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Hey guys,

I've been studying for the lsat for about 5 months and now am wondering what getting a 180 on a preptest really means. I am taking the lsat in Korea this June (D-8..) and here are the scores I've got for my previous 5 pt's


170 Thursday
174 Friday
180 pt 26 Saturday

day off

168 pt 55 Monday
175 pt 56 Tuesday

day off

170 pt 57 Thursday
180 pt58 Friday

I've been doing a prep test 4 times a week, taking two tests in consecutive days and taking a day off in between.
Yes my score seems to fluctuate a lot but I wonder if this might be due to the lack of sleep or just my brain's being dysfunctional after taking a day off. What should I do for the next 7 days in order to maximize my consistency?
I always include a dummy section and turn on a LSAT proctor app to simulate the real testing environment (+I use a scantron)

P.S. does getting a 180 mean anything? or should I simply think of it as a fluke and don't invest too much meaning into it..

Thanks for taking your time to read this and I hope I could put an end to my long journey this June

I heard from people attending Michigan Law that they'd sometimes score 180 while prepping for the lsat...does the fact that they ended up scoring below 175 attest to the meaninglessness/illusiveness of the 180 prep score? For the first 2 months my score range was 165~175, then it became 167~177 and now it's 168~180 with very rare 180s and 168s and frequent 170s and 175s. funny how I've never scored 176 178 or 179 but always land on something different..

don't psych yourself out now, dude

just keep doing your pt/rest routine

Leesukil wrote:Hey guys,

I've been studying for the lsat for about 5 months and now am wondering what getting a 180 on a preptest really means. I am taking the lsat in Korea this June (D-8..) and here are the scores I've got for my previous 5 pt's


170 Thursday
174 Friday
180 pt 26 Saturday

day off

168 pt 55 Monday
175 pt 56 Tuesday

day off

170 pt 57 Thursday
180 pt58 Friday

I've been doing a prep test 4 times a week, taking two tests in consecutive days and taking a day off in between.
Yes my score seems to fluctuate a lot but I wonder if this might be due to the lack of sleep or just my brain's being dysfunctional after taking a day off. What should I do for the next 7 days in order to maximize my consistency?
I always include a dummy section and turn on a LSAT proctor app to simulate the real testing environment (+I use a scantron)

P.S. does getting a 180 mean anything? or should I simply think of it as a fluke and don't invest too much meaning into it..

Thanks for taking your time to read this and I hope I could put an end to my long journey this June

Honestly a 180 on a PT doesn't mean that you'll get a 180 on the real deal, but it means you are very familiar with the test and you'll probably perform really well. Good luck!

Leesukil wrote:Hey guys,

I've been studying for the lsat for about 5 months and now am wondering what getting a 180 on a preptest really means. I am taking the lsat in Korea this June (D-8..) and here are the scores I've got for my previous 5 pt's


170 Thursday
174 Friday
180 pt 26 Saturday

day off

168 pt 55 Monday
175 pt 56 Tuesday

day off

170 pt 57 Thursday
180 pt58 Friday

I've been doing a prep test 4 times a week, taking two tests in consecutive days and taking a day off in between.
Yes my score seems to fluctuate a lot but I wonder if this might be due to the lack of sleep or just my brain's being dysfunctional after taking a day off. What should I do for the next 7 days in order to maximize my consistency?
I always include a dummy section and turn on a LSAT proctor app to simulate the real testing environment (+I use a scantron)

P.S. does getting a 180 mean anything? or should I simply think of it as a fluke and don't invest too much meaning into it..

Thanks for taking your time to read this and I hope I could put an end to my long journey this June

I would say keep up with your schedule. Maybe try to take the PTs at the same time each day (i.e. at the same time that your actual test will be) if possible. If you still notice that the score for the PT right after a break is consistently low, then I'd recommend taking a PT the day before the test.

The fact that you're hitting 180 is probably a good sign, and that you're okay with most if not all of the concepts.

