5th time's the charm?

[Jtl4]

As someone who is used the powerscore curriculum, I'm curious what advice you would offer to someone in my position.

I originally took my LSAT in June 2016 and achieved a score of 160, which was eight points beneath my pretest average. However, when I retook the test again in September (which coincidentally was during my senior year and in the middle of midterms) I scored even lower with a 156.

Upset at my scores, I decided to go to graduate school instead of Law School. Now in my third year in my Ph.D program (and with a master's degree in Economics), decided that I was going to give the LSAT another try. I took the July 2019 LSAT and cancelled my score of 159. Continually frustrated by my inherent inability to score above 160 in a proctored exam, I took the most recent September LSAT and horribly bombed the test. I'm planning on canceling my score, but I'm wondering how a second canceled score might look on my record and whether I should try to take the test for a 5th time.

[Jeremy Press]

Hi Jtl4,

Don't worry overly much about a second cancelled score on your record. It happens, and it can be explained if you ultimately raise your LSAT score to a level that makes you competitive at the schools you want to attend. Your highest score is the one that matters for admission purposes: https://blog.powerscore.com/lsat/do-law ... igh-score/. Before you make the final decision to cancel, though, make sure you're as clear-eyed and certain about your evaluation of your performance as possible. It sounds like you're sure, but make sure you've thought through all the variables, including the possible curve of the test, which will be discussed in more detail when Dave and Jon release the Podcast covering Saturday's administration: https://www.powerscore.com/lsat/podcast/.

The question whether to take the test a 5th time is really one of motivation and planning. Assuming you have the drive to give the test another try, you can put together a plan that will likely lead to better results. But you should consider seeking some outside advice on changing your prep process, from a friend who's been successful with the test or a tutor, of which we have many who could offer sound advice: https://www.powerscore.com/lsat/tutoring/. You'll need to make changes, maybe significant ones, to the way you've been preparing for a test day experience. You'll need to think hard about what specifically is giving you trouble with the test day experience. Is it seeing recognizable patterns in new material? Is it nerves? Is it some deficiency in your knowledge of the reasoning and question types that appear regularly on the test? Having an outside advisor can help greatly with that process.

Please let us know if we can help further, and best of luck to you as you decide what's next.

Jeremy