Hi - I took my first LSAT prep and got a 171. Forum

[jojosmith]

How much improvement I can expect to get I am taking a full Preparation course . My GPA is 3.79 and I am studying in chemical engineering.

[HanShotFirst]

A course won't help you at all. They're geared toward people scoring below 150. Self study or hire a private tutor.

[a.sleepyhead]

A private tutor (or even just studying off books) might be more useful - I'd just advise taking one more practice test to make sure that your scores are reasonably consistent.

[ArtistOfManliness]

Practice on your own. Determine if you need a tutor at all, odds are you shouldn't.

[dowu]

Did u take it under the strict timing conditions?

[manu6926]

...

[CocoSunshine]

You must be an absolute genius and thus have nothing to worry about if you took it the first time under strictly timed conditions and got a 171.

And if you barely did any book work or drilling before it.

[Pneumonia]

If you took it untimed or otherwise under non-standard test conditions then you need to do another one, timed. The purpose will just be to get an actual starting point for yourself. 171 is killer even if you took it untimed btw. I don't think you'll need a course or a tutor either way.

[withoutapaddle]

Getting a 171 doesn't mean someone is a genius/ It means they have good reasoning and reading ability

The LSAT isn't rocket science (Which I guarantee 170+ LSAT takers that matriculate are unlikely to be able to do rocket science or invent something useful which is why the majority of us are looking at law school in the first place)

A genius would look at the cost benefit analysis of going to law school and know that for the majority of us it's not a good bet. However for the majority of us law school is better then current job prospects.

In a sense rankings hurt geniuses that do hard majors. I know two extremely intelligent kids that graduated with 2.4 in engineering (One of them double majored in petroleum and bio-engineering. Guess what these two wouldn't have a shot in hell at getting into HYS even though their IQ is probably higher then the average liberal arts major.

In a way law school awards taking easy majors .

[whereskyle]

Getting a 171 doesn't mean someone is a genius/ It means they have good reasoning and reading ability

The LSAT isn't rocket science (Which I guarantee 170+ LSAT takers that matriculate are unlikely to be able to do rocket science or invent something useful which is why the majority of us are looking at law school in the first place)

A genius would look at the cost benefit analysis of going to law school and know that for the majority of us it's not a good bet. However for the majority of us law school is better then current job prospects.

I love this analysis of law students.

[Sacred Cow]

Getting a 171 doesn't mean someone is a genius/ It means they have good reasoning and reading ability

The LSAT isn't rocket science (Which I guarantee 170+ LSAT takers that matriculate are unlikely to be able to do rocket science or invent something useful which is why the majority of us are looking at law school in the first place)

A genius would look at the cost benefit analysis of going to law school and know that for the majority of us it's not a good bet. However for the majority of us law school is better then current job prospects.

In sense law school hurts geniuses that do hard majors. I know two extremely intelligent kids that graduated with 24 in engineering (One of them double majored in petroleum and bio-engineering. Guess what these two wouldn't have a shot in hell at getting into HYS.

In a way law school awards taking easy majors .

Please don't let this become another thread about the relative difficulty of majors.

[withoutapaddle]

Please don't let this become another thread about the relative difficulty of majors.

I took economics in undergrad so I'm part of the easy major assertion

Idk I just think that law schools should look at more not quantifiable factors:

Work experience
Philanthropy work
Life situation
Upward trend GPA (People grow up)
major


I think if law school admissions were more like business school admissions students would have:

Less debt (more savings after getting work experience)
more work and life experience (Easier to get a job with work experience. Not just law job but other corporate jobs)
A better understanding of why they want to be a lawyer and why no other job in the job market is what they want to do

Also the LSAC should close every law school not ranked in the top 100 to deflate the number of lawyers to help the law market (This will never happen because of the money involved) Dental schools closed why can't law schools follow

Hell the government should get out of the student loan business so tuition decreases.If I owned a university tuition would be 100K a year at my school because the government guarantees loans for students.

/ end rant

[manu6926]

...

[Clearly]

I can't tell if I'm getting tired of TLS, or if you people are getting more insufferable. Answer the kids question, or start your own thread to beat a dead horse... or you know, shut up.

[withoutapaddle]

171 first attempt is really damn good

If the game section is your worse section then you'll be set if you drill games (most learn-able)
LR concepts are learn-able
RC is more difficult to get better at

With a good LSAT and you're major/GPA you'd be pretty set (Especially for patent law if that's what you decided to do and I would if I had the science degree)

[HanShotFirst]

In a sense rankings hurt geniuses that do hard majors. I know two extremely intelligent kids that graduated with 2.4 in engineering (One of them double majored in petroleum and bio-engineering. Guess what these two wouldn't have a shot in hell at getting into HYS even though their IQ is probably higher then the average liberal arts major.

In a way law school awards taking easy majors .

This is why the LSAT exists

[mirroroferised7]

I'm still waiting for the OP to get back in here and tell us if this was an actual timed test or not...