LSAT Final Stretch: Withdraw, Cancel, or Conquer

Nicole Hopkins

From our blog post here (just in case you haven't seen it yet!): https://7sage.com/lsat-final-stretch-withdraw-cancel-or-conquer/

When to Withdraw

If you’re confident that you have not reached your LSAT potential or still have major milestones to overcome in your LSAT journey, then withdraw from the test.

Never, ever, ever waste a take. Many of us here who have LSAT success stories needed all three of our takes to get to the triumphant chapter. Assume that you will likely be in the same situation.

To put things in more concrete terms: take the average of your last 3 PT scores. If this score is more than 3 points below your minimum goal score, you should think about withdrawing.

If you’re seriously ill, have had recent personal drama (not related to the LSAT), or have major life changes going on (particularly that are out of your control), also consider that you might be better off withdrawing. We have heard many stories of folks who decided to take the test instead of respecting the realities of personal upheaval. Few of those stories had happy endings, and most of those folks wished they’d taken a step back from the LSAT at that time.

Do not take the test "just to see how it goes." Do not take the test "just to get experience." Only take the LSAT when you are good and ready.

When to Cancel Your Score

Fact: Everyone feels awful after they take the test. Expect that you will too. The worst thing for you to do is to obsess over all of the questions you weren’t sure about or how you could have diagrammed that game more effectively. And don't discuss the test with anyone else—both to preserve the integrity of the administration per LSAC's guidelines, and to preserve your sanity. It’s over, and you did your best.

It’s important to say that up front, because feeling icky after that test is not a reasonable grounds for cancelling your score.

There are three conditions that warrant score cancellation, and only three.

—You are certain you had a bubbling error from which you were not able to recover. For instance, realizing that you started bubbling at #2 and were therefore one off for every answer in that section. If you are certain that this happened, then you should cancel your score.
—You had a medical emergency during the test, such as: an asthma attack, seizure, blackout, full-blown panic attack, etc. This list of conditions sounds extreme, because you should only cancel your score if something truly extreme happened.
—You had to leave the testing room for any reason and were not done with the section. If this happened for any reason, then this may be an serious enough condition for you to cancel you score.

Again, please note that feeling bad about how you did is not grounds to cancel your score.

How to Know You’re Ready

A combination of these three conditions is necessary for you to go forth and conquer this upcoming LSAT:

—Your PT average is within 3 points of your goal score
—You’ve done due diligence in your prep and have not neglected any major difficulty
—You do not meet any of the criteria noted in the “withdraw” section above

You may not feel perfectly ready. Almost no one does! But if you’ve done your part and your performance indicates readiness, then let us be the first to say: YOU GOT THIS.

westcoastbestcoast

Thanks for this post! Was feeling a little bit lost and anxious about my first take, after having prepped for 2 years

Nicole Hopkins

@westcoastbestcoast said:
Thanks for this post! Was feeling a little bit lost and anxious about my first take, after having prepped for 2 years

You got this

BruiserWoods

@westcoastbestcoast same. I'm shaking in my boots. But I gotta get my head in the game because I can definitely do this.

Sprinkles

I feel like @"Nicole Hopkins" knows my life story and subliminally dedicated this post to my LSAT rookie mistakes

westcoastbestcoast

@BruiserWoods just repeating the words: "its just another PT" in my mind haha

twssmith

I mentioned last night on Office Hours, Nicole is highly intuitive asking the "right" questions to challenge someone about their preparedness and reasons for sitting for the current test. imo - if any of the Sages senses hesitation or doubt in ability to achieve personal objectives, they will not hold back to ensure that you have realistic expectations of your decisions. For those of us that received the "talk" to withdraw, incredibly grateful.

On the flip side - It is so exciting to hear Nicole's and other Sages complete support and enthusiasm for soo many of you taking Monday! (kind of jealous actually, heehee)

@"Nicole Hopkins" said:
You may not feel perfectly ready. Almost no one does! But if you’ve done your part and your performance indicates readiness, then let us be the first to say: YOU GOT THIS.

Your time is NOW and you can do it!!

Pacifico

I would contend that a bubbling error is not necessarily a valid reason to cancel. You can always request a hand grader if there is some aberration and if you made an explainable error then the score can potentially be corrected. It is up to the discretion of the hand grader though. Furthermore, this is a pretty easy LSAT addendum to write in case they don't change your score and you later get the score you need.