The Official To Cancel/Not To Cancel Misery Pool Forum

[descartesb4thehorse]

First off, I think you would need a 172 maybe 173 for NU, a 174 would be a lock. Second, I left my last LSAT thinking I bombed it and only didn't cancel because it was my third time, ended up higher than my PT range. The best advice I can give you would be to wait a few days and think about it. If you went -5 on games and -5 on the rest you're still at around a 169 maybe a 170, so I would take the next couple of days and think it through. I know this is shitty "do what you think is right" advice. Also, you figure you have one more shot, so if it is a little lower than 169 and then you kill the next test then this one looks like the anomaly. But that is a big if.

Hmm I'm not sure. 3.22 is pretty low for NU without an 175+ LSAT.

NU is notoriously splitter friendly. She would probably be golden at a 171, based on last year.

Heh I'm one of those green triangles sitting low on the 171. FYI: It came after being put on hold, so bear that in mind!

[Karenina7]

Okay, I am a long-time lurker on these forums, but I'm seeking some advice after a semi-disastrous test yesterday.

All this month I've been testing in the mid 170's, with my average being around 175. Coming out of the test yesterday, I felt miserable, like I would be lucky to get a score in the 160's. While I don't remember taking any outright guesses on LG, I do remember taking many liberties and getting confused several times. Neither LR felt particularly great, but RC was a walk in the park. Given how my practice tests were going, my heart was really set on columbia (also, gpa=3.8 ).

So, to cancel or not to cancel? This was my first official test, and part of me just wants to know what my score was. But I think I might have really screwed myself over yesterday.

Also, I think my having to re-take in December is practically unavoidable at this point. But making myself immediately start studying again just seems cruel. For those of you thinking of re-taking in December, when do you think you'll start studying again?

[ali3]

So glad to find you guys. Here's my situation.

My order was:
LG1, LR, LG2, RC, LR2

LG1 was the real one. Normally I go -1 or -2 for each LG section. I completely lost my head, chewed my nails off and bombed the last two games. I literally was thinking that the section was LSAC's idea of a cruel joke and could not possibly be real. I think -8 on this section is totally realistic.

I'm also freaking out because I didn't think LR was as hard as everyone else did. Either I a)rocked it or, possibly more likely, b) simply got sucked into answers that sounded nice. FML.

RC: actually seemed to go fine. The last questions on Dost. were hard (was anyone stuck on that last question? There were two answers that were opposite of each other) but overall I'd guess I did okay. Undoubtedly, I got a few wrong on tricky questions (was Author B skeptical or less dedicated?)

So my breakdown would be...
-8, -3, -3, -4 That is 18 wrong. FML. More than I ever got wrong on a PT!


Lastly, I don't want to go to Northwestern. I NEED to go to Northwestern. I don't even live in Chicago, but I love that school. My last PT's were in the low 170's. I could have gotten into Northwestern with that (maybe) I don't know if I should apply with a low-160's score and retake in December, or just hold off on applying until I retake. Thoughts? Condolences?

My GPA is 3.58, by the way. Not high enough to get me into the school on it's own, but not low enough to keep me out.

ETA: I don't think I have the guts to cancel. I think I'll just take my low score and then retake. The thought of studying again is daunting. Where do you start?

[Ginj]

So glad to find you guys. Here's my situation.

My order was:
LG1, LR, LG2, RC, LR2

LG1 was the real one. Normally I go -1 or -2 for each LG section. I completely lost my head, chewed my nails off and bombed the last two games. I literally was thinking that the section was LSAC's idea of a cruel joke and could not possibly be real. I think -8 on this section is totally realistic.

I'm also freaking out because I didn't think LR was as hard as everyone else did. Either I a)rocked it or, possibly more likely, b) simply got sucked into answers that sounded nice. FML.

RC: actually seemed to go fine. The last questions on Dost. were hard (was anyone stuck on that last question? There were two answers that were opposite of each other) but overall I'd guess I did okay. Undoubtedly, I got a few wrong on tricky questions (was Author B skeptical or less dedicated?)

So my breakdown would be...
-8, -3, -3, -4 That is 18 wrong. FML. More than I ever got wrong on a PT!


Lastly, I don't want to go to Northwestern. I NEED to go to Northwestern. I don't even live in Chicago, but I love that school. My last PT's were in the low 170's. I could have gotten into Northwestern with that (maybe) I don't know if I should apply with a low-160's score and retake in December, or just hold off on applying until I retake. Thoughts? Condolences?

My GPA is 3.58, by the way. Not high enough to get me into the school on it's own, but not low enough to keep me out.

