Avg. point increase from prep class

[Scooter14]

Realistically, how much can I improve my score if I do one of the "deluxe" prep classes? Is 20 points possible?

[LSAT Eliminator]

Is it possible? Certainly. But I can tell you from experience that you will need to work hard and study like a demon. Nothing in life is easy, and a good LSAT prep course gives you the tools, but you have to work hard to learn how to quickly and easily apply those tools. 

[EarlCat]

I've seen 20+ increases multiple times.  BUT they're not common, and they pretty much happen only for students who eat, sleep, and breathe LSAT prep.  Even for them, there is no guarantee.  Are you willing to do what it takes?

[Scooter14]

So maybe 10-15 points is more realistic? I'm definitely willing to do what it takes. I'm thinking of trying to take the LSAT in December, so I think I have plenty of time.

[Anne]

I've seen 20+ increases multiple times.  BUT they're not common, and they pretty much happen only for students who eat, sleep, and breathe LSAT prep.  Even for them, there is no guarantee.  Are you willing to do what it takes?

Wow, I think we found the tagline for the board.  

In all seriousness, though, Scooter, a 10-15 point increase IS more realistic, particularly if you're not taking the test until December. Like both Eliminator and Earl said, however, you'll have to bust your butt and worship at the LSAT altar from now until then if you're looking for that 15+ increase. You're talking about a significant jump in the percentile ranks, and that's only achieved through blood, sweat, and tears.

[widespreadLSATpanic]

I did a virtual course and went up 17 points. 

I agree that it's A LOT of work. I actually surprised myself with how hard I worked at it.

[SeanW25622]

I did a virtual course and went up 17 points. 

I agree that it's A LOT of work. I actually surprised myself with how hard I worked at it.

What did you do, just study all the problems the gave you?

[Jeffort]

I've seen 20+ increases multiple times.  BUT they're not common, and they pretty much happen only for students who eat, sleep, and breathe LSAT prep.  Even for them, there is no guarantee.  Are you willing to do what it takes?

Wow, I think we found the tagline for the board.  

In all seriousness, though, Scooter, a 10-15 point increase IS more realistic, particularly if you're not taking the test until December. Like both Eliminator and Earl said, however, you'll have to bust your butt and worship at the LSAT altar from now until then if you're looking for that 15+ increase. You're talking about a significant jump in the percentile ranks, and that's only achieved through blood, sweat, and tears.

The bolded above are very true.  To make a 20+ gain or even a 10-15 point gain it is a necessary condition that you really want it and are willing to put in everything you can to do it.  
Big point gain   gave it all you possibly could

I've seen 20+ point increases many times over the years I've been teaching and everyone I've seen do it made the LSAT their life and number #1 priority/obsession for as long as it took, literally eating, sleeping and breathing the LSAT hard core.  Granted, doing that will not insure it happens, hence why I classified it as a necessary rather than a sufficient condition.  The one thing you can count on is that if you do not give it all you've got, you certainly wont see a giant 15+ point gain.

I improved 25 points from first timed diagnostic test to my final score on test day and believe me, there is truth to the blood sweat and tears part of the process making it happen.  Since my GPA was mediocre and I was only willing to take on the LS burdens and life path if I got into a top ranked school, I dedicated and focused my entire life on the LSAT for a summer deadset on breaking 170.  Luckily I wasn't working or in school at the time so I had plenty of free time.  Sacrificing my having fun in the sun summer recreation time payed off with a 177 LSAT which got me into USC LS and many others.  

I started my prep by taking a class, which helped a lot, but the tons of time I spent outside of class working on it (based largely on what I learned in class) is what made my biggest score jumps happen.  If I had not practiced, studied, reviewed and lathered rinsed repeated that obsessively for weeks on end I would probably have ended up with a score in the mid to low 160's.  

An important thing to understand and be clear about though is that the class by itself will not do it for you.  You have to take the test and it's about what you do with the class resources outside of class time that generates the significant improvements.

In addition to seeing many people make huge increases I've also seen students improve very little.  The main difference between the two groups is who puts in the work outside of class.  Many people that are possibly just luke warm about the LS idea or are otherwise not fully committed to putting in all the time and effort they can for LSAT prep end up not doing all or much of the homework, not practicing and reviewing much, etc. and subsequently don't improve much.  Just attending the class is not enough.  You should spend many more hours than class time doing homework and such since that's where the magic happens as you get good at applying what you learned in to class to LSAT questions.

[lawdog]

Realistically, how much can I improve my score if I do one of the "deluxe" prep classes? Is 20 points possible?

