The surprising truth about the “LSAT Curve”

If you ask the average LSAT test-taker, they’d tell you the LSAT is graded on a curve. This is kinda right, but mostly wrong. And here’s why: When most people think “graded on a curve”, they mean that not all tests are graded equally. And this is true. Different LSATs have different numbers of questions with slightly different difficulty levels, so you literally can’t treat them all the same.

However, most people also think that the LSAT you take is graded against all the other people who took your LSAT that month. This is wrong.   Let’s say you take a test in June and for whatever reason everyone totally bombed it (except you, because you studied REAALLLY hard). You receive an artificially high score because you’re being compared to the people around you, whereas if you had taken the test in February you might not have done quite as well. So, how does LSAC do it? It’s a process called pre-testing and involves that infuriating Experimental Section. Basically, this experimental section pre-tests questions that will be used on later LSATs to ensure that there’s an equal number of easy, medium, and difficult questions. This is how LSAC ensures that a test taken this year is just as difficult as one takes three years ago or three years from now. There’s actually a lot more to this. If you’d like to learn more (and I recommend it) Go check out this article where I look at what LSAC actually has to say about this and get into the details of how it all works. One of the most interesting things they talk about is the test difficulty ratings, which we’ll get into next time. Until then, Steve “Dangerous Curves” Schwartz Recommended Resources: 1. LSAT Courses The best of my LSAT material with exclusive access to attend my Live Online LSAT Master Classes + Q&As, and on-demand video lessons you can watch anytime. Plus, LSAT study plans to keep you on track. Save hundreds of dollars with an LSAT course package. 2. LSAT Day-By-Day Study Plans Preparing for the LSAT is confusing. There are dozens of prep books and practice tests out there, and 1,000+ articles on my website alone. When, and how, should you use them all? These super-specific study plans give you a clear plan of attack. 3. LSAT Cheat Sheets Based on what I'd typically do in college: read what the professor emphasized and condense it all onto a single piece of paper. It gave me a quick reference, making things a lot less threatening and a lot more manageable.

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