Addendum for low LSAT Forum

[DuBonVin7]

I'm in the middle of hearing back from schools right now and, given the less than exciting news that I've been getting, I'm starting to consider sending an addendum to the schools that I have yet to hear back from. I have a 3.82/169 and it's clear that my LSAT score is holding me back from getting into my top choices. While I, like many others, consider myself a very poor standardized test taker, my situation is somewhat unusual. When applying to undergrad I had the same problem in having SATs that were too low and I ended up going to a respectable, but not academically superb, university for my freshman year. I then transferred to a top 20 school and am set to graduate with honors this spring. Clearly, those SAT scores didn't reflect my capacity to do well in school and I think the same thing is going on with the LSAT.

Given that I have evidence backing up the claim that my standardized test scores don't accurately reflect my capacity a student, would it be worth my while to write an addendum explaining this/would schools respond well to this kind of addendum?

Any help would be so much appreciated!

[bernaldiaz]

Not going to help. Also, if you transferred into ND that proves pretty much nothing, since it's just about the easiest place to transfer into (like the difference between transfer and non-transfer students is the greatest)

[Tiago Splitter]

If you've only taken the LSAT once you need to take it again. The correct "addendum" for an LSAT that you don't feel reflects your true ability is a retake.

[rinkrat19]

Also, 169 is a pretty respectable LSAT score that a lot of people can only dream of. It's hard to try and justify your ~97th percentile score as being "bad at standardized tests." It might not be good enough for the schools you want, but it's not a bad score.

[dixon02]

Yeah...your letter is going to sound a lot like many other letters they get. "Hey, I did incredibly well on the LSAT, just not insanely well, and my excuse is that I'm a bad test taker even though I'm above the 95th percentile on a really hard test, and I did really well in undergrad." That describes a few thousand people; it's just not that compelling a narrative.

Also, what schools are you hearing back from? With those numbers you should be competitive for NYU and in at the lower end of the T14. If you're not, then it's probably more than your LSAT holding you back. If you were hoping for a top five school, then yeah, you need to retake. No addendum is going to help your cause.