Are scores calculated before or after cancellations?

[Halle]

I read the Powerscore explanation of the LSAT scale and I understand that the difficulty of the test and looseness of the scale is in some way related to how many questions the average test taker missed.

Since there seems to be consensus that the June LSAT was pretty tough, I imagine a lot of people will be cancelling. My question is: Is the scale determined based on the total number of people who took the test or the total number of people who kept their scores?

I can't imagine why LSAC wouldn't do the latter since difficult tests do get looser scales but I suppose it's possible that test-takers weren't so immediately aware of past test's difficulty as they appear to be with this one.

[Jon Denning]

Hey Halle,

Thanks for the question, and welcome to the Forum! That's an interesting point you raise, and while I'm not sure I've ever seen an "official" statement from LSAC, I'm fairly confident that they build in cancellation figures into their final calculation. That is, they're looking at the overall performance (group as a whole), and cancellations don't really affect that much one way or the other as they're fairly evenly distributed: some low scores are cancelled, but plenty of mid- and high-scorers cancel as well if they aren't satisfied with the results. That's true of every administration, so ultimately cancellations are considered but aren't really a factor.

Hope that helps! Let me know if it's still unclear