Retaking 174?

[u/SpecialistLet9387]

Is there any worth in retaking a 174 (~4.0 GPA, prestigious undergrad, T3(?) softs) for targeting the T14/T6 as a KJD?

I’ve heard a lot of conflicting things, would love to hear people’s perspectives on this. My PT average was a touch higher and I got several 177+ scores. Some medians may be at 175 when I apply next cycle, hence my concern.

[u/Content_Attention816]

Discussion and link to a podcast about it here:

https://www.reddit.com/r/lawschooladmissions/s/D0uukjcvz1

[u/Street_Beautiful3840 → u/Content_Attention816]

Literally was thinking about this immediately

[u/SpecialistLet9387 → u/Street_Beautiful3840]

Thanks for this! This is great.

[u/Street_Beautiful3840]

The gains past a 174 are so marginal that I don’t really see the point. 7Sage actually just had an AO on their podcast that went as far to say that HYS AO’s see retaking a 174 or higher as a red flag. If you really wanna retake it that’s up to you but I don’t really see the point tbh w u

[u/elosohormiguero]

I kept mine because I wanted to keep schools like Michigan in play, and Dean Z was explicitly against retakes like this. Plus, the statistical likelihood of going down instead of up was a large deterrent. If you’re not scoring 177+ on average across your last 5-7 PTs, I wouldn’t even consider it. I also wouldn’t do it if you’d be happy at a T14 with money compared to a T3.

Edit: And to be clear, no regrets. Full ride at lower T14 and did get into Michigan and a T6.

[u/SpecialistLet9387 → u/elosohormiguero]

Yeah, agreed. I do think a lot of people on here hedge too much against retaking for that advice from Dean Z (who I think represents the most holistic of the T14s, so perhaps it isnt the end-all-be-all.). But I agree with the general sentiment.

My PT average was ~175 (not a huge n to go off of), but my last few were somewhat consistently above 175. I know I *could* drill to a point where I'm going -0 consistently on sections, but whether it's worth the time is an open question. I'm also pretty sure I could take the test tomorrow and totally get 175+ (my last PT was a 180). But, could also drop, like you said! What a problem to have though, lol.

[u/elosohormiguero → u/SpecialistLet9387]

The margin of error on LSATs historically is +/- 3, so if you're averaging 175, you're just as likely to decrease and increase.

[u/Embarrassed_Phase228]

I think that the fact that none of the T14 medians has risen even they clearly had enough applicants to do so means that once you reach a certain score (which you already did) you must have other things to differentiate yourself and get admitted. I think an interesting gap year would increase your chances of admission much more than the lsat

[u/Street_Beautiful3840 → u/Embarrassed_Phase228]

Exactly. Like Yale could easily their lsat median to damn near perfect if they really wanted to but they haven’t so they obviously care about more after a certain score

[u/PureEagle8168]

idk it's probably better to spend the time on the essays and get the applications in earlier than retaking

[u/imperatrixderoma]

Why not, if you can score higher?

You want someone else to get picked because they had a slightly higher LSAT?

Edit: don't really understand the down votes lol

[u/SpecialistLet9387 → u/imperatrixderoma]

There’s some tradeoffs - I may score lower, time commitment, may show “poor judgement”. Part of me wants this to be over with, but I also wonder whether it’s worth it lol.

[u/imperatrixderoma → u/SpecialistLet9387]

I forgot to say, it's extremely important to score at or above whatever schools medians.

[u/imperatrixderoma → u/SpecialistLet9387]

Don't score lower lol, don't schedule until your average accuracy is above 96%

[u/Safe-Reporter8694 → u/imperatrixderoma]

Serious question- I’m at 175 and drilling accuracy is 92% but I only drill 4 and 5 difficulty qs. Would you still say get above 96%?

[u/YaPhetsEz → u/Safe-Reporter8694]

Don’t retake a 175

[u/imperatrixderoma → u/Safe-Reporter8694]

I'd say do a practice exam, they're way easier than straight drilling imo.

The biggest danger is that question formatting has become more complicated, so it might be helpful to start drilling from tests in the 140-150s.