LSAT Score Preview: what it costs and the deadline that catches people

Score Preview is an option you buy before test day that lets you see your score first and decide afterward whether it goes on your record. Without it, the decision runs the other way: you have to decide whether to cancel before you know what you got.

How it works

Note what the default is. Doing nothing keeps the score. If you buy Score Preview intending to cancel a bad result, you have to actually go and cancel it inside the window — silence is a decision to keep.

The pricing deadline

That last clause is the part people get wrong. LSAT administrations run across several days. If the window opens on a Thursday and you test on the Saturday, your cheap deadline was Wednesday — not the day before your Saturday. Budgeting from your own test date costs $41.

Is it worth buying

It is insurance, and like all insurance it is worth most to the people most exposed. Two things make it worth more: this being your first take, and having limited retakes left. It is worth less if you were always going to take the test more than once and treat the first one as a real dress rehearsal.

The strongest argument against it is that canceling has a cost of its own. A canceled score still counts against your take limits, and it leaves a visible gap in your record rather than an absence. Buying the option does not make canceling free — it just moves the decision to after you have information.

One condition people forget

If you have not done the writing sample, Score Preview cannot show you anything, because nothing is released. Get it out of the way in the days after the test rather than waiting for the score email.