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Related Discussions
Cancel, 170, Cancel????
gates.madi
Member
Hey everyone, your advice would be much appreciated. I did a very dumb thing and retook a 170. In my defense, I was PTing between 173-178 for the last 3 months, which is the only reason I decided to do it. Score release today was a nightmare and I got a 167, which I haven't scored since before the June test. There were no extenuating circumstances besides test anxiety and normal Proctor U issues. I have score preview, but I'm not sure whether a second cancel would look worse than a 3 point score drop. Things to consider (1) Admissions could assume the cancel was much worse than a 167 (2) 167 and 170 are technically in the same score band, but now it looks like I am at the lower end rather than the higher end (3) I can't retake before my applications are due so don't ask lol. If it helps, I am a nURM, nKJD, 3.90 applicant that graduated a year early from a non-ivy with some international/bilingual work experience trying for a T-10 school (NYU is my dream). Thanks for all of your help! I've heard such mixed things.
- Cancel or keep?111 votes
- Cancel36.04%
- Keep38.74%
- Doesn't matter25.23%
Comments
I would cancel. Excuse my bluntness, but it's better to have some think you had a lower score and not know, versus have them see that you got a 167. Score band isn't really important, 167-170 makes a drastic difference at the top. You're 170 is good, it's hard to attribute any rationale of thought to the adm. committees as far as how they will see your cancellation because there are so many possibilities. They would probably assume it is lower than a 170, but by how much, they really can't say. If you truly did have ProctorU issues, like virtually every human who takes the test now. A simple one line in the addendum of your app would be fine. "Reviewers of my application may notice a cancellation on my recent LSAT history. During the (insert month here) test, technical issues with the proctoring software took some time out of my test and resulted in a score that doesn't represent my abilities".
Writing the addendum is a sketchier decision that to cancel, I would do more school specific research, but the deans of both HLS and YLS said that they want to know if technical issues affected your test because that is obviously unrelated to your abilities. If your research tells you that you might should write an addendum about it, keep it brief, to the point, explanatory, and don't turn it into an excuse-fest.
Thanks for the advice! So if I do an addendum, should I cancel or keep it?
I wouldn't cancel. Like you said 167 and a 170 are in the same score band. Scoring a 167 shows that your 170 wasn't a fluke; ya got the chops. However, as you pointed out, if you cancel the score they might begin to wonder how much lower you scored... what're they trying to hide? hmmmmmmmm
Either way, whatever you do, I don't think it's going to have an impact on your admissions. They only care about your 170. Congrats on the two great scores btw. Goodluck this cycle!
edit: Also for what it's worth retaking wasn't dumb. You had a good shot at scoring higher and it didn't work out (this time). Audentes fortuna iuvat
Cancel and write the addendum addressing that cancellation
The only thing I'm wondering is if you think cancelling w/ addendum is better than keeping w/ addendum because the way I see it, a 167 with proctor issues seems better than risking them assuming I got a 140 or something with proctor issues. Perhaps it shows I was on track to breaking the 170 if not for proctor issues? Just thought I would get your two cents on this before I cancel, since I have basically a split reaction no matter where I post asking for help.
P.S. I'm thinking of seeing decisions roll in and then signing up for the April LSAT to try and get off waitlists if needed.
By cancelling, you're really not risking them thinking "man she got a 140". They have no basis to guess what score you made, so they don't play that game. All they see is a cancelled score. They can't venture into what it would have been. The only time that I've seen cancellations be viewed negatively is when you have like 4 of them in a row before your sent score, and even though that isn't the end of the world, the dean of UVA law admissions said something to this effect. "you don't get chances to retake exams in law school so the fact that you had to retake the LSAT a bunch of times to get your desired score isn't so great." HOWEVER, your score is still your score, so like I said, that isn't the end of the world.
Continuing with the UVA dean of admissions, she also said that she doesn't care if you've taken the test three times, so you're fine on that front.
You might be thinking, rightfully so, that schools just take the top score so that doesn't matter. You'd be right, they do take the top score, but the "it doesn't matter" thing comes more into play when you have a 174 and a 171. 170 to 167 is a much bigger difference than that, even though it's the same math.
you really shouldn't worry about what they will assume with a cancel, because they can't and won't assume anything.
I personally feel like there is no need to cancel given that the scores are only a few points off. A cancellation may warrant assumptions; although we all would like to assume admissions won't assume, better to be safe than sorry. Just my opinion of course, so take this with a grain of salt.
I actually had a very similar situation, except mine worked out. I scored a 171, and I was averaging 177, so I retook it and scored a 176. But when I scored the first one I considered canceling and did some research. From what I gather anything under 3 tests they don’t really care for any besides the highest. However there’s 2 things to consider. One is that you may want to take it again, in which case if you mess up a third time and you kept all 3, you won’t be able to take a 4th one. The second thing to consider is that it seems like it probably matters if the second was higher than the first or vice versa. If you got lower on the first they just assume you improved, but if you got lower on the second they don’t really know what to think. So I would recommend canceling, especially if your considering taking it a third time, which I think you absolutely should (after studying for another month or two to boost your confidence). A 171 would not give you a great chance at NYU, and it seems like you can do much better, it’s just a matter of nerves. They happened to me, and I took a month or two to study old tests, even though I knew everything perfectly, just to boost my confidence, and I got a 176 (my dream school is Harvard). So I would recommend canceling, and taking it a 3rd time after a short break. Either way, best of luck!