Average LSAT of those who put in serious effort? [Estimate] Forum

[Gluteus]

The average is 150 or so for the entire LSAT taking population. However, many of these people fall into "group A" which consist of people who:
1. Didn't study or barely studied.
2. Are only aiming for 140-150 or so to get into their desired schools.
3. Studied but didn't take advantage of the best resources: e.g. PSBibles, Manhattan, etc.
4. Didn't take any practice tests
5. Etc

There's a another group, lets call them "group B", who consist of the type of people who frequent these forums and other serious law applicants who:
1. Studied 100-300+ hours
2. Are aiming as high as they possibly can
3. Utilize the best resources they can get their hands on.
4. Have taken 10-20+ practice tests
5. Seek to study as intelligently as possible
6. Etc

What, in your estimation, is the LSAT average of people who fall into "group B"?

[Louis1127]

you're just going to get a bunch of anecdotal data

[Dr. Nefario]

168?

[ballcaps]

the correct answer is 7.

[Gluteus]

you're just going to get a bunch of anecdotal data

This is nothing more than an opinion thread for people to make their best estimate as to what the answer may be.

[RZ5646]

A better question is, are these people who get 170+ after studying for 300+ hours actually smart or good at reasoning, or have they just learned how to game a test? Can you "learn the LSAT" and then have those skills transfer over to other domains? At what level of studying is the correlation between LSAT score and law school GPA the strongest? etc. etc.

[Gluteus]

A better question is, are these people who get 170+ after studying for 300+ hours actually smart or good at reasoning, or have they just learned how to game a test?

Except in cases of luck, I'd assume both. There are people who've put in just as much effort and are stuck in the 160's or even in some unfortunate cases, the 150's.

Being able to learn to game the LSAT in and of itself is likely highly dependent on some baseline level of intelligence.

[MattM]

A better question is, are these people who get 170+ after studying for 300+ hours actually smart or good at reasoning, or have they just learned how to game a test?

Except in cases of luck, I'd assume both. There are people who've put in just as much effort and are stuck in the 160's or even in some unfortunate cases, the 150's.

Being able to learn to game the LSAT in and of itself is likely highly dependent on some baseline level of intelligence.

+1 .....yes there are many people who put in a ton of effort on here that score in the 170's after a lot of practice......but there are many people on here that put in the same type of effort in prep but score in the 150's.

take it from a guy who struggles despite many hours of prep and scored a 154 on test day....( but the key is not giving up, I am not sure when I plan on taking the exam since I haven't studied in a while but my last PT was a 171)

[Pneumonia]

Low 160's. Maybe lower.

[earthabides]

I think your final score is more of a function of natural ability than it is of study time.

[FloridaCoastalorbust]

I don't think its possible with someone of average intelligence who puts in at least 200 hours of prep to score lower than 160. I studied way too long...a total of 8+ months, and really never could consistently score above 172.

[Gluteus]

I think your final score is more of a function of natural ability than it is of study time.

It seems like study time is most important for people in the middle range of natural aptitude.

The people on the lower end of natural aptitude seem to struggle to learn to game the test to any high degree.
The people on the extreme higher end simply don't have many points to gain over their natural score.

With the people in the middle range seeming to be able to gain 8-25+ points over their diagnostic.

I don't think its possible with someone of average intelligence who puts in at least 200 hours of prep to score lower than 160. I studied way too long...a total of 8+ months, and really never could consistently score above 172.

Low 160's. Maybe lower.

I'd say 158-162 seems like a good range.

[stoopkid13]

I think I remember reading that lawschoolnumbers median was 164. That seems like a good lower end for a guess. People who are willing to put in 300+ hours of studying will also probably be willing to create a lsn profile.

[Petrichor]

163