As the first post-Flex LSAT comes to a close, Dave and Jon are here with their traditional recap to break it all down: what was scored and what was experimental, where the various test forms first appeared, and most importantly how the section difficulties impacted the scoring scale for every combination of content.
Timestamps
0:00 – Intro. Dave and Uncle Denning celebrate/recover from a busy week of August test tracking.
The August LSAT
5:48 – General impressions. A recap of how tracking everything went with the freshly reimplemented Experimental section, test-taker numbers per day, and a reminder to finish those LSAT Writing portions! Additional reading.
14:32 – October LSAT timeline. Reminder that the October LSAT registration deadline is 8/25! Make sure to get signed up if you feel like a retake is in order and get signed up for our Crystal Ball October LSAT preview webinar with Dave and Jon on 9/12.
16:33 – ProctorU issues. Reviewing various student reported technical/clerical issues and info on how to report problems directly to LSAC if you need to.
22:43 – Discussion rules. A reminder of what we can and cannot divulge in these recap episodes, and how the discussion changes now that the Experimental section is in play again.
39:12 – August LSAT section review. Moving from Saturday morning through Tuesday, Dave and Jon break down the different sections that were used in order of appearance, along with which sections were experimental and which were real.
1:06:50 – Scoring Scale Predictions. Analyzing all potential section combinations found on the August test and the various scoring scales that are likely for the different iterations.
1:26:13 – Outro. Submit your mailbag questions for the next episode to lsatpodcast@powerscore.com!
Melodie says
Did you say the roasted chicken was experimental? Because I only had 1 LR section and I 100% had that question and the tyranny question. I also had the billboards, health drinks, and star clusters. What is happening!!? Lol!
Codi Royall says
Me too… lol I’m kinda confused now. I def had the roasted chicken question and only had one logical reasoning. I was feeling good cuz they said my good logic games section was real but now Idk if we can trust this analysis lol
Jon Denning says
Thanks so much for the post! I just commented on a thread in our Forum on this very point, so let me link that and also copy my reply over here to hopefully help alleviate any lingering confusion 🙂
https://forum.powerscore.com/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=35311&start=70
“Great question, and one that’s been on our minds since before the August test even kicked off! Did LSAC mix and match content, with some people facing material that was tested for them while also being experimental for others? The answer, at least in my current estimation of it, is no: LSAC didn’t swap in and out content as sometimes scored and sometimes not.
Instead what I believe has happened is that LSAC used a number of very similar topics, such that some people had a scored LR question about, say, speeding and speed limits while others had a same-subject stimulus (different but very similar) as experimental. Ditto chicken, tyranny, monkeys, and a few others. Even RC had a real passage and an experimental passage both on Nigeria and literature/language! The confusion that causes is immense…and also the driving force behind LSAC’s decision to use overlapping topics.
So the questions in your single LR are, in my opinion, all real and will count towards your score, and were also real for anyone else who saw those exact same questions (had that same section, in fact, since again I don’t think they were mixing and matching even with just the real content). I’m also firmly convinced that none of the LR anyone saw, whether scored or not, had an impact on the scoring scale, since by nearly all reports everything was fairly standard and down the middle. Happily that consistency makes the confusion surrounding what counted and what didn’t easier to overlook, as everything we’ve heard about seems comfortably -0.
I hope that helps!”