Leesukil wrote:Hey guys,

I've been studying for the lsat for about 5 months and now am wondering what getting a 180 on a preptest really means. I am taking the lsat in Korea this June (D-8..) and here are the scores I've got for my previous 5 pt's


170 Thursday
174 Friday
180 pt 26 Saturday

day off

168 pt 55 Monday
175 pt 56 Tuesday

day off

170 pt 57 Thursday
180 pt58 Friday

I've been doing a prep test 4 times a week, taking two tests in consecutive days and taking a day off in between.
Yes my score seems to fluctuate a lot but I wonder if this might be due to the lack of sleep or just my brain's being dysfunctional after taking a day off. What should I do for the next 7 days in order to maximize my consistency?
I always include a dummy section and turn on a LSAT proctor app to simulate the real testing environment (+I use a scantron)

P.S. does getting a 180 mean anything? or should I simply think of it as a fluke and don't invest too much meaning into it..

Thanks for taking your time to read this and I hope I could put an end to my long journey this June

That is some huge variation. Areyou taking all your tests under the same timing conditions?

splitmuch wrote:

Leesukil wrote:Hey guys,

I've been studying for the lsat for about 5 months and now am wondering what getting a 180 on a preptest really means. I am taking the lsat in Korea this June (D-8..) and here are the scores I've got for my previous 5 pt's


170 Thursday
174 Friday
180 pt 26 Saturday

day off

168 pt 55 Monday
175 pt 56 Tuesday

day off

170 pt 57 Thursday
180 pt58 Friday

I've been doing a prep test 4 times a week, taking two tests in consecutive days and taking a day off in between.
Yes my score seems to fluctuate a lot but I wonder if this might be due to the lack of sleep or just my brain's being dysfunctional after taking a day off. What should I do for the next 7 days in order to maximize my consistency?
I always include a dummy section and turn on a LSAT proctor app to simulate the real testing environment (+I use a scantron)

P.S. does getting a 180 mean anything? or should I simply think of it as a fluke and don't invest too much meaning into it..

Thanks for taking your time to read this and I hope I could put an end to my long journey this June

That is some huge variation. Areyou taking all your tests under the same timing conditions?

I take pts under strict timed conditions, but if you meant the time of the day, I never take them at the same time each day. Sometimes at 10am, and at other times after 1pm. I think I should take up gggrra's game plan advice and start taking them at 9am every day leading up to the test day

Leesukil wrote:

splitmuch wrote:

Leesukil wrote:Hey guys,

I've been studying for the lsat for about 5 months and now am wondering what getting a 180 on a preptest really means. I am taking the lsat in Korea this June (D-8..) and here are the scores I've got for my previous 5 pt's


170 Thursday
174 Friday
180 pt 26 Saturday

day off

168 pt 55 Monday
175 pt 56 Tuesday

day off

170 pt 57 Thursday
180 pt58 Friday

I've been doing a prep test 4 times a week, taking two tests in consecutive days and taking a day off in between.
Yes my score seems to fluctuate a lot but I wonder if this might be due to the lack of sleep or just my brain's being dysfunctional after taking a day off. What should I do for the next 7 days in order to maximize my consistency?
I always include a dummy section and turn on a LSAT proctor app to simulate the real testing environment (+I use a scantron)

P.S. does getting a 180 mean anything? or should I simply think of it as a fluke and don't invest too much meaning into it..

Thanks for taking your time to read this and I hope I could put an end to my long journey this June

That is some huge variation. Areyou taking all your tests under the same timing conditions?

I take pts under strict timed conditions, but if you meant the time of the day, I never take them at the same time each day. Sometimes at 10am, and at other times after 1pm. I think I should take up gggrra's game plan advice and start taking them at 9am every day leading up to the test day

I meant the timing conditions. time of day shouldn't matter THAT much unless youre drinking the night before or something. Is there one section that produces most of the variation?

splitmuch wrote:I meant the timing conditions. time of day shouldn't matter THAT much unless youre drinking the night before or something. Is there one section that produces most of the variation?

I disagree, unless 'different times' = 10 am vs 11 am. My PTs in the evening (~7 or 8p) are MUCH lower than my PTs in the morning (~9 or 10a) and those are slightly lower than the ones I took in the afternoon (~1-4p).

