What Should I Do? Forum

[acadec]

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[suspicious android]

If you feel up to it, I don't see why not. People may point out that you're already above the median everywhere except H & C (correct me if I'm wrong), and above the 75th everywhere except HYCCN or so. To that I say: higher LSAT is always better. But if you think it was nerves, and you have the time, taking the test at 12:30 is a big boost to those of us with insomnia issues. Personally, I retook a 173 last year and went DOWN to a 169, but I still have had a good cycle (in at Virginia, GULC, waitlisted at Berkeley with a 3.35 gpa). I just got 177 and honestly, I'm glad just so I can say I finally scored near the top of my range. Worth $150 and 30-40 hours of prep.

[SchopenhauerFTW]

I would say retake, simply because of how you got a 180 on a PT after months without practice. If I had your score I would be fine, but if you're more than capable I would say CRUSH JUNE.

Preemptive "I'm retaking anyway" gif for you.
--ImageRemoved--

[imchuckbass58]

Here's my perspective: You're probably not getting into HYS with that GPA even with a 177-180. While higher LSATs are always better, a 173 is more than good enough to get you into one or several of CCN.

Go ahead an apply (ED if you are sure where you want to go). You won't improve your chances much even if you retake and get higher.

[MrPapagiorgio]

Take your talents to South Beach, Lebron. Seriously only TLS has this many threads where that can be the smart-ass response. On a more serious note, don't accept 5 points below your PTs, especially not at the level you were PTing at. Unless you can't afford the test fee, why not retake? Unless the decision is between retake/apply next cycle or matriculate this fall, there is really no reason not to retake.

[hutchesonian]

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[obriennf]

Probably not getting HYS with a 3.6. (It sucks -- I'm in the same boat.) I think you have a solid shot at CCN if you ED. But I'm surprised people are suggesting otherwise. What am I missing?

[Jeffort]

Probably not getting HYS with a 3.6. (It sucks -- I'm in the same boat.) I think you have a solid shot at CCN if you ED. But I'm surprised people are suggesting otherwise.

What am I missing?

Perfectionism, ego, arrogance, greed, etc., attitude stuff like that. Candidate has two reported times sitting for the LSAT. Results = a 171 and a 173. Person is not satisfied, is kinda complaining about being in the 98-99th percentile instead of the 99.98th percentile and wants to take another bite at the apple to prove something more or get something more. Draw your own conclusions about the possible interpretations in terms of how LS's (and future possible legal employers) will view him vs. what friends and peers will think when deciding if they want to associate with and/or hang out with the guy.

In the teaching LSAT prep/LS admissions world it's pretty rare to hear somebody complaining about having broken 170 twice but not gotten as high as they wanted.

[Grond]

Probably not getting HYS with a 3.6. (It sucks -- I'm in the same boat.) I think you have a solid shot at CCN if you ED. But I'm surprised people are suggesting otherwise.

What am I missing?

Perfectionism, ego, arrogance, greed, etc., attitude stuff like that. Candidate has two reported times sitting for the LSAT. Results = a 171 and a 173. Person is not satisfied, is kinda complaining about being in the 98-99th percentile instead of the 99.98th percentile and wants to take another bite at the apple to prove something more or get something more. Draw your own conclusions about the possible interpretations in terms of how LS's (and future possible legal employers) will view him vs. what friends and peers will think when deciding if they want to associate with and/or hang out with the guy.

In the teaching LSAT prep/LS admissions world it's pretty rare to hear somebody complaining about having broken 170 twice but not gotten as high as they wanted.

I know a guy that retook a 173 and is sort of unhappy with his 179.

[Upton Sinclair]

[Jeffort]

Probably not getting HYS with a 3.6. (It sucks -- I'm in the same boat.) I think you have a solid shot at CCN if you ED. But I'm surprised people are suggesting otherwise.

What am I missing?

Perfectionism, ego, arrogance, greed, etc., attitude stuff like that. Candidate has two reported times sitting for the LSAT. Results = a 171 and a 173. Person is not satisfied, is kinda complaining about being in the 98-99th percentile instead of the 99.98th percentile and wants to take another bite at the apple to prove something more or get something more. Draw your own conclusions about the possible interpretations in terms of how LS's (and future possible legal employers) will view him vs. what friends and peers will think when deciding if they want to associate with and/or hang out with the guy.

