Considering Putting Off Until September - absent? Forum

[NotHermione]

The description on LSAC's website is rather vague, so I figured I'd verify - an "absent" for my exam does not count as one of my takes, correct? Will it be reported to schools?

I was planning to take the June exam as my third take, but my consistent scores in the low 170s have turned into my last four prep tests being 167, 167, 167 and 168 and I'm afraid they'll tank even more under pressure.

Just considering my options.

Thanks!

[Jeffort]

You can withdraw your registration up to 11:59pm ET the night before the administration via your online lsac account if you decide you aren't ready so that you don't get an absent mark.

[kittenmittens]

If you reschedule your date for Sept. instead of leaving your registration open for June you'll save yourself about half the registration fee

[Jeffort]

If you reschedule your date for Sept. instead of leaving your registration open for June you'll save yourself about half the registration fee

The deadline for rescheduling without having to pay the full reg fee again was May 25th. The only remaining option at this point to avoid getting a score, an absent, or a cancel mark reported on your permanent record LSs see when you apply is to withdraw your registration sometime by 11:59pm ET the day before the test.

Currently under the rules, everyone has until the night before the test to decide whether they're ready or not to show up and take the test along with the option to withdraw their registration without any negative consequences other than forfeiting the reg fee $$ and having to pay full pop again to register for a later administration.

An 'absent' mark on your record doesn't count against the three takes in two years limit, but isn't something you want on your record since you can easily avoid it by simply going online the night before to your LSAC account and pressing a few buttons. For a few years recently when the LSAC 'withdraw/postpone' timeline rules were different, absent marks didn't mean anything on score reports to LS ad comms since people didn't have the last minute night before test day withdraw option.

Since LSAC changed/fixed that short lived set of messed up rules two cycles ago, any recent 'absent' marks on a score report again indicate 'flake' to admissions committees unless you have a good addendum story about being held captive somewhere/being in a coma or somehow otherwise being involuntarily incapacitated/unable to use a phone or computer+internet to spend two or so minutes pressing a few buttons to withdraw your registration by midnight the night before test day.

http://www.lsac.org/jd/lsat/test-dates- ... anada-june

OP: You have until the night before the test to decide if you're going to take it or not without risking any significant long term consequences in terms of 'negative marks on your permanent record' or using up one of your three allowed takes. As long as you withdraw your registration by the 11:59pm ET deadline, nothing about it will show up on your report LS's you apply to see, they'll never know it happened, and you'll still be allowed to register and take it again soon under the three times in two years rule. That rule only kicks in and counts instances as 'you took it' when you actually show up and check in at a test center for an administration you were registered to take.