Worth waiting for old score to expire? Forum

[agent_86]

Hey all, I'm in an unusual position. I took the LSAT in Feb 2008, and was unhappy with my score. I ended up not applying, but now I'm planning to re-take. I am considering whether to apply in Fall 2012 or wait until Fall 2013 when my old score will evidently have expired. Obviously, it depends on how much improvement I see.

I have seen other TLS posts that claim that some schools ask you to report *all* scores, even those that are older than 5 years:
http://www.top-law-schools.com/archives ... =6&t=60692
http://www.top-law-schools.com/archives ... =6&t=85010

Anybody know which schools these might be, or have a general opinion on whether it's worth it to wait for an old score to expire?

(Incidentally, it seems that scores expire on the first June 1st after the 5-year anniversary of your administration, rather than precisely 5 years after the administration date: http://www.lsac.org/jd/Help/faqs-lsat.asp#score-report.)

[ben4847]

Why don't you tell us your old score, as well as what you are currently PT-ing.
I dunno nothin about if they really average or just take highest

[KRog]

The old score will automatically be reported to schools if it is within the five-year period.

I would think that a score from that long ago is not going to have that much weight, especially if you test significantly higher and write an addendum.

If you did retake and apply before the old score is expired and you didn't like the outcome, you could just reapply the following year once it will no longer appear on your CAS report. I think you have nothing to lose by trying now.

[suspicious android]

The benefit of erasing an old score is very minor. In fact, if you're not applying to the top 5-10 schools, it's basically zero. Waiting a few years to go to law school, or not going at all, is often a good idea. But not for this reason. Also, keep in mind that LSAC only purges old scores once a year, so you can actually have a score that's more than 5 years old on your LSAC report. (I speak from personal experience, I first took the LSAT soon after undergrad, went away and did other stuff, expected my old score to be expunged at the five year mark, but it didn't actually get taken off until the next year). (EDIT: just realized you mentioned this in your parenthetical comment. But who reads parenthetical comments?)

And no one's got a list of the school's that ask for all LSAT scores, even out of date scores. If you want to know, just pick some schools you're interested in applying to and look at their application on LSAC.com.