LSAT Cancellations, Withdrawals, and Absences: What’s the Difference?

That’s a great question, Luis; it’s something many students wonder and worry about.

Although the results of the December LSAT will be available in January, well in advance of law school application deadlines, it’s really not considered “early” as far as rolling admissions go. The answer to your question “will I still have a good chance of being considered early?” is, unfortunately, “not really.” To really get the “rolling admissions” boost, you need to aim to get your COMPLETED application submitted before the end of the year (“completed” meaning everything, including a valid LSAT score). Taking the December LSAT will not necessarily limit your chances of getting into your desired law school, but you will not get the “early boost” that you’re looking for.

Regarding submitting your applications without an LSAT score–doing that is no problem. However, law schools WILL NOT review the application until it is complete (and “complete,” as I mentioned above, means with an LSAT score, along with everything else). What will happen is that schools will receive your application and request a Law School Report from LSAC before they review it; they won’t receive the Law School Report until you have a valid LSAT score on file. Once they receive a Law School Report for you, which won’t happen until after the December LSAT score are out, they will review your application, but not before.

I hope that helps clear things up for you! Best of luck with the LSAT and your applications!

Hi Rachel,

If this would be the only cancellation/absence on your record, it’s no big deal. Things happen last-minute that can cause a student to cancel or miss the test, and schools know that. However, if you know ahead of time that you won’t make the test, it’s better, in my opinion, to withdraw–which doesn’t show up on your score report–rather than simply not show up and have an absence on your record.

If you’re okay with having the single cancellation on your record, I would suggest taking the test and then cancelling your score. You’ve already spent the money on the registration fee (which you won’t get back if you withdraw); you might as well take advantage of it and get something for your money.

If you have multiple absences or cancellations, then withdrawing is the best option, since schools see those multiple absences/cancellations and will likely start to have questions about your preparation, your ability to commit to things ahead of time or to handle lengthy timed tests, etc.

I hope that helps! Best of luck!

Hi Brett – that’s a good question! Part of it depends on how close to 100% you are–is this a situation of “I have a good chance of getting my target score but with more time I’d feel more confident,” or “I’m extremely unprepared but curious about how I’ll do”? If the former then it’s often worth the risk to take it and see how it goes.

For the latter, less so. In fact, I can think of two immediate downsides, and can envision a potential third, of taking it when you’re all but certain you’ll need to take it again.

First, it’s not cheap to take the test. Now, granted, it’s not thousands of dollars, but in terms of money and time (even with zero time spent on prep) you’re out over $100 and you’ve likely killed at least a full day between registering, getting a photo made, and actually taking the thing. So it’s hardly cost-free to take it if you’re fairly sure the score won’t be useful.

Second, there are limits on how many times you can take the LSAT in a given period, namely, three times in two years. So burning one of your attempts increases the pressure a bit on your next, more seriously sitting. For instance, say you take it in June “just to see what it’s like” (as people sometimes do), and then September rolls around and you’re feeling much better prepared…but you make a mistake in one of the sections like a bubbling error, or you just have an off day, or you’re sick. Suddenly you’re down to one more shot, after which you’ve got 18 or so months (potentially) before you’re allowed to take it again. The test is stressful enough without throwing away one of your available attempts.

And third, albeit admittedly more debatable, is that putting a score on your permanent record that’s not representative of the kind of candidate you believe yourself to be is never going to be a *favorable* thing. Sure, schools may not pay much attention to that 142 if you eventually apply with a 160…but they’ll still see it. And they’ll wonder what happened, even if the 160 is the only real metric they’ll factor into their admit/deny decision. So try as I might I can’t come up with a desirable reason to showcase a lesser you.

Take those first two as gospel, and the third as semi-established concern.

I hope that helps!

My pleasure!

Hey John,

Thanks for the question! The decision to keep or cancel is always difficult, so let me try to give you some different factors to consider. Hopefully that will help make your decision easier.

First, the report that law schools see will show them all your LSAT scores, as well as an average score if you have taken the LSAT more than once. So, if you get a 150 this time and then a 160 next time, both those scores will appear as well as a 155, which is the average score. Years ago it used to be that law schools used the average almost exclusively, but a while back the ABA made a change that allowed the schools to start using the high score. And that’s now the default score that schools use. This is one reason that the prevailing advice is not to worry about low scores, because it just takes one high score to look good as an applicant. The following two articles both discuss the emphasis on the high score: http://blog.powerscore.com/lsat/should-you-retake-the-lsat-admissions-ex… and http://blog.powerscore.com/lsat/should-you-retake-the-lsat. So, a low score is not a big deal.

