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My girlfriend has 3 scores on her LSAT. Her first was a 145. Dont ask. I have no idea why she didnt cancel, but go figure. She took it again and nailed it with a 171. I advised her to not take it a third time because she could write an addendum explaining the 145 and attributing it to something or other and hopefully the schools would put most, if not all, their weight towards the 171. She ignored my suggestion and said she wanted to take it again, hoping that two scores in the 170s would def counteract the 145. What she failed to consider was that her third score would not be in the 170s. So she's stuck with 3 scores. 145, 171, 163.

Now she wants to take it a 4th time. She can because the 145 was like 2 years ago already. She thinks that two scores in the 170s, with the 163 and 145 would help her application process, but I dont really know.

Thoughts on what she should do?

She should stop retaking, it looks like she has bad judgment.

She should start listening to you.

I agree. I only hope I do significantly better than my horrible 153 come October. Tell her to stop where she is and write an addendum focusing on how she totally dropped the ball the first time, second time she prevailed, but she still thought she could do better. She was sick on the third try, but she felt she still did good even not to cancel. Ah hell, I don't know. Just tell her not to take it again, because she still might not beat that 171.

Most schools are just going to look at the top score. They're not going to think "well because she has two 171's that makes her better."

I would only suggest her retaking if for some reason she feels she can legitimately score roughly 175+ on a fourth test. And I don't mean gut feeling. I mean something along the lines of having aced 30 PT's in a row.

She should be looking into the application process herself.

Thanks guys. Confirmed what I've been feeling the whole time, but didnt want to tell her no without at least some reasoned people in agreement with me.

No more retakes. She should a.) focus attention on writing a solid addendum given her wild score fluctuations, and b.) understand what her chances of admission are at schools that will average her LSAT scores. By my calculations, her average is a 159.

I seriously fell out of my chair when I read she retook a 171.

bankruptedcasino wrote:I seriously fell out of my chair when I read she retook a 171.

Not saying it is true in this situation, but I do feel that there are cases where 171 scorers legitimately can/should retake.

that 171 looks like a big time fluke. she should be happy she got it and stop there.

dk8 wrote:that 171 looks like a big time fluke. she should be happy she got it and stop there.

too late on that one!

If you ask me, this shows how nutty and irrelevant the LSAT really is...

bk187 wrote:

bankruptedcasino wrote:I seriously fell out of my chair when I read she retook a 171.

Not saying it is true in this situation, but I do feel that there are cases where 171 scorers legitimately can/should retake.

true.

for her, hell no. the type of person who should retake a 171 isn't capable of scoring a 163

kk19131 wrote:If you ask me, this shows how nutty and irrelevant the LSAT really is...

...or how lucky random bubbling can be.

TheBigMediocre wrote:

kk19131 wrote:If you ask me, this shows how nutty and irrelevant the LSAT really is...

...or how lucky random bubbling can be.

Your girlfriend really f*cked up.

Women... they never listen.

Agreed she should have stopped at 171. A well written addendum for the 145 would have been much better than the 163 she got afterwards.
Especially since I think 171 was pretty much the best she could have done. She even jokes that she thinks LSAC switched her test with someone elses.

But all that's in the past.

trudat15 wrote:Agreed she should have stopped at 171. A well written addendum for the 145 would have been much better than the 163 she got afterwards.
Especially since I think 171 was pretty much the best she could have done. She even jokes that she thinks LSAC switched her test with someone elses.

But all that's in the past.

she'll be ok. she still has the 171 on her record no matter how lucky she got to get it, and schools are LSAT whores.

TheBigMediocre wrote:She should start listening to you.

yup!

bk187 wrote:

bankruptedcasino wrote:I seriously fell out of my chair when I read she retook a 171.

Not saying it is true in this situation, but I do feel that there are cases where 171 scorers legitimately can/should retake.

not when they scored a 145 the first time.

booyakasha45 wrote:not when they scored a 145 the first time.

Agreed.

hamburg city wrote:

TheBigMediocre wrote:She should start listening to you.

yup!

Ive been telling her this for months (we've only been together for 2 months, but I knew her after her 171 and pleaded that she not take it again).

trudat15 wrote:

hamburg city wrote:

TheBigMediocre wrote:She should start listening to you.

yup!

Ive been telling her this for months (we've only been together for 2 months, but I knew her after her 171 and pleaded that she not take it again).

point her to this thread. if she won't listen to you she should listen to a bunch of neurotic mf'ers that obsess over everything LS.

dk8 wrote:
point her to this thread. if she won't listen to you she should listen to a bunch of neurotic mf'ers that obsess over everything LS.

Although she may be mad about this thread. (Although she should be more mad about that 163 she screwed herself with)

bk187 wrote:Most schools are just going to look at the top score. They're not going to think "well because she has two 171's that makes her better."

Not sure I agree. I know I didn't kick butt yesterday, but I'd really like to know how I did, so I was wondering how much letting it stick would hurt me. I read the TLS interviews (http://www.top-law-schools.com/interviews.html) and searched every interview for "multiple." Here's the summary of how I classify the answers.

Noncommittal BS answer: Boston U (claim high, but sounds dubious)
Take high score: Northwestern, Drexel, Santa Clara, Richmond, Berkeley
Take average or all: Minnesota, Fordham, Vanderbilt, Tulane, Arizona State, Loyola, Cornell, Chicago

I'm tempted to toss Berkeley's response, since it was actually Ken's statement, simply affirmed (and not offered) by the interviewee (no blame pointed at Ken there).

So, of those 13, we've got one potential high-score-taker, four seemingly legitimate high-score-takers, and eight that average or claim to look at (as opposed to ssee) all of the scores. I'm not counting Berkeley for the reason mentioned. With Berkeley and Boston being outliers, it looks like the interest in all scores tends to go up with USNWR ranking. Northwestern would be an anomaly there, but not an outlier by my thinking. I saw another post earlier commenting that Harvard, Yale, and Stanford take averages, corroborating my analysis, which is, admittedly, based on a small sample. I trust the OP's girlfriend wasn't applying to HYS, though.

As far as advice goes, she should probably cool out a little before taking another test. If she doesn't have a consistent score in her practices, she definitely shouldn't take the real thing - and might not be well-advised to either way. She might consider waiting until that 145 expires (five years, I think). If I could pick any two of those scores, I'd like to have the 145 and the 171, since the 171 makes the 145 really look like it can be discounted, where the 163 is the score of someone who could at least end up in the same program as someone with a 171, and therefore closer to predictive. Having all three, though, could make her look more erratic, unpredictable, and even flaky than she probably is.

I don't think it will ruin her cycle or anything like that, but the 145 could have been written off with an LSAT addendum and almost every school in the country would shrug and say, "She had a bad fluke." But the 163 casts doubt in their minds. She will still get into good schools, and many schools will just take the 171 without flinching. But some may be skeptical.