Top Law Schools

What do you guys think?

Everyone dedicated to improving their score that preps a lot properly improves significantly from first cold diag score. Significant improvement from 147 is possible but requires a lot of hard work if you are shooting for a 90% or above score.

There are tons of threads with long discussions about this topic with detailed descriptions of everything involved. Start with the sticky threads at the top of the index.

jhudenbalger wrote:What do you guys think?

I scored a 142 on my first LSAT diagnostic. Scored 169 in the October LSAT and hoping for 175+ on the Feb LSAT. Totally possible, just study.

First of all, by "first test", you meant diagnostic (completely cold) or the first prep test after going through the basic skills materials (Bible, MLSAT, LSAT Trainer, etc)?
If it was the former, then you absolutely don't have to worry that much. My first diagnostic score was somewhere around 150 and that was at least 1 hour per section. If it was the latter, then you should probably go back to all the books, find out which part is particularly giving you trouble, then drill. My first PT after these books was 161, and now after 3 months' hardcore study, my average score has reached 175. But "hardcore" means 8 hours per day, nonstop. That's hard but also very encouraging when you are seeing progress.
Anyway, above all, no matter what, work hard.

Its not uncommon for TLSers improve their scores from 14x/15x --> 16x/17x

see this thread from yesterday: http://top-law-schools.com/forums/viewt ... 6&t=223608

Yes, absolutely. And you're in the right place. Look around this part of the forum -- read loads, and look for the guides that are all around. If you're dedicated, a starting score in the 140's and an ending score in the high 160's/170's is far from uncommon for people who dedicate the time to the test.

The world is your oyster.