How many 180's a year? Forum

[bcjets212]

Just out of curiosity, how many people get a 180 each test and/or year? Thanks

[ANON3333]

.01%?

[kjunfood]

.01%?

well in that case, how many people take the lsat a year? lol

[Stanley Otto Swift]

.01%?

well in that case, how many people take the lsat a year? lol

IIRC, a 180 is 99.98%, so 2 out of 10,000. I think approximately 100,000 people take the test each year, so extrapolating from that, around 20.

[kjunfood]

.01%?

well in that case, how many people take the lsat a year? lol

IIRC, a 180 is 99.98%, so 2 out of 10,000. I think approximately 100,000 people take the test each year, so extrapolating that out, around 20.

haha thx for the answer. i was a bit curious about this as well.

[WestOfTheRest]

.01%?

well in that case, how many people take the lsat a year? lol

IIRC, a 180 is 99.98%, so 2 out of 10,000. I think approximately 100,000 people take the test each year, so extrapolating that out, around 20.

Is it 100,000 per year, or is it per test?

[ANON3333]

for June 08, 179 and 180 were both 99.9%, so 10 in that instance using swifts numbers.

[Stanley Otto Swift]

I thought it was 100,000 per year, but I could definitely be wrong. I will say that 100,000 takers per administration (excluding February) intuitively seems high.

[bcjets212]

Where can you find that data? I got a 180 on the Oct test, but it only says 99% (obviously higher).

[Stanley Otto Swift]

http://www.powerscore.com/lsat/help/scale.htm

This is where I got 99.98%, but after looking at it, this is dated information. Given the recent shift in scales, there are probably a few more 180s than I thought.

[ANON3333]

IRR Additional Information Document

[bigben]

.01%?

well in that case, how many people take the lsat a year? lol

IIRC, a 180 is 99.98%, so 2 out of 10,000. I think approximately 100,000 people take the test each year, so extrapolating from that, around 20.

I think it's more like 99.9 flat, and it was closer to 150,000 this year. So around 150?

[kjunfood]

.01%?

well in that case, how many people take the lsat a year? lol

IIRC, a 180 is 99.98%, so 2 out of 10,000. I think approximately 100,000 people take the test each year, so extrapolating from that, around 20.

I think it's more like 99.9 flat, and it was closer to 150,000 this year. So around 150?

150,000 a year or per test date? (so technically 4 times a year)

[Stanley Otto Swift]

I think it's more like 99.9 flat, and it was closer to 150,000 this year. So around 150?

I'd dispute the 99.90% figure without seeing some hard data. On the powerscore page I linked to above they quote 99.98%, and while the scale has shifted since then, I don't think it has shifted that much. 99.98% equates to 1 in 5000; 99.9 equates to 1 in 1000. I have a hard time believing that a 180 is statistically 5 times more likely today as compared to 6-10 years ago.

[dk99]

At some point I was told that approximately 6 people per test receive a 180. So that would be somewhere in the area of 24 people per year.

[Helmholtz]

According to Kaplan (yeah, I know), there were 98 people who scored a 180 in the years 2003, 2004, and 2005. That figures out to be about 33 people a year and 8 people for each test administration. I don't think the numbers of 180 scores are very static, though. I could very easily see 15 people getting a 180 during one test and then maybe 4 or 5 the next test.

"It varies from eight to 18 people a year who score a 180 on the test," said Brent Dunn, Ace LSAT test preparation founder. "But that is out of 120,000 people that take it, so it is a pretty big deal."

I really don't know who the hell Brent Dunn is and I've never heard of Ace LSAT test prep so take that his little nugget of information for what it's worth.

[Nemorino]

If you have took the LSAT some time in 2008, there should be a document called "IRR Additional Information Document" under the LSAT tab of Account Status.

That document lists the 2005-2008 percentile distribution as follows:

180 - 99.9
179 - 99.9
178 - 99.8
177 - 99.7
176 - 99.6
175 - 99.5
174 - 99.3
173 - 99.0
172 - 98.6
171 - 98.1
170 - 97.5
.
.
.
164 - 90.7

In the 2007-2008 cycle, there were 142,331 test takers. We can conclude that around 140 people got a 179 or 180 during that cycle. I say this because it's reasonable to assume that each 179 or 180 represents a unique test-taker.

Interpreting the percentile distribution gets a lot more screwey as we go down the scale, since significant number of people retake and perform differently from the first time (so a 161 and a 171, each contributing to the overall percentile distribution, may actually represent a single applicant)

Edit: Stan - it's possible that only the top .02% scores 180, and the next .08% scores 179 (and together, 179 and 180 make up the top .1%)