How many times is too many? Forum

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Bulbasaur

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How many times is too many?

Post by Bulbasaur » Thu Oct 27, 2016 3:59 pm

Long time lurker, first post. It seems that the TLS motto is "retake, retake, retake" but I'm wondering how many times is too many? Three? Five? Do schools frown upon multiple retakes?

Would like some anecdotal evidence from serial retakers on eventual admission outcomes.

Thanks.

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Purple Post It Note

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Re: How many times is too many?

Post by Purple Post It Note » Thu Oct 27, 2016 4:10 pm

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Last edited by Purple Post It Note on Wed Dec 21, 2016 10:35 am, edited 1 time in total.

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Deardevil

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Re: How many times is too many?

Post by Deardevil » Thu Oct 27, 2016 4:27 pm

Quality over quantity.
I suppose three tests with respective scores of 150, 145, and 140 is "too many."
But five that have respective grades of 160, 165, 170, 175, and 180... Not so much.

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tofuspeedstar

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Re: How many times is too many?

Post by tofuspeedstar » Thu Oct 27, 2016 4:29 pm

If there's an upward trend in scores they're gonna look at it as you knowing that you can do better and see it as a positive thing. However if it's sporadic (165, 159, 163, 159) they're gonna be like wtf.

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Law2020hopeful

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Re: How many times is too many?

Post by Law2020hopeful » Wed Nov 02, 2016 11:58 am

Honestly, I've talked to a few adcomms (specifically from Columbia and Yale) and they say that 2 times is fine but once it hits 3 or more they start looking at it in a bit of a less positive light. Can't speak for all law schools though.

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Blueprint Mithun

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Re: How many times is too many?

Post by Blueprint Mithun » Sun Nov 06, 2016 2:45 pm

Bulbasaur wrote:Long time lurker, first post. It seems that the TLS motto is "retake, retake, retake" but I'm wondering how many times is too many? Three? Five? Do schools frown upon multiple retakes?

Would like some anecdotal evidence from serial retakers on eventual admission outcomes.

Thanks.
Three years within two years is the limit, and I think you shouldn't count on taking it more than three times. Ideally, each of your successive takes will show an upward trend, which will show that you succeeded in improving and were dedicated to getting a better LSAT score.

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Nonconsecutive

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Re: How many times is too many?

Post by Nonconsecutive » Sun Nov 06, 2016 3:44 pm

Just echoing the above in that an upward trend spread over multiple takes with a final good score is going to do a whole heck of a lot better than one low score. Most schools statically seem to care far, far less about retakes than they might claim to as a policy - so long as you have a good high score (even if it isn't necessarily your most recent one, but a high score followed by a low school might look weird, but they can still just take the high score and ignore the others).

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