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Hello,

I know this question has been tossed around a bit after yesterday's LSAT, but I didn't want to detract from anyone else's situation by posting in the same thread. I'm stuck at a crossroads here, because I have read much conflicting advice on the impact of multiple LSAT scores. I do understand the policies differ according to schools, so hopefully someone can give advice that is more specific to my situation.

A little background: My goal schools are definitely in the top end of the T14 (my first-choice schools are Columbia and NYU), but I admit I don't have a great GPA (3.579); so my LSAT goal has been 175. I wasn't able to devote a significant amount of time to studying until August, but the few weeks before the test, I was consistently scoring around 173 on practice tests. On my final practice test (PT 66), I scored a 178 -- admittedly an outlier, but it did yield the tiniest glimmer of hope.

My predicament: I totally screwed up on test day. Because of my living situation, I've been terribly sleep deprived for the last few months. Of course, this includes the days I was practice testing at the aforementioned scores. However, on test day, I guess I was overly anxious about getting tired (and the test in general) and drank way too much caffeine (between coffee and energy drinks). I finished the first section (LR) about 6 minutes early; but then in the second section (RC), I became extremely dizzy and blacked out. I skipped one question entirely and had to randomly bubble in the last 3. Furthermore, I know at least one of these is incorrect, because I glanced at the question after I put my pencil down and saw the correct answer. I was dizzy and extremely nauseous throughout the rest of the test, but I did manage to finish each section. I know I got one question wrong on LG, but did think I had figured the games out (then again, I wasn't in the best state of mind, as my body was shaking and I was simply praying to neither pass out nor vomit).

Like some others who took the test yesterday, I feel worse about this test than any practice test I can remember. I already plan on re-taking in December, but I don't know if it would be more beneficial to at least see how I did, or go ahead and cancel.

Any thoughts or personal experiences that might help?

almost the exact same situation for me. Unless you're looking at HYS I would not cancel. You never know with the curve and a few lucky guesses you could've done much better than you thought. I think the potential pros of not cancelling outweigh any cons.

I'm in an identical situation. I felt good about the test except for the zoning game and the RC, but I feel even though the RC was difficult, I may have managed to do fairly well, so perhaps I might lucky and get a 170+. I've read elsewhere that schools will generally look at the higher score, so I'm just going to cross my fingers and pray every day and hope that I don't have to take the december test. This was my first time taking the real thing, so I'm going to let it ride and see what happens.

Glad to read about others with similar experiences. I was averaging 172ish on PTs, and struggled to finish RC and LG, and guessed on 4-5 questions as opposed to zero on PTs, which means I'm in the 166-168 range and 170 if I'm lucky.

I'd recommend not canceling because

1) you don't know your circumstances for December, and not having an LSAT at that point of the cycle is scary since you may miss the test and and not be able to apply this cycle.

2) Should check whether your top choices average or take the highest score. There was a forum somewhere where this was mentioned for all T14s. Check this list for what NYU and Columbia say.

3) there's no way of determining how you actually did. You said that you weren't in the right state of mind due to paranoia. This means that your entire evaluation of your performance will be skewed. You may basically think you did worse than you actually did because things did not go as planned.

The real question is if you decide to retake, should you wait until receiving those scores to apply or apply early with October scores and update the LSAT scores after December scores come in? If the school denies you prior to this date, can you apply to be reconsidered after your new LSATs come in?

Thanks very much for the input! It does make me lean more toward not canceling.

I wonder if everyone thinks the LSAT they took was especially difficult, as it seems many test-takers from Saturday do.

Nope you're not the only one, I f'ed it up too.... Probably because I got two RCs (weakest section).