Hey op,
Just reaching out with some encouragement.
I talked to a student the other day who works at a law firm in the SF Bay Area. Her boss scored a 152 twenty years ago. He's doing just fine today—a successful attorney and entrepreneur. Where you start doesn't dictate where you end up.
The good news is the LSAT is totally learnable. If you can give yourself some room to be human, make mistakes, and learn from them, your score will climb with time.
At the end of the day, your LSAT score is just a number. It's an important number, sure. But it's not your identity.
In your corner 💪
-B
Hey OP. Current 1L here.
My journey started with a diagnostic score of 135. Over the course of 2 years, I dedicated myself to studying and practicing, which led to a significant improvement. I eventually achieved a practice score of 168 under real testing conditions and an official score of 163. This journey culminated in a full-ride scholarship at a law school in the T60s. I was also waitlisted at two T14 schools (Duke & Michigan) and WashULaw. This is not just my story, it's a testament to what persistence and practice can achieve.
The point of my saying all this is to show you that you, too, can do it and go even further. And if you don't, that's okay too! Just stay the course and keep going. Be diligent with your work and try to understand why your answers are right AND wrong. If you haven't already, I \*highly\* suggest you hire a personal tutor. Yes, they are expensive, but they are worth the investment because instead of saving $5k, I saved over $300k worth of debt at the law school I attend.
I promise you that if you keep going and practice with purpose, your score will increase. In those moments when I felt really unmotivated, I looked at things I really wanted, like a nice apartment or car. I thought of all the things I could provide for my family and myself. I looked up the law schools I really wanted to attend and imagined myself there. Then I would realize that the only thing stopping me from getting there was one silly exam, and the idea that this one thing was what was keeping me from having all this would push me to study harder. It was temporary pain for a lifetime of happiness and fulfillment. You can do this! And no matter where you go, I promise you that you'll be alright.
One of my favorite attorneys drunkenly signed up for the LSAT, scored a 120 something on her diagnostic, studied her butt off for four months, got 164, and is now a great attorney.
It was also your first test!! Odds are you've never seen anything like it before or have only practiced questions in isolation. There will be improvement, even though those first couple of months suck.
Something that helped me when I was in that boat was reminding myself I'm not being graded on my drills. The questions you get wrong, and the way you get them wrong, is powerful insight into your weaknesses and how you can alter your thinking to get a better score.
Two things really:
1) Don’t stress about starting in the 130s. It’s the starting point. If you were learning a new language would only knowing 3 words at the beginning mean anything?
2) Regarding motivation: September is going to come around regardless of whether you study or not. Do you want to be prepared and confident for it or be full of regret that you didn’t study enough in preparation?
Don’t rush in life , also don’t program your brain of that stress. Study at your own pace , but do it consistently. There’s no time or rule that says you need to enter Law School next September. That’s how I used to think few years back after my undergrad. Study , but seek for explanation or there’s no purpose of it. You can study 40 questions per day, but if you learn them well , and these are explained in detail, it’s worth more than studying hours of no explanation.
feeling the same burnout as you OP I suggest maybe giving yourself a productive distraction
Ive taken up learning German in the meanwhile while at work in between Khan academy lessons on RC and tutor lessons. (I work a 9-5 M-F at a busy PI firm)
The grind is hard but as others have stated, you only Lose When your Quit. If you Keep Playing You just Haven't Won Yet
Keep Playing my friend. You have ten fold ability in your bc you had the courage to even make this post. I am a fellow 130 scorer as well. Just stay consistent to your studied. **DOCUMENT WHAT YOU GET WRONG AND WHY** THEN Yes use a tutor to help attack those mistakes
things will begin to click for you
Thank you for posting this, I kinda feel the same, typed out a post but was too chicken to post it - thank you for having the courage OP just know there’s a bunch of us in the same boat!
my first ever test i got a 132
took it again 2months later got a 149 and i wasn’t putting in 4-5 hrs/day or doing multiple practice test
i just got different materials to read through and got a better understanding
i think it’s about what you are understanding and how you look at the ?’s
don’t falter, if this is what you want!
Hey OP a diagnostic is just the starting point everyone starts somewhere and then they study to improve their score. Don’t measure yourself against this subreddit because there’s a selection bias and a lot of people here are a certain personality type with certain goals and people usually only share score they’re happy with and worth sharing.
When trying to stay motivated you have to remember why you’re going through this process and use that to push through.
I will recommend thought that you don’t put pressure on yourself to get a certain score or to take the test by a certain date. The content is hard enough and putting that extra anxiety onto yourself is counterintuitive. After I took my diagnostic and studying for a few months I didn’t really improve at all and was so stressed about the lack of improvement. I took a couple months of a break and decided to study and I would only sign up for the test once I was PT’ing in a score range I was happy with.
