How much room for improvement? Forum

seancris · Post by **seancris** » Thu Feb 16, 2012 11:03 am

I currently have a 4.0/163 and expected to get a modest scholarship from my top choice (Florida) but haven't recieved a dime. I'm watching people with 3.3's and 165s get 10k/yr... It's hard to believe that 3 LSAT questions is considered > than 0.7 GPA points to the scholarship committee, but I guess that's how it really is. This isn't to say that I won't get anything this cycle, but I'm starting to put together a plan B. I'm not willing to pay sticker at Florida, so I'm looking at potentially taking a year off to work and restudy for the LSAT.

Last year I took the June LSAT, started studying on May 1st and took a week off for vacation, meaning I really only had about 3.5 weeks of real prep. Didn't take any classes, just self-studied with a really bad LG book, an unhelpful Kaplan book, and the free resourrces from Velocity LSAT online. Didn't use the bibles.

On gameday I think I went -6 LR, -6 RC, -5 LG, -4 LR or close to it. Prep testing I usually went -2 to -4 on LRs. RC and LG were pretty consistent with my gameday score.

Highest PT was two days before gameday at 171... avg PT was probably 165. Again, 3.5 weeks of prep with the above methods.

Given this info, how much room for improvement would I have if I started prepping in April for October? What kind of a score do you think I could reasonably expect? I don't really want to study for June at this point since I could still recieve a scholarship at any point between now and April and not have to retake at all.

bdeebs · Post by **bdeebs** » Thu Feb 16, 2012 2:24 pm

You will almost certainly improve if you spend some time learning the test better. Everyone is different blah blah blah. Bottom line, I'm guessing with 2 months of (good) study you could reasonably expect to get 170 (+/-)2. With 3 to 4 months, you could add a few points on. April to October may be overkill though.

pizzabrosauce · Post by **pizzabrosauce** » Sat Feb 18, 2012 7:09 am

Is this a flame?
You realize with your GPA you can go to Harvard/Yale/Stanford?
You spent .75 months studying...
Study hard for a few months and find out your true potential (im guessing pretty high)

hoos89 · Post by **hoos89** » Sat Feb 18, 2012 1:50 pm

BuckinghamB · Post by **BuckinghamB** » Sat Feb 18, 2012 2:24 pm

pizzabrosauce wrote:Is this a flame?
You realize with your GPA you can go to Harvard/Yale/Stanford?
You spent .75 months studying...
Study hard for a few months and find out your true potential (im guessing pretty high)

+1. Dont waste that gpa please...i wish i had that!

seancris · Post by **seancris** » Sun Feb 26, 2012 2:55 pm

pizzabrosauce wrote:Is this a flame?
You realize with your GPA you can go to Harvard/Yale/Stanford?
You spent .75 months studying...
Study hard for a few months and find out your true potential (im guessing pretty high)

Not a flame... I've been posting here since I started studying for the June 2011 LSAT in May 2011 so all of this is verifiable through my recorded posts lol. I appreciate the feedback.

When I got the 163 in June I settled for it since I figured tuition would've been 16k (increased since then to a projected 21k for my 1L year) and that I would've earned a 25k scholarship at UF. Considering the low CoL in town, that would've put my debt total at 30k (accounting for my own savings) for a T1 education in the area in which I intend to practice (Florida). Conversely, I could've retaken and possibly gotten into Cornell owing 130k or so at graduation. Keeping my first score seemed more prudent at the time.

So far I haven't even gotten a scholly offer, putting the CoA at sticker around 85k which is a completely different proposition... even with an 18k scholly which is probable and my own savings the debt would be roughly 60k, double my prediction back in June.

So if I do decide to retake... June is only 3 months away, and I don't want to put all of my eggs in the October basket. What would you do? Sign up for June and start studying in March? Would it be reasonable to get a 170 in June at that point? And what are the chances of regressing and recording a sub-163 score in June?

bp shinners · Post by **bp shinners** » Mon Feb 27, 2012 6:50 pm

seancris wrote: So if I do decide to retake... June is only 3 months away, and I don't want to put all of my eggs in the October basket. What would you do? Sign up for June and start studying in March? Would it be reasonable to get a 170 in June at that point? And what are the chances of regressing and recording a sub-163 score in June?

Sign up for June and start studying mid- to end of March. Earlier if you want to really pace yourself (though you've already learned a lot of stuff once).

I think getting up to 170 avg. in that time is more than possible (I'd actually be surprised if you didn't end up with a PT avg. higher than that) if you study enough and use better materials than the bad books (not saying anything bad about Velocity here).

It's rare to see someone regress without something else going on (stress, over-studying, life getting in the way).

seancris · Post by **seancris** » Tue Feb 28, 2012 9:59 am

bp shinners wrote:I think getting up to 170 avg. in that time is more than possible (I'd actually be surprised if you didn't end up with a PT avg. higher than that) if you study enough and use better materials than the bad books (not saying anything bad about Velocity here).

Thanks a lot for the input! What materials should I use? Right now I'm thinking about grabbing 20 or so recent tests, plus the LR and LG bibles. Not sure what to do about RC... will need to improve somewhat in RC if I'm going to get a 170 as I was going apx. -6 in RC last time around.

jkpolk · Post by **jkpolk** » Tue Feb 28, 2012 10:14 am

Stanford4Me · Post by **Stanford4Me** » Tue Feb 28, 2012 11:33 am

I don't understand why, with your GPA, you would settle for UF. Sure, it's a...decent school in a....decent market, but you would have much better options if you studied for longer than 3 weeks (I say that not to be condescending, but as a matter of frankness). It's almost impossible to predict what kind of improvement you'll see if you study, as it varies from person to person. I know over a 2.5 month period I saw a 5 point improvement, and I didn't study as hard as I should have.

If you're serious about this and want better options I'd strongly advise you to spend a decent amount of time reading through the bibles and taking as many practice tests as you can (note, it's not just a matter of taking them but also going over the tests and understanding why you got questions wrong). Good luck!

seancris · Post by **seancris** » Tue Feb 28, 2012 4:00 pm

Stanford4Me wrote:If you're serious about this and want better options I'd strongly advise you to spend a decent amount of time reading through the bibles and taking as many practice tests as you can (note, it's not just a matter of taking them but also going over the tests and understanding why you got questions wrong). Good luck!

So just the bibles and PTs?

I've got three months to study for June and want to get the best score I can possibly get. How do I maximize my score potential, short of paying for a course? I've got the discipline to self-study, so what I really need are the most effective resources I can get for self-studying... and maybe a weekly outline/plan or something similar.

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