I feel almost the exact same way. Let's hold hands.

[80eight]

I took in Oct. 2010, came out feeling like shit and stressed about canceling. LG was my last section. I usually went -1 or -0 on LG, but I misread a rule on the last game, ran out of time and had to blind guess on 3 questions. I felt okay/average about the other sections, but ending poorly on LG seemed a bad omen to me. I have a 3.5x GPA so I definitely wanted 170+. I didn't cancel, and scored mid/low 17x (with -3 on games).

My advice: Calmly think about how you usually feel after standardized tests. Do you often feel like you bombed? I'm a pessimist-- I always jump to negative conclusions, and I'm really hard on myself. Knowing that, I decided to wait it out and I'm really glad I did. On the other hand, if you can usually read yourself accurately after tests, and you feel like you did negatively this time, canceling might be the right decision.

[Ginj]

My advice: Calmly think about how you usually feel after standardized tests. Do you often feel like you bombed? I'm a pessimist-- I always jump to negative conclusions, and I'm really hard on myself. Knowing that, I decided to wait it out and I'm really glad I did. On the other hand, if you can usually read yourself accurately after tests, and you feel like you did negatively this time, canceling might be the right decision.

This. I normally feel pretty good after tests that I do well on. I felt awful about June (like, crying in my car awful), but kept my score just in case, for whatever reason, I might be wrong. And I did poorly.

Your initial reaction is usually the best indicator.

[jf03309]

Karenina7,

I'm in the same situation. I've been consistently practicing in the 170s and missing 0-1 on the LG section. I had two LG sections yesterday, and I completely fell apart. I didn't think the rest of the test was terrible, but I also felt like I couldn't think clearly knowing how poorly I did on LG. I generally miss 1-2 on each LR section, but I had to make a number of random guesses yesterday.

Like you, I have a 3.8 GPA and was gunning for Columbia given my scores on PTs. I'm definitely going to cancel my score and retake it in December. I obviously hate the idea of having to study for another two months. It's been tough balancing school and the LSAT, and I was looking forward to being done yesterday. With that said, I've decided that I would much rather be done in December than continue through February or June.

My plan is to continue with PTs and really focus on building my confidence. If your experience yesterday was anything like mine, I ultimately did poorly because I cracked under pressure. I'm probably going to give myself a few days off and start again on Friday. I'm also going to ease my studying up a bit. I started studying in May and rarely took a day off. I pushed really hard the last 6 weeks - I'm embarrassed to say how many hours I studied a day. I felt completely burned out the last few days before the test.

I'd love to hear your plan for studying. Good luck with everything!

[Icculus]

First off, I think you would need a 172 maybe 173 for NU, a 174 would be a lock. Second, I left my last LSAT thinking I bombed it and only didn't cancel because it was my third time, ended up higher than my PT range. The best advice I can give you would be to wait a few days and think about it. If you went -5 on games and -5 on the rest you're still at around a 169 maybe a 170, so I would take the next couple of days and think it through. I know this is shitty "do what you think is right" advice. Also, you figure you have one more shot, so if it is a little lower than 169 and then you kill the next test then this one looks like the anomaly. But that is a big if.

Hmm I'm not sure. 3.22 is pretty low for NU without an 175+ LSAT.

2.79 GPA, 173 LSAT - Hi from Chicago, and I applied in January. (Deadline was February).

Once you're at or above the 75% you're usually pretty good, I would think being at a 170 (the median) would at least get looked at. If you go to LSN you'll see that 172 seems to be the magic number for splitters, with some at 170 getting in.

Edit: Full disclosure, I was held and WL'd, and then got in off the wait list, but I am pretty sure the WL was due to applying really, really late.

[happyshapy]

First off, I think you would need a 172 maybe 173 for NU, a 174 would be a lock. Second, I left my last LSAT thinking I bombed it and only didn't cancel because it was my third time, ended up higher than my PT range. The best advice I can give you would be to wait a few days and think about it. If you went -5 on games and -5 on the rest you're still at around a 169 maybe a 170, so I would take the next couple of days and think it through. I know this is shitty "do what you think is right" advice. Also, you figure you have one more shot, so if it is a little lower than 169 and then you kill the next test then this one looks like the anomaly. But that is a big if.

Hmm I'm not sure. 3.22 is pretty low for NU without an 175+ LSAT.

NU is notoriously splitter friendly. She would probably be golden at a 171, based on last year.

This might be true, but you have to take into account work experience.

