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I was consistently scoring about 167 prior to the October exam. I thought the exam as a whole went fairly decently at the time, so I was shocked when I saw I actually got a 159. I had never scored below 161 on any practice test under realistic, timed conditions. I attributed most of my underperformance to insomnia (I only getting 3-4 hours of sleep the night before). In my practice tests since the October exam, I have scored about a 168 average, with no score below 166. However, when I went to go use the October 2015 test as a practice test the other day (on a good night's sleep) I still managed to get a lower score of 162. This has me extremely concerned about taking the test next week. Not only do I not want to "waste" my 4.0 GPA, but also I want my score to be fairly indicative of the work I've put into preparing.

Possibly I am putting too much weight on my performance on just PT 76, but would I be better off postponing? I'm currently in a gap year, so postponing would mean taking another year off. I really wanted to avoid a second gap year so I'd like some opinions as to whether or not postponing would be worth that sacrifice.

Also I don't feel taking the exam and canceling if necessary would be possible, given how false my sense of confidence was during the test in October.

My situation is similar to yours. My last four preptests have been pretty erratic (173, 177, 169, 168 on PTs 70, 71, 73, and 74, respecrively). I have a 4.0 too, am on a gap year, and am not relishing the possibility that I may need to postpone law school for anot her year if I don't score my target of 173+). But I don't think you should postpone your December administration...it seems like most schools just take your highest lsat into consideration these days, so if you get a low score and retake, it won't look bad. In fact, taking the real thing would be valuable prep for your retake if you end up doing so.

Well if I were to take the December exam and then need a retake, that retake would be my third registration since I took the test in October. I know 1 retake doesn't make much difference in terms of admissions but not sure about how 2 would/if it's even worth risking using up an attempt in December when I don't feel like much has changed since October.