Postpone until October? Advice please! Forum

[maeday]

I'm trying to figure out if I should postpone until October, and the people I know IRL don't know the first thing about law school admissions, so hopefully y'all have some solid advice for me

Here's the deal: I took the LSAT 2 years ago with about 1.5 months of prep and got a 167, which wasn't high enough for the schools I'm looking at. Took a couple years off from thinking about law school with the expectation I would apply this cycle.

I've been studying for about 2.5 months for the June LSAT. My "cold" diagnostic, which wasn't all that cold since I studied 2 years ago, was 165, and my average score is about a 170 with a high of 175, low 167, about 8 timed tests. Three weeks ago I was consistently scoring 170+, but ever since then my scores have steadily decreased by 1-2 points on each test (08 and 09s). I usually get -1 or -0 when I take individual sections or individual games/passages, but string them all together and I start to get things wrong. At this point I think I'm just psyching myself out.

I'm not confident in my ability to score in my target next week, but I'm not sure if I should suck it up and just take the damn thing or if I should study more, get more confident, and take it in October. Anybody have some words of wisdom?

[VasaVasori]

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[Micdiddy]

Well, what is your target? If it's 174-175, you shouldn't count on reaching it. Less than that and it sounds like you have a good enough chance of getting it to warrant taking in June and reevaluating once scores come out.

Do you think you can improve? Are you willing to spend the next 4 months working hard for that improvement? If you're not scoring where you want to be and you answered affirmatively to the previous two questions, I would withdraw. If you answered no to either of the questions, I would take this offering of the exam.

Also, this ^^.

[maeday]

Gracias! At this point, since I know that at least a 172 or a 173 is doable (I was doing it before, just not in any of my more recent tests), I think I'm going to delay and get more confident in doing it reliably, which seems to be my issue. That, and not psyching myself out.

[VasaVasori]

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[NoodleyOne]

I mean, if you're scoring in the 170s anyway, while it isn't likely you're going to hit 174+, it's far from impossible. I don't see what you lose by taking it Monday and if you don't hit your target, taking it again in October.

[maeday]

The problem is that I already have the 167, so the last thing I want is another low score (169 on today's PT) on my record.

[princeR]

Schools don't care about multiple scores. Take it in June. We will have fun in the June waiting thread.

[hamsamitchguy03]

edited for brevity

[Clearly]

I say take now. You still have oct if you don't hit where you want. Trust me, it's a lot easier to say you're going to study till Oct, then it is to sit down and do it over the summer.