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Thinking about canceling the Dec score

GhoorchGhoorch Alum Member
in General 57 karma
Hi all, to make this brief...I am considering canceling my score for a few reasons.

1. The schools I want to go to, and the scholarship money are the primary concern for choosing to go to law school. It's a must that I maximize both.

2. I was sick with mono, then the flu, and then a string of migraines. So I lost 2-3 weeks of studying right before the exam.

3. The night of the exam, I couldn't sleep and got a total of 5 hours of quality sleep. My brain felt foggy and not fresh at all.

4. Even if I cancel and write Feb, I will still make the deadline for 3 of the schools I would want to attend. If I do better than expected, I could always apply in the next wave with better prospects for both schools and scholarships.

and finally.. I was PTing around 170s, but after Preptest in the 70s my score dropped down to 163.

What do you guys think?

(Also posted this on reddit)
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Comments

  • kennedybjkennedybj Alum Member
    697 karma
    I don't think you should cancel it. What if you did really good? Even if you did bad, atleast youll have some gauge as to how you did under test conditions
  • nicole.hopkinsnicole.hopkins Inactive Sage Inactive ⭐
    edited December 2015 7965 karma
    I'll tell you what I tell all my students and the rule I myself follow.

    Do not cancel unless:

    1) You had a major bubbling error of which you were made aware during the test and from which you were unable to recover
    -or-
    2) You had a major health crisis (seizure, vomiting, bathroom emergency) during the test and were affected for more than 5 minutes

    From what you're saying, you do not meet either of these criteria. I advise you NOT to cancel. You will be much better off knowing your score than not.
  • GhoorchGhoorch Alum Member
    57 karma
    @nicole.hopkins I'm curious as to the reasoning why?
  • PacificoPacifico Alum Inactive ⭐
    8021 karma
    You've got three takes to use and you already used one... It's better to know the score than not know... Ideally you should've cancelled as soon as you got mono but since you took the test you may as well get your score. And even if you got a 145 and later get a 170 then all you need is a wicked short addendum explaining that you had mono leading up to the test.
  • pritisharmapritisharma Alum Member
    477 karma
    I am not sure why not to cancel if you KNOW you did not meet your own expectations w.r.t the test. Will the schools treat a cancel the same way as a bad score ?
  • nicole.hopkinsnicole.hopkins Inactive Sage Inactive ⭐
    7965 karma
    @Pacifico said:
    And even if you got a 145 and later get a 170 then all you need is a wicked short addendum explaining that you had mono leading up to the test.
    Exactly.

    @Pacifico 's reasoning is the same as my own, @Ghoorch
  • nicole.hopkinsnicole.hopkins Inactive Sage Inactive ⭐
    7965 karma
    @pritisharma said:
    Will the schools treat a cancel the same way as a bad score ?
    They won't care about a bad score so long as you have a good one to give them.
  • kennedybjkennedybj Alum Member
    697 karma
    Even if you think you did bad, its possible that you might not have done as bad as you think. Secondly, you'll have a score to gauge yourself.
  • nicole.hopkinsnicole.hopkins Inactive Sage Inactive ⭐
    7965 karma
    @kennedybj said:
    Secondly, you'll have a score to gauge yourself.
    I think this is the biggest gain, honestly. Otherwise you will always be wondering and will have less of a real-world baseline going into a retake.
  • allergicallergic Alum Member Inactive Sage
    246 karma
    Don't cancel.
  • mimimimimimimimi Free Trial Member
    368 karma
    To make you feel better, I probably just slept for 4 hours! Think about this: If you cancel now, would you build up your anxiety and pressure for Feb test? And if you do not cancel, at lease you have a score to lean back on (if this is your first take).
  • GhoorchGhoorch Alum Member
    57 karma
    Thank you guys so much for your responses! I've decided against canceling and just retaking Feb for the following reasons.

    In the case where I did below my average..the schools that I am applying to 1/2 of them will look at the higher score, the ones that don't I can explain the migraine and illness as they're both documented. That coupled with a higher score would make sense to law schools who see my first take.

    I do phenomenally on my second take, then I can wait a gap year and apply early.

    Then there's the case that I did average, in that case I can prep harder and try to boost to a higher score (+3 pts higher), still explain the illness.

    For a cancelled score, it all falls on Feb.

    @mimimimi I had a migraine that began around 6-7pm the night before. For me they're usually triggered by sleep schedule changes. The migraine kept me up and continued on into the exam. Apart from being distracting as hell, migraines have the added benefit of impairing cognitive functioning. This is the main reason for canceling, I wasn't nervous as I've been prepping for a long time.
  • nicole.hopkinsnicole.hopkins Inactive Sage Inactive ⭐
    7965 karma
    @Ghoorch said:
    I've decided against canceling and just retaking Feb for the following reasons.
    YAY I AM SO PROUD OF YOU!!!!!!!!! You just made my afternoon. YES!
  • kennedybjkennedybj Alum Member
    697 karma
    image
  • mimimimimimimimi Free Trial Member
    edited December 2015 368 karma
    I am sorry to hear about your medical conditions! My sleeplessness was purely anxiety. I don't think any schools take average or look at your lower scores these days (including Yale). With Yale or Columbia, two retakes are fine but I was told three retakes are not so good (I spoke to their admission deans). But schools like NYU are perfectly fine with three retakes.
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