Writing the LSAT In January 2025 for the 2025 admissions - Too late?

[Temporarycontrol]

Hey everyone

 

I'll be applying for September next year across....pretty much almost every school across Canada. My question is, am I screwing myself over if I write the Jan 2025 LSAT? Is that considered quite late into the cycle? I'm a mature student with a pretty low GPA, so I want the best LSAT score I can get. I've been reading a few forums and it seems like it varies, and there's a lot of information for American schools, not so much Canadian. Any advice is appreciated. Thank you.

[MyWifesBoyfriend]

This is a bit unclear. Do you mean September 2025? If so, then no. You still have multiple opportunities to take the LSAT before the 2025/2026 cycle ends.

If you mean September 2024, then yes, you're sort of shooting yourself in the foot. It is the last date you can take the LSAT for the 2024/2025 cycle. So if something goes wrong and you bomb the test, then you're stuck with a low score attached to a bunch of applications you've already submitted. I'd gear up to take the November LSAT at the very least, so you have a score on file before January. 

Edited June 11, 2024 by MyWifesBoyfriend

[Temporarycontrol]

Sorry! I was a bit confusing in my post. 

So I want to apply for enrollment into the Sep 2025 class (next year). So I've registered for the Nov 2024 lsat AND the Jan 2025 lsat. I want to treat the Nov 2024 as a test run, to see how my first exam goes and then if need be write the Jan 2025 exam, but I'm worried Jan is too late for admission cycles for next year. Hopefully that makes sense.

[SNAILS]

That sounds like a good plan. I have heard that a January LSAT may not be fully considered by all schools since some acceptances come out by then.

But doing the Jan LSAT as a backup is a good plan since i suggest everyone (especially some one with a low GPA like you said) keep the 2026 cycle in mind as  a backup in case you don't get in in the 2025 cycle. (So if you got a 156 in Nov and a 165 in January, then the January score would help you even if schools do not fully consider it in 2025 - though I think they would fully consider it).

Now, in my case, I did not pay for another LSAT until I got the score back on my first attempt and knew I could improve, but it does not really matter because taking an LSAT is fairly cheap and very few schools look at anything but your highest LSAT. 

[Temporarycontrol]

Thank you so much for the response. Ya I feel like it's a safe bet, and I'm triple checking every uni's website to check that I can still write the LSAT in Jan, but some of them (U of C, for example) state that they highly encourage you NOT to write the Jan LSAT, unless you absolutely need to. That makes me nervous, but we'll see how things go.