A 158 beats most people who sat the test. This page covers which schools that makes realistic and what another few points would change.
Here is the decision a 158 puts in front of you: apply this cycle with a solid score, or spend a few more months and apply next cycle with a noticeably better one. Both are defensible. Drifting between them is not.
Yes, with room. A 158 is a real score, and it sits where a few more points would still visibly change your list.
A 158 clears most of the field. The 74th percentile means you finished ahead of the large majority of people who sat the test, though not ahead of the group applying to the schools with the highest medians.
Notice how fast the return changes. A single point from here is worth 3.6 percentile points; the full five to a 163 is worth 13.7. The LSAT scale is not linear, and knowing which part of it you are on is most of the strategy.
School lists are built off thresholds, not percentiles, and the next threshold above you is the T51-T100 band at roughly 160. That is 2 points away.
Gaps that small are almost never knowledge gaps. They are two questions you rushed, or one game you never went back to check — the cheapest points on the test to recover.
The instinct at a 158 is to study more. The better instinct is to study narrower. Almost everyone in this range is losing points to the same handful of question types over and over, and until you know which ones, extra hours mostly reinforce the habit.
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 158 to a 163: logical reasoning drills for volume, a question-type error log for direction, and a three-month plan so it does not sprawl.
The list that matters is the one built off medians. A 158 clears 2 of the schools we track outright and matches 2 more. Hofstra (Deane), Suffolk are among the first group.
Do not read those labels as odds. Every school on this list admits applicants below its median annually — that is what a median means. What changes across the columns is how much your GPA, letters and timing have to carry.
Before deciding how hard to push, go and see what the push buys. Enter a 158 and your GPA into the law school admissions calculator, then change the score to 163 and compare the two school lists side by side.
Compare 158 and 163The test reports a single figure and hides the uncertainty behind it. For a 158, that uncertainty spans 155 to 161.
The band covers 19.4 percentile points, which is a lot of ground to be handed by chance. It also means a retake has real upside before you get any better at the test — and no downside worth worrying about, because the higher score is the one that counts.
Retake if you have a target, not because the number could be higher. From a 158 the nearest target that changes anything is 160.
The usual reason people in this band repeat their score is that they practise questions instead of practising the test. Full timed sittings plus a question-type error log is what actually moves it.
The arithmetic still favours preparing further if you have the time: points are cheaper here than they will ever be again once you pass 163.
Your score band is 155-161, a spread of 19.4 percentile points, and schools take your highest score. That combination usually favours retaking.
One point buys 3.6 percentile points from 158; a full five-point improvement to 163 buys 13.7.
A 158 is below the reported median at every T14 school. Admission is not impossible with an exceptional GPA, but the T14 is a reach at this number.
Schools reporting a median within two points of 158 include Rutgers, St. John's. Check current 509 data before building a list.