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After weeks of preparation, I unfortunately did the one thing I tried avoiding the most, letting the test beat me. I had a really shaky start on the June 2014 LSAT, and now I am trying to decide if I should cancel or keep my score. Any advice is greatly appreciated.

Considerations:
I was scoring in the low 170s on all my PTs and I am very confident I have lots of room to improve considering I only did about 10 timed tests, and only about 5 with an experimental. (I traditionally miss 0-1 on games, 1-4 on LR, and 2-6 on RC; my last 3 prep tests were a 172, 171, and 174 respectively).

During today's exam, my nerves really built up and I found it difficult to comprehend anything I read during my first section (RC). I brushed it off assuming it was my experimental and I finally got into a really good rhythm towards the second half of section 2. Section 3 was RC again and I finished that section in the same manner that I did the 3 times I only missed 0-2 (compared to my normal 2-6) on the section, with over 5 minutes to spare at the end and rarely having to refer back to the passages.

Reasons for choking - I usually warm up, and then take the exam 15 minutes later. Today there was about 1 hour and 45 minutes between when I warmed up and when the exam started, and during that time my anxiety got the best of me. Also, the proctor came up to me about 2 minutes into the section when I was just over half way through the first passage and told me to do something with my writing section which led me to completely forget what I had just read. This led to even worst anxiety on account of the fact that I was now doing my worst section with only 33 minutes.

Like many, the last game stumped me and normally I miss -0-1 on games.

With all that being said I walked out of the test fairly confident that I either scored a 170+ assuming my second RC was graded, or a ~165 assuming it was the first, and unfortunately it turned out the latter of the two was my experimental.

I am a 3.4x splitter (or I will be assuming I ever get the score I would like). My goals are MVP. I intend on EDing. I will undoubtedly retake but I am unsure of whether or not I should cancel. I know this was one of my worst performances ever but I am concerned that despite further prep I will choke again in September.

Don't cancel and retake if necessary. 165--> 171+ and ur fine for the schools u want .. or no worse off than a cancel -->171+

Just a note, I'm pretty sure your first RC section was the real one and the easier one was your experimental. There was a discussion about this on the waiters forums. Good luck! I cancelled my score because I knew I definitely did not perform up to par.

APandalover wrote:Just a note, I'm pretty sure your first RC section was the real one and the easier one was your experimental. There was a discussion about this on the waiters forums. Good luck! I cancelled my score because I knew I definitely did not perform up to par.

I know I did not perform up to par, but I see no reason to cancel if a hypothetical low/high LSAT won't negatively affect me.

Can anyone else chime in on this issue please?

Arad wrote:

APandalover wrote:Just a note, I'm pretty sure your first RC section was the real one and the easier one was your experimental. There was a discussion about this on the waiters forums. Good luck! I cancelled my score because I knew I definitely did not perform up to par.

I know I did not perform up to par, but I see no reason to cancel if a hypothetical low/high LSAT won't negatively affect me.

Can anyone else chime in on this issue please?

I am of the view that canceling is unnecessary. Whether you cancel & retake or don't cancel & retake, law schools will probably only care about your highest score, especially given the recent trend of declining numbers of applications. http://www.top-law-schools.com/retaking-the-lsat.html

If my view is correct, not canceling carries little to no risk and leaves open the possibility that you are surprised by a good score.