<p>How much can I expect LSAT's and GPA's to increase in the next four years...Better yet, how have they increased in the LAST four years...seems like its getting crazy competitive, as if a wrinkle in your transcript would ward off an adcom.</p>
<p>GPA's change year to year as schools either will inflate or deflate but the Lsats seem pretty consistent. 99% is still going to be most likely above a 170 but it can fluctuate from a 170-175. This is why lsats hold so much weight because gpas are so inconsistent.</p>
<p>Well at a given university, of your choice, how much higher have lsat's gone up in the last four years?</p>
<p>I know for undergrad, Wake Forest's avg SAT has gone up 100 pts in the last 4 years, a big jump</p>
<p>Um... tired_student: the LSAT percentiles are almost EXACTLY the same year to year. A 170 is almost always 98th percentile, give or take about a tenth of a percent. </p>
<p>Now, what happens is that more people take the LSAT in some years than others. So some years, with the 100,000 who take it (the low), there are, logically, only a thousand people who get 171+. Now, when a lot of people take the exam (150k or more), there are roughly 1,500 people who score above a 171. Percentile is the same, absolute numbers getting into that percentile is differnet. Note as well that the bottom 1% fluctuates between 1,000 students and 1,500 students.</p>
<p>So what happens is that schools don't take more people - let's say, for simplicity's sake, that a certain clump of schools take the top 3,000 scorers. In some years, the top 3,000 people will be 167+ (top 3%); in other years, it'll be 170+ (top 2%). That is the reason for the fluctuation in the LSAT, NOT any change in the absolute percentile.</p>
<p>Im not so sure that the schools care more about percentile than the actual grade itself though, even though the two have a distinct correlation.</p>
<p>The grade and the percentile are almost the exact same thing.</p>
<p>Regardless, we can agree that incoming avg LSAT scores increase each year in the admissions process of all the good schools....its insignificant as to why the admissions avgs increase, the end result is that they simply increase and law school is becoming increasingly competitive.</p>
<p>Does anyone know where I can access figures from the past as well as the present regarding these statistics?</p>
<p>the Lsat isnt really increasing because ETS only allows certain amount of 170+ scores which accounts for the bell curve grading system and not the raw score system. If ETS allowed a lot of great scores and their median average goes up significantly then it would dilute the validity of the Lsats.</p>
<p>Ok guys I understand the mechanism of a percentile test...its really not that complicated and it doesnt need to be repeated 3 or 4 times....REGARDLESS of why it is increasing, the LSAT NUMBER is increasing...i never once said people are actually doing better on the LSAT - I said the number is increasing.</p>
<p>Now, does anyone know of any schools are their numbers 4 years ago.</p>