Checklist to determine if you should cancel your LSAT score

You are probably freaking out right now (after all, no one researches this question just for fun.)

So first, let’s all take a deep breath, put things in perspective, and make a sound decision based on the following considerations.

As a preliminary matter, you have up to 6 days after taking the LSAT to cancel your score (click here for info on how to cancel an LSAT score) so as long as you haven’t let that 6 day deadline slip, you have some time to work through this checklist, reflect on it, and then decide. (Also note that LSAC regularly changes deadlines and rules. Depending on how old this post is when you read it, the magic number may no longer be 6 days. Always confirm all information on the LSAC site.)

As a second preliminary matter, are the law schools you are applying to going to average multiple scores, or simply use your highest score? This changes from time to time, so the only way to be sure is to contact your target schools. But, if it is a ‘highest score’ school, your analysis will be much different than for an ‘average score’ school.

Deciding what to do is best approached as a two-step process. First, decide if there were any absolutely obvious reasons you need to cancel. If not, then move to the second level of the analysis, which is, is there a good possibility that you will score higher the next time you take it?

When you definitely should cancel an LSAT score

First things first: Strongly consider canceling an LSAT score if one or more of the following are true:

The list of things that can go wrong, and has gone wrong, is pretty much limitless but the following are some of the most common disasters.

You had a getting-there disaster: Stories abound of students not being woken up by their alarms, not going to the correct test center, not being able to find the test center, etc. The end result is that if you got to the test center so late and flustered that you completely fell to pieces, then cancellation is a smart choice. (Obviously, if you got there so late that you couldn’t even get admitted to take the test, then a totally different set of facts apply; you need to check out my post about rescheduling your LSAT date.)

You had a during-the-test disaster: Man, have we heard some stories. There was the one about the fire alarm that kept going off and the proctors herding the students out of the building. There was the one about the crazy fellow-test taker/proctor/random nutcase outside the testing room; you get the idea. But it doesn’t have to be as dramatic as that. When you are sitting in a classroom for hours on end, even a noisy air unit/desk/neighbor can cause some of us to perform sub-optimally.

You had a test-taking disaster: Some of the most common disasters we hear have to do with errors and illness. You know for a fact that you mis-bubbled your answer sheet (and couldn’t correct it in time.). You were really, really sick (like, you shouldn’t have even come to the test level of sickness.) If something went so terribly wrong that you know it walking out the door, then you know what you have to do.

You made a really dumb choice and didn’t prepare at all: If you thought you could just take the LSAT cold, then you made a dumb mistake. Cancel your LSAT score now, if you actually place much importance in getting into the law school you want to go to.

You may want to cancel an LSAT score if:

This analysis is a lot more nuanced. I will assume that you did a reasonable amount of prep, that during that prep you reached a scoring plateau (plus or minus a few points) on your practice tests, and that you know how well you feel after taking practice tests.

Now consider the following items:

Analyze the test you took. Did you feel about the same as you did after taking practice tests? My guess is, probably not, or you wouldn’t be reading this post. If you feel worse about the test, can you identify any specific item or issue, or is it just a general sense of unease? Did you guess more often than normal? Did you struggle with one or more games more often than you normally would? The point is, was there something noticeably out of the ordinary, and could that impact your score?

If you can’t put your finger on a specific problem, then don’t do anything rash.

Finally, will you have the time and resources to put in the effort to do better next time?

The final consideration is: do you even have time to take a later LSAT, or are law school applications due now? This is the reason that I recommend students take the February or June LSATs, all other things being equal. If you have an epic fail during the tests in the first half of the year, you still have plenty of time to regroup and take a Fall test in time for application season.

Tags: cancel lsat, lsat advice, lsat score