<p>I'm a sophomore at a school infamous for its lack of quality undergraduate advising. I recently met with an advisor, who told me that since the LSAT tests, more than anything else, your ability to take the LSAT, it really doesn't matter when you take it.</p>
<p>I was planning on taking it fall of my senior year (the latest date, essentially), believing I would be best prepared then (a thought in keeping with what I usually read here). But, in light of what the advisor said, I'm thinking about studying over the summer and taking it in the fall of my junior year.</p>
<p>The other "anti-conventional" thing she said (anti-conventional as in against the gist of what I generally read on this board) is that law schools look at your highest LSAT score. They only average scores for US News. </p>
<p>My questions, I suppose, are these</p>
<p>1) Do you think, given an equal amount of LSAT-specific preparation in both cases, it'll really matter whether I take the LSAT my junior or senior year?</p>
<p>2) Do law schools really take your highest score? (If so, this would be an argument in favor of my taking the test my junior year, since, in the event of catastrophe or simply an undesirable score, I could retake without penalty.)</p>
<p>1.) Your advisor is right that the LSAT is not directly testing very many useful skills. He's wrong, however, if he means to imply that the LSAT is not vulnerable to preparation.</p>
<p>2.) Of course, a couple months of preparation is plenty of time, so studying over one summer is about as good as the next summer. Fall junior year works just fine, too -- and the advantage is that it won't slow you down at all when application time comes. I took a June '06 exam, allowing me to turn in applications in Sept. '07 without any delay whatsoever. Since law schools roll, this is a nice advantage.</p>
<p>3.) Law schools report highest scores to the American Bar Association and (I believe) USN. This means that their incentive (if they're trying to climb rankings) is to use the highest possible score in admissions.</p>
<p>4.) Many schools increasingly claim to take highest score. The rules on this are very, very inconsistent and often a little weird. One school (Georgetown?) has a policy where they'll take your highest as long as it's 5 points higher than your other score. It's a very strange policy. Several other schools have similarly idiosyncratic policies.</p>
<p>5.) As a general rule, I don't believe the listed policies, since decisions are ultimately made by a human, not a computer. A greater weight is placed on the higher score if that's what they tell you, but it's not as if they're blinded to your earlier scores, and those will certainly affect the way your application is viewed. A 166/171 is certainly a worse score than a 171.</p>
<p>I think timing is important. A lot of seniors I know took the LSAT in midst of writing senior theses, being presidents of clubs, or interviewing for wall street jobs, and didn't do as well as they had hoped because they couldn't commit 20+ hours a week to prep.</p>
<p>Had they taken it in June, however, they might have had a free month to prepare for it, and certainly more free time even if they had an internship.</p>
<p>For that reason I'm going to take the LSAT in June, even if I'll have a really busy schedule next semester, it probably wouldn't be as busy or stressful as fall senior year will be. I plan on spending winter break prepping fulltime, trying to prep as much as possible from February to April, and dedicating all of May to studying again.</p>
<p>Thanks for the responses. I have a follow-up question:</p>
<p>Ideally, prep would be continuous. A nice block of uninterrupted time. How useful are fragmented blocks? In other words--once you have become adept at cracking the LSAT, how much of your groove do you lose when you're not prepping? If I were to study over the summer, I'd have to wait about a month--at school, studying for classes and such--before the LSAT. If I don't keep up the same feverish LSAT study pace that the summer allows for, how much will I lose come test day? I realize everyone is subject to this, but I think the question still stands.</p>
<p>I took a June 12 exam for a school year that ended in mid-May. Plenty of time to warm up and more. June after junior year might be a good time for you to take it.</p>
<p>This winter break: study 20+ hours a week to get myself into the high 160 range, I'm taking a prep test next Saturday to see where I stand right now.</p>
<p>Spring Semester: Maintain that scoring level via saturday studying and a monthly test.</p>
<p>May: Study hardcore to bring that into desired (170+) territory.</p>
<p>Bluedevilmike, chocoman, thanks a lot. Combining both your responses, it makes a lot of sense.</p>
<p>I'll take the LSAT spring of my junior year, as mike said. And, I'll stay fresh doing with chocoman is doing.</p>
<p>This question has been touched upon, but you guys have your acts together obviously so I'd like to hear it from you: powerscore or testmasters (which is the "good" testmasters by the way)? The questions end here, I promise!</p>
<p>Whether you need either of them at all depends on what kind of score you want compared to where you are after one exam. I didn't bother with a test prep at all -- I worked through a friend's Princeton Review book and bought the most recent Ten Real LSATs (or whatever.)</p>
<p>musil, there's also another advantage to June taking.</p>
<p>If you don't get the score you want, you can study over the summer, retake in September and still be early for the cycle. If you took September and retook in December, you'd have barely any time to prep and would be a late entrant in the admissions cycle.</p>
<p>Another friend of mine reasons this way. He feels that he is better at standardized tests at the end of a semester, like in June, after his mind has been exercised for 5 months, but when fall comes your mind has been of off school and intellectuality for 4 months, and now you must take the LSAT. no good.</p>
<p>I'm using powerscore - if you send me a PM I can give you a nice hint on a good deal for the books. I've basically read through each book once, and I'm already doing extremely well in the games, and the logical reasoning seems to be getting a lot more manageable.</p>
<p>Another thing I recommend is top-law-schools.com 's forum. While using the advice from CC helped me get into an Ivy League undergrad (yes I've been here that long), I think the advice from TLS will help me get into a top notch law school. One of the things I learned is how important your personal statement is, and how to write a good one.</p>
<p>There's another (dis)advantage to the June LSAT. Unless things have changed in the last couple of years, it's the only one given in the afternoon rather than the morning. Some people just aren't able to do as well on a test that begins at 8:30 am. Other folks wilt in the afternoon. If you have a strong natural preference, take the time of the test into account in choosing.</p>
<p>Your advisor needs to be fired IMHO. Is she a law student/law school graduate?</p>
<p>You should take the LSAT at the time when you are best able to prepare for it. I found that studying over the summer was a good plan. All things being equal, I'd take it earlier rather than later, because even though most law schools DO average your scores, if you get a disappointing score, you'll have more time to decide what to do next (study harder and take it again; adjust the law schools you're aiming for; find something else to do for the next several years; etc.).</p>
<p>I'd prefer a morning take, but I think I'll take it in June anyway. It provides the best set of circumstances for me. Thanks for letting me know about the difference though!</p>
<p>I'm a junior and just registered to take the LSAT in February ... this way I can re-take in June if I have to, and apply as soon as the apps come out next September. The downside to taking the February LSAT is that none of the prep courses fit with most schedules (they start on Jan. 3rd, which is 3 days before winter break ends, so most people including me are still at home). I decided to do the princeton review online course, instead.</p>