Is it ok to take a third time?

[All19]

Hello,

I hope everyone is safe and healthy during this outbreak. During the spare time, I've browsed forums and looked at the odds on MyLSN and LSAC's calculator. I have a 165 and 167 on file (in that order), with a 3.7 GPA. My goal was T20 and reaching for Cornell/GULC. However, I'm realizing that my 167 might not be enough for that. Does a third take look bad? If it doesn't... is it worth taking it a third time, or should I be content with my score apply to t20 next cycle?

Concentration is my biggest problem, partly because of bad sleep– I had 0 hours of sleep going into both exams from nerves and angst. After the 165 take, I vowed to get a good night's sleep for the January exam. I followed my regular daily routine, but the same thing happened that night. Unfortunately, my second was scheduled for the afternoon (12 or 1 p.m.) and I was mentally unfit to have a good performance. I gave up at section 3 and started answering by gut feeling instead of deliberately thinking through the problems, and by section 4 or 5, I was about to collapse. While I got through RC and LG almost automatically without too much trouble, LR was a pain– I flagged 7 to 9 questions on each LR section. At some point, I scrolled around the LR questions looking for the shortest questions out of desperation. I'm confident that I could've done better (at least 169+) on a rested mind that could focus. Back when I didn't have trouble with sleep, I was PT-ing up to 173 easily. Any thoughts?


Thank you for all your help!

[Paul Marsh]

Hi All19! There's no problem at all with taking the test three times. Unless there is a very concerning trend (e.g. you take the test five times and your score decreases every time), every law school is happy to just take your best score and ignore the others. It's very common to take the LSAT three times. If you take the test again and your score is a bit lower, it won't hurt you. If your score goes up, it will unquestionably help you.

As for the sleep issues - I'm the same way, I have a really tough time sleeping before big tests. Sleep aids of course vary quite a bit from person to person, but I can offer a couple tips that I found helpful for the LSAT. The first time I took the LSAT, I prepared as hard as possible. However, I was so anxious the night before that I didn't sleep a wink. During the test, I felt like it was going pretty well. But with just a few questions to go, I accidentally skipped a line on the Scantron test sheet and filled in the last several test questions in the wrong spot. I realized my mistake as time was called, but it was too late. I'm convinced that my lack of sleep was a large contributor to this stupid mistake. I did well on the test, but wanted to re-take the test because of that error. Before re-taking the test, I prepared significantly less than my first time (it was the end of my senior year of college and my motivation to study wasn't exactly at its highest). I kept reminding myself that I already had a good score. By spending less time studying, and re-iterating my confidence in my initial score, I approached the re-exam with a lot less anxiety. I slept perfectly the night before, and ended up getting a better score. I believe my LSAT skills were probably a little sharper leading up to my first time taking the test, but my improved confidence and lack of anxiety the second go-around won out.

The take-away from my anecdote above is not to stop studying. Instead, I'm telling you to focus on being balanced and maintaining perspective. Here's some perspective: a 167 is a very good score, and in the absolute worst case scenario where your score doesn't improve, your benchmark is already quite high. The differences in quality of education and employment opportunity provided between a school ranked ~19th and a school ranked ~27th are minimal. You are in an excellent situation to pursue nearly any type of legal career you want at a high level. You've likely been studying this stuff intensely for nearly a year at this point. Spending a little less time studying and worrying at this point is ok. Be smart about your time, don't flood your mind with LSAT stuff until it can't think about anything else. Our brains can't take a whole year of that! To sum up: don't beat yourself over the head with this stuff. Your practice scores have shown what you're capable of; stay confident in those practice scores and your previous actual recorded test scores, take a balanced approach to studying, and you'll be just fine!

Few more tips:

- Try to think of the LSAT as less of a test that you need to get a really high score on, and more of as an opportunity to practice the skills that you'll need to succeed in law school. When you approach a new Logical Reasoning question, don't think, "how many more of these do I need to get right?". Instead, try to think something along the lines of, "Cool, a Strengthen question. I wonder what gap there is in this argument. Thinking about this problem is helping me work on how to recognize logical holes in arguments, something that will help me immensely in law school and my career." Embrace your inner nerd and find the fun in this stuff!

- Automate as much of the Logical Reasoning problems as possible. In other words, when you're practicing, force yourself to automatically follow a step-by-step approach to every question. This is what your mind should be doing: "Ok, strengthen question. Step 1: What's the conclusion. Ok there it is. Step 2: What are the premises. Ok 1, 2, there they are. Step 3: Does the conclusion follow 100% logically from the premises or is there a gap. Ok there's a new phrase in the conclusion that wasn't in the premises so that's definitely a gap. Step 4: What Pre-Phrase would strengthen the gap in the argument regarding that new phrase. Alright I've got one thought up. Step 5: Where's the answer choice that accomplishes what I want out of my Pre-Phrase. Ok there it is." Make every Logical Reasoning question an automated, step-by-step process, just like that. And then practice it every single time. When your brain starts to go fuzzy around hour 3, this is amazingly helpful at keeping you on track.

I hope some of that helps!

[Dave Killoran]

Just to second this, there is absolutely no issue at all with taking the LSAT three, four, five, or even six times. I had a student use his seventh try last cycle to get into a T14 school That will be less frequent in the future due to newer test restrictions but it proves the principle that multiple takes are a-ok.

Law schools use only the highest score, and thus they don't care about lower scores! So retake with full confidence

[All19]

Great and invaluable advice here. I'll definitely work on LR until I manage to go through that step-by-step process automatically.

I'll apply next cycle and see what happens, but I won't shy away from a third take (assuming the world doesn't end by winter ) Thanks a lot, guys!!!