"Only 3 out of 10,000 test-takers score 179" -- BluePrint Forum

[ComatoseClown]

This caught my eye as I was scanning their "Staff biographies" page.

http://www.blueprintprep.com/team.php

Scroll down to the sixth tutor on that page (her last name is Hebert). The author of her biography writes in the first line that "[Hebert] has a 179 on the LSAT. Bam. Just three out of 10,000 get that score...."

But is that true? Something in me highly doubts the veracity of that statistic. According to an official LSAT score percentile chart by the LSAC, 179 is listed to be at the 99.9th percentile, and given that the number of LSAT test-takers is over 60,000, wouldn't this mean that 60 of those takers score 179 [math: 0.001*60,000 = 60]? Were the biography's statistic to be true, it would translate to 18 test-takers out of 60,000 scoring a 179, which to me seems like a shockingly small number. I mean, on this forum alone we've seen posts and [great] advice from several 179 and 180 scorers.

What are your thoughts?

Edited: thanks to eskimo below me. This is why I stopped at Calculus.
Second edit: Am I understanding the LSAT Percentile Chart correctly? There's only 60 out of 60,000 LSAT takers who score 179?(!)

[Dany]

.1 = 10%

Check you math.

(.001*60,000)

[Verisimi]

Yes, approximately 60 out of 60,000 students receive a 99.9th percentile score (60,000 * .001 = 60). However, that same percentile applies to 178, 179, and 180. If the distribution among those scores were equal, which it's probably not, then that would be about 20 people with each, which is very close to the extrapolated 18 179 scorers. Then, multiply that by about 3 to get just one year of LSAT test-takers.

[robotclubmember]

This caught my eye as I was scanning their "Staff biographies" page.

http://www.blueprintprep.com/team.php

Scroll down to the sixth tutor on that page (her last name is Hebert). The author of her biography writes in the first line that "[Hebert] has a 179 on the LSAT. Bam. Just three out of 10,000 get that score...."

But is that true? Something in me highly doubts the veracity of that statistic. According to an official LSAT score percentile chart by the LSAC, 179 is listed to be at the 99.9th percentile, and given that the number of LSAT test-takers is over 60,000, wouldn't this mean that 60 of those takers score 179 [math: 0.001*60,000 = 60]? Were the biography's statistic to be true, it would translate to 18 test-takers out of 60,000 scoring a 179, which to me seems like a shockingly small number. I mean, on this forum alone we've seen posts and [great] advice from several 179 and 180 scorers.

What are your thoughts?

Edited: thanks to eskimo below me. This is why I stopped at Calculus.
Second edit: Am I understanding the LSAT Percentile Chart correctly? There's only 60 out of 60,000 LSAT takers who score 179?(!)

Well, yes, 179 is the 99.9th percentile, if that's as far as your rounding goes. But so is 178 and 180. So that tenth of a percent is also being split between three different scores. Realistically, 178 is probably 99.90%ile, 179 is probably 99.95%ile, and 180 is probably 99.98%ile. Roughly. They don't round that far. So then their math would appear to be correct. EDIT - just realized the guy above me said the same thing.

I also think this site is a self-selected population which is not representative of the population as a whole. Also, I've reached 180 on a PT, but for all I know I could be back down to 165 on the real test day. I think it's not that uncommon for someone to run into the occasional 180 in their preptesting, so hearing people talk about their 180 on a PT may make 180 sound common, but very few actually receive it on test day, and those who do like to grab their megaphones and make sure everyone knows about it. Which is a good thing, they usually dispense good ideas.