What should I do?

[lawjunkie96]

Hello all!

I just took the LSAT for the first time in December 2017 and scored a 153.
I'm in my last year of undergraduate at University of Toronto and my CGPA is a 3.75.
I want to go to law school in September 2018.

Should I try to re-take the LSAT in February 2018 and get a higher score or should I be okay to get into some T1/ most T2 Law schools?

Thanks in advance.

[Claire Horan]

Hi Lawjunkie,

You can use this link to determine your chances of getting in to any particular school:
https://officialguide.lsac.org/release/ ... alsat.aspx

When using this calculator consider whether the other aspects of your application, identity, and academic/life/work experiences would be likely to somewhat increase or decrease your chances within the range shown by the calculator.

I would say there's no real reason not to take the LSAT again to try to improve your score, but remember that your score is unlikely to increase substantially without a lot of extra study and practice. This isn't a test where the more you take it, the better your score gets automatically. So my advice is to only take the February test if you are going to put in the necessary study time! Also make sure you put enough time into the other aspects of your application rather than focusing solely on the LSAT.

[Dave Killoran]

Hi Lawjunkie,

The answer these days is almost always to retake the LSAT. Law schools only care about your high score, so having two or more scores is harmless. Plus, since the LSAT is the single most dominant part of your app, even a few points higher would increase your chances at most every school, as well as give you better aid packages. And with your GPA (which is good), all that is holding you back is your LSAT score. So, personally, I'd retake if I were in your shoes even without looking at admissions chances.

As far as admissions chances, in the T50 things aren't great. You have some chances in the schools ranked 40-50, but it is all over the place and so I think you might get into a few and get rejections at many others. You can see some of your chances here: https://officialguide.lsac.org/Release/ ... ALSAT.aspx. And at schools like #41 Florida you show a 20-30% chance. At #51 Baylor it's 19-39%, and so on. You have to go a way lower in the rankings before you start seeing 75% and over chances.

So, in a nutshell: no harm in taking it again, every school will look at Feb, a higher score will change your outcomes significantly, including financial aid. I'd retake

Please let me know if that helps. Thanks!