How Many Times Can You Take The LSAT?

The Law School Admissions Test, better known as the LSAT, is taken by thousands upon thousands of students who hope to gain admission to law school. It’s now common practice to take the LSAT more than once, with more and more people doing so each year. But how many times total are you allowed to take the LSAT? Can you just keep trying until you get the LSAT score you want (or at least the best you think you are capable of)?

First let’s quickly discuss why one should retake at all.

It used to be that students were encouraged to take the LSAT only once. Until the mid-2000s, schools looked at the average of any LSAT scores when considering your application so, for example, someone with a 166 and a 170 on a retake would be roughly as strong an applicant as someone who just got a 168 on the first try. So even though you could take the LSAT, multiple times (and many people wisely did retake), the benefit from doing so was tied to your first score.

Due to changes in score reporting requirements, schools now only have to report student’s highest LSAT scores (this matters because school’s are ranked in large part based on the strength of incoming student’s scores). As a result, there really isn’t any incentive for schools to average scores any more. They are competing to get students with the highest LSAT scores, and retakers are just as good to them for that purpose.

By and large, you are now judged exclusively on your highest LSAT score. So if you see any outdated advice on the web (and there is a lot of it, even from well-intentioned sources) telling you that it is key to take the LSAT only once, disregard it.

So how often and how many times can you retake the LSAT?

The LSAC (makers of the test) have moved towards a policy where you will be able to take the test quite a few times. Whereas formerly you were limited to three attempts within any two year period, now you could now take it more. Here is their policy:

Starting with the September 2019 test administration, test takers are permitted to take the LSAT:

• Three times in a single testing year (the next testing cycle begins with the August 2021 test and goes through the June 2022 test).
• Five times within the current and five past testing years (the period in which LSAC reports scores to law schools).
• A total of seven times over a lifetime.
• Please note: With the introduction of the LSAT-Flex to provide a safe and effective mechanism for candidates to earn scores during the COVID-19 emergency, LSAC made the decision that the May, June, July, and August 2020 LSAT-Flex tests do not count toward these limits. Tests beginning with the October 2020 administration will count toward LSAT testing limits.

This policy is forward-looking, not retroactive. Tests taken prior to September 2019 will not count against these numerical limits.

In addition, test takers will not be permitted to retake the LSAT if they have already scored a 180 (perfect score) within the current and five past testing years, the period in which LSAC reports scores to law schools. This aspect of the policy will be applied retroactively.

(Source: LSAC.org)

Practically speaking then, the limit for someone trying to attend law school within the near future is 5 times. The question becomes, when would you ever need to take the test five times?

My answer here is that should retake whenever you have good reason to believe that you can improve your score, even if it means taking it a third, fourth, or even a fifth time.

One consideration here is length of study. Unless you really gave it your all over at least a three month period (and longer is probably better) you can’t rule out the possibility that you will improve further simply by giving yourself more time with the material.

Another obvious reason to retake even if you’ve taken it several times is if you are performing substantially lower on the actual test than on properly simulated tests. Although a small gap between your simulated scores and the actual score is common because of test day nerves, you can often eliminate this gap on retakes as you get more used to the test day experience. Anyone more than three or four points off their average score on recent simulated preptests should consider.

Another good reason to try a retake may be if you have learned some new approaches to the LSAT material and are feeling more confident as an LSAT taker. If you are feeling stuck and need a new approach, we suggest you go through our full LSAT prep course, which takes a deeper dive into LSAT logic than any other course. It is designed to work with the preptests that you already have, making it an inexpensive add-on to your prep arsenal. At the price of coffee and a danish, we are quite certain that it is the best value in LSAT preparation right now.

Overall, the chance of getting a higher score and with it better options is simply too good to pass up. Although schools will continue to say that they “take into consideration all LSAT scores” or some such language, in practice they have such a heavy incentive to disregard all lower scores that you will be judged mostly on your highest LSAT score.

Every year many LSAT students retake and give themselves a massive boost in the admissions game, so if you can retake the LSAT and think you can improve on your past performance, we encourage you to do so. If you like, please let us know your individual situation in the comments and we will be happy to provide advice on retaking!