prometheus1992 wrote:First, thanks a ton for putting together that Q&A. You guys and the folks from Spivey are really outstanding, and the entire video is really a must-watch for any LS applicant.
I did, however, find some of the answers a little unclear on the impact of LSAT retakes. Karen from Spivey suggested that schools do in fact take note of all scores and that "timing matters" in terms of the time between test administrations. I also thought she said that an addendum might be needed for those with 4+ takes, which I took as perhaps meaning this is viewed as a negative.
She did acknowledge that the highest score is the "true score," but what she was saying seemed to imply that schools were maybe a bit apprehensive about an applicant with 3-5 takes, which would seem at odds with what I've heard from elsewhere on PowerScore forums—that multiple takes are a non-issue (and even from Mike Spivey during the seminar, who bluntly said the "cat's out of the bag" regarding retakes and only the highest score is considered).
I know this subject has been addressed ad nauseam and I don't intend to revive a dead issue, but I'm hoping that someone might clear this up. Thanks!
Hey Prometheus,
Thanks for the kind words—we appreciate them!
I think Karen was trying to cover a lot of bases there, and she was trying to walk the line of "only the high score matters" vs "don't just take the LSAT ten times—it looks weird." As Mike said later, they both worked with a student who took it 6 times and got in to two T6 schools using that last take, so clearly it's not a problem taking it multiple times.
I've talked to multiple deans who say 4-5 retakes is not uncommon to see any more, and they don't expect an explanation because they assume the goal is to get the highest possible score to look as attractive as possible. Even 6 isn't abnormal, and so I look at 6 as the number where the law school deans say, "If you take it
more than 6 times, we are kind of wondering if you are a glutton for punishment, or whether you simply don't see that things aren't getting better. So explain to us your reasoning for going forward." I think that's what Karen was getting at: it's not that 5 or 7 or more takes is "bad," it's just that law school deans figure that at some point in the first 5-6 you would produce a score that was indicative. If you are going to keep taking it after that point, they want to know what you are seeing in that to justify that time/energy.
Please let me know if that helps. Thanks!
Posted: Tue Nov 13, 2018 7:13 pm
