LSAT abilty over time Forum

[nylaw821]

Long time lurker, first time poster. Basically, my question pertains to one's ability in taking the LSAT and how that could change over time. I took the LSAT in 2009 and wasn't happy with my score, and I've been thinking about taking the LSAT again sometime soon. The thing is I'm not sure how much prep I'll have to do. Has anyone else taken a significant period of time off in-between LSAT sittings? I'm just wondering if I'll have to start from square one, or if I would have retained some or all (ideally) of what I learned. Thanks.

[005618502]

Long time lurker, first time poster. Basically, my question pertains to one's ability in taking the LSAT and how that could change over time. I took the LSAT in 2009 and wasn't happy with my score, and I've been thinking about taking the LSAT again sometime soon. The thing is I'm not sure how much prep I'll have to do. Has anyone else taken a significant period of time off in-between LSAT sittings? I'm just wondering if I'll have to start from square one, or if I would have retained some or all (ideally) of what I learned. Thanks.

Curious about this also, but I am sure it differs from person to person

[doing_it_in_a_car]

I think LSAC says it's somewhere around 64.5 - 69%, but you don't have a 70% option

All joking aside, if you put in the same amount of time and effort studying for the LSAT now as you did in 2009, then ceteris paribus you will score higher than before. I guarantee it.

[AntipodeanPhil]

I started studying a bit over a year ago, planning to sit the exam in June '10. After a couple of months, I had gone from averaging about -12 on the LGs (because 2 games would take me 30 minutes) to averaging about -6. I got offered a new job and didn't sit the test then, but when I started studying again almost a year later, I found that after a few hours familiarizing myself with the game types and diagramming methods, I was back to averaging -6. My view is that you are likely to retain any skills you learnt, but lose most of the knowledge.

[incompetentia]

I randomly did some LSAT sections during a particularly crappy airport delay a few months after my test (don't ask why I had PTs with me).


My accuracy was down about 3-5% from my PT average, but I blame that on rust.
I'd think that if you study properly, you should retain a lot of what you drilled.

(Kind of akin to playing a song or something you haven't in a while, really)

[MyManKanye]

I just started studying for the June exam today. Hadn't touched anything since the October 2010 LSAT. I made more mistakes than normal, but all of them were from reading or finesse errors (i.e. misreading passage or misdiagraming a rule). I think it should be more or less fine once you get back into the groove.