I had this exact fear when I was deciding whether to retake my LSAT: what if law schools penalize me for taking the LSAT more than once?

In the years of teaching, coaching, and talking to admissions officers since then, I’ve learned that those fears were largely unfounded - how many times you’ve taken the LSAT is fairly low on their list of priorities. Here’s a list of the things that admissions committees look for on your LSAT track record, (roughly) in order of priority:

1. Your highest score

   This is the thing they care about most, by far. The only score that law schools have to report to US News and the public is each matriculated students’ highest score. Since law schools care a lot about their ranking and public perception (not unlike the rest of us), the reportable score is the one that matters most.

2. Upward trend

   Law schools want to be getting the best version of you that they can. It’s the same reason an upward grade trend looks a whole lot better than a downward one. Someone who got a 148, then a 156, then a 165 looks a lot better than someone who go a 165, then a 156, then a 148.

3. How many times you’ve taken the test (tied for second depending on who you ask)

   Yes, it does matter, but very little when compared to everything else. First of all, the LSAC does set rules on how many times you can take the LSAT in a certain time period (you can see the most recent ones here). Beyond that, there are no hard rules on what is and isn’t an “acceptable” number of times to take the LSAT. Admissions committees know that everyone has off days, and that people have to retake the LSAT for a variety of reasons, especially when they’re relying on their home WiFi to be perfect for 3+ hours straight. In general, if you study effectively and limit distractions on the week and day of the test, there’s no reason to take the LSAT more than 3 times. If you must, make sure you’ve put in the time to do better the 4th time around.

If I had to make a blanket statement, I’d say that the fewer times you can take the test, the better. However, highest score is king. If you’re pretty sure you can do at least 3 points better than before, retaking the test should be a no-brainer. Here’s an article that breaks down the retake decision in much more detail.

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