171--Retake or Not?

karenliulbj

First of all I want to thank 7Sage and 7Sagers for the incredible help they offered in this long, rewarding journey. My October LSAT score (171) is very satisfactory and I am grateful for that. I have a degree GPA of 3.80, with a cumulative GPA of 3.88 (I transferred after my second year). My GPA might look better to admissions than the number itself, because it comes from one of the most academically challenging institutions.

So such are the numbers I am facing now. Before the score was released, I was constantly preparing and my score is in the range of 171-174, mostly 173. But I PTed yesterday and today, getting 170 and 171, respectively. I think I might have reached my ceiling? Yet I cannot shake off my aspiration that I might get lucky on the exam day and maybe hit 173 or 174? Plus, I would be blaming myself for a long time if I don't try until the last effort and have to live in the life of "what if". I think getting a 173 would give me a much better shot at HYS? I am pretty positive that I would not score over 174, the possibility of that is close to zero.

So my question would be that will a score like 170 or 169 look really bad in the retake? Is it realistic for me to shoot for a 173? I have cancelled September, and I really don't want to cancel again. In short, is the risk worth it? Thank you guys so much, any suggestion is welcomed!

Little Grasshopper

I will advise holding the score 171. 171 will get you into a lot of schools. A good LSAT score is very precious and should be appreciated like gold. Don't limit yourself just to Harvard, Yale, and the Ivy League schools. Expand your horizons and grow as a law student. Work on becoming a good attorney. Ask yourself where do you want live and practice law. Next, ask yourself what type of law do you want to practice?. Because in the end after passing the bar exam, your clients won't care where you went law school or nor will the judge if you are on a case in litigation care about that. Just be realistic. You could go to a school where you live and graduate and be lead counsel on a case that made it to the SCOTUS or the federal appellate level. Remember, don't chase the herd and chase the journey of becoming a great lawyer.

lexxx745

Depends, are you still applying this year or planning on next year? If next year, you have some time and can keep grinding and I dont see why trying again would be a bad idea...

danielbrowning208

I say retake and then cancel if you don't feel like you quite reached your mark after the test. Cancels don't matter, and they're much better than always feeling like you could have done better. Invest the time and resources in yourself, if you feel as though you have more room to improve.

Mike_Ross

First off, totally understand what you mean about fearing the what ifs later in life. That said, I think you have not to gain with a retake than not

Say you retake, you have 3 scenarios:

Same score: it tells adcoms that you can consistently score in the 97th percentile or higher. No more what ifs

Lower score: adcoms take one look and see you still have a 171 and will consider your highest score. And even if you drop on test day, you likely wouldn’t get knocked off more than 2-4 points

Higher score: anything higher gives you even better odds. Also no more what ifs!

Another way to consider is: is 4 weeks of studying a good trade off for 40 years of potentially better outcomes? Not to say that HYS is true only consideration here. I mean scholarships for the T6/10 could be a factor

Anyway, that’s how I look at it. Retaking gives you more with a higher score and likely doesn’t hurt you at all even with a slightly lower score

studyingandrestudying

I'd maybe apply with this score and focus on applications, but please do what you think is best. Anyway, excellent work.

cooljon525-1-1

where do you wanna go?