Should I take a 3rd time? 163/3.6 - Please Advise Forum

[lieg]

June 2008 - 154
June 2010 - 163 (pt average 165)
GPA - 3.6
Fairly above average softs, and have been working professionally for 2 years
Not URM
Male

Applying to:

Part Time (impossible reach) - Georgetown
Part Time (reach) - GWU, Fordham
On the Fence (PT/FT) - George Mason
Full-Time - American, Cardozo, Seton Hall, Rutgers, Villanova, Brooklyn


What do you think, should I take it a third time and help my chances, or is it too much of a risk? On the one hand, my results and pt's were pretty close, although I did almost no prep. On other hand, I can't guarantee if I will do any more prep for Oct.

Any advice would be helpful, thanks again in advance

[MURPH]

If you do no prep then don't bother to retake. If you want to improve your chances of getting into a good school or getting a fat scholarship then do the work required.

[Nikrall]

Since you aren't looking to go to schools which average scores, you might as well re-take. But as the above poster said, do the work to make sure you improve.

[forward]

June 2008 - 154
June 2010 - 163 (pt average 165)
GPA - 3.6
Fairly above average softs, and have been working professionally for 2 years
Not URM
Male

Applying to:

Part Time (impossible reach) - Georgetown
Part Time (reach) - GWU, Fordham
On the Fence (PT/FT) - George Mason
Full-Time - American, Cardozo, Seton Hall, Rutgers, Villanova, Brooklyn


What do you think, should I take it a third time and help my chances, or is it too much of a risk? On the one hand, my results and pt's were pretty close, although I did almost no prep. On other hand, I can't guarantee if I will do any more prep for Oct.

Any advice would be helpful, thanks again in advance

You may as well sign up for Oct/Dec, but if you don't pull your PT average to high 160s+, I'd pull out of taking it (at least 3 weeks prior, so it doesn't show up on your LSAC report). If you can't go into it with a reasonably solid expectation of scoring high enough to justify a retake (at least a 167, in your case), it's not worth it -- especially since many schools that don't average still "consider" your overall score history.

[Aggiegrad2011]

Don't re-take without prep. That is like... I don't know what it's like, but it's foolhardy.

[lieg]

Thanks for the advice all, still 50/50 on the retake but at least signing up just in case seems like a good option.

[lieg]

Any thoughts on how taking it 3 times looks on my profile? I would hope that as long as you improve, it can be weighed favorably.

[lieg]

BUMP - Hoping someone can weigh in on the negatives of three reported scores? Or more simply, is it bad to take LSAT 3 times?