Sorry... I don't get the curve... Don't stone me please Forum

[Tainted_Praise]

Can someone please explain to me how the curve works.... Is curving your answer the same as when you finish taking a practice test and it tells you to add up four scores from the four real sections and then it had a graph that scales it on the 180 scale? Or is curving your score like say.... If there is a -10 curve if you got 90/100 on the LSAT that makes your LSAT score 180... And 80/100 is 170..... Or do I have this all wrong? Someone please let me know I am confused. Sorry if this seems like obvious information

[suspicious android]

Your first idea was correct. We're referring to the number of questions you can get wrong to get a particular scaled score (usually 170). It's like the preptests, adding up your correct answers to get a raw score, finding what scaled score you get based on your raw score.

Kurst will probably be along soon to give you links to better explanations.

[delusional]

V. Simple. The curve is set up in advance, not based on the people with whom you take the test, but based on the scores of other people who have taken these sections as experimental.

The purpose of the curve is to make sure that each test has a similar result, even though the difficulty of the questions may vary slightly from test to test.

On this website, the default curve reference number is to 170, so if someone says "I need a -14 curve or I'm screwed," what they mean is, they need the score for someone who gets 14 wrong to be a 170.

Interestingly, the curve is weighted differently at different levels. Even if you know that you get a 170 with ten wrong, you would still not necessarily know how many wrong it would take to get 160.

[Tainted_Praise]

ahhhhhh thank you guys!

[SchopenhauerFTW]

I think I've been tarred and feathered on TLS more than I've been stoned.