Most Strongly Supported Blogs:
Stay Connected
Previous Posts:
- Logic Games Tips: Partying with Brutal Deductions, March 3, 2010
- Logic Games on the LSAT: Don’t Call it a Comeback, February 19, 2010
- Should I Cancel the February LSAT?, February 10, 2010
- Temporal Fallacies on the LSAT vs. the NFL Playoffs, January 15, 2010
LSAT Ninja
December 2009 LSAT Scores Are Out
Scores have arrived.
Thousands of anxious LSAT students awoke this morning with a frightening email in their Inbox. Subject: Your December 2009 LSAT Score. After a brief panic attack and some inspirational videos, many students have not yet summoned the courage to actually open said email.
But once you have, you can join the big topic of conversation… the curve.
The curve for the December LSAT is the most lenient in recent LSAT history. I had predicted that the curve would be forgiving, but this curve is easier than a sorority girl/boy on Halloween. Take a look:
Normally a student can miss 10 questions to get a 170. In December, missing 14 questions earned you that honor. Typically you can miss about 24 questions to get a 160, but the test allowed you to bubble incorrectly on 28 questions in December and still receive a 160.
It is important to understand that this is a curve. These numbers do not mean that a higher percentage of test takers got those lovely scores this time around. The numbers simply mean that you had a little more wiggle room to get those top scores. There are various theories about why the curve has lightened up this year, but I am sticking to my original theory.
The initial report is that the Logical Reasoning was abnormally difficult and this also could have had a significant effect on the curve.
We hope that everyone is getting great news in that Inbox and would love to hear your thoughts about the curve and your LSAT score.
Photo by aprilhollyhood. Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.0 Generic
This is CRAZY. And very good news for many students, particularly those that prepped well since they have a leg up on those who panicked about the recession and took the LSAT without studying adequately.
Interesting. I recalled one of the LR sections being abnormally easy (as in, finishing the section 8 minutes early and thinking I’d accidentally skipped a page), and the other one being normal.
Reading comp, though, seemed much more difficult than usual… expect to see the Japanese sculptor passage on many people’s “worst reading comp passage EVER” lists. I usually miss 0-1 question per RC section, but I biffed on 4 in this one.
The curve worked in my favor. I got a 160 this time, up from 157 in September. I actually did better than usual in the Logical Reasoning sections and thought that Reading Comprehension was harder than usual. I’m usually a strong performer in RC but struggled with it this time.
Bottom line, though, I don’t care why the curve is forgiving–I’m just happy with my score!
I received my score today and am thrilled – I took Blueprint the Movie and would recommend it to anyone. Infotainment at its best.
Agreed on the RC.
I am working my way through the Japanese sculptors passage and I am seriously debating poking my eyeballs out instead of finishing.
will law schools take into consideration this lenient curve when evaluating my score + apps?
So what did Jay get?!
Faheem,
The point of the curve is to even out any discrepancies between different tests, so law schools aren’t going to devalue any scores from this round b/c any differences between exams have already been taken into account. Supposedly.
JT
Grrr..I missed my customary 4 on RC, 1 on LG, but lost 10 points on LR (usually lose only 4 total)!
I got a 169, was hoping for a 170+ but honestly I am satisfied, after all, I entered Blueprint with a 155 diagnostic so a 14 point jump is great. Thank you blueprint! Hopefully this will get me into UCLA or USC!
Riley,
Just wanted to say thanks for having this blog, it has helped me a great deal in preparing for the LSAT.
Hey! Do you happen to have LSAT predictions for the curve for February? Since you were pretty accurate for the December LSAT, I thought it would be pretty interesting to see what you thought!
Hi,
I retook the LSAT and scored 10 points higher in Dec making my list of target school change drastically. I already applied to 7 before my new score came out, but now I want to apply to T-10 schools since my score is good enough. Is it smarter to apply ASAP since it’s rolling admissions or should I wait for fee waivers to come in and apply a week or two later?
Also, how important would you say the personal statement is for one who has a LSAT score above the 75th percentile and average GPA?
[...] December 2009 LSAT Scores Are Out, December 28, 2009 [...]
Corydon,
Matt will be doing another prediction for the February test in a later blog. Or at least that’s what he says. He’s currently in Cabo with a bucket of Coronas so his return status is dubious.
Anonymous,
A week or two at this point probably won’t change much so you should be fine as long as you’re not missing any deadlines. But the sooner you get your stuff in, the better, so don’t dally!
The personal statement is always important, but in your case it sounds like your GPA is bringing your LSAT score down a bit. Because of this, you want your personal statement to shine so that if committees are undecided about you because of your academic index, your personal statement will convince them that you’re a great candidate.
Good luck and Happy New Year!
I want to smack my head against the wall. I just realized that I marked #15 and 16 in the LG section on the same line. OMG.
OK, now that the initial feeling of absolute rage and head-slamming has passed, I’m wondering if it is worth it to take the feb LSATs. I scored OK, 165, but KNOW I could’ve scored better. Especially with that stupid miss-marking mistake that I made. MY UGPA is 3.97 and grad school GPA is 4.0. It was my 1st time taking a standardized test, or any test for that matter, in years, so I guess a little freaking out is to be expected. STILL!
If you misbubbled on a significant number of questions you can tell LSAC about it and have the exam hand-scored.