To cancel or not to cancel. That is the question.

The answer is probably not.

One of my fellow LSAT instructors once almost ended up canceling what turned out to be a 180. Why? Well, he felt a bit weird after the test. Luckily, he realized that it was just nerves, fatigue, and post-LSAT mush head messing with him.

But here’s how you can think rationally about canceling. Write down how many questions you honestly think you missed per section. If you felt like the Logical Reasoning section went as it normally goes for you, then take off however many questions you usually miss. If you feel some section went a bit off, then take off however many questions you missed on your worse practice tests. And so on. Note that this method doesn’t really work if you find yourself being overly insecure or self-confident.

Now, make a reasonable guess as to the curve for your exam. Say, -12 for a 170? Are you in range for your expected score? If you’re just a few points below, then you probably shouldn’t cancel. If it looks like you might get a much lower score than you expected, then you may consider canceling. But…

Most law schools will only count your highest LSAT score, so why not just wait and see what you actually got?

In general, I don’t recommend canceling an LSAT score unless you experienced some clear disaster, like misrepresenting a rule when you normally don’t, or maybe getting sick during the Reading Comp section (when you normally don’t).

The LSAT is a pretty stable measure of your, umm, LSAT abilities. Your score will probably be somewhere around your most recent practice LSAT scores, plus or minus three points.

You do have six calendar days to decide whether or not you’re gonna cancel. So take your time, cool off, and try to make a rational decision keeping in mind that you can retake–and that most law schools will only care about your highest score.

If, after taking all of that into account, you do decide to cancel, then head on over to LSAC’s score cancelation page for more info.