Do Schools Average Test Scores? (delay vs. not delay)

FoolProofFun

Dear 7sage,

I am, yes, still deciding whether to take the dang test tomorrow, and I'm trying to gauge the effects of taking it again to get a higher score, as I am willing to potentially cancel to wait until I am in a higher range.

Currently my knowledge of school views on re-takes is as follows:

—Yale: looks for people who can score high on their first take; won't necessarily average, but might. Since individual faculty get to exercise their opinions, and some faculty might want elite test-takers, not getting your top score first might really ding you if a faculty member objects to it.

—Everyone else in top 20: basically will take your highest score, although multiple scores can factor in to the application

—Everyone else: presumably top score

Can anyone color this further, preferably with official policies? I understand it is not super clear — I am just curious what the opinions are and why people hold those opinions.

Thanks for any insight.

FoolProofFun

@Rtwrtw8 thanks for pushing me in that direction. I had kind of assumed that things were linear, but now that I'm looking, every school does have something to say about it. Thanks!

Simple Man

They don't care. Just get the highest score that you know reflects your capabilities. If that means you have a bad day and have to retake it, then retake it. At the end of the day schools only want your top score, because that's what they put in their numbers. Your highest capable score is what you want in your numbers too. Just remember, in four years the LSAT won't even be a thought when you are studying for the BAR.

FoolProofFun

@"Simple Man" I definitely dream of the day I get to study for a pass/fail test. My mindset is definitely that I want to eventually end up with a top score. Based on what I have read on websites, there is nothing in the official policies to suggest that scores other than the top scores are never considered, so I am not totally sold that it won't matter. But, I don't think it will be make or break for the majority of schools.

samantha.ashley92

Hey! So you actually don't even know how the individual admissions committee members would view a score jump, regardless of what some other schools do. If it's a significant jump, he/she might even see the jump as you taking initiative and clearly working very hard in between tests. I think it really depends on the individual looking over your application. I used to be a retail manager, and I was always more impressed by the associates who went from sales of $300 an hour to $500 an hour, rather than those who always sold $600 an hour. It said a lot about willingness to learn and work ethic. I wouldn't count on schools doing that, but I think it shows that it's not always a bad thing to try your best and then keep working towards your future best.

NovLSAT2019

“ABA requires law schools to report score information based on an admitted student’s highest score.”

FoolProofFun

Hey Everyone, thanks for the points.

I am trying to decide whether to take, and yes, the biggest point I think is the +/- 3 assumption. @Rtwrtw8 just so I get your analysis right, you're basically saying that, at least setting aside HYS for the moment, if my lowest recent PT score would reasonably get me into a school of my choice, and my average or higher end score is also a score that would be enough to get me into a school of choice (presumably this is true if my lowest score would be enough), then take? That makes sense to me. It seems like the conservative route.

@BrianSeo I think this is a good point, and I think it is the strongest evidence in favor of retaking — even if you might only go up 2-3 points — IF you have already taken the test. However, based on reading the websites of schools, none of them say they won't factor # of takes in, which means it could potentially be a factor and therefore tests should not be taken cart blanche...which I'm not saying is what you're saying, but is simply a reason not to think there is no cost to having multiple tests.

Ultimately, my analysis is this: the degree to which a retake affects admission depends on the (1) the selectivity of schools with respect to # of LSAT, which is dependent on the number and quality of applicants, basically (how picky will can they be); and (2) the separation between scores; and, maybe, (3) the extent to which your study time correlates with lack of activity in other things (work, extracurriculars, volunteering, etc).

I think (1) really goes to the point about the ABA....in down times, schools may reasonably be expected to fall back on minimums to keep their scores up. But I think it is illustrative that schools are careful not to say they don't just take the highest score; presumably this is because they want to retain the right to analyze.

@"samantha.ashley92" I think this is a really interesting point, and I think it might be another reason to take the test again once you've taken it, although I don't think spending a lot of time studying is something I'd talk about personally in an interview or in a personal statement or in general. I also think this goes back to the score jump. A 170-172 could be luck. A 165 to a 175 almost certainly is not.

Seeking Perfection

I think schools say that they don't just take the highest score because they want to look reasonable. It doesn't really make sense to take the highest score from the stand point of getting the best applicants. If you think of the LSAT as an aptitude test which is how the law schools think of it rather than as learnable which it is then students scores will not go up much between takes and the average score will have the most predictive power for how well people will do in law school.

However, the schools actually accept people based on the highest score because that determines their ranking. If a school has a median of a 171 and is choosing between two otherwise equal applications one of which has a 170 and one which has a 168 and a 172 it is a no brainer to pick the 172 every time because that is what they are going to report. If they take the 172 it helps their median. If they take a 170 it hurts. Their median reported LSAT score impacts their US News and World Report ranking. And since both students and employers care a lot about their ranking so do the schools. If their ranking drops the admission officers may lose their jobs and they definitely will lose some more of their best applicants the next year to whoever passed them in the rankings.

Go to law school numbers and compare applicants results. While in an ideal world law schools would try to get the best class they can based on whatever they believed measures student talent(probably average LSAT scores since they incorrectly think the test can't be improved on), they are actually trying to maximize their ranking.