[MSarah]

Hey everyone, this is my first post and I could really use some advice:

I went from scoring in the low 130s on my very first diagnostic, and worked my way up to consistently scoring in the 160s-- mid 160s most of the time/high of 168. For me, games was a section that I had to do almost perfect on to get a score I'd be happy with. I didn't think the 1st 3 games were too hard, but the 3rd was certainly time consuming. As a result, I had 5 minutes to attempt the book game, and misread a rule as I was rushing. I cancelled once before (no official LSAT score yet), and the thought of having to continue studying/take the LSAT again almost makes me physically ill, but is it worse than having a low score I regret? Help.

[bullfrog]

Deleted

[chuffedtobits]

This is my second post! Lurked around this site for quite a while. I am a splitter too and would like to apply this cycle. I pretest average at 175. Got a 175 6 years ago when I was not considering law school.

Yesterday I made a massive bubbling error which cost me time and concentration on the last LG game. I had to guess almost blindly on the entire books game. I usually get -4 LR, -1 RC, -0 LG, and have +0 luck, so it probably was a costly error, maybe -5 LG.

I am currently pondering like everyone else here whether to cancel. I have no qualms about studying again, but don't know how waiting will affect my chances of getting in to law school. All I know is waiting until next cycle may seriously shorten my life span.

[Icculus]

First off, I think you would need a 172 maybe 173 for NU, a 174 would be a lock. Second, I left my last LSAT thinking I bombed it and only didn't cancel because it was my third time, ended up higher than my PT range. The best advice I can give you would be to wait a few days and think about it. If you went -5 on games and -5 on the rest you're still at around a 169 maybe a 170, so I would take the next couple of days and think it through. I know this is shitty "do what you think is right" advice. Also, you figure you have one more shot, so if it is a little lower than 169 and then you kill the next test then this one looks like the anomaly. But that is a big if.

Hmm I'm not sure. 3.22 is pretty low for NU without an 175+ LSAT.

OP has work experience.
NU is notoriously splitter friendly. She would probably be golden at a 171, based on last year.

This might be true, but you have to take into account work experience.

Edit: For some reason my original text didn't come out. OP has work experience. 4 years is plenty, most people have 2 or 3. Sorry OP, didn't mean to freak you out, I think you're good if you can manage a 172+, maybe a 170+.

[happyshapy]

Hmm I'm not sure. 3.22 is pretty low for NU without an 175+ LSAT.

OP has work experience.
NU is notoriously splitter friendly. She would probably be golden at a 171, based on last year.

This might be true, but you have to take into account work experience.

[/quote]

did you just add that about work experience? it wasn't there before. well anyway if that's true then, i'd say keep the score, if not cancel and re-take.

[emkay625]

First off, I think you would need a 172 maybe 173 for NU, a 174 would be a lock. Second, I left my last LSAT thinking I bombed it and only didn't cancel because it was my third time, ended up higher than my PT range. The best advice I can give you would be to wait a few days and think about it. If you went -5 on games and -5 on the rest you're still at around a 169 maybe a 170, so I would take the next couple of days and think it through. I know this is shitty "do what you think is right" advice. Also, you figure you have one more shot, so if it is a little lower than 169 and then you kill the next test then this one looks like the anomaly. But that is a big if.

Hmm I'm not sure. 3.22 is pretty low for NU without an 175+ LSAT.

NU is notoriously splitter friendly. She would probably be golden at a 171, based on last year.

This might be true, but you have to take into account work experience.

I have 4 years. How much do you think I need?

[happyshapy]

Hmm I'm not sure. 3.22 is pretty low for NU without an 175+ LSAT.

NU is notoriously splitter friendly. She would probably be golden at a 171, based on last year.

This might be true, but you have to take into account work experience.

I have 4 years. How much do you think I need?

That will look really really good for NU. I don't know I think that the more time you spend on this board the worse you're going to think you did...it seems like you only messed up on one game which really isn't a big deal. I know at least every time I open a thread here I second guess how I did in a section. Maybe you should take today off from TLS.

With your work experience and the possibility you might have done 172+ I think you should keep it IF you have your heart set on NU. If you need to you can re-take it. But there's no guarantee that if you cancel the next time you take it you won't have a really hard RC passage like "talk-story" or a mauve dinos or stained glass game.

[emkay625]

NU is notoriously splitter friendly. She would probably be golden at a 171, based on last year.

This might be true, but you have to take into account work experience.

I have 4 years. How much do you think I need?

That will look really really good for NU. I don't know I think that the more time you spend on this board the worse you're going to think you did...it seems like you only messed up on one game which really isn't a big deal. I know at least every time I open a thread here I second guess how I did in a section. Maybe you should take today off from TLS.

