My cycle has essentially ended and I'm not too thrilled with my options so I've been considering taking the LSAT for a third and final time in June. If I score well, I'll reapply in the fall when apps become available and hopefully stand a much better chance than I did this year. If not, I can take a scholarship to a regional school and move on with my life.
My first test was pretty dismal. I barely studied and it really showed (158)
After that experience I enrolled in Kaplan and really felt that I had mastered it, with practice scores in the low 170s but come test day I choked on LG (a section I had been scoring -0 on) and ended up with a second subpar score (162).
Having spent months preparing in the past and with pretty high comfort levels with the timing of the test, do you think I have enough time to "get back on the horse?" I'm not working or attending school at the moment so I have a TON of time on my hands and plenty of motivation (see: crushed dreams) so I feel I could put lots of hours in. Anyone have experience doing a second cycle?
3rd LSAT Attempt Forum
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lawschoollll
- Posts: 468
- Joined: Tue Sep 29, 2009 2:57 pm
Re: 3rd LSAT Attempt
Do it. 100%. I am a 164-164-172, and schools couldn't care less that I've taken it 3 times. Don't bother with Kaplan bullshit or "homework;" take 40+ tests under strict conditions. I did it while working full-time; there's absolutely zero reason for you not to with time on your hands.Chiglaw wrote:My cycle has essentially ended and I'm not too thrilled with my options so I've been considering taking the LSAT for a third and final time in June. If I score well, I'll reapply in the fall when apps become available and hopefully stand a much better chance than I did this year. If not, I can take a scholarship to a regional school and move on with my life.
My first test was pretty dismal. I barely studied and it really showed (158)
After that experience I enrolled in Kaplan and really felt that I had mastered it, with practice scores in the low 170s but come test day I choked on LG (a section I had been scoring -0 on) and ended up with a second subpar score (162).
Having spent months preparing in the past and with pretty high comfort levels with the timing of the test, do you think I have enough time to "get back on the horse?" I'm not working or attending school at the moment so I have a TON of time on my hands and plenty of motivation (see: crushed dreams) so I feel I could put lots of hours in. Anyone have experience doing a second cycle?
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ughOSU
- Posts: 443
- Joined: Mon Sep 28, 2009 9:42 pm
Re: 3rd LSAT Attempt
I did the 3 tries, but not the 2 cycles because I refused to apply without a high lsat score. If you can break 170, absolutely do it. You should probably do it anyway. Take no chances with this one though... order every PT that you haven't already done, and get some more prep materials to ensure you don't run out (that actually becomes a big issue when you're going through this a third time). Plan out at least the last 2 months of prep, and stick to the plan.
For me the biggest thing was replicating test conditions exactly. When I took it the second time I was averaging very high PTs, but I was taking too long on the sections, so it was basically meaningless. I also only worked through like 10 PTs and only a couple of them timed. The third time I worked through 30ish PTs, and a majority of them were timed full length. I had my strategy down, so I didn't do many untimed sections at all.
If you are going to take a year off to do this, you should really just go all out and do it right. A year is a lot of time to waste, and will only be worth it if you score very well (obviously if that's your only goal in taking a year off).
e: conventional TLS wisdom says no one will care as long as you get a high score.
For me the biggest thing was replicating test conditions exactly. When I took it the second time I was averaging very high PTs, but I was taking too long on the sections, so it was basically meaningless. I also only worked through like 10 PTs and only a couple of them timed. The third time I worked through 30ish PTs, and a majority of them were timed full length. I had my strategy down, so I didn't do many untimed sections at all.
If you are going to take a year off to do this, you should really just go all out and do it right. A year is a lot of time to waste, and will only be worth it if you score very well (obviously if that's your only goal in taking a year off).
e: conventional TLS wisdom says no one will care as long as you get a high score.
