Deciding when to Cancel your LSAT Score

It is likely, if you’re scheduled for the LSAT soon, that you’re in high gear now, doing some major LSAT test prep! Don’t allow the stress of this prep allow you to panic and make you consider just forgetting the whole thing. You have options, and one of them is knowing that you can cancel your LSAT Score.

All of your fellow test-takers are probably feeling the same self-doubt that you are…You’re not alone!  Knowing your options and reading the following could help you relax and allow for easier decision making later. (See our posts on stress management.)

Why should you NOT cancel your LSAT score?

• If you cancel the score, you’ll need to retest. That first exam is a great prep tool! You can review the decisions you made on an actual, stress-filled Test day You can go through the sections and analyze your choices. If you cancel your score you can’t do that!
• LSAC statistics show that many test-takers who cancel their score and then re-test could have saved themselves the fees and stress, as their first score would have been better. You just won’t know for sure how the test went unless you are able to look at that test and see for yourself.  You will not find out what your cancelled score is, but LSAC does do the computation and compares the cancelled score and the subsequent scores.

• Law schools want you to do well, and most will want to take the best of your two or three scores, regardless of the order that the tests were taken in. This takes a lot of pressure off. (disclaimer, check this out with the admissions staff at the school(s) where you will apply.

Evaluate your test-day experience:

Time Management:

Perhaps you didn’t get through a section or two when you were normally able to finish in your practice sessions. This might not make a huge impact on your overall score. The material at the end of a section is often more difficult, so you may not have gotten them correct had you finished the section. Or, perhaps it was an experimental section.

Distractions:

There WILL be distractions on test day, especially when you’re already nervous. But, this situation will never change and you will need to deal with them in the event you re-take the exam. You just aren’t going to have a perfect atmosphere! (This is why we advise our students to take full-length practice exams in locations that offer some distraction…be prepared!)

Consider cancelling your LSAT score if:

• Life’s disruptions just got the better of you and you’re going into test administration day knowing that your prep isn’t sufficient…you can do much better. You’re out the testing fee, but you are going to consider this test a good experience to better your score.
• Were you sick? Then it’s more than likely that you’re will not have scored to the best of your ability.
  Were you completely unable to focus on large sections of the test? These two scenarios would have affected the entire test, not just one section of it.
• Have you already taken the LSAT two or three times? If so, you likely have a better “feel” for your test-day experience.  With these scores already recorded, another cancellation might not hurt you much. But you should also remember that you can’t take the LSAT more than three times in a 2-year time frame…and this includes any times when you decided to cancel your score.

• Timing errors:
  Did the proctor short a section? Was your timing device working improperly for the entire test?
  (Make sure you have your own watch and that you’ve practiced your timing when prepping!) So, if you had significant time losses over several sections of the test, perhaps you should consider cancelling the score.
• Gridding Mistakes: If you mismarked entire sections, then you put many questions in danger of being incorrect. You should probably consider canceling the score.

Tags: cancel lsat, lsat advice, lsat score, LSAT Stress