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Averaging LSAT Scores

Posted: Tue Dec 10, 2013 11:57 pm
by kfb2112
Does anyone have a sense of what schools actual average your lsat? I know this has been discussed in the past, but the actual reality of the answer seems to often just be speculation. I wonder if anyone has gotten further clarification/data on this since the last time it was meaningfully discussed on the forum.

PS; If schools are not averaging, what possible rational reason could there be for so many people wanting to cancel?

Re: Averaging LSAT Scores

Posted: Wed Dec 11, 2013 12:22 am
by Nova
kfb2112 wrote:Does anyone have a sense of what schools actual average your lsat? I know this has been discussed in the past, but the actual reality of the answer seems to often just be speculation.
its speculation cause we are not adcomms. schools may take your previous lsats into consideration, but they surely do not average them and act like that's your score.

Medians are too important to every school outside YSH. Since only the highest score affects medians and everyone is gaming medians, schools are under a lot of pressure to make decisions off the highest score to keep up with their competition.
If schools are not averaging, what possible rational reason could there be for so many people wanting to cancel?
cause they think low scores look bad

Re: Averaging LSAT Scores

Posted: Thu Dec 12, 2013 3:29 pm
by kfb2112
What reason is there to believe they don't actually average? And, if they take both scores under consideration, does anyone have a sense of what that entails?

Re: Averaging LSAT Scores

Posted: Thu Dec 12, 2013 3:47 pm
by Straw_Mandible
kfb2112 wrote:actual reality
kfb2112 wrote:rational reason

:roll:

It's possible to make an informed *speculation* about a school's multiple LSAT policy by looking at past data (e.g. on LSN) of retakers and asking ourselves, "Did this person's admissions outcome reflect what we would expect to see from an application containing only the highest score, or did the applicant seem to underperform this number?" Of course, it's still only speculation as far as it applies to a school's general policy, but we are able to identify specific cases where multiple LSATs did not appear to negatively impact particular applicants. People seem to believe that the decrease in the number and quality of applications have compelled the top schools to drop their averaging policies, since they no longer have the luxury of being picky about aspects of an application that don't directly impact their medians.

Re: Averaging LSAT Scores

Posted: Thu Dec 12, 2013 4:42 pm
by bp shinners
kfb2112 wrote:What reason is there to believe they don't actually average? And, if they take both scores under consideration, does anyone have a sense of what that entails?
Admissions outcomes from schools for people who have retaken the LSAT.

Re: Averaging LSAT Scores

Posted: Thu Dec 12, 2013 6:27 pm
by Nova
kfb2112 wrote:What reason is there to believe they don't actually average?
.....