How to Score a 160 on the LSAT

Sorry for the cheesy description about a secret method. I had to write something, and now you’re here. Just don’t go anywhere yet. Scoring a 160 on the LSAT is no easy feat. Believe me — I scored a 150 the first time I took it. But the second time, I scored a 164. There is a method to getting a great score, and I’ll get to that later.

The math behind 160

Generally, there are 77 or 78 scored questions on the LSAT. In order to get a 160, you’ll need to get around 57 of these questions right. Between the 3 scored sections, that’s about 19 right answers for each section. If you’re good at one section, but not so good at another, your score will average out.

That means you can score a 15 on one section as long as you score a 22 on another one. Just make sure your average score is around 19 overall.

First you need to figure out your strengths and weaknesses

The best thing you can do in your LSAT studies is to know where you’re great and where you’re awful. The only way you can do this is by taking 2 or 3 practice LSATs. After that, review your answers to figure out how many questions you marked incorrectly on each section.

This will tell you where need the most improvement. Once you figure out where you’re the weakest, study that kind of question ad nauseam or until that section is no longer your greatest weakness.

Give yourself enough time — 3 or 4 months — and you’ll be able to make huge improvements.

Find your rhythm

I am in no way advocating that you blast through questions. Finishing a section early isn’t, in fact, a good thing. It’s how mistakes happen. That said, you do want to get into a rhythm when you take the exam.

Rhythm comes through familiarity. Familiarity comes by doing lots of questions. Once you’ve identified your weaknesses and strengths and turned those your weak sections into strong ones, you’ll be familiar with the types of questions you’re going to see. You’ll know what you need to pick out in each question. Your head may even start bobbing up and down because your LSAT rhythm is so deep.

how to score a 160 on the lsat

Whatever it is, you’ll want to get into that state as soon as you can when you start the exam. Once your brain gets in that rhythm, it will run very efficiently, and you’ll find that your scores will increase.

There’s no secret to getting a 160 on the LSAT. It just takes hard work. But, more than that, it takes smart work.

Author

  • Randall

    Randall earned his JD from the University of Denver in 2013. He received his BA in Communications and Social Science from the University of Washington in 2010. Randall took the LSAT twice, and managed to improve his score by 14 points the second time around. He paid the price of learning to score high on the LSAT and hopes to help other potential law students avoid similar pain.

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