Second, that said, there are a few things you mentioned that concern me about how you might have done on this past exam. It sounds like LG might really hurt your score compared to your usual performance. So, right away, you are looking to be under your normal 157-160 range. then, you mention panic-mode guessing, so you probably didn’t gain maybe as many points you could there. And finally, you mention things being a “blur,” and in my experience that often means the test got away from you. Test takers who get high scores usually have a great clarity about the experience–they can remember entire games and LR questions, foe example. In my experience, when test takers I’ve talked to can’t remember things clearly or it seems to go by so fast it was a blur often don’t do well. So, from your description, this probably wasn’t anywhere near your average. Is that a big deal? No, it isn’t as discussed in the paragraph above. But, the schools will see that score, and since it looks to be so far off your average and it’s only your first attempt, I’d probably cancel it. I can’t see a real benefit to keeping it unless there’s some crazy chance you actually did much better than you think.

One thing to keep in mind: no matter what you do here, this past LSAT will count as one of your three takes under LSAC’s “maximum of three LSATs in any two-year period” policy. So, you’re still good and you have two more takes in reserve right now. This is just an fyi so you know about their policy.

Ok, that’s what comes to mind right now. hopefully that helps a bit, and if you have any additional questions, please let me know. Thanks!

Hey Anthony,

Thanks for the question! In your case, cancel the score. You don’t need to explain a single cancellation to the law schools, and given your descriptions of what happened in LG, the cancel is far preferable to what looks like a low score for you.

Please let me know if that helps. Thanks!

Hi Jenny – good question! A withdrawal does not count as an attempt, but I have even better news: LSAC has dropped that repeat limit as of this upcoming September test!

What that means is you’re now free to take the LSAT as many times as you like, with no restrictions on the number of attempts in a given period. So have at it!

Of course, you’ll still want to trust your instincts here and shoot for December being your final attempt (no need to prolong this if you don’t have to), so prep hard and prep thoroughly! And let us know if there’s anything we can do to help!

Hi there,

I have already written the LSAT once. However, I am considering withdrawing my December LSAT and taking the cost hit. I have a few questions about this. Does this withdrawal appear on my score report and will it look bad on my future application? Also when reapplying to law school, do any schools consider the fact that this is another application attempt?

Thanks in advance!

Hi Ally,

Thanks for the question! No worries here—you can simply use your first score, and the schools won’t care about you not taking the LSAT again. They don’t know why you have withdrawn, and to make a judgment would be a causal error on their part. So, you can skip the December LSAT and won’t change your applications.

I am sorry to hear you don’t think you can do better a second time, though! In almost all cases, it is possible to get better, and often what feels like a black hole when you are on your own becomes much easier to understand when you talk to someone who knows the subject. It’s like learning calculus: doing it by yourself is very tough but if you get a teacher at least you have a chance.

Hi Katarina – sorry to hear that you’re considering not taking in December (unless it’s for a good reason, like your initial score being sufficient, of course). But I do have good news: withdrawals are not visible to schools when you apply since they aren’t posted on score reports the way that cancellations and absences are. So schools won’t hold it against you at all if you withdraw. If you’ve let them know you’re registered for December they’ll potentially notice that you didn’t take the test, but there’s no reasonable way for them to make judgments based on that since any number of reasons could have caused the skip and they can’t say with any certainty that the reason is a poor reflection on you. So no penalty there besides the loss of registration fees, as you note.

Withdrawals also don’t count as an “attempt” either, since you won’t be sitting for the test. And with LSAC’s recent removal of the repeat limit (three attempts every two years is no longer a thing), it wouldn’t count against you anyway.

In short: there’s a financial penalty for withdrawing since you can’t get your money back, and there can be a “delay penalty” of sorts due to having to possibly take a later LSAT, but that’s it!

Dear Dave,

I’d appreciate if you can tell me what the likelihood of going from a score in the high 130’s to at least a 150 is? Is that an unrealistic goal?

Thank you,
Shay

Thank you for explaining these differences.