ETA: getting a 180 is a good sign, though, OP! It's no guarantee of a 180 on day-of, though. Just like NOT getting a 180 isn't a sign that you won't 180 it on test day.

crumpetsandtea wrote:

splitmuch wrote:I meant the timing conditions. time of day shouldn't matter THAT much unless youre drinking the night before or something. Is there one section that produces most of the variation?

I disagree, unless 'different times' = 10 am vs 11 am. My PTs in the evening (~7 or 8p) are SIGNFICANTLY lower than my PTs in the morning (~9 or 10a) and those are slightly lower than the ones I took in the afternoon (~1-4p).

SIGNIFICANTLY? You people are weird. Or maybe Im weird.

splitmuch wrote:SIGNIFICANTLY? You people are weird. Or maybe Im weird.

It makes sense that people tend to be more alert in the morning/afternoon than after a whole day of work/school/whatever. And I'm not a morning person, which is why when I PTed after I had some time to wake up, I did slightly better. This is all based on a sample size of 1, but I think the general idea is pretty applicable. Most people aren't the same level of sharpness through all hours of the day.

I have a few friends who claimed that they got 180s in practice, one even said he got like five in a row. None of them came close on the real test - they got 172-173 or so.

Although it's obviously a good sign to score 180s in practice, only you know what it means; i.e. do you say, oh I really, really meant to answer that, so it should count? Or I gave myself an extra minute, because I spaced out a little, but I'll never do that on the REAL test. The main thing is to be comfortable enough that you feel like YOU control the test - you've seen all the question types, you're finishing in enough time to make sure you're bubbled right.

Whatever it means or doesn't mean, it's better than never having scored a 180 in practice.

crumpetsandtea wrote:

splitmuch wrote:SIGNIFICANTLY? You people are weird. Or maybe Im weird.

It makes sense that people tend to be more alert in the morning/afternoon than after a whole day of work/school/whatever. And I'm not a morning person, which is why when I PTed after I had some time to wake up, I did slightly better. This is all based on a sample size of 1, but I think the general idea is pretty applicable. Most people aren't the same level of sharpness through all hours of the day.

I agree. I never had time in the morning, so I did all my tests at night. On the real thing, which was the first morning test in months for me, I scored at the very top of my PT range, and while I was taking it, I felt like I owned the test.

People focus too much on PT scores and not enough on learning from the questions.

crumpetsandtea wrote:

splitmuch wrote:SIGNIFICANTLY? You people are weird. Or maybe Im weird.

It makes sense that people tend to be more alert in the morning/afternoon than after a whole day of work/school/whatever. And I'm not a morning person, which is why when I PTed after I had some time to wake up, I did slightly better. This is all based on a sample size of 1, but I think the general idea is pretty applicable. Most people aren't the same level of sharpness through all hours of the day.

I just had very little variation at all through my PTs and when I did It definitely wasn't correlated with time of day. I agree that sharpness can vary during the day but it just seems to me that if you are ever on top of it enough to get a 180 you shouldn't ever be getting 168s. If there was really that much float the test wouldn't be very useful.

splitmuch wrote:

crumpetsandtea wrote:

splitmuch wrote:SIGNIFICANTLY? You people are weird. Or maybe Im weird.

It makes sense that people tend to be more alert in the morning/afternoon than after a whole day of work/school/whatever. And I'm not a morning person, which is why when I PTed after I had some time to wake up, I did slightly better. This is all based on a sample size of 1, but I think the general idea is pretty applicable. Most people aren't the same level of sharpness through all hours of the day.

I just had very little variation at all through my PTs and when I did It definitely wasn't correlated with time of day. I agree that sharpness can vary during the day but it just seems to me that if you are ever on top of it enough to get a 180 you shouldn't ever be getting 168s. If there was really that much float the test wouldn't be very useful.

Eh. People are all different when it comes to standardized tests. It's just important to figure out what works for you...

gggrra wrote: Eh. People are all different when it comes to standardized tests. It's just important to figure out what works for you...

Agree, just saying if people are simultaneously capable of scoring 168 or 180 with good faith efforts, it kinda legitimizes the LSAT. Some float is inevitable which is why they give the score bands, but those are a range of 3 I think, 1/4 of the variance here. And, apparently, this kind of variation is common.