Hello everyone! Long story short, I took the LSAT in 2025, took about 6 months off from studying, studied again, and retook it about a year later after my first test. When practicing, I was scoring higher than my first time by quite a bit, around 3-5 points, which is what I was going for. However, when I took it, I scored the same as my first test. I was super disappointed because I felt good that day, and I really have no idea what happened. I took the LSAT a month later and increased my score by 7 points, which was great! The thing is, does it look bad that I increased my score by 7 points in a month? Technically, it was around the score I was getting on most of my practice tests, and that extra month of studying got me an extra point or 2 but admissions only sees the numbers, so I don't know if I should explain, and if I should, I don't really have an excuse; I guess I just had a bad test day. I don't know how else I can describe it. Is anyone else in this situation, or does anyone have advice?
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The general rule of thumb from admissions folks is that anything above a 5 or 6 point increase probably merits a brief explanation even though we know the answer - either you changed your study habits and improved, you just had a bad day, or a combination of both.
I'd suggest that you keep it simple:
I want to explain my test history. You'll note the 7 point increase.
For context, I was PTing higher as I got close to the second LSAT but it just didn't come through on test day. (And note, I will NEVER encourage ANYONE to lie, but if the biggest white lie you ever told was "to be honest, I was a little under the weather that day and gave it my best shot but the sniffles must have gotten the best of me," you will have lived a good and virtuous life.)
For the third test, I did perform in line with my PTs.
Thanks for your consideration.