With your work experience and the possibility you might have done 172+ I think you should keep it IF you have your heart set on NU. If you need to you can re-take it. But there's no guarantee that if you cancel the next time you take it you won't have a really hard RC passage like "talk-story" or a mauve dinos or stained glass game.

This. I'm doing all this.

Thank you.

[IronSkadden]

My situation closely parallels Emkay625's and Ali3's. Nevertheless, I'd appreciate your insight:

I have a 3.58 from a top 5 school and a 167 on the June LSAT. I want to go to CCNMVPB and was hoping to score 172+ on Saturday's test (was averaging 172.5 on my PTs). Unfortunately, I, too, was destroyed by the bikes logic game. I devoted around 2 minutes to diagramming/answering the first question, then realized the game called for an insane number of hypos (at least with the diagram/inferences I was using), and moved onto the 4th game.

Ultimately, I was forced to blindly guess on 5 LG questions and 3 LR questions (half page LR questions are time-consuming...).

Should I cancel and retake? I would prefer to wait and see my score, on the off-chance I answered everything else correctly and logged a 170 (or got very, very lucky blindly guessing). I am confident about my RC and LR1 performance, and feel ok about LR2 (except for the 3 questions I didn't finish, obviously).

With my 167, I'm hoping for Cornell/Texas/UCLA/NU (3 years WE under my belt). Will a sub 167 score destroy my chances at these schools? Also, will a sub 167 score destroy my scholarship chances at Brooklyn/BU/William and Mary, etc. ?

Thanks for your opinions!

[emkay625]

Hey everyone, this is my first post and I could really use some advice:

I went from scoring in the low 130s on my very first diagnostic, and worked my way up to consistently scoring in the 160s-- mid 160s most of the time/high of 168. For me, games was a section that I had to do almost perfect on to get a score I'd be happy with. I didn't think the 1st 3 games were too hard, but the 3rd was certainly time consuming. As a result, I had 5 minutes to attempt the book game, and misread a rule as I was rushing (read that the top shelf had to have more books than the bottom). I cancelled once before (no official LSAT score yet), and the thought of having to continue studying/take the LSAT again almost makes me physically ill, but is it worse than having a low score I regret? Help.

Sigh. Deleted.

[thederangedwang]

Ok, perhaps I can lighten some of y'all's misery and prevent some bad decisions from being made.

I took my one and only lsat in june. I iniatially thought I bombed it, as all of you think as well. I guessed on an entire passage in reading (the chopin reading) and ran out of time for both LR sections leading to 3 completely BLIND guesses and few more 15 second glances then answer type guesses....but i thought i rocked on games....

i really thought about canceling since but luckily i calmed down and didnt..turned out i got every question right on the reading and got 2/3 blind guesses on my LR..did well on LG as expected

basically, i ended up getting 2 pts over my pt average...and the moral of the story is to not overfreak and panic and do something stupid because you thought u did bad...if you KNOW you did bad then thats another question, but chances r u did better than u r giving credit to urself for right now.....

[thederangedwang]

Hey everyone, this is my first post and I could really use some advice:

I went from scoring in the low 130s on my very first diagnostic, and worked my way up to consistently scoring in the 160s-- mid 160s most of the time/high of 168. For me, games was a section that I had to do almost perfect on to get a score I'd be happy with. I didn't think the 1st 3 games were too hard, but the 3rd was certainly time consuming. As a result, I had 5 minutes to attempt the book game, and misread a rule as I was rushing (read that the top shelf had to have more books than the bottom). I cancelled once before (no official LSAT score yet), and the thought of having to continue studying/take the LSAT again almost makes me physically ill, but is it worse than having a low score I regret? Help.

Wait? What did that rule actually say? Because that's definitely how I read it.

mentioning specifics will get you banned...it is also a violation of the certification you signed

[thederangedwang]

actually, technically, you guys have already violated it......since you actually did state the rule....i would advise u guys to edit that out

[emkay625]

actually, technically, you guys have already violated it......since you actually did state the rule....i would advise u guys to edit that out

You're right. Sigh. I deleted my part.

[LMD]

Quick question: What looks better to law school admissions, a 173 followed by a 177, or a cancel followed by a 177? Maybe it just doesn't matter that much?

[Icculus]

Honestly, unless you're applying to a school that averages odds are that a cancel and a slightly lower score will have the same effect. The difference is, if you cancel you burn an attempt and have no score to show. Unless you think you bombed it I wouldn't cancel.