LSAT Practice Test

LSAT Practice Test
I just took a practice LSAT and got a 143.?

I just took my first lsat practice. I haven't studied any of the material before, I'm planning on taking the test in February. Also, I'm taking a bunch of hours this semester so I can't really do a class. should I be worried? What can I do to help myself?
... whoa there cowboy, i never said i wasnt going to take the test seriously. that would be suicide.
... that was in reference to the first poster, i have almost 6 months so i bought a couple of books to start with and im planning om buying more as soon as i can.

I think that the previous response you received was a major overreaction. As you may know, the LSAT is scored on a range from 120 to 180, with the nationwide mean sitting at 150. If you're hoping to attend a top law school, you really want to break 170 to be competitive. Many other good schools will admit students with scores in the 160s or 150s.

A 143 is a bad score; there's no way to avoid saying that. If that were a score you'd earned after three months of preparation and a full prep course, I would encourage you to think twice about taking the test. However, you just took your first practice test with zero preparation. I don't know whether a 143 is a particularly good or bad score under those conditions, but you really shouldn't worry about it at all. That's where I differ from the previous poster.

The purpose of that initial, cold test is to give you a feel for what type of content is on the test and to help you begin identifying what material you need to spend the most time working on. Just to put this in context for you, I believe my first, blind score was a 148, and I wound up scoring a 177 on the actual test.

You certainly don't need to take a prep course to do well on the LSAT (I didn't), but you do need to take your preparation seriously, because the test is by far the most important factor in law school admissions. You've got plenty of time if the test is in February. You can theoretically cram for the LSAT in three weeks, but taking three months of steady, methodical study is what I would aim for.

I won't make this answer any longer by describing specific study advice, but let me say this: the LSAT, unlike many standardized tests, is very learnable. You need to spend time mastering the content and learning techniques to handle specific question types that trip you up.

However, the most important thing to do is to spend as much time as possible doing practice 35-minute sections. Do as many questions in those blocks as you can get your hands on. The test is, in my opinion, much more about familiarity with the question types that are used over and over and much less about specific substantive knowledge. After a few weeks of study, you'll start to notice the same question formats recurring constantly, and eventually you'll be so familiar with them that you'll be able to work through them without breaking a sweat.

Best of luck to you.

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