I had two TOEFL iBT scores:

108 (Year 2007) - 30 (Reading), 29 (Listening and Writing), 20 (Speaking)

104 (Year 2008) - 29 (Reading and Listening), 24 (Speaking), 22 (Writing)

I screwed up in either the Speaking section or the Writing section in the tests. I have submitted my application to most top 15 law schools with the 2007 TOEFL score.

Would anyone please give me any suggestion whether I should supply the 2008 score to the law schools? Would it be in favor of my application by submitting both scores?

I think you will be totally fine with the 2007 scores! its better then the 2008 score and speaking is less important then writing! I wouldn't submitt the last score from 2008 if I were you!!!

The higher scores are fine. No need to re-submit unless you merited higher scores in a subsequent TOEFL assessment.

Well.. I wouldn't be that sure about that. Yes, in general this is the right answer, but you should be careful of the specific policy adopted by the law school (s) you are applying to. NYU, for example, requires a minimum of 22 in the speaking section. You should check on the law school's website to be sure, and then act accordingly; if there is a minimum you have not achieved, then I would advise you to retake it. They are not likely to consider your application otherwise But of course others may disagree and advise you to take the risk. Best of luck

Many thanks to all of you for the replies!!! I understand your points that the overall 2007 score looks better. But I am still anxious that a 20 on Speaking section would give the admission committee a impression that I have problem with communicating in English.

My concern is the minimum score requirments for each section imposed by some law schools. For instance, CLS requires 24 on both Speaking and Writing sections and that applicants must take the test before the application deadline. I failed to meet the requirement with either the 2007 score or the 2008 score. Would it be helpful to show them that I had a 24 on Speaking and a 29 on Writing by submitting both scores? In addition, for those schools without a minimum requirement on each section, would it be helpful to submit the 2008 score to show that I'm able to express thoughts and communicate with classmates and faculty clearly? (Hope I would not sound too ridiculous on this)

Thanks again for the advice:)

Dear Happyflowing,
I think this is totally up to you. There are no rules of thumb on this as no one really knows how strict the TOEFL requirements are in each school. In general, I think that the TOEFL score is just used as a threshold to eschew equally valid applicants. Selection are often hard to make and for this reason I think the TOEFL score is helpful indeed, making it easier for them to take decisions. However, this is not to be interpreted as if they were looking thoroughly at the TOEFL score, and factoring in their judgements the score obtained in each section. Who knows. Personally, I don't think the minimum for each section is really a strict requirement, particularly if one's concern is the speaking part: many law schools still accept Paperbased or Computer Based Toefl Score, which do not have a speaking section. I applied to HLS even if I failed to reach a 25 on the speaking section...so far, they haven't got back to me asking to retake the test, even if the people at the admissions advised me to do so when I addressed this question with them back in November. I honestly believe the speaking test is just a stupid addition that could have been avoided, or else it could have been done another way, for example by talking with a real person (as it happens in the IELTS). Where I use to take the test there are always hundreds of people talking out loud at the same time, you can't really concentrate and you have just a short time to come up with your ideas on ridicolous matters. I have studied and worked in english for a whule, took the TOEFL twice, always scored high (always 29 or 30) on each section but couldn't go higher than 23 with the speaking. I really hate that test and I will not take it again unless it's extremely necessary, i.e. I receive an offer conditioned on reaching the minimum in the speaking section. Still, I would find this offer surprising and I would start suspecting some collusion exists between law schools and ETS...:)

Many thanks, Nail! I totally agree with you. Good luck :)