Retaking the LSAT

Retaking is the clearest change in how the LSAT is taken. About half of all LSATs given are now retakes, but most people who test in a given year are taking it for the first time. Both are true because repeaters now test more often.

• Half of all tests are retakes. LSAC classes every test as a person's first, second, third (and so on) attempt. In 2024–25, 50.9% of the tests it counted were first attempts, down from 58.6% in 2018–19. LSAC's earlier reports gave about 71% for 2006–07 to 2012–13 and 68% for 2010–11 to 2017–18; whether those count tests or people is not clear from the summaries I have seen.
• But most test takers are first-timers. Counting people, 69% of 2024–25's test takers (85,554 of 123,973) took the LSAT for the first time, almost the same as in 2018–19 (70%).
• Repeaters test more times. Third attempts rose from 8.6% of tests to 13.1% between 2018–19 and 2024–25, and fourth attempts from 2.4% to 4.7%. Tests per person in a testing year rose from about 1.11 in 2002 to about 1.40 in 2025 (see Test takers, applicants and law-school places).

How the numbers fit, for 2024–25: 123,973 people took 172,819 tests. 85,554 of them were taking it for the first time; the other 38,400 or so had tested in an earlier year; and within the year, people took about 0.4 tests each beyond their first.

The average gain on a retake has hardly moved in twenty years: about 2.8 points on a second test in 2006–2013 (as summaries of LSAC's 2014 report give it), 2.6 in 2010–2018, and between 2.2 and 2.7 in each year from 2018–19 to 2024–25. A third test adds about 2 more. Most people's change falls between 10 points down and 15 points up. LSAC cautions that the gain mixes extra study, the practice of having sat the test, and plain regression toward the mean.

Why retaking grew:

• Fewer limits. LSAC dropped its limit of three tests in two years in 2017, set new limits in 2019 (three a testing year, five in the current and five past testing years, seven in a lifetime), and dropped the three-a-year cap in 2023.
• More test dates: four a year until 2017–18, six in 2018–19, about eight a year since.
• Score Preview: from 2020 first-time takers, and by 2022 everyone, could see a score before deciding whether to keep or cancel it.

Why it matters for percentiles: LSAC's percentile tables count tests, not people, so someone who sits the test three times appears three times. LSAC itself named more retaking, cancelling of low scores, more test dates and more preparation as reasons high scores have become more common (2026).

Sources: LSAC Technical Reports 14-01 (2014), 18-01 (2018) and 26-01 (2026) on repeat test takers; LSAC's Historical Data and test-taker counts (see Test takers, applicants and law-school places); LSAC announcements on test dates, retake limits and Score Preview; an LSAC podcast (April 2026).