Should I retake the LSAT?

If you think you can increase your score by 3 or more points, you should seriously consider retaking the LSAT. Even though schools no longer “need” to average your scores, they can if they want. Yale, Chicago, Cornell, and some other schools have said they won’t, for example, while NYU, Duke, Georgetown, and some others have said they will.

For most schools, however, whether they average depends largely on how well you do when you retake it. Consider these two students:

Vijay gets a 158 and then a 164.
Otto gets a 160 and then a 162.

The average for both Vijay and Otto is 161, but which average is better?

Most schools would likely peg Otto at a 161 and peg Vijay at a 164. Given the difference between Vijay’s first score and his second, his first score was probably a fluke or premature. Yet Otto’s 162 almost reaffirms his 160. The test makers themselves concede that the test has a margin of error of 3 points. So maybe Otto preformed exactly the same on each test but got a different result simply because the test is imperfect.

Vijay, on the other hand, might have gotten lucky, but probably not that lucky. His second score means something and should be given more weight than his first.

This example brings us back to our first sentence: If you’re likely to up by 3 or more points, you should seriously consider retaking. Granted, the more you go up, the better. By going up 6 points, for instance, Vijay made it easy for schools to disregard his first score. But even a 3-point leap can make a difference.

Just make sure you’re ready to make the leap!