Do Law Schools Average LSAT Scores?


Law schools do NOT average multiple LSAT scores. It's one of the biggest myths I still hear from students even though law schools have not been averaging multiple scores since 2006. It was back in 2006 when the American Bar Association changed their policy from averaging multiple scores. Now, they only require law schools to submit their students' highest scores of their students - and that's what US News and World Report uses for their ever-important rankings. (And it's funny because nobody reads the US News for anything else, but they suddenly think they're the most important source when it comes to rankings.) Other places do rankings too. And one of the biggest things you want to look for rankings on is employment outcomes, not their highest average LSAT scores. But anyway, I digress. The point is that law schools don't average multiple scores anymore. They have not done so since 2006 and any school that tells you they're averaging multiple scores is lying to you. And I don't really know why they're lying to you. But I think it's because they want to seem more holistic - but they have no incentive to average multiple scores. They care a lot about the rankings. It's part of why they keep working to solicit as many applications as they possibly can. That's why they now want to open it up to the GRE and get rid of the LSAT requirement entirely, which is totally absurd, but that's a topic for another conversation. The point is that they are not averaging multiple scores. So you have no reason to worry about getting a score that is slightly below what you were hoping for, even if it was five or 10 points lower than what you were hoping for. You can retake. It would not be the end of the world for you. Relatedly, the only time that you should cancel is if something went horribly, horribly wrong. Like the person next to you vomited on you, or there was a marching band outside, or the fire alarm went off, or the proctor didn't even give you proper time per section. Those are cases where you should cancel, LSAC will likely give you a free retake. But ultimately, re-taking, not a big deal. And it's not really worth canceling. If you don't want to take it when you're already scheduled for it and it's coming up very soon, then you could withdraw. That is an option for you. And if the LSAT is more than a couple of weeks away for you, you could postpone your test date, and I think they charge you a lesser fee or let you just pay a small difference to change to the next test date instead. And that's nice. You get a little bit less of your money. If you withdraw, they keep all your money, but either way, not, it's only a small drop in the big scheme of what your law school tuition will be. So I wouldn't worry too much about the fee.
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