From LSAT tutor Nick Eddy of Mentor Test Prep:
To all students:
The LSAC has quietly slipped an important (and unfortunate) change into their regulations regarding the deadline to change the test date once you have registered for the exam.
The deadline to change the June 8th exam test date (in other words, postpone) to September is now May 17th (online); May 15th (mail/phone/fax):
http://www.lsac.org/LSAT/test-dates-us-june.asp
Previously, it was possible to change the test date of your exam until midnight of the first workday after the exam, so long as you did not show up at the test site. This action was invisible to law schools, and so you could wake up the morning of the exam, decide you were not up to it, and simply push the date back, at the cost of about $33.
But it didn't show up on any record, and did not count toward the limit of 3 LSATs taken per 2 year period.
This change means that once the May 17th deadline expires, you are committed to either:
- take the exam
- cancel the exam - within six calendar days of the exam (unsightly but not fatal)
- pull a no-show (very bad form)
Each of these actions will show up on all future score reports, and each will count towards the 3 exams-per-2-years limit.
Therefore you must now make a very serious appraisal of your form and likelihood of improvement, roughly 3 weeks before your test date. To add insult to injury, the fee for changing the test date has been increased to $66:
http://www.lsac.org/LSAT/lsat-and-lsdas-fees.asp
This is not going to reduce anyone's stress levels, but it is obviously very consequential, so keep it in mind.
Hope all is well.
Nick
[And Nick's follow-up to me:]
Let me also give you a link (in case you haven't seen it) that I use to inspire my students to study harder for the exam:
http://pdfserver.amlaw.com/nlj/composite.pdf
Lord knows what those percentages will look like in 3 years' time...
Former Dean of Admissions at the University of Chicago Law School and a recovering lawyer, Anna Ivey founded Ivey Consulting to help college, law school, and MBA applicants navigate the admissions process. Read more admissions tips in The Ivey Guide to Law School Admissions, recently updated and available as an e-book. Follow Anna on Twitter (@annaivey).