Absent or Cancel-----Have one score already Forum

[brywoodie]

Hi,

I already have one score i'm not happy with and am scheduled for tomorrows test. Would it be better for me to cancel the score or take an absent? Missed the "date change" deadline, and currently moved across country and am not ready.

Thanks in advance

[Lasers]

if you're definitely not ready, absent is much better on your record.

[Moral_Midgetry]

I was in the same situation as you (minus the cross country move) for June 2010. I took an absence.

[deakon10]

Hi,

I already have one score i'm not happy with and am scheduled for tomorrows test. Would it be better for me to cancel the score or take an absent? Missed the "date change" deadline, and currently moved across country and am not ready.

Thanks in advance

I am not ready either and am going to take Dec.. but I am still going in tomorrow, going to take the exam, and cancel.. that way I can feel out the environment and get a feel for the place.

I would recommend the same..cancel doesn't really do anything, esp if it's just one cancel

[Shammis]

I missed June's date change deadline too...SO I went and treated it like a PT...the best PT you could take really. BUT I wouldnt cancel right away; take the full test with the intent on keeping the score and try to do your best...If you feel like you didnt perform well, then cancel and there isnt really a penalty. IF you feel good about it, you might as well keep it and see how you did (maybe you can submit apps early). For June I know I bombed the games section so I canceled...retook it as a PT recently and got a 167. Prob. the best decision I have made. My 2 Cents.

[brywoodie]

Well i've already taken the test once so I know what to expect. I knew 2 weeks ago that I wasn't ready so I really just decided to stop studying for the time being knowing that there was no way I was going to keep this score. I'm just concerned with how each respective choice will look in the eyes of admissions offices.

[typ3]

Absent. Cancel looks worse in this situation since you have already taken it once. A cancel would make admissions view you as taking the LSAT 3 times.

Adcoms aren't heartless robots, simply addendum that you moved cross country and didn't have access to a vehicle etc to take the test.

[im_blue]

If you moved across the country from your test center, how can you cancel?

[brywoodie]

I was scheduled to take it in June, but postponed it to tomorrows date at a new test center.

[LSAT Blog]

This includes some thoughts from admissions officers about whether to cancel or take an absence.

Bottom line is that it probably doesn't matter a whole lot which one you do. For those who already have either an absence or cancel, probably makes sense to do the opposite this time if you're not planning to keep your score.

[deakon10]

I missed June's date change deadline too...SO I went and treated it like a PT...the best PT you could take really. BUT I wouldnt cancel right away; take the full test with the intent on keeping the score and try to do your best...If you feel like you didnt perform well, then cancel and there isnt really a penalty. IF you feel good about it, you might as well keep it and see how you did (maybe you can submit apps early). For June I know I bombed the games section so I canceled...retook it as a PT recently and got a 167. Prob. the best decision I have made. My 2 Cents.

Yea but if I take it.. and I do'nt do as well as I want and I end up taking it in Dec.. will it be worse than if I cancelled and took it in dec?

As in... will the schools most likely forget about my Oct exam score or will they potentially average the two?

[typ3]

I missed June's date change deadline too...SO I went and treated it like a PT...the best PT you could take really. BUT I wouldnt cancel right away; take the full test with the intent on keeping the score and try to do your best...If you feel like you didnt perform well, then cancel and there isnt really a penalty. IF you feel good about it, you might as well keep it and see how you did (maybe you can submit apps early). For June I know I bombed the games section so I canceled...retook it as a PT recently and got a 167. Prob. the best decision I have made. My 2 Cents.

Yea but if I take it.. and I do'nt do as well as I want and I end up taking it in Dec.. will it be worse than if I cancelled and took it in dec?

As in... will the schools most likely forget about my Oct exam score or will they potentially average the two?

Some schools average for admissions. Most have switched to only taking the highest LSAT. However, for scholarship money nearly all schools averages scores to determine who gets the $.

[Jeffort]

I missed June's date change deadline too...SO I went and treated it like a PT...the best PT you could take really. BUT I wouldnt cancel right away; take the full test with the intent on keeping the score and try to do your best...If you feel like you didnt perform well, then cancel and there isnt really a penalty. IF you feel good about it, you might as well keep it and see how you did (maybe you can submit apps early). For June I know I bombed the games section so I canceled...retook it as a PT recently and got a 167. Prob. the best decision I have made. My 2 Cents.

Yea but if I take it.. and I do'nt do as well as I want and I end up taking it in Dec.. will it be worse than if I cancelled and took it in dec?

As in... will the schools most likely forget about my Oct exam score or will they potentially average the two?

I hate to give you the proper yet vague answer: "It depends"

Due to the recent change LSAC made to the deadlines to cancel a test date registration or postpone your test date that requires you do it ~3 weeks in advance to prevent it getting noted on your score report as a cancel or no-show, if you decide you are not ready after the deadlines have passed you are in a pickle with no currently clear right answer about what the best thing to do is RE: pull a no-show or show up and cancel.

We are in uncharted territory with the new ground rules and how the resulting marks on applicants score reports that end up in this dilemma will be interpreted by admission committees when making their decisions.

I really wish I had a better answer than "The future will tell" about whether pulling a no-show is better or worse than showing and canceling but I do not. If you read the Anna Ivey comments (she is a godsend, take her opinions seriously) and other comments Steve (LSAT blog) linked in his blog you should notice a great deal of uncertainty in the opinions from the seasoned experienced experts that have been in the Law School admissions game for a long time.

As I see it, nobody really knows, not even the admission committees themselves. Anna Ivey seems to be kind of on the fence with the question and the few quotes from admissions deans seem pretty vague and not committal as well.

My guess is that the adcomms are probably taking a cautious wait and see approach akin to: "Let's wait until we see what we get in our applicant pool to pick from and we'll decide/figure out how to weigh these factors about marginal applicants later once we have received the bulk of the applications to compare them to"

As complicated as the admission process is, it is simple in the fact that the adcomms are comparing applicants to one another and trying to select the best ones from their pool that they think will actually accept and attend their school, do well, etc. etc.

My opinion is that pulling a no-show looks more flaky than showing up, giving it the good college effort and then canceling since that demonstrates some level of personal responsibility in terms of showing up for something you previously committed to do, whether or not you think are perfectly ready for it that day or in the days leading up to it.

One requirement (and character trait) that holds true about getting into and succeeding in LS, graduating and becoming a lawyer and all that is having to show up on time to do/deal with many scary/stressful/uncertain/pressure filled circumstances you agreed to do/are required to do whether or not you feel 100% about being able to deal with it at the time.

People keep saying thinks about clearing it up/trying to whitewash it with an addendum/addenda if you have multiple red flags. Yeah, you kinda have to address significant negative things that LS's will see and consider about you in your application, some things/sets of circumstances are understandable/excusable. However, I think it goes without saying that an application with good stats and other good supporting materials that is not filled with extra pages of excuses for various F'ups easily wins over an application with similar index numbers that has excuse addenda included.

[brywoodie]

Thank you everyone for the advice. I decided to take the absence today. TYP3 made a good point that a cancel could be viewed as my second attempt at the LSAT, meaning that my next official attempt would be my third.