A lot has to do with where you're starting from. Without knowing that, its difficult to assess your prospects for a 20 point improvement, although such increases, as many have commented, are not entirely uncommon. If you took that first test without preparation, that score won't tells us much at all about your potential--taking the LSAT "cold" can be a bit like taking a foreign language test without studying the language. And, as with languages, the time and effort required will vary from person to person. With that said, it sounds like you might be doing the right thing--a class can keep you focused on the test and consistently practicing, and a good class should give you the tools you need. As many others have said, though, your results will be largely dependent on the time and effort that you are willing to invest.

[Jeffort]

Realistically, how much can I improve my score if I do one of the "deluxe" prep classes? Is 20 points possible?

A lot has to do with where you're starting from. Without knowing that, its difficult to assess your prospects for a 20 point improvement, although such increases, as many have commented, are not entirely uncommon. If you took that first test without preparation, that score won't tells us much at all about your potential--taking the LSAT "cold" can be a bit like taking a foreign language class without studying the language. And, as with languages, the time and effort required will vary from person to person. With that said, it sounds like you might be doing the right thing--a class can keep you focused on the test and consistently practicing, and a good class should give you the tools you need. As many others have said, though, your results will be largely dependent on the time and effort that you are willing to invest.

I don't really understand how your learning a foreign language analogy applies.   

Taking a pre-prep virgin run timed diagnostic test gets you your initial 'current performance ability level' baseline score which is important in many beneficial ways for putting together a good prep strategy, goals, etc.  Taking the LSAT without prep is not like taking a German or other language test without previous education about the language.   

With the LSAT the 'language' that needs to be learned if we want to torture this analogy is the language of approach and strategy built on a foundation of understanding the tested logical concepts and having skills applying them well.

[lawdog]

Realistically, how much can I improve my score if I do one of the "deluxe" prep classes? Is 20 points possible?

A lot has to do with where you're starting from. Without knowing that, its difficult to assess your prospects for a 20 point improvement, although such increases, as many have commented, are not entirely uncommon. If you took that first test without preparation, that score won't tells us much at all about your potential--taking the LSAT "cold" can be a bit like taking a foreign language class without studying the language. And, as with languages, the time and effort required will vary from person to person. With that said, it sounds like you might be doing the right thing--a class can keep you focused on the test and consistently practicing, and a good class should give you the tools you need. As many others have said, though, your results will be largely dependent on the time and effort that you are willing to invest.

I don't really understand how your learning a foreign language analogy applies.  

Taking a pre-prep virgin run timed diagnostic test gets you your initial 'current performance ability level' baseline score which is important in many beneficial ways for putting together a good prep strategy, goals, etc.  Taking the LSAT without prep is not like taking a German or other language test without previous education about the language.  

With the LSAT the 'language' that needs to be learned if we want to torture this analogy is the language of approach and strategy built on a foundation of understanding the tested logical concepts and having skills applying them well.

Tortured analogy?!  wow!  For an administrator that's a bit rude, no?!

I must agree with you learning the LSAT is, in many ways, distinguishable from learning German.

So how can I compare it in any way to a language?!  In many ways, but I'll just respond briefly for each section:

Starting with perhaps the most obvious, I don't believe that most people speak in the way that Reading Comprehension authors tend express themselves. These aren't written in another language per se, but in a sense some of the tougher passages really are--written in the pseudo-sophisticated, convoluted language of academia. I don't believe this is subject to debate, but if you disagree, take a look at most academic journals (I don't speak that way, nor do I aspire to, but it's important to develop a comfort with that type of language).

The Logical Reasoning section of the test can also illustrate the benefits of familiarity with the particular language of the test. A basic example: many students understandably have a difficult time with inference questions, because the word "inference" commonly connotes some degree of guessing, or speculation. Since I began teaching the LSAT fifteen years ago, I have seen many students benefit from the simple recognition that a proper inference on the LSAT is generally a fact that must be true according to the information presented--not the product of speculation.

And as for the Logic Games section, part of the process for almost everyone is the development of the ability to symbolize the rules in an understandable and efficient manner. But is this a language?  Hmm... Interestingly, Mirriam Webster defines the term language , in relevent part, as follows :
"a systematic means of communicating ideas...by the use of conventionalized signs...or marks having understood meanings;  
a formal system of signs and symbols (as a calculus in logic)."   This "language"  certainly sounds like an important part of any approach to Logic Games.

[LSAT Eliminator]

I think the language analogy applies. Logic as it appears on the LSAT is different than what most people encounter on a day-to-day basis, and it takes a while to get in tune with the local dialect, so to speak. Is it the same as full-on learning a new language? No, but it is close enough. 

[Treetop]

I think the language analogy applies. Logic as it appears on the LSAT is different than what most people encounter on a day-to-day basis, and it takes a while to get in tune with the local dialect, so to speak. Is it the same as full-on learning a new language? No, but it is close enough. 

