Score Targeting: Raw Score Requirements for 170+
Understanding the raw-to-scaled score conversion is essential for rational test-taking strategy above 165. A score of 170 corresponds to approximately 90-93 correct answers out of the 99-101 graded questions, depending on the test's specific scaling curve. This means you can afford to miss 7-11 questions total across all sections — approximately 2-3 misses per section. At this allowance rate, aggressive time management that sacrifices hard questions to protect easier ones is mathematically justified: a hard question you miss costs exactly the same as an easy question you miss. Most 168-169 scorers plateau because they spend disproportionate time on the hardest 5% of questions — questions they have a 40-60% accuracy rate on anyway — while rushing through the middle 70% where they have 90%+ accuracy. The optimal strategy: never spend more than 2:00 on any single LR question without skipping. In LR sections, hard questions (the last 5-7 in each section) take 50% longer than medium questions and are answered correctly only 60% of the time even by 170+ scorers. Skipping a hard question with 30 seconds remaining, answering 2 medium questions correctly, and guessing on the hard question produces: +2 correct answers vs. +0.6 expected correct answers — a significant advantage.