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Hi all,

I've read many, many conflicting reports so I thought it'd be good to have all veiwpoints concentrated in this thread. From older tests to newer tests, does the LSAT get harder or easier? How so? What does this mean for raw scores? Scaled Scores?

Thanks!

The Logic Games have gotten easier , but the reading section has gotten harder

GodFatherPENNington wrote:The Logic Games have gotten easier , but the reading section has gotten harder

Did u look at the june lsats? dinos?

lawlover829 wrote:

GodFatherPENNington wrote:The Logic Games have gotten easier , but the reading section has gotten harder

Did u look at the june lsats? dinos?

It wasn't that hard. I had more trouble with past games ...

I think the test has stayed about the same but the students taking the test study more or have gotten smarter or something. This has resulted in tougher curves over the years. Games were maybe a little easier in the early 50's for PTs (obviously that trend is over see: June 2009) but I think the material has continued to be of the same caliber over the years, including RC even. It is just that with a tougher curve people are getting slightly loser scores on current tests than they do on older PTs.

caliborn wrote:

lawlover829 wrote:

GodFatherPENNington wrote:The Logic Games have gotten easier , but the reading section has gotten harder

Did u look at the june lsats? dinos?

It wasn't that hard. I had more trouble with past games ...

I know but it was hard for a lot of people. I got a 176 on the June LSATS, but I can see where other people are coming from.

Also, the curve speaks for itself. The curve is more generous to accomodate the LSAT is getting harder.

Also, LR seems to be getting easier/staying the same (easier for me/same for others)

"The LSAT gets harder/easier?"

Goddammit who put a question mark up on the teleprompter?

It's hard to say--if you're looking in terms of raw score, I think the older tests are harder (I have more trouble with LR on older tests, and LG are more difficult). However, if you're going in terms of curve, I think older tests are easier. There was a period in the late 1990s where the curves seemed to be -14 to -16 constantly.

With more PrepTests being available, people get more opportunity to practice the LSAT, which allows them to score higher on test day.

Overall though, I think the LSAT got a little bit easier for a brief moment around 2004-2008, but now it's getting harder once again.

Yeah, I agree with those above. Overall difficulty of questions was higher back then, but the curve switch on newer tests has more than compensated for that, and I think actually served to make the newer tests slightly harder (in terms of attaining a target score).

I want to bump this because I don't think that the original question of exactly WHERE the test gets harder was answered and I'm interested to know as well. I have up to test 38 and am wondering if the PTs after this one are particularly harder or if I am getting an accurate gauge of my score by doing ones in the 30's.

Anyone notice that the first question for recent LR's seem more complicated and time-consuming?

bartleby wrote:Anyone notice that the first question for recent LR's seem more complicated and time-consuming?

Yeah, I've noticed the first question of LR being a bit harder, I think it's just a mental thing to throw people off. It seems a lot of the LG also have 3 fairly easy games, with one more difficult game.

Not necc. harder, just long and complicated. Kinda like a few of the #25, #26. I think I'm just going to skip #1 and get back to it.

I definitely have an opinion on this. Let's start with the curve. I've taken through PT 57. It seems pretty consistent now around -9, -10. I can't remember the last time I got a boost from -13 or higher like many the older tests. (I'm aware PT 59 is -14 or something) While games have gotten easier, I think in the 40s RC got noticably harder. Which more than offsets the increase from games.

Also I've said before on these boards that LR is about the same. But I think there might be a trend starting with PT 55 of LR being harder. Either that or I'm experiencing some kind of burnout and gotten worse. I've gotten much lower scores 55-57 than I have in a long time, including missing questions in the first 10. Anyone else experiencing this?

So yeah, I think the test is harder now. I will say this does not surprise since we have the benefit of so many more PTs and study materials. I don't envy the people you took the test in the 90's.

bartleby wrote:Anyone notice that the first question for recent LR's seem more complicated and time-consuming?

I made my post without reading any replies. I think I answered your question. More specifically I think maybe that they are making more attractive trap answers early in the section. Because I'm so pressed for time I generally do not read all the answer choices once I decide on a correct answer. I had been doing this quite effectively. But recently I've just fallen for a lot of answers that I thought were right. I may need to re-evaluate this strategy. It would mean not finishing the section though, I'm afraid.