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The numbers · Lesson 5 of 12

Retakes and multiple LSAT scores

After this lesson, you can decide when a retake calls for an addendum and know what law schools actually do with your full score history.

6 min video, plus notes and 1 practice question below

In this lesson

• Know there's no real downside to retaking the LSAT, since schools report and rank on your highest score, never an average of your attempts
• See how even luck alone, with zero extra studying, can move a retake a few points higher, and how much that gap can matter for scholarship money
• Understand today's actual retake limits: no more than 5 attempts in your current reportable score period, and 7 over your lifetime, with an appeal option if outside circumstances hurt an earlier attempt
• Recognize that most retakes need no addendum at all, but several consecutive attempts with no clear reason is a pattern worth explaining

There's no real downside to retaking

This question comes up constantly, and the answer is an emphatic no: there's no real downside to taking the LSAT more than once. Retaking at least once is worth doing for a simple reason: through luck alone, you could score a few points higher on a second attempt, and law schools do not average multiple scores together. They take your highest one.

Say your practice test average was a 160 and you scored a 160 on test day. It's tempting to call that a match and stop there. But retaking could put you at 163, 164, even 165, without any additional studying at all, purely from a different test day. Even with zero extra prep, a 3 to 5 point swing on a second sitting isn't unusual. Study more before that second attempt and the gap could grow further still. Think about how many more doors open with a 165 instead of a 160, and how much more scholarship money comes with those extra points, since that's real money you'd otherwise leave on the table by treating your first score as final.

Schools still see every score on your record for context, but so what. Schools themselves aren't evaluated on how many times you tested. They're evaluated on the highest score among their matriculating students, since that's the number that goes to the ABA and from there to US News for the rankings. That means every applicant, including you, has real incentive to retake, and skipping that chance puts you at a disadvantage against everyone else who takes it.

What the retake limits actually are

LSAC used to cap how many times you could sit for the LSAT within a single testing year. That old limit has since been removed. What remains today is simpler: no more than 5 attempts within your current reportable score period, and no more than 7 attempts over your entire lifetime. Those are the numbers that matter now, and neither one is nearly as tight as the old per year cap used to be, so a realistic retake plan almost never brushes up against either ceiling.

Even if you happen to hit one of those limits, you can appeal it. If real administration problems, say issues at a Prometric testing center, kept you from testing cleanly and pushed you toward a limit, that's exactly the kind of case LSAC is likely to grant an exemption for. Given how much room the current limits leave, you're unlikely to bump into them at all.

When a retake pattern is worth explaining

You don't need to write an addendum just because you retook the LSAT, and that's true even if a low score, or 2, sits somewhere in your file. But if writing one would make you feel more comfortable, nothing stops you from doing it. Say you tested 3 consecutive months, August, September, and October. That might feel like a lot to explain, and you could address it plainly and factually: a proctor and technical issue disrupted the August attempt, a separate glitch disrupted September, and October was the first clean administration, the one score you're actually submitting. Schools tend to understand a pattern like that without much concern, since their real interest stays fixed on your highest score.

The line worth watching is different: testing 5 consecutive months with no explained reason at all can start to look like poor judgment, as if you kept sitting for the test before you were actually ready rather than choosing your test dates deliberately. In that situation, a short addendum explaining your reasoning is worth writing. As long as you can explain why you tested as many times as you did, there's no real downside even to a long string of attempts.

The short version

• Treat a first LSAT score close to your target as a floor, not a ceiling. Schools only count your highest score, so a retake almost never costs you anything.
• Only draft an addendum for a testing pattern when a real, specific circumstance caused it. Several consecutive attempts alone isn't a reason on its own.
• Check your total attempts against the 5 in your reportable period and 7 lifetime limits before you plan a retake schedule, and remember you can appeal if a real testing day problem pushed you close to either one.

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