To Cancel or Not To Cancel? Forum

[Bulldogs1]

First off, there are only 2 schools that I'm really interested in for law school: Berkeley and UCLA as they're the best in my state (wouldn't mind USC if I received some $)

Recently took the June LSAT and am pretty sure that even with a -12 curve, I still scored in the mid-160s. Test day anxiety was huge, and I practically went into a panic after the first (and actual) RC and it carried with me into the next LR (had to keep rereading stims as I was so flustered), not to mention the other sections. I also found difficulty like most others on the 4th LG although the others seemed fairly routine to me.

My preptest score average was a 171, and I even scored my first 180 on PT71 a week before the test. My previous best under test-like conditions was a 176, but my most common score received was a 170, and I took nearly 40 preptests.

I am really confident that I'll be scoring much better on the October LSAT, which I plan to take no matter my score in June.

Should I cancel this LSAT, or not? RC really screwed me up, and I just wasn't at my best through the rest of the sections. I don't feel like I even have much to improve on either, and that it only comes down to me performing on test day. I am fully confident in at least a 170 in October, so which course of action would best suit my interests? A mid 160s June and a 170 October (hypothetically), or a June cancel and a sole 170 in October?

[teampeeta]

How well did you normally do during RC and LG?

I would say keep your score unless you're absolutely sure that you didn't do well on RC and/or LG and that those mistakes carried over into another section(s). There doesn't seem to be much harm in waiting to see what you get. If you surprised yourself and did better than you'd hoped, great. If your instincts are right, you said you're going to study for September anyway. Plus, having a score on record might take some pressure off in September.

[Bulldogs1]

How well did you normally do during RC and LG?

I would say keep your score unless you're absolutely sure that you didn't do well on RC and/or LG and that those mistakes carried over into another section(s). There doesn't seem to be much harm in waiting to see what you get. If you surprised yourself and did better than you'd hoped, great. If your instincts are right, you said you're going to study for September anyway. Plus, having a score on record might take some pressure off in September.

LG is usually a -0 for me, it's my money section. RC is my toughest, but I've was able to improve it to -2 or -3 for the last few PTs. I noticed a trend in my PTs in that the ones where RC is the first section I struggle, and sure enough it was my first section on the June LSAT

[teampeeta]

I wouldn't cancel unless you're sure you missed your mark by a significant margin. Like, if you totally screwed up RC and didn't get to 1.5 passages or you had to skip an entire game and you usually bank on LG. Plenty of people have thought they've messed up on test day and been wrong.

[Bulldogs1]

I wouldn't cancel unless you're sure you missed your mark by a significant margin. Like, if you totally screwed up RC and didn't get to 1.5 passages or you had to skip an entire game and you usually bank on LG. Plenty of people have thought they've messed up on test day and been wrong.

I got to the last RC passage with 5 min left after having struggled a lot on the vague questions from the first 3 passages, and left one question unanswered.

[birdie]

My suggestion would be to cancel. IF you truly think you can do better and that you didn't perform your best on the test, it is much better for you to cancel than to have a bad score on your record. It's easier to explain away in an addendum a cancelled score than a really low score. For that matter even if you didn't do that poorly, if you take it again and only get like 3 more points on the test (say from a 167 to a 170), that looks pretty bad in of itself (in my opinion).

Also, I don't know much about UCLA but Berkeley is big on GPA, if you have a high GPA with a mid 160 score you have a high chance of getting into Berkeley.

In the end it's up to you, but if I was you and I was scoring in the mid 170's i wouldn't want the schools to see a bad score on my record, esp since you are adamant about taking the test again. Good luck!

[Arad]

I am in the same boat as yourself. Anxiety killed me on the first section (RC), and I didn't find my composure until I realized section 3 was RC as well. It's funny because many people I spoke to had a simple Logic Games Experimental as their first section which puts you in an amazing mindset and is a perfect warm up. In my opinion LSAC needs to find a way to standardize the test more considering how you start the exam has a huge psychological impact. If I would have had a simple games experimental as my first section it would have completely changed my results on the exam.

[Trout et al]

Do you really think a school will view your application significantly differently if it was 163, 170 vs. Cancel, 170? What evidence is there that UCLA or UC-B gives a shit? They only have to report the highest score. Either way, best of luck in October and really think about the December test as well because they let you take this thing 3 times so why not?

[Elston Gunn]

My suggestion would be to cancel. IF you truly think you can do better and that you didn't perform your best on the test, it is much better for you to cancel than to have a bad score on your record. It's easier to explain away in an addendum a cancelled score than a really low score. For that matter even if you didn't do that poorly, if you take it again and only get like 3 more points on the test (say from a 167 to a 170), that looks pretty bad in of itself (in my opinion).

Also, I don't know much about UCLA but Berkeley is big on GPA, if you have a high GPA with a mid 160 score you have a high chance of getting into Berkeley.

In the end it's up to you, but if I was you and I was scoring in the mid 170's i wouldn't want the schools to see a bad score on my record, esp since you are adamant about taking the test again. Good luck!

0l?

OP unless you think you got like 10+ points lower than your normal score, there's really no reason to cancel. Schools only have to report your best score to US News, and they usually really, truly do not care about your other scores unless they really stand out.

I'm also struggling to understand how going from a 167 to a 170 looks pretty bad.

