Well, I'm talking all the quest & not just the main ones. If you just follow the main story line, hitting level 30 before the end is very unlikely. Although I did get there on my first play through of FNV for some reason. I think I was at level 14 when I finished FO3 the first time ( I didn't even know side quests existed in this game).
No I understand, I was saying this was with all the non NV + freeside quests..
You know the Outpost, Novac, Sloan... etc, and making circuts of the maps to get to places, rather than FT.
I still hit 30 a while before the Dam, but more akin to only 20% - 30% of the main quest
is done at level 30, with the rest of the filler side quest and areas already done.
That third of a main quest is not half way through, more like a sixth of the game at most.