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LSAT Raw Score Conversion

Find out what a raw, scaled and percentile LSAT score is and how to convert that one score into another.

LSAT Score Types

A raw LSAT score is simply the number of questions answered correctly.

A scaled LSAT score is a conversion of the raw score, also known as the familiar 120–180 number. For example, a raw score of 67 is 67 correct answers, which converts to a scaled score of 170. A raw score of 58—meaning 58 correct answers—converts to a scaled score of 162.

On a previous test, a raw score of 58 might convert to a 150 or a 152. To account for differences in overall difficulty, each iteration of the test has a slightly different raw score-to-scaled score conversion table.

LSAT percentile scores indicate how a test taker performed relative to other test takers over a three-year period. The conversion from scaled score to percentile score remains relatively stable, with only minor variations over the years. Test after test, a 153 scaled score is approximately a 50th percentile score.

LSAT Score Conversion Chart

LSAT scoring looks a bit different these days, as the exam only has three scored sections and roughly 75 points. Below is the scoring scale LSAC released for their May 2020 LSAT Flex. Even though the LSAT Flex is no longer administered, its scoring will remain relevant to the LSAT going forward.

Historic LSAT Score Conversion Charts


Take a look at an example conversion chart based on PrepTest 74:
Raw ScoreScaled ScorePercentile
3813910th
4414320th
4914630th
5414940th
5815150th
6315460th
6715670th
7416080th
8016490th
8516795th
9217299th

These historic examples (PrepTests 1-80) feature raw score conversions from when there were 4 scored sections and roughly 100 points. The new LSAT only has three scored sections and roughly 75 points.

Historic LSAT Scoring Percentiles (Ranges)

Take a look at an example conversion chart with scoring ranges based on PrepTest 62:

lsat-scoring-infographic

How LSAT Scoring Impacts Performance

The way in which the LSAT is scored has three important implications for your performance:

  1. The number of right answers determines your score. There is no guessing penalty. Never leave a question blank on the LSAT.
  2. Every question is worth the same, regardless of how hard it is. Learn to spot difficult questions and leave them for the end of each section. Find the easy questions and rack up points. If you’re going to run out of time or need to guess, you want to do so on the tough stuff.
  3. Every additional correct answer can leapfrog you ahead of hundreds—or even thousands—of other test-takers, your competition. How’s that for inspiration?

Check out the Kaplan LSAT PrepTest Scoring & Explanation Tool

What’s a Good LSAT Score?

What you consider a good LSAT score depends on your own expectations and goals, but here are a few interesting statistics.
If you got about half of all of the scored questions right (a raw score of roughly 38), you’d earn a scaled score of 147, putting you in about the 30th percentile—not a great performance. However, as you saw above, a little improvement goes a long way. Getting an additional 8 questions right would give you a raw score of 46, pushing you up to 153, which is about the 50th percentile—a huge improvement.
 
So, you don’t have to be perfect to do well. Every LSAT throughout the year is different, but on a typical LSAT, can still get around 18–19 questions wrong and still end up in the 160s—or about 12 wrong and get a 166, a 90th percentile score. Even a perfect score of 180 often allows for a question or two to be missed.