est verbum.

Anyways, I would say go for October so you have the back up of December, like everyone else is saying.

Thank you. I did not know my post was being graded for spelling and grammar. I will make sure my future posts are edited and peer reveiwed to make sure there are zero mistakes.

I wasn't actually reviewing your posts for spelling and grammar. If I had been, I would have had quite a few more corrections to offer you, I'm sure. However, as I was reading through this thread, you were consistently misspelling a lot as alot. The consistency and frequency of this error (didn't see an "a lot" anywhere in your posts) led me to believe it wasn't just a typo. If you're consistently misspelling a common word, someone should point it out to you so that you don't misspell it when it actually counts .

I have to say that some the posts on here are terrible advice. You should NOT take the test until you are ready. This test will heavily influence how you will be viewed by adcoms.

Yeah some schools say they take the higher score, just like they say they look at the whole application or don't have a GPA cutoff. If you blow it will be stuck on your record for years. What happens if you take a year off? Will the world end or will all of the law schools close?

If you score in your average (low 160s), which is probably where you will score, then your chances of getting into a great schools are limited. Also, it's doubtful that you will score at the highest end of your range (169) on test day. Lastly, reading comp is the hardest to improve so it takes the most time.

Don't rush into this it's too important. It's like marriage or having a kid!


You tesmtasters instructor is wrong. There are fallback options Feb. June, next Sept/Oct., the December after that and so on. It's not like the LSAT is going to disappear after this year.


Edited for grammar/spelling/typo police living up to her/his tar.

In your fourth post of this thread you wrote about your memory & that " I have a really good memory so unless I take a lot of time off I will remember the majority of the questions I see...". This is somewhat troubling because the key to doing well on the LSAT (and on law school exams) is understanding, not memorizing.

eit wrote:It seriously perplexes me how so many people seem to believe that "a lot" is one word, to be written as "alot." It is not a word. N'existe pas. Non est verbum.

Anyways, I would say go for October so you have the back up of December, like everyone else is saying.

I think it would have been funnier had he replied 'Thanks alot!'.

eit wrote:

313D313 wrote:

eit wrote:It seriously perplexes me how so many people seem to believe that "a lot" is one word, to be written as "alot." It is not a word. N'existe pas. Non est verbum.

Anyways, I would say go for October so you have the back up of December, like everyone else is saying.

Thank you. I did not know my post was being graded for spelling and grammar. I will make sure my future posts are edited and peer reveiwed to make sure there are zero mistakes.

I wasn't actually reviewing your posts for spelling and grammar. If I had been, I would have had quite a few more corrections to offer you, I'm sure. However, as I was reading through this thread, you were consistently misspelling a lot as alot. The consistency and frequency of this error (didn't see an "a lot" anywhere in your posts) led me to believe it wasn't just a typo. If you're consistently misspelling a common word, someone should point it out to you so that you don't misspell it when it actually counts .

I know, just being sarcastic. Its kinda of annoying when your asking for advice and people like to nit pick for spelling and other minor things that are irrelevant to the focus of the post. (you can probably find spelling errors in this post if you look for some.)

3|ink wrote:

eit wrote:It seriously perplexes me how so many people seem to believe that "a lot" is one word, to be written as "alot." It is not a word. N'existe pas. Non est verbum.

Anyways, I would say go for October so you have the back up of December, like everyone else is saying.

I think it would have been funnier had he replied 'Thanks alot!'.

HAHAHA yes that would have been.

swc65 wrote:I have to say that some the posts on here are terrible advice. You should NOT take the test until you are ready. This test will heavily influence how you will be viewed by adcoms.

Yeah some schools say they take the higher score, just like they say they look at the whole application or don't have a GPA cutoff. If you blow it will be stuck on your record for years. What happens if you take a year off? Will the world end or will all of the law schools close?

If you score in your average (low 160s), which is probably where you will score, then your chances of getting into a great schools are limited. Also, it's doubtful that you will score at the highest end of your range (169) on test day. Lastly, reading comp is the hardest to improve so it takes the most time.

Don't rush into this it's too important. It's like marriage or having a kid!


You tesmtasters instructor is wrong. There are fallback options Feb. June, next Sept/Oct., the December after that and so on. It's not like the LSAT is going to disappear after this year.


Edited for grammar/spelling/typo police living up to her/his tar.

I think your advice holds true for the majority of cases. In my situation i am done with UG and applying this year i will already be out of school for a year when i start law school. Based on my circumstances it would not work for me to put off law school that long. This may not be the case for everybody but that just does not work for me.

