Thoughts on Score Cancellation

CPAtoJD

Hi Everyone,

I wanted to quickly introduce myself. I just recently purchased the 7sage course after taking a 3 month LSAT prep course through another company and sitting for the Feb 18 LSAT. My practice test scores were all coming out between low to high 160's, but I definitely do not feel I performed that way on test day.

I tried doing my PT's under accurate test day conditions, but oh boy does the real thing still feel different. I definitely succumbed to test day anxiety and found myself rushed on certain sections and struggling on question types I'm normally pretty confident in.

Anyway, my question is what is the consensus on score cancellations? I see this course recommends longer study times before sitting for your first LSAT, and now that the two-year limit has been removed and LSAT sends your average score on all LSAT's as well as individual scores to schools - is it worth considering a cancellation if you feel you under performed where you should be?

Thanks, and looking forward to chatting with everyone!

ExcludedMiddle

Thing is, you took it and schools will know that you did either way. So if you cancel, while you won't have a score on your record, they'll know you sat for it and you may need an excuse for cancelling it. Does a cancelled score look that much better than an unsatisfactory score? I don't know.

One reason I'm definitely not going to cancel my score from Saturday is because I did try to do my best and I would feel like all of that was being thrown down the drain if I were to cancel my score. Own your score, and if it's not what you wanted, use it to motivate you to work that much harder. That's my take on it, at least. I want to know what I got, even though I felt bad about LG. And I didn't get much sleep the night before, so I already know what my addendum would say .

Here's an article that might be of interest: https://blog.powerscore.com/lsat/do-law-schools-view-multiple-lsat-attempts-as-a-negative

J.CHRIS.ALST

One thing you might want to consider is that the Feb test is undisclosed. People that choose to see their score, despite being unsure of their performance, typically have the benefit of seeing what exactly they did wrong. For the February test, that is not something you would be able mark under the "pros" of seeing your score.

Seeking Perfection

Do you feel like during PTs you were normally good at predicting your scores? If you were it could make sense to cancel if you know you did worse.

I was never great at it. On my first actual LSAT I didn't finish the games section and considered cancelling, but ended up scoring only one point lower than my average. I retook anyway, but it was reassuring during my retake to have a fairly solid take already on the books.

So if you are as bad at predicting how you would do on a PT as me, it might be best to just take the score. Almost all schools look at the highest score since that is what they have to report to US News. This means that an unexpectedly high score helps more than a low score hurts.

LSAT sending your average isn't new. They always did that and claimed it was the better predictor of law school success. Schools use the higher score anyway.

Leah M B

I think that it's really common to come out of the test feeling like you underperformed. In my view, there's very little downside to just accepting your score. Schools will 99% of the time only consider your highest score, so it doesn't matter much if you dropped on test day. You can just re-take. But I think more often than not, people end up canceling scores that would have been just fine. I came out of the test not feeling good about it, like I'd dropped several points from my average. But I ended up scoring right around my PT average, and was very happy with my score. I always vote to not cancel except for extreme circumstances (earthquake during test, fire alarm went off and building was evacuated, you had a medical issue happen mid-test, etc). Feeling like you just didn't do as well as you hoped is very common and not always a predictor of score.

pioneer321

@"Seeking Perfection" said:
Do you feel like during PTs you were normally good at predicting your scores? If you were it could make sense to cancel if you know you did worse.

I was never great at it. On my first actual LSAT I didn't finish the games section and considered cancelling, but ended up scoring only one point lower than my average. I retook anyway, but it was reassuring during my retake to have a fairly solid take already on the books.

So if you are as bad at predicting how you would do on a PT as me, it might be best to just take the score. Almost all schools look at the highest score since that is what they have to report to US News. This means that an unexpectedly high score helps more than a low score hurts.

LSAT sending your average isn't new. They always did that and claimed it was the better predictor of law school success. Schools use the higher score anyway.

This!

@CPAtoJD , I vote against* cancelling. Fwiw, in December I ended up scoring 6-8 than I initially thought I did. All the question and games discussions don't help with this either, as you begin to doubt yourself more and more.

*Another point to consider would be your goal score. If your target is in the 175 range, and you've never scored near that on a PT, and don't feel absolutely confident about the Saturday's test, then I suppose there can be a solid argument for cancelling.

Aliya_xx

I'm thinking of canceling. I know for a fact I didn't hit my target range of 170... because I guessed a whole passage...then, I guessed a few on game 4 of the games too. Ugh! Take it with me in June, regardless of canceling your score or not. Good luck

CPAtoJD

Thank you for all the responses guys.

I’ve decided not to cancel the score. I know I didn’t hit my target score of 170 but after cooling off and thinking about it a little bit I decided to just see where the score comes out at. I didn’t run into any major issues that would cause the score to be well below my average.

Maybe I’ll be pleasantly surprised, but either way I’ll be taking the exam again in June or July!

westcoastbestcoast

Yes this argument for cancelling may be valid. I also think that if you never received a 175, you should only take the official exam when you are easily PTing that as an average or getting couple points higher.

@pioneer321 said:

@"Seeking Perfection" said:
Do you feel like during PTs you were normally good at predicting your scores? If you were it could make sense to cancel if you know you did worse.

I was never great at it. On my first actual LSAT I didn't finish the games section and considered cancelling, but ended up scoring only one point lower than my average. I retook anyway, but it was reassuring during my retake to have a fairly solid take already on the books.

So if you are as bad at predicting how you would do on a PT as me, it might be best to just take the score. Almost all schools look at the highest score since that is what they have to report to US News. This means that an unexpectedly high score helps more than a low score hurts.

LSAT sending your average isn't new. They always did that and claimed it was the better predictor of law school success. Schools use the higher score anyway.

This!

@CPAtoJD , I vote against* cancelling. Fwiw, in December I ended up scoring 6-8 than I initially thought I did. All the question and games discussions don't help with this either, as you begin to doubt yourself more and more.

*Another point to consider would be your goal score. If your target is in the 175 range, and you've never scored near that on a PT, and don't feel absolutely confident about the Saturday's test, then I suppose there can be a solid argument for cancelling.