How many times should a person take the LSAT?

Comments

• H96 J.D Alum Member

  March 2019 142 karma

  as many times you want till you get your dream score. LSAC allows you take as much as you want now. earlier it was only 3 times a year or something.

  thanks
• 3 Likes

  BinghamtonDave Alum Member ⭐ 🍌🍌

  March 2019 8711 karma

  The conventional wisdom is that with the possible exception of Yale, very, very, very few law schools will average your LSAT. The normal path is for law schools to take your highest score.

  My advice is that you should take the LSAT when you are ready and your last 7-10 fully timed fresh prep tests averaged are between 2 and 3 points above your goal score.

  Your goal score should be the score you wish to achieve to gain admission to a range of possible options and for many test takers, their goal score is one that will allow them to obtain scholarships.

  Best,
  David
• hawaiihi Free Trial Member

  March 2019 973 karma

  @paul.sellari If it helps to hear about my experience--- I took my first sitting when I was PT'ing in the range I hoped for. Ideally, I wanted to take it only once. However, my score was a decent number of points below my latest PT average (as happens to most people) so I took a break, started studying again a few months later, and retook.

  I'd say that this is a pretty common experience among LSAT takers. It's ideal to aim for your first one to be your only, in my opinion, since the taking experience can be grueling, but it gave me a good mental safety net knowing it wasn't a huge deal if I retook.
• 3 Likes

  eRetaker Free Trial Member

  March 2019 2043 karma

  It's a myth that schools average and has been dispelled many times. And as others said, take it until u get your dream score and don't sell yourself short.
• 1 Like

  H96 J.D Alum Member

  March 2019 142 karma

  @eRetaker said:
  It's a myth that schools average and has been dispelled many times. And as others said, take it until u get your dream score and don't sell yourself short.

  EXACTLY eRetaker. i agree
• 1 Like

  Better every day Member

  March 2019 246 karma

  @"paul.sellari" said:
  Hello guys, I read somewhere that they take all your LSAT scores and average it out. Is that correct? So, should I try to only take it once? I've also seen some discussions here about it but I'm a little confused.

  thanks,

  Paul

  The general consensus is that since schools are now only required to report your highest score that is essentially the only score they care about. However, you should ideally only expect to take the LSAT once. I recommend studying until you are consistently hitting your goal score on PTs. This is coming from someone who is about to do a 3rd take. I wasn’t fully prepared the first time and it’s just an all around miserable experience plus a waste of money.
• paul.sellari Alum Member

  March 2019 61 karma

  thank you guys so much! this really helped in clearing up my confusion!
• 1 Like

  hawaiihi Free Trial Member

  March 2019 973 karma

  @"Better every day" said:
  it’s just an all around miserable experience plus a waste of money.

  I really want to emphasize to counter people who are saying to take it as many times as you want. The test experience is all day, can be exhausting, and costs a lot of money to sit.

  Besides, there's a real benefit to not stretching out your LSAT experience more than it needs to be. If you put the time upfront into studying, take it one or two times, and do well, then you can use time that you WOULD be studying for maybe a third/fourth/fifth retake to do other things that will immeasurably impact your ability to get into somewhere good and succeed (i.e. work experience, volunteering, writing your application, traveling). I think it's way more productive to aim for your first LSAT as a hopeful endpoint rather than an infinite process, so you can move forward instead of getting stuck on that step of the going-to-be-a-lawyer path.
• eRetaker Free Trial Member

  March 2019 2043 karma

  @hawaiihi I think what most of us means when we say take until you get your dream score is under the assumption that OP underperformed on test day. I think we can all agree that one take is ideal but sometimes people underperform on test day for reasons unrelated to amount of prep (bad stomach, etc.).

  I agree with you OP should scope himself for one take, but being afraid that schools may average shouldn't be a reason not to consider retaking in the case of underperformance since schools take highest score. For most applicants, studying for a retake is much more beneficial for admission outcomes (scholarships $$$) than using that same time for improving soft factors given how numbers driven law schools are.

  OP, this thread from former T-14 adcomms helps answer some of your questions as well: https://www.reddit.com/r/LSAT/comments/98mc3o/its_crazy_to_think_how_important_this_test_is/e4hcujh/?context=3
• Tom_Tango Alum Member

  March 2019 902 karma

  until you get the score you want