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The 4.4% increase in test takers on February makes me slightly worried. Let us hope the general downward trend continues.

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Albus Dumbledore wrote:The 4.4% increase in test takers on February makes me slightly worried. Let us hope the general downward trend continues.

Although even with that said LSAT's in total were still down from 13/14 cycle....so thats why I am not sure until June comes around

Broncos15 wrote:Although even with that said LSAT's in total were still down from 13/14 cycle....so thats why I am not sure until June comes around

The annual decrease in test takers had gotten smaller and smaller, so we might be at or near the bottom. But yeah, June should give us a much clearer picture.

i hope there is a huge increase in poorly equipped test takers

sox49 wrote:i hope there is a huge increase in poorly equipped test takers

More low performing test takers wouldn't affect the raw points to scaled score 'curve' for any future LSATs if that's the reason behind your hope. The LSAT isn't graded on a curve since it's a standardized test. The raw points to scaled score conversion chart/scale is determined for each test form before it's officially administered by using data about the scored sections from when they were previously administered as experimental sections.

The last thing the world needs is more poorly prepared lsat takers

A good amount of that bump from February might just be retailers.

Jeffort wrote:

sox49 wrote:i hope there is a huge increase in poorly equipped test takers

More low performing test takers wouldn't affect the raw points to scaled score 'curve' for any future LSATs if that's the reason behind your hope. The LSAT isn't graded on a curve since it's a standardized test. The raw points to scaled score conversion chart/scale is determined for each test form before it's officially administered by using data about the scored sections from when they previously administered as experimental sections.

hmmm i did not know that. so should i hope then that on previous administrations of the lsat there were a sufficient amount of poorly equipped lsat takers that had preformed poorly enough on the experimental material which has now become the june 2015 test so as to set the curve for said test to a significantly lower level than what averagely or above averagely prepared test takers would have but not to an extent that would exclude that material from the test?

Wingtip88 wrote:A good amount of that bump from February might just be retailers.

yeah i thought that to. since it doesn't make a lot of sense for many folks to take the lsat for the first time in february, though thats assuming people know that. maybe its just that this cycle more people are retaking?

Wingtip88 wrote:A good amount of that bump from February might just be retailers.

It's true, I helped tutor both Walmart and Target for the Feb administration.

sox49 wrote:

Jeffort wrote:

sox49 wrote:i hope there is a huge increase in poorly equipped test takers

More low performing test takers wouldn't affect the raw points to scaled score 'curve' for any future LSATs if that's the reason behind your hope. The LSAT isn't graded on a curve since it's a standardized test. The raw points to scaled score conversion chart/scale is determined for each test form before it's officially administered by using data about the scored sections from when they previously administered as experimental sections.

hmmm i did not know that. so should i hope then that on previous administrations of the lsat there were a sufficient amount of poorly equipped lsat takers that had preformed poorly enough on the experimental material which has now become the june 2015 test so as to set the curve for said test to a significantly lower level than what averagely or above averagely prepared test takers would have but not to an extent that would exclude that material from the test?

No, even if that happened with the 4 scored sections that'll be the June 2015 LSAT when they were pre-tested as experimental sections it wouldn't produce a more generous score conversion scale. LSAC uses some really advanced psychometrics and statistical analysis methods to accurately determine the objective difficulty level of each question, each section and test form as a whole to properly equate the overall difficulty level of every LSAT test-form in order to produce a corresponding conversion scale that is accurate such that any given score from one LSAT test form (like a 165 for example) represents the same skill/ability performance level as a 165 or any other scaled score achieved on a different LSAT.

If you want to learn about some of the mind bending complicated psychometric and statistical methods LSAC uses to develop and assemble consistent valid LSAT test-forms, here's a fairly detailed article they published about it.

Disclaimer though: reading the article will not give you any insights or information that'll help you score higher but could cause your brain to short circuit and get fried if you try to make sense of the included formulas and math stuff.

http://www.ma.iup.edu/~jchrispe/ORArtic ... onTest.pdf