Makes sense to me. My first test definitely felt like a foreign language.

[Jeffort]

Realistically, how much can I improve my score if I do one of the "deluxe" prep classes? Is 20 points possible?

A lot has to do with where you're starting from. Without knowing that, its difficult to assess your prospects for a 20 point improvement, although such increases, as many have commented, are not entirely uncommon. If you took that first test without preparation, that score won't tells us much at all about your potential--taking the LSAT "cold" can be a bit like taking a foreign language class without studying the language. And, as with languages, the time and effort required will vary from person to person. With that said, it sounds like you might be doing the right thing--a class can keep you focused on the test and consistently practicing, and a good class should give you the tools you need. As many others have said, though, your results will be largely dependent on the time and effort that you are willing to invest.

I don't really understand how your learning a foreign language analogy applies.  

Taking a pre-prep virgin run timed diagnostic test gets you your initial 'current performance ability level' baseline score which is important in many beneficial ways for putting together a good prep strategy, goals, etc.  Taking the LSAT without prep is not like taking a German or other language test without previous education about the language.  

With the LSAT the 'language' that needs to be learned if we want to torture this analogy is the language of approach and strategy built on a foundation of understanding the tested logical concepts and having skills applying them well.

Tortured analogy?!  wow!  For an administrator that's a bit rude, no?!

I must agree with you learning the LSAT is, in many ways, distinguishable from learning German.

So how can I compare it in any way to a language?!  In many ways, but I'll just respond briefly for each section:

Starting with perhaps the most obvious, I don't believe that most people speak in the way that Reading Comprehension authors tend express themselves. These aren't written in another language per se, but in a sense some of the tougher passages really are--written in the pseudo-sophisticated, convoluted language of academia. I don't believe this is subject to debate, but if you disagree, take a look at most academic journals (I don't speak that way, nor do I aspire to, but it's important to develop a comfort with that type of language).

The Logical Reasoning section of the test can also illustrate the benefits of familiarity with the particular language of the test. A basic example: many students understandably have a difficult time with inference questions, because the word "inference" commonly connotes some degree of guessing, or speculation. Since I began teaching the LSAT fifteen years ago, I have seen many students benefit from the simple recognition that a proper inference on the LSAT is generally a fact that must be true according to the information presented--not the product of speculation.

And as for the Logic Games section, part of the process for almost everyone is the development of the ability to symbolize the rules in an understandable and efficient manner. But is this a language?  Hmm... Interestingly, Mirriam Webster defines the term language , in relevent part, as follows :
"a systematic means of communicating ideas...by the use of conventionalized signs...or marks having understood meanings;  
a formal system of signs and symbols (as a calculus in logic)."   This "language"  certainly sounds like an important part of any approach to Logic Games.

I wasn't trying to be rude or anything, sorry if it came off that way.  I didn't mean to say the it was itself a tortured analogy.  I just meant that if we get really specific about what LSAT skills are, saying that learning them, having them and then being able to consistently apply them is equivalent to learning and then fluently speaking a new language is a stretch of the analogy given the differences, especially in the context of the usefulness of a cold run diagnostic score to get an idea about a persons potential ultimate scoring range.  

Unlike with a foreign language that you have no previous familiarity with prior to taking a class or something, the LSAT tests reading, comprehension, analysis and reasoning skills that revolve around a lot of basics that typical college level students are supposed to/expected to have, from their prior educational history, some familiarity and skills with.  

Perhaps my wording was a bit extreme and I should have said something about stretching the analogy instead.  

Obviously I see many similarities between learning a new language and learning about and how to perform well on the LSAT.  Perhaps I'm too much of a stickler for details...  

In analogizing prepping for the LSAT to a particular genre of academic courses I lean more towards analogizing the LSAT to a math class.  With both you have to learn empirical principles/concepts and then apply them properly to supplied sets of information to arrive at the logically determined correct result.  Getting good at the LSAT is more of a skills based application/process thing than a memorizing a lot of individual facts (like learning tons of new words of a language to be able to speak it) type of thing if that makes any sense.
  

[Anne]

I think the language analogy applies. Logic as it appears on the LSAT is different than what most people encounter on a day-to-day basis, and it takes a while to get in tune with the local dialect, so to speak. Is it the same as full-on learning a new language? No, but it is close enough. 

Makes sense to me. My first test definitely felt like a foreign language.

I actually would have to agree with the language analogy. Although Jeffort is right in that it's not EXACTLY like learning a language, I think the LSAT is unfamiliar enough that one could easily compare to learning a language--perhaps not as extreme as learning something as unfamiliar as German when all you know is English, but perhaps like learning Italian when all you know is Spanish. Things may SOUND the same, but they certainly don't mean the same thing, and it is only through careful study and practice that you can eventually speak the language fluently.