Cancelling My Score

[moshei24]

Hi!

Dave is currently helping me out with this, but because of my intense bugging out, I figured I would want to get more opinions on this. It's soothing, somehow.

I took the test in October and scored a 165. It was a little below my average, so I decided to take it again, knowing that burnout hurt me in the final two weeks leading up to the test.

(Keep in mind, I'm a Sabbath observer so I never go to see my score breakdown.)

I retook today, didn't get the best sleep last night, and kinda got screwed. I had LG LR LG RC LR. Section 3 was experimental - I figured that out based on other test takers who has one LG and it was the same as my first one.

The reason I'm strongly considering cancelling is because I messed up the first LG. Really messed up. The first game went fine, but in the second, I missed a simple consequence of one of the rules until the middle of the game which slowed me down a bunch. Then in the third game, I misread a rule, and didn't realize until the end of the game, so that game hurt me a lot (I didn't have time to redo it, and I'm not sure how many I got wrong because of the misread rule, but based on the fact that it took me awhile to get through them, it was probably because they couldn't be done properly with the wrong rule), and then I was rushed in the fourth game, but it wasn't so bad. The second LG I rocked (I think -0), but it didn't count. And other people thought it was harder. Just my luck.

My worst section is RC, as I tend to get as many wrong in that section as I do on the other three combined. It was an above average difficulty RC - not because of the passages, but the questions accompanying them. I think I got 7-9 wrong, but RC, for me, is hard to gauge, for the good or bad.

LR went very well, and I didn't hit any question that I had no clue how to approach. My guess would be I got 2-4, maybe 5 wrong total in both of them, or, maybe less than 2 - it's possible, but I doubt I didn't make any mistakes.

The issue is LG, as I feel as if I could've gotten as many as 7-8 wrong, if things went really bad, and 4-5 wrong if things went good, so odds are I got somewhere around 6 wrong, which is much worse than my 2-3 tops, wrong, average.

The test had only 100 questions, so the curve won't be that great.

Given the 165 I already have, would it be in the my best interest to cancel, as there's a solid chance I scored less than that? Or, should I bank on possibly pulling off a 167-168 by getting lucky? Is the risk of 160-163 worth the reward of possibly getting 167-168?

Sorry about this long read.

Thanks for your help!

Sincerely,
Moshe

[Nikki Siclunov]

Hi Moshe,

To beat a 165, I assume you are shooting for a 170 score, or at least a score in the high-160's. Given your typical accuracy levels on LR and RC, you cannot afford to miss more than a few questions in the LG section (if any) to achieve such a score.

Unfortunately, without an exceptionally strong performance in both RC and LR (i.e. an accuracy level significantly higher than your average for these sections), it doesn't sound like you broke 170 on this test, and most likely got a score in the mid-160's. Even with 4-5 wrong in the Logic Games - your best case scenario - a score in the high-160's would only be possible if either the curve is unusually loose, or your combined number of errors on the other three sections is no more than 10.

While we have no way of knowing what the curve looks like, here's something that might help:

http://www.powerscore.com/lsat/help/cor ... rgeted.cfm

All in all, I'd probably cancel, but it all depends on your risk tolerance and willingness to put another few months into LSAT prep. That said, a 165 might be enough to get you into the law schools of your choice. The overall number of law school applicants is down by 30% compared to 2 years ago, so you stand a better chance of getting into your target schools (and maybe even some reaches) than you would have had a few years ago.

[moshei24]

When I said 2-4 in LR I meant that many in both combined. That was clear, right?

[Steve Stein]

Hey Moshe,

If you missed around 6 questions in LG, around 7 questions in RC, and around 4 in LR combined, that would put you at a 165 on the June scale. If that's your starting point, and you think things might have actually gone even a little bit better than that, it might be worth rolling the dice--if you actually only missed 5 in LG and 6 in RC, for example, that would bump your score up to a 167 on that scale. As you said, it comes down to whether you believe that the chance of improvement is justified by the risk.

I hope that's helpful!

~Steve

[moshei24]

I think what's holding me back from taking the risk is that I found the RC rather difficult, and it wasn't my best, so I'm leaning toward 8 or 9 wrong in that, and with games, I was rushed with the last game because of my mess ups, so I'm leaning toward not too good at that either. LR is the only thing that felt good, but a good feeling in LR still has a slight chance to be inaccurate. It's like I feel I have more to lose than to gain.

My idea is as follows:
Cancel this score, try to apply within the next 2-3 weeks, see where I get in, wait listed, and rejected. Then, take the LSAT in Feb, and help my odds on schools that wait listed me and schools that accepted me to increase my scholarship, and then if I do really well, apply to some more schools last minute. How does that sound?

[Nikki Siclunov]

I do like this plan, with one little caveat: some schools would make a decision on whether to award a scholarship or not at the same time they issue the acceptance letter. I hesitate as to whether your chances of obtaining a scholarship would be any higher if you bumped up your LSAT score after you get in. It's possible, but only if you get accepted at several comparable schools that get into a bidding war. That said, a higher LSAT score in February can definitely help your chances with two categories of schools: those that haven't made a decision yet, and those that already waitlisted you.

[moshei24]

Would schools not read my file if they see I signed up for the Feb LSAT? Or, only if I tell them?

And, so that means I should apply to comparably ranked schools to cause them to get into a bidding war? How many would I need to apply to?

Thanks!

[Anne Chaconas]

If you don't tell schools that you're taking the February LSAT, they have no way of knowing. If they do know that you're taking the February LSAT (because you advised them in some fashion), they will likely wait until those scores are out before reading your file. I would call each school on your list and ask--some schools may have differing policies on this. Call to make sure.

Applying to comparably-ranked schools in an attempt to use the financial aid of one to help you get more aid with another is a good idea, but it's something that you have to use very tactfully and carefully. You won't be able to simply demand that one school give you more aid because another one did so; you'll very likely have to go through an aid review process and provide sound reasoning for why your aid should be increased. The term "bidding war" is a little misleading--that's not exactly what will happen. What you'll be able to do is get some schools to potentially increase their financial aid awards to match the awards of other comparable schools, but you won't be getting schools just throwing money at you to get you to go (this does happen occasionally, but it's really not the norm--you shouldn't expect it to happen). The number of schools you should apply to in order to have enough financial aid awards to compare and use in this way can vary. I would suggest that you apply to enough schools of comparable ranking so that you (1) feel comfortable of gaining acceptance at a good number of them and (2) are fairly confident that you will get solid financial aid awards from each.