A 146 is below the national median and sitting on the most improvable stretch of the scale. This page is about what to do with that.
A 146 is below the national median, and the useful thing to know is that this is the cheapest part of the scale to climb. Five points from here is worth 18 percentile points. The same five points from the 170s would buy you almost nothing.
Below the median, and very movable. Getting to a 151 from here is worth 18 percentile points.
Percentiles are brutal below the median, and it is worth knowing why before you read too much into yours. A 146 sits at the 30th percentile, which reflects how tightly packed this part of the scale is rather than how far you are from being good at the test.
The shape of the curve matters more than the point on it. From a 146, one more scaled point moves you 3.5 percentile points, and five moves you 18. Those two figures are what any retake decision actually rests on.
Getting out of the 146s is rarely about learning new material. It is about noticing that the same four or five kinds of question keep taking your points, which is invisible until you start writing them down.
The sequence that works is accuracy, then pace, then endurance. Skipping to the end is the most common way people plateau for a whole cycle.
The stack that gets people from a 146 to a 151: logical reasoning drills for volume, a question-type error log for direction, and a three-month plan so it does not sprawl.
Nothing about a 146 yet improves a school's reported numbers, which is what merit awards actually pay for. The route to money runs through the 18 percentile points between here and a 151.
Find the programmes whose reported median is at or under 146 first. That list, not the ranking, is where aid is realistic today.
Our guide to LSAT scores and scholarship offers goes into how to actually ask.
Numbers in isolation do not tell you much. Run a 146 with your real GPA through the law school admissions calculator, then run it again at 151 — the difference between those two lists is what the next few months of studying are actually worth to you.
Compare 146 and 151A 146 on Saturday could have been a 143 or a 149 on a different form. That is not a criticism of the test — it is what a 2.6-point standard error means in practice.
Because the curve is so steep here, that range is worth 20.5 percentile points. Noise alone can move you further than a casual month of studying would.
If a 146 came from a diagnostic or a sitting you did not really prepare for, it is not a ceiling and you should not treat it as one. The 18 percentile points between here and a 151 are the most recoverable on the test.
Start with untimed accuracy on logical reasoning, since it is the largest share of the test, and only add the clock once accuracy holds. Prep hours against score increase sets realistic expectations for how long that takes.
Tier figures come from our law school tier page, which aggregates ABA 509 medians by ranking band. Individual schools vary, so treat the tier as a starting point.
| Tier | Rank | Median LSAT | A 146 against this tier |
|---|---|---|---|
| HYS (Harvard, Yale, Stanford) | 1-3 | 173–176 | below the 25th percentile |
| T6 | 1-6 | 172–176 | below the 25th percentile |
| T14 | 1-14 | 169–175 | below the 25th percentile |
| T15-T20 | 15-20 | 168–171 | below the 25th percentile |
| T21-T50 | 21-50 | 161–168 | below the 25th percentile |
| T51-T100 | 51-100 | 156–162 | below the 25th percentile |
| Sub-T100 / regional | 100+ | 148–155 | below median, inside the 25th–75th |
Keep a written record of what you get wrong and why. The 18 percentile points between here and 151 come almost entirely from errors you are already making repeatedly.
A band of 143-149 is worth 20.5 percentile points of variance. With schools keeping the higher score, that asymmetry argues for a retake.
One point buys 3.5 percentile points from 146; a full five-point improvement to 151 buys 18.
Every T14 median sits above a 146, so those schools are reaches rather than targets. Applicants do get in below median, usually on the strength of a very high GPA.
There is no tier or school in our tables where a 146 is the typical admitted score.