Top Law Schools

So, I took a hard diagnostic today (from Kaplan, for free; test 36 I think). Scored a 153, with -4 on RC, -24!! including 4 omitted on LR, and -10 on LG. On LR, I got through most of it and felt pretty decent about my answers, so my score on that was slightly surprising. I simply ran out of time on LG.

I think that means I'm in good shape because LR and LG tend to be easy to improve on. I'm not taking the test until at least June of 2012, so I'm confident I'll have time to get my LG down to -0/-1 in that time. I'm not sure how much I'll be able to improve on LR but I'm hoping for the best.

Problem is, I'm shooting for 175+. I spent the first three years of my undergraduate career expecting to go to graduate school in Chemistry (FWIW, I scored a 730 verbal on the GRE, 6 on the essay). I'm going to be finishing with B.S. from a top 3 university. Science/math is my normal thing. All of my work experience is lab research. While normally I'd say these are good things because they make me stand out a little, my major choice really did a number on my GPA. I'm expecting to finish my senior year with a 3.4-3.5 GPA tops, but I'd like to have a chance at top 14, perhaps even as high as CCN.

tldr; Is a 20+ point jump possible given my diagnostic?

First post!

I don't think it is impossible for you to reach 175+. Especially with that much time to practice. -4 on RC is not bad at all for a cold diagnostic, and you're correct that RC is typically the hardest to improve.

Losing most of your points on LG is a good place to be, because that is fixable. That was my situation when I raised my score from a 164 to a 175. Just learning how to make LG your strongest section instead of your weakest will do that, and you can do it.
Step 1) Learn efficient methods for attacking LG problems.
Step 2) Drill LG sections until your eyes bleed.
That's all there is to that.

Practice that LR too; it is possible to improve. I was always pretty good at it, but by the time I took the test where I got my 175, I was the Rain Man of LR. There were some tricky as hell LR problems on that test, and I had to pick answers of which I was not certain, but they almost all turned out to be correct. That's not luck, that's practice!

I took the test cold last October and scored a 152. Retook a 166 in December. I'm taking it for a third time this October and am hoping for a mid 170 score. PT average is 173 on about 10 PTs.

It's definitely possible.

I recommend the thread '155 LSAT for motivation', well really just the last page where he sums it off if you don't want to sift through all of it.
--LinkRemoved--

Definitely think it's possible with your background.

If you have until June, you can drill the different LR types and get that score down. 175+ I think is more about the effort you put in and how quick you get to 170+, but it's doable. Get the LR Bible, learn it thoroughly, and drill the LR types from the purple kaplan book that Piithypike recommends.

I diagnosed at 149 and after a lot of time am currently scoring in the 170s, with my current high score being 177. Some of the gains will take a ton of time and work while others might just take fine-tuning your approach mentally. The test is completely learnable. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise. Also, the fact that your best section is RC is a huge advantage because it's typically considered to be the hardest section to improve on. Good luck.

Thanks guys. Since my GPA is low, I really need to focus on bringing the score as high as I can. I guess it's possible that schools might be forgiving on the GPA to a certain extent, but that isn't something I want to rely on.

Strangely enough, I'm looking forward to starting my studying. :O