False Hope?

[hightop]

Hey everyone,

I've got a question that you guys might be able to help me with. Okay ao here's where I'm at:

About a year ago - I took the practice 1996 LSAT and made a 145. It was my first time to look at any LSAT material and when I graded it I didn't try to figure out why my answers were wrong, I just marked through the ones I missed on the answer sheet. Figuring that 145 was a bad score, I stopped looking at LSAT stuff thinking I'd never improve.

This year - I got to wondering if another year of college (and a load of critical reading there) might improve my score. So I took the same test over again and this time I made a 157. I vaguely remembered the topic of the questions but certainly could not remember what the answers were (after all, I never reasoned them out after the first time).

So here's my question... does this new score give me any hope?

I want to say yes because I did not remember the answers (nor did I look at LSAT material for a complete year), have had quite a bit of reading practice in the past year, and finished in enough time to possibly counteract the fact that I had  long ago seen the questions before.

But I also want to say no largely because it was the same test (I didn't want to pay for a new one this early on) and therefore I wondered if the test would be totally useless. Also a 12 point jump in year might be impossible without any studying at all (LSAT studying that is).

What do you guys think? Should I be happy that my score improved from 145 to 157? I still have another year or so before I have to take it, and I will actually study for it/take a class when that time comes to boost my score.

Thanks.

[theo]

Hey everyone,

I've got a question that you guys might be able to help me with. Okay ao here's where I'm at:

About a year ago - I took the practice 1996 LSAT and made a 145. It was my first time to look at any LSAT material and when I graded it I didn't try to figure out why my answers were wrong, I just marked through the ones I missed on the answer sheet. Figuring that 145 was a bad score, I stopped looking at LSAT stuff thinking I'd never improve.

This year - I got to wondering if another year of college (and a load of critical reading there) might improve my score. So I took the same test over again and this time I made a 157. I vaguely remembered the topic of the questions but certainly could not remember what the answers were (after all, I never reasoned them out after the first time).

So here's my question... does this new score give me any hope?

I want to say yes because I did not remember the answers (nor did I look at LSAT material for a complete year), have had quite a bit of reading practice in the past year, and finished in enough time to possibly counteract the fact that I had  long ago seen the questions before.

But I also want to say no largely because it was the same test (I didn't want to pay for a new one this early on) and therefore I wondered if the test would be totally useless. Also a 12 point jump in year might be impossible without any studying at all (LSAT studying that is).

What do you guys think? Should I be happy that my score improved from 145 to 157? I still have another year or so before I have to take it, and I will actually study for it/take a class when that time comes to boost my score.

Thanks.

My advice to you is to work on your LSD post count:  get up to about 800 pointless, ill-informed, self-obsessed new topics before you even consider looking at another test.

Whatever you do, avoid buying the Powerscore Logical Reasoning/Games Bible(s) and a bunch of real exams and trying to improve your understanding of the exam.

A year from now, take the same exact test again, and be plunged into anxiety and self-doubt over whether you'll ever be able to get into any law school anywhere.

[hightop]

Okay, okay, I get the sarcasm theo. I do plan to practice real exame, and prep books to actually prepare. But my concern is, is it even worth it? Is my improved score completely void and I should not waste my time or money even trying to prepare? I would like some constructive help here.

[hightop]

That's an encouraging thread. I still am interested to know if you guys think my jump is void because it was the same test. I'd like to think a year of critical reading might improve a score somewhat on its own. If it is logical to think my score might be improved to the upper 150's range (as opposed to still being mid 140's) then I might not have to put in quite as much brain labor as the guy in that other thread.

[SilentSwirl]

1. I can't give you an real answers about whether the jump in scores is "valid" because frankly there's just no way to measure - from how much you really remembered/didn't remember, to whether seeing the same questions reduced some of the stress, to, well, a million other factors. However, you can't get a good estimate of what score you're testing at until you take several tests and they all fall within the same range.

2. That said, I think it's DEFINITELY worth studying for the LSAT and having every hope of getting a good score. I would say this if you had started with a 145 or a 157. Starting with a 157 just makes it a bit less of an uphill battle. But you have a YEAR - that's plenty of time.

3. So to address your question, "Does this new score give me any hope?" -- I think it's a moot point.

[Ersatz]

That's an encouraging thread. I still am interested to know if you guys think my jump is void because it was the same test. I'd like to think a year of critical reading might improve a score somewhat on its own. If it is logical to think my score might be improved to the upper 150's range (as opposed to still being mid 140's) then I might not have to put in quite as much brain labor as the guy in that other thread.

ok---take another prep test then you'll know.  They sell them in sets of 10 for like 30 bucks or your can order single tests from lsac for eight dollars.    VOILA mystery of the improving test score SOLVED! ; )

Seriously Take a different test and eliminate all the guesswork. Easy!