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What Canceling Your LSAT Score Means for Your Application

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You just finished your LSAT. You’re nervous, exhausted, and just happy it’s finally over with. But you’re probably also terrified of what your score could be? First, pause. Many—dare we say, all—test takers feel that way immediately after completing their LSAT. You might have actually done much better than you expected.

But, if you can’t shake the feeling that something may have gone drastically wong (or did go catastrophically wrong), well, you could always cancel your LSAT score and retake the LSAT.

How to Cancel Your LSAT Score

If you were eligible for and purchased LSAT Score Preview, you will receive your score on the normal Score Release date associated with your test date (assuming you completed LSAT Writing and do not have any holds on your account) and will have six days to decide if you want to cancel or keep your score. If you don’t take any action, your score will go on your LSAT record and be released to your law schools.

If you did not purchase LSAT Score Preview, you can cancel your LSAT score within six calendar days after your test date.

LSAT scores can be canceled through your LSAC online account or by contacting LSAC directly.

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Should I Cancel My LSAT Score?

Stuff happens. Emergencies arise. People wake up egregiously ill.  Totally understandable, just your everyday freak occurrence, no explanation required. Although law schools will see that you canceled a score, a single cancelation may not raise any immediate red flags.

Where this becomes a problem is once you’ve canceled multiple times. Law school is literally a series of tests, of which the LSAT is merely the first. Most classes will literally only count the final exam, so one test can completely determine your grade.

Even if you ace all of those grueling three-hour beasts, the bar exam exists post-graduation to ruin your summer plans as your final boss. Only once you pass that can the real lawyering begin, and that isn’t exactly easy either.

Law schools know this, and they view the LSAT not just as a way to see how good you are diagramming conditional statements or arranging mauve dinosaurs, but also as a stress test to see how you’ll react to the pressure of preparing for and taking a demanding exam. The LSAT is not an indicator of how amazing of a lawyer you will be or a determinant of your law school success, but it’s a premature glimpse into your test-taking potential.

Again, one cancellation isn’t a problem; there are tons of legitimate reasons to cancel a score, and admissions officers understand that. It’s the pattern of repeated cancellations that’s concerning.

What If You Have More Than One Cancellation?

But what if you had a string of cancellations but finally worked up the guts to get your score reported? And it was great? What do law schools do with someone like that?

The first step is to write an addendum, a short and succinct explanatory statement that lets schools know why they shouldn’t worry about the cancellations and instead focus on your score/grades/etc. It only needs to say that there were extenuating circumstances and that you’re not actually a nervous flake who will literally melt under the pressure of a bar exam held in a convention center hall, as the clacking of fingers tapping at keyboards drill a metaphorical hole into your brain.

You’re Joe Cool, casually noticing a movie star in the crowd before leading the game-winning drive in the Super Bowl. Sure, you might have small moments of self-doubt, but that’s ok.

Remember to keep your essay short and to the point, and don’t over-explain what went wrong; convince them that you’re on the right track now and they’d be wise to admit you as a future alumnus. Make the facts work for you, not against you, just like a lawyer would.

Still, if you’d rather not go through the trouble of canceling your scores, here’s a pro tip: confidence is key, and no one is more confident than someone who is well-prepared. Increase your LSAT confidence and score with help from Blueprint LSAT instructors! From a Self-Paced Course that gives you total studying control to a live class, we have an LSAT prep course that fits your learning style and goals. Get started for free by creating your Blueprint LSAT account!