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 dneuman
  • Posts: 22
  • Joined: Jun 22, 2015
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#19753
Hi. To make the question simple, I took a pre-test about a week ago and scored a 150. Now on that test, I felt that the LR was maybe more difficult, while the LG gave me less trouble than usual. I took another pre-test today, and scored a 152 (raw score of 59). The difference was that my LR score was much more improved (only 3 wrong on first LR section), while the Logic game score plummeted with only 5 correct in the entire section.
Basically, do sections all level out in their difficulty, or does the test sometimes, for example, make harder LG sections but easier LR sections, or is each section overall a self-contained difficulty.

My reasoning for asking is that if the ladder is true, this last test could be a huge source of motivation, in that if I work/had worked hard on mainly logic games, I imagine this last test could have jumped to a 156 at least.

Thanks!
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 Dave Killoran
PowerScore Staff
  • PowerScore Staff
  • Posts: 6032
  • Joined: Mar 25, 2011
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#19756
Hi D,

This is a great question, and one that we've addressed in various ways over the years. The short answer is that the difficulty of LSAT sections varies from test to test, as does the difficulty of the LSAT itself. They compensate for overall test difficulty variances by altering the scoring scale used for each LSAT. So, you can have one test where LG is relatively easier, and then the next test, it can be relatively harder. Same for LR and RC from test to test. They do try to make the overall difficulty about the same, but it's basically impossible to make it identical each time, and that's where the scoring scale comes in. The scale is adjusted each time to account for changes in difficulty, and this is why sometimes you need 79 right to get a 165 and other times you need to answer 83 right.

If you want more info on this, I've included a bunch of links that discuss various aspect of how this all works. I find it fascinating, and you might too. So, please check these out, and let me know if you have any followup questions. Thanks!

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