LSAT – The results are in!

So, my LSAT results came in on Monday night. That was like a week earlier than I was expecting them so it was a nice surprise. The magic number was 154. I will get to how that number makes me feel, but I thought first I should tell the story of seeing the results…

On my handy, dandy little pink phone, I can check my email with just the touch of a button. So, as I grabbed my phone on Monday evening with the purpose of checking out what football games were going on (Nick and I had just made the decision to spend our Monday night having buffalo wings and beer), I quickly hit the magic e-mail button and scrolled through the new messages. There it was, between an email from the Improv Comedy Club telling me about their weekly schedule and Victoria Secrets offering me end of the year savings on their entire line… the subject “LSAT SCORE”. My heart stopped for a second as I touched the subject to open the email.

Nick was laying on the couch in the dimly lit living room. I don’t think my expression could be clearly read in the light provided so he continued to wait for me to give him the football schedule. I opened the email and slowly read through it. Now, what I want to explain here is that everything law school related is handled through one website (the Law School Admission Council). So the email is from this council and I am fully expecting the email to say that I need to log into the LSAC website to see my results. So I scrolled down and there, out of the blue, with no warning – not even a bold font – was the sentence…

“Your score is 154 and you are ranked in the 60th percentile.”

I am not kidding when I tell you that I almost threw my phone across the room! Not because the score was bad, but because I wasn’t prepared to see it. I was prepared to pull out my computer, log onto the website and take a deep breath before clicking the link that revealed the scores. But no… it was as if someone had come by and ripped the bandaid off before I had a chance to know what was happening. I believe I said something like, “I was NOT ready to see that!!” to which Nick, who if you remember was lying on the couch, anxiously asked, “WHAT?”. “My LSAT score is in!” He said he thought I had just got an email telling me someone had died… a response I found humorous because it tells something about my initial reaction to seeing it. I was stunned that was for sure. But there it was, a 154. All the anxiety, all the preparation, all the waiting… there it was.

So now, you are probably wanting to know what exactly a 154 means. So here is the breakdown. The lowest you can get is a 120, the highest is 180. I had sincerely hoped I would get at least a 155 or higher… but, that being said, all of the practice tests I had taken had landed somewhere around 153-155 so in a way, I hit the consistent number I had been hitting. I guess the most important thing is that I didn’t choke and bomb it. A 154 is not going to get me in to Harvard, but I wasn’t planning on applying there anyway. My cumulative GPA for all my undergraduate experience is a 3.91, so when you combine that with my LSAT score and my life/work experience, I think the whole package puts me into a pretty competative market for the schools in this area.

From here, what happens? I am waiting on my letters of recommendation to be received by LSAC and then the entire package will be ready for delivery to the law school and then I wait for the accpetance letter. THAT is the day I really celebrate. The thing about the LSAT is this… it is simply a test to get me in the door. I am an overachiever (I know – you all are shocked, right?) and so it is in my nature to have wanted more… to wish that I had scored a 157 or a 160. But I know that my score is good enough… because once that acceptance letter comes, the score will not matter anymore… the slate is wiped clean and I start fresh, busting my butt in law school. Woohoo!