6 Tips to Start Studying for LSAT - Resolution Test Prep (2024)

FAQs

What is the best way to start studying for the LSAT? ›

It is certainly possible to increase your score to 160 in a month! As you review Practice Tests, you want to be able to focus your studies on your problem areas, and then study those questions and the concepts until you feel like you could explain them to another student!

But what does it take to achieve that score? On the most recent LSAT, you would have to answer at least 89 out of 101 questions to receive a 170. In other words, you can miss 12 questions, and still be above 97.4% of testers (alternate view: you can miss 11.88% of the questions but still be in the top 2.5% of scores).

One month is the minimum for LSAT prep.

You can make great score improvements with one intense month of study, practice, and review, but most expert LSAT faculty will recommend a longer schedule if one is possible for you.

The average LSAT score without studying ranges from 135 to 145, well below the median at 151 in the 50th percentile. Preparing with practice tests and learning the skills you need for each exam section is the key to boosting your LSAT scores.

How many questions can you get wrong on the LSAT to get a 150? Since the LSAT is about 99-102 multiple-choice questions, you can get about 41-44 questions incorrect to achieve a score of 150. In other words, you need to get 58 questions correctly to get a 150 on the LSAT.

What Is the Easiest Section of the LSAT to Improve? The analytical reasoning section is generally the easiest to improve on because it is very teachable. A lot of AR games follow a few patterns, so it's just about learning how to approach these different patterns to find the right answer.

The LSAT is already a slog—remember that with the experimental 5th section on test day, the regular LSAT lasts over 3 hours. An extra 50% brings it up to 4.5 hours; this is long, but still manageable, and almost always worthwhile.

As of the most recent application cycle, Harvard Law's median LSAT score is 174. Assuming the rest of your application is perfectly “average” for Harvard Law, if your LSAT score is below 174, your chances of getting in are below average. If it's above 174, your chances are above average.

Can you get a high score on LSAT without studying? ›

The LSAT Is A Very Challenging Exam

To be clear, there are dozens of verified examples of individuals over the past decade who have scored above 165 without studying, but those are few and far between.

To achieve a score of 170 requires a test taker to correctly answer 90 out of 101 questions.

The Short Answer Is

Ultimately, most people improve by 10-20 points or more, but there are outliers who will improve by a lot more (and also, unfortunately, by a lot less). This is not to say that a target score that is 30+ points higher than your current range is utterly unrealistic: it's just exceptionally ambitious.

According to U.S. News, law school admissions experts recommend striving for at least a 150; however, for a top-ranking law school, you should aim for a 160 or better. For a Top 10 law school, a 170 or more is desired. Of course, this all depends on which schools you are applying to.

The LSAT scale ranges from 120 to 180, with 120 being the lowest possible score and 180 being the highest possible score.

You'll look at my LSAT PrepTest Raw Score Conversion Charts and calculations of what it takes to get an LSAT score of 160 or 170. Using that data, you'll find that the December exam consistently has the easiest "curve," and the June exam consistently has the hardest.

For most students, a three-month period of preparation (of approximately 20 hours per week) is a great goal. This is, of course, an estimate; most students are not all students. To find out how much LSAT prep time you're likely to need, we recommend taking a practice LSAT to get a baseline score.

It's recommended that students treat studying for the LSAT like a full-time job, meaning they should dedicate around 30–40 hours to studying per week. This averages out to roughly six to eight hours a day if you study for five days a week.

As you can see from these numbers, an LSAT score of 170 or higher and a GPA above 3.75 will give you a chance of gaining admission to Harvard Law School. If you have a GPA of 3.94 or higher and above a 175, you are pretty much a lock for admission, particularly given the class size of ~560.

According to an LSAT Research Report covering the period of 2010 to 2018, the average percentage of first-time test takers was 68%.

What is the average first-time LSAT score? ›

Data Summary. The average LSAT score for first-time takers was 151, according to scores tracked from 2006-2013. During this period, second-time test takers had the highest LSAT average score of about 152. The average national LSAT score for full-time, first-year JD enrollees for fall 2022 was about 159.

Scoring a 175 means you missed 5 questions on the test, which can be the equivalent of an entire logic game. Scoring a 170 means you missed 10 or 11 questions, which is nearly half of an entire section. The point of all this is that there is room to make mistakes.

Every LSAT throughout the year is different, but on a typical LSAT, you can still get 25 wrong and end up in the 160s— or about 20 wrong and get a 164, a 90th percentile score. Even a perfect score of 180 often allows for a question or two to be missed.

If you get your official LSAT score back and it is significantly lower than your practice test average, you should retake. For example, if your last 3 practice test scores were a 165, 167, and 166, but on test day you scored a 158, you should definitely retake the LSAT.

This shows that the lowest acceptable LSAT score is 139. Typically, a good rule of thumb is that you want to at least break 140 to make taking on the cost of law school economically feasible. You can get into a law school with a 140 LSAT score.

Overall, D is most likely to be the correct answer on the LSAT, and E is the least likely to be the correct answer.

How Much On An Average Can I Score In LSAT Without Studying? A crystal clear and precise answer to this query is 150. The LSAT ( law school admission test) exam is scored between 120-180; on average, students sitting in the exam can score 145-153 without studying based on various statistics.

To take the LSAT, you'll need: A quiet, well-lit, private room in which to take the test with a table or desk. Please note that transparent glass walls are not considered part of a private room and are prohibited. A laptop or desktop computer with a Windows or Mac operating system and at least 1024 MB of RAM.

One reason to request LSAT accommodations is to address the functional limitations caused by anxiety. Test-takers with anxiety might apply for accommodations of extended time, additional breaks, or a private testing room, to name just a few.

Law schools will see every time an applicant takes the LSAT. Law schools will see if you cancel a score for whatever reason. Law schools do not average the scores for admission, but we always look at performance if you've taken the test more than once.

What year of law school is the hardest? ›

Law school is an academic challenge; most students agree the first year (“1L” year) is the most difficult. In part, this is because law school is taught using methods entirely different than the lecture method used in most college classrooms.

Conversation. The least realistic part of Legally Blonde is how Elle Woods went from scoring a 143 on her practice LSAT to a 179 on the real thing.

Can You Apply to Law School Without LSAT Score? Yes, you can. Many law schools in the U.S. (including prestigious ones) don't require the LSAT. However, they require the GRE; exam applicants take to apply to grad school.

If you're an experienced test-taker used to memorizing complex facts and information ahead of time, the MCAT may be a bit easier for you. Meanwhile, the LSAT could be the simpler option for proficient readers and writers with logical, analytical minds.

But the general advice we give to those who ask this question is that you should start studying for the LSAT around five to six months before you intend to actually take it. The LSAT is currently offered nine times a year in the following months: January. February.

Although the June LSAT is ideal, most applicants don't start preparing for the LSAT until the summer before their senior year—after the June LSAT is over. These applicants usually end up taking the test in September or October.

It's recommended that students treat studying for the LSAT like a full-time job, meaning they should dedicate around 30–40 hours to studying per week. This averages out to roughly six to eight hours a day if you study for five days a week.

Two months is the optimal LSAT prep schedule for many students. While you can make great score improvements with one intense month of study, practice, and review, most expert LSAT faculty will recommend a longer schedule if one is possible for you.