Regarding typos/errors. OP: you made a major mistake that actually is important to your circumstances.

The deadline for changing your LSAC test date registration from the October administration to the December test is September 19th, not the 20th. Screw that one up and decide to postpone on the 20th and you are SOL.

http://lsac.org/JD/LSAT/test-dates-us-oct10.asp

Since your PT average is in the low 160's and you want to break 170, it doesn't sound like you are going to be ready to accomplish that 3 weeks from now.

If your LS aspirations (schools you want to attend and also want scholarship $$$'s from) depend on achieving 167+ (realistically you probably need 170+ with your 3.36 GPA since that is pretty low for admission to good LS's and especially for getting free $$$ too) you should adjust your plans realistically in order to avoid having a sub-par score on your record to have to try and explain away in your applications along with the rolling admissions disadvantage of applying later in the cycle with a December score and an October score.

Just for reality alert purposes let's look at the numbers you supplied about your current performance level:
You average -5 on LG sections
You typically miss around 10 questions total in the LR sections (~-5 per LR section)
RC is your worst section but you didn't give the average number you miss per RC section, so by implication the number is greater than 5

Ignoring how many you miss in RC (and even assuming perfect performance in that section), your average performance of missing ~15 questions in the LG and LR sections combined by itself guarantees that you will not break 170 and maybe not even score a 167.

Given your goals this all screams DO NOT TAKE THE OCTOBER test! Applying earlier with an October score DOES NOT compensate for the harm to your admission chances a low/lower than index range for your preferred LS's LSAT score will cause.

(PS: spell checked, typo checked and grammar checked! )

Jeffort wrote:Regarding typos/errors. OP: you made a major mistake that actually is important to your circumstances.

The deadline for changing your LSAC test date registration from the October administration to the December test is September 19th, not the 20th. Screw that one up and decide to postpone on the 20th and you are SOL.

http://lsac.org/JD/LSAT/test-dates-us-oct10.asp

Since your PT average is in the low 160's and you want to break 170, it doesn't sound like you are going to be ready to accomplish that 3 weeks from now.

If your LS aspirations (schools you want to attend and also want scholarship $$$'s from) depend on achieving 167+ (realistically you probably need 170+ with your 3.36 GPA since that is pretty low for admission to good LS's and especially for getting free $$$ too) you should adjust your plans realistically in order to avoid having a sub-par score on your record to have to try and explain away in your applications along with the rolling admissions disadvantage of applying later in the cycle with a December score and an October score.

Just for reality alert purposes let's look at the numbers you supplied about your current performance level:
You average -5 on LG sections
You typically miss around 10 questions total in the LR sections (~-5 per LR section)
RC is your worst section but you didn't give the average number you miss per RC section, so by implication the number is greater than 5

Ignoring how many you miss in RC (and even assuming perfect performance in that section), your average performance of missing ~15 questions in the LG and LR sections combined by itself guarantees that you will not break 170 and maybe not even score a 167.

Given your goals this all screams DO NOT TAKE THE OCTOBER test! Applying earlier with an October score DOES NOT compensate for the harm to your admission chances a low/lower than index range for your preferred LS's LSAT score will cause.

(PS: spell checked, typo checked and grammar checked! )

THANK YOU for providing the correct day.
Well a 167 would get me into most of the schools I am looking at and give money as well. (Ohio State, Wayne State, MSU, Illinios??)

Even though a 170 might give me a lucky shot at a T14, I want to come out of law school with as little debt as possible while still attending a decent/god school. I am not sure I would pay sticker at a T14. That is why I am mostly focusing on decent/good regional schools that I can hopefully get money at.

The majority of the mistakes on the LG section are stupid mistakes. I have a good grasp of logic games and I am hoping with enough practice and by slowing down to speed up I can eliminate most of those mistakes. As far as reading comp I think I have found a strategy that works for me I just need to keep practicing it.

While I might not score a 167 in October I do not think I will be too far off. But I think the main reason I am taking it is I feel it would be too much pressure to have everything based off my performance in December.
What do you think?

I appreciate everybody spell checking and editing before posting.

All of this is to be taken with a grain of salt if the schools you care about take your higher score no questions asked.

Atlas LSAT Teacher wrote:All of this is to be taken with a grain of salt if the schools you care about take your higher score no questions asked.

You always have great flowcharts

Thanks! When I proposed to my wife, I included graphs.