In the teaching LSAT prep/LS admissions world it's pretty rare to hear somebody complaining about having broken 170 twice but not gotten as high as they wanted.

I know a guy that retook a 173 and is sort of unhappy with his 179.

Oops, I forgot to include a caveat. Let me re=phrase/fix it:

It's really rare to hear anybody complain about and be unhappy with having officially scored above 170 on the LSAT twice because they didn't max it out UNLESS the person is in the LSAT test prep biz and re-took the test for reasons associated with that instead of for admission purposes.

[Grond]

Probably not getting HYS with a 3.6. (It sucks -- I'm in the same boat.) I think you have a solid shot at CCN if you ED. But I'm surprised people are suggesting otherwise.

What am I missing?

Perfectionism, ego, arrogance, greed, etc., attitude stuff like that. Candidate has two reported times sitting for the LSAT. Results = a 171 and a 173. Person is not satisfied, is kinda complaining about being in the 98-99th percentile instead of the 99.98th percentile and wants to take another bite at the apple to prove something more or get something more. Draw your own conclusions about the possible interpretations in terms of how LS's (and future possible legal employers) will view him vs. what friends and peers will think when deciding if they want to associate with and/or hang out with the guy.

In the teaching LSAT prep/LS admissions world it's pretty rare to hear somebody complaining about having broken 170 twice but not gotten as high as they wanted.

I know a guy that retook a 173 and is sort of unhappy with his 179.

Oops, I forgot to include a caveat. Let me re=phrase/fix it:

It's really rare to hear anybody complain about and be unhappy with having officially scored above 170 on the LSAT twice because they didn't max it out UNLESS the person is in the LSAT test prep biz and re-took the test for reasons associated with that instead of for admission purposes.

IIRC, You know a guy that took it 21 times to get a perfect raw score 180.

[hutchesonian]

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[CanadianWolf]

If you feel up to it, then retake.

P.S. You already have a potential career as an LSAT instructor & tutor.

[robotclubmember]

Probably not getting HYS with a 3.6. (It sucks -- I'm in the same boat.) I think you have a solid shot at CCN if you ED. But I'm surprised people are suggesting otherwise.

What am I missing?

Perfectionism, ego, arrogance, greed, etc., attitude stuff like that. Candidate has two reported times sitting for the LSAT. Results = a 171 and a 173. Person is not satisfied, is kinda complaining about being in the 98-99th percentile instead of the 99.98th percentile and wants to take another bite at the apple to prove something more or get something more. Draw your own conclusions about the possible interpretations in terms of how LS's (and future possible legal employers) will view him vs. what friends and peers will think when deciding if they want to associate with and/or hang out with the guy.

In the teaching LSAT prep/LS admissions world it's pretty rare to hear somebody complaining about having broken 170 twice but not gotten as high as they wanted.

OP, this guy is a huge fucking asshole. I think it's inappropriate to do some bullshit psychoanalysis on someone through an internet forum with so little information. Here is what I got out of OP's post. OP wants to maximize his chance at admissions AND scholarship money. He feels that by investing another 100~200 hours and $200 books in the test fee and maybe some more prep material, he can perform at a higher level. With his current stats, he's getting some money but not significant money from the schools he wants, except maybe M if they don't YP him, which this cycle suggests they would. This investment of some time and $200 could lead to tens of thousands of scholly $$$, and his track record suggests he is capable of it.

We're talking real money Jeffort. It's not just an ego game. It's not just "arrogance." The only arrogance I see is you trolling this dude for wanting to make what looks like a pretty fucking smart investment of time and money, an investment with massive ROI.

[Nulli Secundus]

"Should I retake" is a pointless question to ask on TLS. Even if your original score is 180 someone will still answer "Retake and see if it was a fluke" or something along those lines.

[Jeffort]

Probably not getting HYS with a 3.6. (It sucks -- I'm in the same boat.) I think you have a solid shot at CCN if you ED. But I'm surprised people are suggesting otherwise.

What am I missing?

Perfectionism, ego, arrogance, greed, etc., attitude stuff like that. Candidate has two reported times sitting for the LSAT. Results = a 171 and a 173. Person is not satisfied, is kinda complaining about being in the 98-99th percentile instead of the 99.98th percentile and wants to take another bite at the apple to prove something more or get something more. Draw your own conclusions about the possible interpretations in terms of how LS's (and future possible legal employers) will view him vs. what friends and peers will think when deciding if they want to associate with and/or hang out with the guy.

