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I have been going back and forth on a possible Feb retake for quite a while now. I have a full scholarship offer from Chapman and a large offer from Tulane. All the other schools to which I've applied are reaches in terms of my numbers. So even if my softs carry me into one or more, it seems unlikely they would give me much, if any, scholarship money with my numbers as they are now. Additionally, I applied in November to all the schools, so it seems chances are my applications have been reviewed and just put aside for later in the cycle anyway. So my thinking is, if I get into a higher ranked school, I should at least want to have a fighting chance at some scholarship money, so why not try and raise my LSAT number? Maybe I go up only three points, and that doesn't get me money at the other schools but raises my Tulane Scholarship a bit further? That would be good too!

I am just thinking, if I score lower, I won't lose my current offers, and at this point in the cycle, I haven't been accepted elsewhere, let alone offered money, so why not at least try to raise my LSAT? If I score lower, I will always have to wonder how the re-take affected my applications that were already complete with a decent score. But if I don't re-take, I would always have to wonder if I could have added a few more points and what that might have done.

As a side note, I did a prep test this weekend after not touching the material on the LSAT since I sat in September. Adding up LR, LR, and RC I got minus five as a total, which is very good for me. I don't think I ever got that few wrong across three sections. I did get minus nine on games though. Yet, I had to learn those and think I lost some of my skill - ability to see things as I was working through them - there. I have the new Powerscore book and never used it, so if I get back up to speed, I might be in a good spot. The prep test score was 168, which is higher than my 166 anyway.

So I am about to log onto LSAC and register, since today is the last day to do so without a penalty.

If you feel like you will do better, and you're not happy with your current offers, then retake.

If you're not confident that you'll do better, or you're just happy with the offers you have, a lower score may very well have a negative impact on pending applications, so don't retake.

You could also consider taking the exam, and canceling if you feel you didn't do as well as you wished. I feel sure that it will not affect your current acceptances and deciding schools could just see it as a blip.