When you were a little kid, snow days were awesome! Now, not so much, especially if you were all psyched up to write the LSAT on Saturday, but Mother Nature, J.D., had other plans. If you were supposed to write the LSAT at one of the 74 Centres in the Northeastern U.S. And Canada that got snowed out, you’re almost certainly not a happy (winter) camper.
Some of you may have already been notified of your new Test Date (some of my Toronto students found out on Tuesday that they’ll be rewriting THIS coming Saturday – so LSAC won’t necessarily give you much notice!); others are still nervously refreshing your inbox looking for the fateful email. LSAC has promised to notify everyone “within a week” of last Saturday, so expect to hear by Saturday the 16th at the latest.
Here’s the official language from the LSAC email (including the original wacky American spelling):
Dear Candidate:
Due to adverse weather conditions your assigned test center was closed for the administration of the LSAT on Saturday, February 9, 2013.
A make-up exam has been scheduled for [new date], at [name of Centre]. This will be a non-disclosed administration; therefore, you will only receive your test score.
If you wish to take the make-up exam, you should report to the following address on [new date and time]:
[Address of Centre]
You must take your February 9, 2013 admission ticket along with proper valid government-issued photo bearing identification and the passport-type photograph attached to the admission ticket. If you no longer have your February 2013 LSAT Admission Ticket, a blank Admission Ticket will be provided to you at the test center for you to complete (you must bring the passport-type photo regardless).
If you choose not to take the make-up exam, you may request either a full refund of your February 2013 LSAT registration test fee OR you may request to take the LSAT at no additional charge on Monday, June 10, 2013 at 12:30 PM. Please select your option on the attached form, sign it and fax it to 215-968-1277 for LSAC’s receipt by Wednesday, February 20, 2013.
Please note that if you took the February 9, 2013 LSAT at an open center you are NOT eligible for the make-up exam or the above-mentioned options. Please contact LSAC at 215.968.1001 or LSACinfo@LSAC.org if you have questions.
Test Administration Group
LSAC
As you can see, you have 3 options: (1) write the make-up LSAT on the date provided; (2) get a full refund; or (3) change your test date to June (no charge).
So, what should you do now? First and foremost, you must stay in LSAT shape. If you haven’t already done so, get back to work so you’re still in top condition for Test Day. Write a full-length exam every 3-4 days (no need to do so more often than that!). Review LSAT strategies and continue to fine tune your Test Day game plan. Keep reminding yourself why you’re doing this: you will be a lawyer one day.
What shouldn’t you do right now? Take this as a sign not to write the LSAT. Don’t take this as an opportunity to postpone either – if you were ready for the 9th, you’ll be ready for a week or two weeks from now. Massive amounts of snow last week were outside of your control – focus on what you can control, doing even better on the rescheduled test than you would have done on the 9th.
Finally, it certainly couldn’t hurt to contact the schools to which you’ve applied to let them know why your LSAT score may be reported later than expected. LSAC should have already notified schools of your situation, but by contacting schools yourself you’ll show attention to detail and initiative, two qualities that all great lawyers share.
In order to help out your peers, please share your rescheduling story in a comment here. The more info everyone has, the better we’ll all understand exactly what’s going on! Feel free to post questions about rescheduling here as well – I’ll help out as much as I can.
