Top Law Schools

this may fare better in the LSAT prep forum, but i would be really interested to hear from people who actually experienced this.

I'm a february retaker - i scored a 169 on the september 2014 test and thought i could do better for the same reasons all retakers think they can do better. i didn't find the february test difficult, but long story short the pressure really got to me and i struggled through the test regardless. i think there's a good chance i scored worse, and perhaps even significantly worse (165 or below, maybe?) and i'm debating whether or not to cancel.

i know how different schools consider multiple scores, but i also know that after retaking your score *should* go up, and a school would have every reason to be suspicious of your higher score if your second one was lower. so is there anyone who did score lower who could speak about their experience in admissions/their thoughts on this? i would really appreciate it!

I personally know people who scored worse the second time around. That's regression to the mean for ya.

However, I wouldn't cancel unless you are absolutely sure you score lower. Mere insecurity is normal for test takers while they wait for their score.
Schools will consider your highest score, so a lower score will not hurt you.
I would only cancel if I knew I majorly messed up and had to outright randomly guess on an entire game or passage or if I knew I had a huge bubbling error.

I wouldn't cancel unless you know 100% sure you scored lower. You already sat for the tests so it counts towards your takes, and whether you score higher or not, most schools only care about your higher and you can write an addendum for why you scored lower if you really want to.

Happened to me. No one cared.

cron1834 wrote:Happened to me. No one cared.

Schools will take your highest LSAT, they say they care about averages and what not but it's not really true. The highest is what they report; the highest is what they'll care about.

anxious lsat-takers are consistently awful at predicting their actual performance on the test
almost without exception all of my former lsat students who e-mailed me in a panic after "blowing" their test ended up doing much better than they had anticipated (myself included, actually)
don't cancel unless you have a good reason to think your performance was alarmingly poor

.

Brut wrote:anxious lsat-takers are consistently awful at predicting their actual performance on the test
almost without exception all of my former lsat students who e-mailed me in a panic after "blowing" their test ended up doing much better than they had anticipated (myself included, actually)
don't cancel unless you have a good reason to think your performance was alarmingly poor

yeah i wouldnt cancel unless you really fucked up like bubbled C in a whole section

thank you all so much for the input! i would be surprised if i scored *significantly* worse, and for all i know i maybe even did better. its just hard to imagine that scoring lower on the retake doesn't call into question the validity of the first score, but if that hasn't seemed to affect people then maybe i shouldn't worry too much about that. thanks again!

Don't cancel--enjoy your 171.

Brut wrote:anxious lsat-takers are consistently awful at predicting their actual performance on the test
almost without exception all of my former lsat students who e-mailed me in a panic after "blowing" their test ended up doing much better than they had anticipated (myself included, actually)
don't cancel unless you have a good reason to think your performance was alarmingly poor

So much this. I thought my third take was by far my worst, and it turned out to be by far my best. Definitely don't cancel (unless like others have pointed out, you misbubbled a section or something like that).

Happened. Based on acceptences/schollies it seems like only the higher 1st score was considered for me.