In the teaching LSAT prep/LS admissions world it's pretty rare to hear somebody complaining about having broken 170 twice but not gotten as high as they wanted.

OP, this guy is a huge fucking asshole. I think it's inappropriate to do some bullshit psychoanalysis on someone through an internet forum with so little information. Here is what I got out of OP's post. OP wants to maximize his chance at admissions AND scholarship money. He feels that by investing another 100~200 hours and $200 books in the test fee and maybe some more prep material, he can perform at a higher level. With his current stats, he's getting some money but not significant money from the schools he wants, except maybe M if they don't YP him, which this cycle suggests they would. This investment of some time and $200 could lead to tens of thousands of scholly $$$, and his track record suggests he is capable of it.

We're talking real money Jeffort. It's not just an ego game. It's not just "arrogance." The only arrogance I see is you trolling this dude for wanting to make what looks like a pretty fucking smart investment of time and money, an investment with massive ROI.

Ok. Thanks for not engaging in inappropriate BS psychoanalysis on someone in an internet forum with little information (huge F'ing a-hole ?).

Seriously, engage some common sense please. OP most likely started the thread to brag about having scored both a 171 and a 173 while also *complaining* about not scoring a few raw points closer to perfect. What kind of a constructive answer if any do you think the OP is looking for from the board with the question "What should I do?" based on the supplied numbers?

High score of 173 + 3.65 LSAC adjusted UGPA = uhmm, stop complaining and trying to show off, polish up your application materials and apply to good LS's you would consider attending if accepted. If you really want to go through taking it again, try to miss ~0-5 questions instead of ~6-11, maybe bubble better or hold the pencil at a slightly different angle to weed out those few careless mistakes you made last time.

[EarlCat]

Perfectionism, ego, arrogance, greed, etc., attitude stuff like that. Candidate has two reported times sitting for the LSAT. Results = a 171 and a 173. Person is not satisfied, is kinda complaining about being in the 98-99th percentile instead of the 99.98th percentile and wants to take another bite at the apple to prove something more or get something more.

I'm going to respectfully disagree. OP got a great score, and I didn't see even a hint of complaint about it in his post. He also got a score that was well below his preptest range, which naturally brings up the question of retaking. For all practical purposes his scores are good enough to get into several of the top schools (granted, not a shoe-in, but whatever). I think the most people would take their chances with those scores and expect significant money from a least a couple of the tip top schools.

I'll admit when I first saw the post I kinda chuckled because most people would give their left arm for a 171, and here's this guy with a 171 and a 173 considering taking it again. But if OP thinks he has it in him to hit that 177-180, then it's his prerogative to try and do so. I don't see it as arrogant or greedy or anything like that. The LSAT is a challenge, and there's nothing wrong with taking on a challenge and trying to do your best at it, even if you've done better than most in the past.

Draw your own conclusions about the possible interpretations in terms of how LS's (and future possible legal employers) will view him vs. what friends and peers will think when deciding if they want to associate with and/or hang out with the guy.

LS's will never view higher scores negatively, legal employers likely will have no idea unless he tells them (I was asked about my LSAT one time in 234820349820437 interviews and I wouldn't tell...no, I didn't get the job), and if his friends no longer want to associate with him because he took the LSAT 3 times, then f*** 'em, they're lousy friends.

[acadec]

I seriously didn't mean for this topic to sound douchey, but I can understand how you could interpret it that way. Sorry about that. I understand that this is an enviable predicament to have, but I really just wanted TLS's advice.

More specifically, I'm wondering whether the potential positives of a retake are worth the potential negatives of scoring 174 or worse. Mostly everyone has focused on the advantages of doing much better in June. But what happens if I do about the same or worse? How much would my chances be harmed at the ~t10?

[3ThrowAway99]

Don't some of CCN average? If so, retaking and scoring lower could hurt you. However, if you are consistently averaging above what you scored on the actual tests then I think it is probably unlikely that you will score worse.

As has been pointed out, you are probably already in the acceptance range of CCN (I would think you will get at least one, and maybe all three), yet probably out of the Y/H/S range (though probably still worth sending in apps IMO). I'm not sure that a higher LSAT will make or break you, or that it would get you money at CCN. If you hit high 170s it could help though. In that case I think you would probably be a lock for all CCN.