What if you score lower on your retake?

SeattlesBest

Are there any downsides to scoring lower on your retake and then applying with those two scores? Do you need to write an addendum if it happens?
Also.. How do law schools look at multiple LSAT scores? There seem to be conflicting views online. Thank you in advance!

Alex

@SeattlesBest

The short of it is that it depends. Every school's policy to how they handle multiple LSAT scores does vary. For example, NYU states that they take all scores into consideration. So if you scored lower, that might count against you were you to apply there. Then there are schools that claim to only consider your highest LSAT. So there is a potential downside when it comes to certain schools.

Some require an addendum if your retake is significantly higher/lower.

Best practice is to do some research on the specific schools and their LSAT policy. Most have them listen on the website, but I know some require you to email for questions pertaining to retakes and how the admissions treat them.


Hope this helps!

Cant Get Right

And even with schools like NYU, there doesn't seem to be a whole lot of evidence that they actually abide by the average thing. Ultimately, the only score that counts towards their rankings is your high score. Because a school's ranking will determine the students they are able to compete for, schools care a lot about their rankings and guard them closely. For this reason, schools are happy to look the other way on low scores. If you make a significant jump of +/- 5 points or so, you do probably need to provide an addendum to explain the discrepancy. So I wouldn't worry about it much. The opportunity to increases your score is well worth the negligible risk of anyone caring about anything but your high score.