The Law School Admission Test (LSAT) is a half-day, standardized test that attempts to measure logical and verbal reasoning skills, administered four times a year at designated testing centers throughout the world. All American Bar Association-approved law schools, most Canadian law schools, and many other law schools require applicants to take the LSAT as part of their admission process.

Purpose

The LSAT is designed to measure skills that are considered essential for success in law school.

Test Format

The test consists of five 35-minute sections of multiple-choice questions. Four of the five sections contribute to the test taker’s score. The unscored section, commonly referred as the variable section.

A 35-minute writing sample is administered at the end of the test.
LSAT does not score the writing sample, but copies of the writing sample are sent to all law schools to which you apply.

Section	Topics Tested	Duration
Logical Reasoning Section I	Analyzing Arguments Evaluating Arguments	35 minutes
Logical Reasoning Section II	Analyzing Arguments Evaluating Arguments	35 minutes
Logic Games Section	Basic Logic Systems of Order Outcomes	35 minutes
Reading Comprehension Section	Identifying Purpose Identifying Structure Ascertaining Main Idea	35 minutes
Experimental Sections	Any material tested in other LSAT sections	35 minutes
Writing Sample	Writing Ability Ability to Argue a Position Ability to Analyze an Argument	35 minutes
Total		3 hrs 30 min.

Section	Format
Logical Reasoning Section I	24-26 questions
Logical Reasoning Section II	24-26 questions
Logic Games Section	22-24 questions
Reading Comprehension Section	26-28 questions
Experimental Sections	22-28 questions
Writing Sample	Two-page written response to a prompt
Verbal	Max. of 41 questions

Scoring

Normalized scores are distributed on a scale from a low of 120 to a high of 180. Prior to 1991, the scale was from 10 to 48 and had also been from 200-800.

The LSAT is not scored based on test-taker performance on the day of the test. The relationship between raw questions answered correctly and score is determined before the test is administered, through a process called equating.

This means that the conversion standard is set beforehand, and the distribution of percentiles can vary during the scoring of any particular LSAT.