Understanding The LSAT Scoring Scale and Percentiles

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Growing up you would never lack boys or girls in a class that wanted to be lawyers. Although it is one of society’s most prestigious professions at the core, a lawyer is meant to help other people fight and attain justice, and that perhaps is one of the many reasons people enter into this career. As a student keenly delves into this discipline, one important test they will encounter is the LSAT test.

The LSAT test is an admission test that is administered to prospective law students in countries like Canada and the US, and it is valid for 5 years. Students are usually advised to take this test, for it maximizes their chances of getting into the schools of their choice. The test is usually offered 5-6 times in the course of each year, with exception to 2018 when it was offered 7 times. The LSAT test can be hard written or taken digitally but it has been reported that in the US hard written exams will no longer be administered after the July 2019 LSAT test. The LSAT tests on the following elements:

Logical Reasoning
This tests your capabilities of arguing your point as a lawyer. This segment contains 24-26 questions.

Writing Sample
This section only contains one question and it tests your ability to communicate your thoughts, ideas, and concepts through writing.

Analytical Reasoning
This is also known as Logic games. This measures your ability to comprehend a question and see its relationship with another question. It has been noted that many students get excellent results in this section if they prepare well for it during their LSAT test prep and cope with the overbearing pressure of the exam day. This section usually has 22-23 questions.

Reading Comprehension
This strives to test your comprehension of complex passages and how each story relates to another. You will read and answer questions from 4-5 passages.

Each section of the LSAT takes 35 minutes, bringing the total time of the test to 3 hours and 30 minutes. All the questions in the sections are in multiple-choice format except for the essay.

Scoring

Scores for the LSAT range from 120-180 and students will receive their scores after three weeks. This report contains ones previous and current scores and their averages as well and your percentile rank for each section.

A percentile rank shows how you performed compared to the other students that took the test. If you ranked at the 80th percentile it means you performed better than 80% of the students that took the test, and only 20% were above you.

Due to the high competition to get into the best law schools in the country it is prudent for a student fully dedicate themselves to their LSAT studies and prep. That is why many students choose to work with an LSAT test prep tutor to help them understand the different sections of the test and how to answer the trickier question. There is a penalty given for wrong answers, so you want to make sure you do everything you can to prepare for the exam. Through dedicated LSAT test prep and hard work, you too can get into the law school of your dreams. Good luck!