June v. October

asiu

Does it make sense to apply to a school with your June LSAT score, in the interests of taking advantage of submitting your app early, with the expectation of scoring 5-7 points higher in October (big reach, I know, but hypothetically)?

Alternatively, would it be better to take it first in October, with December as the inevitable back-up, and submit apps in January? The benefit would be a stronger first score, since I know I'd perform better if I took it in October rather than June, but the cost is the submission date. If I were to do this, would it be possible to submit my app after my October score, regardless of what I get, and update the school with December (to mitigate the cost of relatively late submission) or should I wait until after?

Thanks in advance

Alejandro

The October test is still an awesome date if you plan to apply early. Don't worry about it.

cverdugo

Is there a certain family or work obligation that is keeping you from studying for June? If not I'd say give it a shot with October as your back-up date. 5 months to study for June is enough amount of time to get a great score! The benefit would be that you have your apps submitted by November.

But I don't think it would hurt you if you were to submit in January. The only thing that sucks about having December as a back-up is the wait for the score. It really put a damper on the holidays but from a applicant position stand point you should have no worries!

asiu

Aside from working full-time, I don't have any obligations and even that isn't so taxing on my study time. My main concern with June is that there's a whole awkward 4 months between then and October and I don't want to have to exhaust all the PTs and resources in prep for June and then have to reinvent or pick myself up all over again depending on how I score. I know you could say I could leave some PTs behind but I feel like I'd be holding myself back as opposed to going all in. I don't know where I would go after June unless I got very near to what I'm aiming for. Even though I've been studying for a year and 6 months now (on and off though) taking my time for October seems way better and then December is right afterwards in case test day anxiety or minor hiccups come in the way (which I think very likely will be the case). But I really hate not taking advantage of applying as early as possible.

Micaela_OVO

I want to apply early next cycle as well. My game plan: Do the June group BR calls, but save 2 PTs or so from the 40s, 2 from 50s, 2 from 60s, and maybe 1 from 70s in case I have to retake in October. However, re-using exams is beneficial as well. I don't think we need to worry about running out of material! Retake scores will of course be a little inflated, but focus more on learning from your mistakes during BR.

Also- taking it for the first time in June leaves you 2 back-ups in the fall should you need them. My advice: Study hard these next couple months, and if you're not consistently scoring in your target range before the June exam, postpone to October. Don't waste a take! Miracles do not happen on test day.

cverdugo

I see, I say go with whatever makes you more comfortable but for the sake of argument I think June could be an appealing scenario. Get the LSATrainer and get on one of the study schedules he provides. Focus on learning from your mistakes, it's not about how MANY PTs you take but how you LEARN from each one you take! I'd recommend doing the schedule with the PTs in the 50s and if you are worried about running out of fresh material, when it comes time in your prep to take full PTs take several from the 40s (maybe 6-7) at least 5 from the 60s and a few from the 70s (maybe the 3 most recent and take PT 72 because of it's weirdness). The key thing would be to review every PT you do so it is not 'wasted'. I'd recommended after doing a PT timed, do the regular BR for LR, but re-do every question for LG and RC!

This way you would take approximately 15 full timed PTs, and then drilling from the 50s would probably be about 4 or 5 more PTs you would have seen, that is enough to learn from and get a great score. This way if you don't get the score you like in June, you would still have ~15 'recent PTs' to work with.

There is no reason you shouldn't get the score you want on the first take!

asiu

Well, I recently finished the 7sage course, I'll be done with the Trainer this week, and will start full PTing +BR next week. While I've done roughly 20 PTs all over the place since I first started over a year ago, I plan on starting fresh from PT 35 up to 77 (theoretically will take 5 months at a rough rate of 2-3 PTs a week), going in a linear fashion and squeezing in some chances to take tests over again-------until I figure out some better approach (If anybody's got a better outline, I'd love to hear it).

Do you have an idea of where the cutoff between "old" and "recent" PTs is? Just in the interest of getting a representation of how I would potentially perform on test day.