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161 in June '12. 163 in October '12. Decided not to retake and went ahead with applications. I'm in to schools that I'd like to go, one of which I'd be able to walk away from with zero debt. I'm waitlisted at my top choice.

Now I'm thinking I'll retake it in June, because, why not?

No, seriously, why not? Is there any downside to this? I underperformed the first two times, so there's no reason to assume the third time will be different. If I actually end up doing worse than I did previously, will these schools find out? In other words, do they automatically have access to my scores, or do I have to communicate these to them?

Bottom line is, I don't want to put my scholarship at risk and I don't want to hurt whatever chances I currently have on the waitlist.

the only schools that still probably take a "holistic" look at all your lsat scores are the top 4. All other schools, seeing how low app numbers have this year, would not care about a third inferior score.

I'm kinda puzzled at you saying that there's no reason to assume the third time would be any different. You are more familiar with the test than most, you should have had several months to study (and there are still two left), and you have test-room experience. There are several things that you have done and still can do to make sure the third time is the best and hopefully last time you'll have to deal with that dreaded test.

Typhoon24 wrote:the only schools that still probably take a "holistic" look at all your lsat scores are the top 4. All other schools, seeing how low app numbers have this year, would not care about a third inferior score.

I'm kinda puzzled at you saying that there's no reason to assume the third time would be any different. You are more familiar with the test than most, you should have had several months to study (and there are still two left), and you have test-room experience. There are several things that you have done and still can do to make sure the third time is the best and hopefully last time you'll have to deal with that dreaded test.

Thanks, just being cautiously pessimistic, I suppose.

If by June you have already committed to a school then it actually makes no sense to take it, unless you are doing it to prove something to yourself.