Question re: LSAC Complaint Policy Forum

[Marshmallow]

So uh.. the test was going reasonably well. Got to the fifth section (which was NOT experimental) and 2 minutes in, someone in front of me faints. Pretty distracting. 5 minutes in, and the fire alarm goes off. We had to stop for about 20 minutes, and when we restarted, my timing was not what it should have been, and I didn't get to the last 3 questions.

My questions is: What can I do about this if I don't plan on cancelling my score? I think I did okay, but this almost definitely took me out of the running for a 170. I really want to submit a complaint even though I don't necessarily want to cancel. Is this a bad/useless idea?

From lsac.org: "Be aware that the availability of your LSAT score may be delayed pending the review of your complaint." So I guess this means I don't have to cancel my score to complain, but what CAN lsac do for me? Can I take the test for free in December? Thanks for any and all input.

[Jeffort]

The most they'll offer you if you complain is a free re-take conditional on you also cancelling the score. If you decide to keep the score they offer you nothing since you are basically agreeing that the disturbance wasn't seriously detrimental to your performance.

And yes, if you do submit a complaint, a temporary hold is placed on your score until the complaint is resolved, which may or may not happen before scores are released to everyone else. If you are going to keep your score there is really no point in submitting the complaint unless you just want to see what options they offer to see if they changed their policy about test center problems.

[Marshmallow]

Thanks for the reply. I need to take a day and just cool off. The whole thing was so frustrating, especially since everything else was going according to plan. Just a couple more questions since I just can't seem to let it go... Any idea how long I might be waiting after score release day for a resolution? Does LSAC have it written down anywhere, the policy re: free retake conditional upon cancelling?

[Jeffort]

Thanks for the reply. I need to take a day and just cool off. The whole thing was so frustrating, especially since everything else was going according to plan. Just a couple more questions since I just can't seem to let it go... Any idea how long I might be waiting after score release day for a resolution? Does LSAC have it written down anywhere, the policy re: free retake conditional upon cancelling?

Once you submit a complaint they review it and investigate by talking to the test center supervisor/proctor(s) to figure out what happened and if it was serious enough to warrant offering you some type of remedy. It can take anywhere from days to a few weeks for the investigation since LSAC has to wait for proctors/test center people to respond to the inquiry to figure out what happened before they decide whether or not to offer you anything. Any remedy LSAC offers will be presented to you in writing in an email. They don't publish specific possible remedy policies publicly, probably to make sure they retain the power to deal with problems on a case by case basis. It has been the case for many years that the remedy for test center problems is a free re-take conditional on cancelling the score, but of course LSAC could change the policy if they want.

The process is usually complete by the time scores normally come out, but not always. It depends on how fast LSAC is able to complete the investigation by getting info from test site staff and process it. LSAC gets really busy this time of year due to it being the beginning of the application cycle so processing backlogs do sometimes occur.

[Marshmallow]

Thanks for such a thorough response! For what it's worth, my proctor said she would write a lengthy report outlining the issues today. I guess I have to decide whether it's worth it to delay my score for the very off chance of getting a freebie AND keeping score.