Need Advice: Should I take Aug. or Oct. LSAT?

jaschm18

Hi Everyone! I'm fairly new to the law school admissions process, so I need advice on which test I should take (Aug or Oct)? There are two parts to my question:

First, my goal is to get into a T14 school. When looking into their admissions, most of them open on Sept. 1 and some of them are rolling. For this reason, I feel that waiting for the Oct LSAT may be too late to be strongly considered at a T14 school. I am I wrong in thinking this? Could I wait until the Oct LSAT and still be a strong competitor at a T14?

Second, how do schools feel about applicants taking the LSAT twice? I am worried I will not be ready to score a ~170 by Aug 29, but it is possible since I will have a decent amount of prep in by then. Does taking the test twice look bad, especially if you score the same or worse the second time (this is a common concern w/ GMAT)?

Background on my prep process: I started prepping in mid-June and have logged about 30 hrs, I recently took my first PT and scored a 155 under normal test conditions and a 163 with an additional ~10 mins on each section, I have a FT job where I work 45 hrs/week, but am on track to log 150 hrs of LSAT prep by Aug 29.

Very thankful for any advice!!!