Scoring 170 range and still thinking you did poorly? Forum

[FloridaCoastalorbust]

So my last few PTs I've been super pissed with how I felt I did before scoring. You know how it goes: "dammit, I just missed that inference" or "shit, I missed at least 5 on that last section." But, after grading I am around upper 160s/low 170s (153 diag in Jan). Not complaining of the scores, just the feeling I have that I think I did poorly on a section when in actuality I did well. Anyone else have similar situations? I'm afraid that in June it'll be just my luck to think I did bad and end up scoring ~150

[Adjudicator]

When I was prepping for the October '10 LSAT, I was always disappointed if I missed any questions at all. I was aiming to get every single question right. I averaged a 177 during that time and ended up with 175 on the real test, which was a little disappointing considering that I had scored a 180 on PT60 a few days earlier. But, I'll take it.

[MrPapagiorgio]

While some may chastise those who complain about a score in the 99th percentile, if you are prepping at 177-179, you are definitely going to be pissed about a 174. It is a great score, but for people who want T5, the difference between a 174 and a 177 is huge.

[tomwatts]

I remember when I first took the LSAT and was PTing 179-180. Walked out feeling as though I could've gotten anywhere from 170 to 180. Got a 176. Was somewhat annoyed.

Definitely did not feel that way the second time.

[FloridaCoastalorbust]

I remember when I first took the LSAT and was PTing 179-180. Walked out feeling as though I could've gotten anywhere from 170 to 180. Got a 176. Was somewhat annoyed.

Definitely did not feel that way the second time.

Biggest contributor to your 176 and esp. your 180 the second go around? My PT today is 19 pts higher than a PT taken 32 days ago (152) -I feel like I'm making large gains but I want to make sure my studying is precise.

[99.9luft]

OP, stop paying attention to your scaled scores. It's all about the raw scores. For instance, in Oct 89 was a 170, whereas in Dec 88 got you that score. I once got a 175 on a PT and was excited. Yet, that 175 was actually obtained by missing 8 questions - which according to the Oct scale would have only been a 173.

[tomwatts]

I remember when I first took the LSAT and was PTing 179-180. Walked out feeling as though I could've gotten anywhere from 170 to 180. Got a 176. Was somewhat annoyed.

Definitely did not feel that way the second time.

Biggest contributor to your 176 and esp. your 180 the second go around? My PT today is 19 pts higher than a PT taken 32 days ago (152) -I feel like I'm making large gains but I want to make sure my studying is precise.

The biggest contributor was doing and reviewing lots of PTs. Reviewing them carefully — very carefully, looking over any question I wasn't sure about at the time, spent too much time on, or got wrong, and making sure that upon redoing the question I can get the right answer quickly and efficiently — is usually the part that people don't do adequately.