[Bulldogs1]

My GPA is a 3.83, but that is from my last 5 semesters of undergrad. I transferred after my first 3 semesters and my GPA was probably 3.2, I wasn't very serious at my first university. Don't know how significant that will be during the application process.


I agree that having a tough first section does ruin the standardization of the test.

I have read that your lower score tends to be considered more when it's closer to your higher score, so it is starting to seem like a cancel would be best in this situation. What time specifically does the cancel request have to be faxed in?

[WaltGrace83]

My GPA is a 3.83, but that is from my last 5 semesters of undergrad. I transferred after my first 3 semesters and my GPA was probably 3.2, I wasn't very serious at my first university. Don't know how significant that will be during the application process.


I agree that having a tough first section does ruin the standardization of the test.

I have read that your lower score tends to be considered more when it's closer to your higher score, so it is starting to seem like a cancel would be best in this situation. What time specifically does the cancel request have to be faxed in?

I am only a 0L but I think it would be incredibly ignorant to cancel. I would say with fair confidence that most people think that they bombed a real administration of any test (final exams, SATs, etc.) when, in actuality, this belief is just a bit of anxiety. It is not like you are saying that you couldn't get to an entire passage or you completely bombed an entire section because you had a panic attack on the 7th question of LR. You are anticipating mid 160s, which by the way isn't even a bad score. I think you'll surprise yourself.

You could have gotten a 180 for all you know - you simply never know and your "gut feeling" can often be proven wrong in many different applications. No one cares about a lower score either way.

[Elston Gunn]

My GPA is a 3.83, but that is from my last 5 semesters of undergrad. I transferred after
I have read that your lower score tends to be considered more when it's closer to your higher score,

Where? Admissions people really don't care that much.

[Bulldogs1]

My GPA is a 3.83, but that is from my last 5 semesters of undergrad. I transferred after
I have read that your lower score tends to be considered more when it's closer to your higher score,

Where? Admissions people really don't care that much.

Hmm don't know, was some site I was on earlier today. But I did also read a lot about them mostly considering your highest score.

So you'd really recommend I not cancel? And if you don't mind me asking, what did you score and what did you do with it?

[Jeffort]

Read this:

http://spiveyconsulting.com/blog/should ... sat-score/

Don't cancel.

Everyone considering canceling should read that link. The advice Spivey gives is the same advice I've been giving to students for years, as do many other experienced LSAT teachers/tutors.

Absent outright utter disaster, it is dumb to cancel.

For all the people new to TLS/just took the LSAT the first time/just getting started prepping for the LSAT: law schools don't care about multiple scores anymore. The current admissions climate and policies are significantly different than it was even just a few years ago. A 163 & 170 looks pretty much the same to schools as cancel + 170, they only care about the highest score. Since everything lives forever on the internet, there is still a ton of advice about canceling scores that is from years ago when the admissions climate and LSs policies were different. That old advice/info about it being bad to have multiple scores on record/a lower plus a higher score was valid up until several years ago when the ABA changed the LSAT scores reporting policy for schools and LSs subsequently changed their policies to focusing on the highest score and not focusing on the average.

In addition to all the reasons not to cancel listed in the Spivey article, there are several others.
Your test day score is an actual accurate representation of your skill/ability/performance level under real test conditions. No matter how well you try to simulate test conditions for PTs, the scores never really represent real test day conditions ability/performance level.

Whatever factors threw you off and made you perform lower than you think your current ability level is are very real weaknesses in your current skills/abilities that need to be carefully examined honestly to prepare for a re-take. A real test day score is the only true measure of your true score range and your score report is a goldmine for review purposes to get in shape for a re-take since you can see exactly what types of wrong answers you fell for, what specific types of things threw you off in real time, etc. If you cancel, you lose the opportunity to thoroughly review and learn from your performance under actual test day conditions to get a fully sobering honest look at how well you were actually prepared, in terms of true ability level, as it played out for real.

Excuses such as, 'if only my first section had been an easy exp LG section I'd done better', 'I freaked out and lost my focus on RC due to XYZ', 'the proctors were distracting', 'the order of my sections sucked for my weaknesses/fears', 'I got two RC experimentals', or whatever else or nothing more than excuses. They are all unavoidable things outside your control that are part of what makes the test difficult. There will be something less than helpful to your performance on any administration you take, those things are part of the test and will always be there.

Keep your score and use it to take a sober honest look at your real strengths and especially your weaknesses that got exploited on test day to get a more honest idea of your true real under test day conditions performance/skill level/ability level issues that were part of you on test day.

[Elston Gunn]

My GPA is a 3.83, but that is from my last 5 semesters of undergrad. I transferred after
I have read that your lower score tends to be considered more when it's closer to your higher score,

Where? Admissions people really don't care that much.

Hmm don't know, was some site I was on earlier today. But I did also read a lot about them mostly considering your highest score.

So you'd really recommend I not cancel? And if you don't mind me asking, what did you score and what did you do with it?

I'd recommend not canceling as long as you don't feel like you completely and utterly fucked up, yeah.

Not sure why it matters but I go to Yale.

[Bulldogs1]

[/quote]Not sure why it matters but I go to Yale.[/quote]

Sorry, just noticed your join date and wanted to verify your credibility haha. Congrats on attending Yale.


I can't really say whether or not it was an "utter disaster," so I suppose I'll be keeping this score.