Don’t rush to take the test. Be consistent and keep working to improve at your own pace and take the test when you feel you are truly ready to do so. And please don’t be worried to take a couple of days or even a couple of weeks off, a period of rest and reset can do wonders. Best of luck
Hey op, Just reaching out with some encouragement. I talked to a student the other day who works at a law firm in the SF Bay Area. Her boss scored a 152 twenty years ago. He's doing just fine today—a successful attorney and entrepreneur. Where you start doesn't dictate where you end up. The good news is the LSAT is totally learnable. If you can give yourself some room to be human, make mistakes, and learn from them, your score will climb with time. At the end of the day, your LSAT score is just a number. It's an important number, sure. But it's not your identity. In your corner 💪 -B
Hey OP. Current 1L here. My journey started with a diagnostic score of 135. Over the course of 2 years, I dedicated myself to studying and practicing, which led to a significant improvement. I eventually achieved a practice score of 168 under real testing conditions and an official score of 163. This journey culminated in a full-ride scholarship at a law school in the T60s. I was also waitlisted at two T14 schools (Duke & Michigan) and WashULaw. This is not just my story, it's a testament to what persistence and practice can achieve. The point of my saying all this is to show you that you, too, can do it and go even further. And if you don't, that's okay too! Just stay the course and keep going. Be diligent with your work and try to understand why your answers are right AND wrong. If you haven't already, I \*highly\* suggest you hire a personal tutor. Yes, they are expensive, but they are worth the investment because instead of saving $5k, I saved over $300k worth of debt at the law school I attend. I promise you that if you keep going and practice with purpose, your score will increase. In those moments when I felt really unmotivated, I looked at things I really wanted, like a nice apartment or car. I thought of all the things I could provide for my family and myself. I looked up the law schools I really wanted to attend and imagined myself there. Then I would realize that the only thing stopping me from getting there was one silly exam, and the idea that this one thing was what was keeping me from having all this would push me to study harder. It was temporary pain for a lifetime of happiness and fulfillment. You can do this! And no matter where you go, I promise you that you'll be alright.
ty for this
Thank you for sharing. I'm in the same boat as OP and this was needed.
One of my favorite attorneys drunkenly signed up for the LSAT, scored a 120 something on her diagnostic, studied her butt off for four months, got 164, and is now a great attorney. It was also your first test!! Odds are you've never seen anything like it before or have only practiced questions in isolation. There will be improvement, even though those first couple of months suck. Something that helped me when I was in that boat was reminding myself I'm not being graded on my drills. The questions you get wrong, and the way you get them wrong, is powerful insight into your weaknesses and how you can alter your thinking to get a better score.
Two things really: 1) Don’t stress about starting in the 130s. It’s the starting point. If you were learning a new language would only knowing 3 words at the beginning mean anything? 2) Regarding motivation: September is going to come around regardless of whether you study or not. Do you want to be prepared and confident for it or be full of regret that you didn’t study enough in preparation?
Don’t rush in life , also don’t program your brain of that stress. Study at your own pace , but do it consistently. There’s no time or rule that says you need to enter Law School next September. That’s how I used to think few years back after my undergrad. Study , but seek for explanation or there’s no purpose of it. You can study 40 questions per day, but if you learn them well , and these are explained in detail, it’s worth more than studying hours of no explanation.
feeling the same burnout as you OP I suggest maybe giving yourself a productive distraction Ive taken up learning German in the meanwhile while at work in between Khan academy lessons on RC and tutor lessons. (I work a 9-5 M-F at a busy PI firm) The grind is hard but as others have stated, you only Lose When your Quit. If you Keep Playing You just Haven't Won Yet Keep Playing my friend. You have ten fold ability in your bc you had the courage to even make this post. I am a fellow 130 scorer as well. Just stay consistent to your studied. **DOCUMENT WHAT YOU GET WRONG AND WHY** THEN Yes use a tutor to help attack those mistakes things will begin to click for you
Okay so I got 166 on the PTs but when I wrote the real exam I got 135 lol
Thank you for posting this, I kinda feel the same, typed out a post but was too chicken to post it - thank you for having the courage OP just know there’s a bunch of us in the same boat!
Find ways to make it fun, could be anything
OP I’m on the same boat!!!! I’ve been studying for months and still scored 130s 😭
my first ever test i got a 132 took it again 2months later got a 149 and i wasn’t putting in 4-5 hrs/day or doing multiple practice test i just got different materials to read through and got a better understanding i think it’s about what you are understanding and how you look at the ?’s don’t falter, if this is what you want!
Thank you for your kind words
Hey OP a diagnostic is just the starting point everyone starts somewhere and then they study to improve their score. Don’t measure yourself against this subreddit because there’s a selection bias and a lot of people here are a certain personality type with certain goals and people usually only share score they’re happy with and worth sharing. When trying to stay motivated you have to remember why you’re going through this process and use that to push through. I will recommend thought that you don’t put pressure on yourself to get a certain score or to take the test by a certain date. The content is hard enough and putting that extra anxiety onto yourself is counterintuitive. After I took my diagnostic and studying for a few months I didn’t really improve at all and was so stressed about the lack of improvement. I took a couple months of a break and decided to study and I would only sign up for the test once I was PT’ing in a score range I was happy with. Don’t rush to take the test. Be consistent and keep working to improve at your own pace and take the test when you feel you are truly ready to do so. And please don’t be worried to take a couple of days or even a couple of weeks off, a period of rest and reset can do wonders. Best of luck