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All About your LSAT Score

<< Back to Master the LSAT

1. What is on the LSAT and how is the LSAT scored?

The LSAT includes five sections and an essay.  Take a look at some of the basic facts about the test’s structure:

Section	Questions	Scored?	Time	Notes
Logical Reasoning #1	24-25	Yes	35 mins	These sections may come in any order.
Logical Reasoning #2	24-25	Yes	35 mins
Analytical Reasoning (Logic Games)	22-23	Yes	35 mins
Reading Comprehension	25-28	Yes	35 mins
Experimental (can be any of the above types)	22-28	No	35 mins
Essay	One Essay	No	35 mins	This section always comes last.

1.1 Score Calculation

Your LSAT score is calculated from the number of scored questions you answer correctly in four of the five sections of the LSAT (the experimental and the essay are not scored). Incorrect or unanswered questions earn you 0 points, while correct answers earn you 1 point. The total of the points earned is called your raw score, which is then translated into a scaled score that ranges from 120 to 180, with an average score (50th percentile) of 150.  Each score is also assigned a percentile ranking, indicating the percent of people that you scored better than. 

To give you a sense of things, those accepted to top-ten ranked law schools generally score somewhere between a 165 and 175, with a median of 169. 

Here’s a general scale comparing raw scores to scaled scores and percentile rankings:

Number Correct	Scaled Score	Score Percentile
98-101	180	99th
96-97	175	99th
90-91	170	98th
83-85	165	93rd
75-78	160	82nd
58-61	150	45th
40-42	140	13th
25-27	130	2nd
0-14	120	0

(Note: there are scores such as 154, but in the interest of space, the chart above simplifies the scoring.)

1.2 All Questions are Created Equal

One important fact to keep in mind is that every scored question on the LSAT carries the same weight – so if there’s a choice between spending your last five minutes working on one tough question or taking an educated guess on it and thereby buying yourself some time to work on a couple of other questions, go for the latter. In short – choose your battles!

2. What LSAT score do I need to go to law school?

Faced with a large number of applications, most law schools use your GPA and LSAT score to make an initial assessment before looking at essays and recommendations.  While some candidates are accepted with scores well below a school’s median – often candidates with other impressive accomplishments –  the scores and GPAs of the majority of students that are admitted to a given school fall by definition within a school’s 25th-75th percentile range.   

2.1 LSAT scores correlate with Law School Grades

 Since a GPA’s “value” can vary according to school and major, many law schools place considerably more weight on an applicant’s LSAT score than his or her GPA, because the LSAT is a standardized evaluation with a proven ability to predict a candidate’s ability to succeed in law school.

2.2 How important is my LSAT score?

Generally speaking, the LSAT is the most important part of your law school application and is twice as important as your GPA.  Take a look at the median scores and GPAs for various top schools:

3. What is the experimental section of the LSAT?

Everyone, including the folks behind the LSAT, loves to experiment. One of the first three sections of your LSAT will be an experimental one. That means that LSAC – the folks who manage the LSAT – are testing out questions on you. You will not know which section is the experimental one until afterwards, so do not try to be slick and figure out whether a section is experimental during a section in order to decide whether to try your hardest. You will lose that game! Instead, play along and do your best.

4. What is the LSAT testing?

Pure and simple, the LSAT is gauging your ability to succeed in law school. Some of the factors involved in doing well as a law student are not easily tested – i.e. your will power and ability to answer questions in an oral exam.  That’s in part why law schools also use your undergraduate GPA to assess your qualifications (and to a lesser extent, your essays and your recommendations). 

The LSAT is a well-designed test and there is a surprisingly high correlation between one’s LSAT score and his or her grades in the first year of law school. In part this is because the LSAC has been careful to specifically test the intellectual skills that are essential in law school.  Here’s what LSAC says:

The LSAT is designed to measure skills that are considered essential for success in law school: the reading and comprehension of complex texts with accuracy and insight; the organization and management of information and the ability to draw reasonable inferences from it; the ability to think critically; and the analysis and evaluation of the reasoning and arguments of others. – LSAC.org

5. How are LSAT scores calculated?

We’ve already explained the basics above, but to get into the nitty-gritty, one myth that we should de-bunk is that LSAC figures out your percentile ranking by comparing you to all the other people who took the LSAT that day. Instead, because LSAC sets up percentiles based on the distribution of results over the past three years of testing.

The conversion chart for each test, however, is unique. This allows LSAC to adapt the scoring to the difficulty of each particular exam, thus allowing law schools to compare the scores of various candidates without considering whether it happened to be a difficulut test.

6. What is a good LSAT score?

That depends!  If you’re trying to go to a school where the median score is a 163, then anything above that is a good score.  Overall, if you’re looking to attend a top-10 school, you should aim for a score of at least 170. However, the vast majority of lawyers did not attend such a school, and scored far below that on the LSAT.  If you want to figure out the odds of you being accepted to a school with a specific GPA and LSAT score, try out this handy Law School Admissions Calculator that LSAC provides.

7. What is the lowest LSAT score I can get and still be admitted to law school?

This answer depends on several factors: the school in question, your GPA, your other experiences, etc.  In general, though, you cannot get into a law school with a score below 140.  If you have a score in the 140s and other pieces of your application are in place, your chances are OK at some of the lower-ranked schools. If your scores are in the 150s, then you have a shot at a regional law school. You do not have a chance of getting into a top law school. There are definitely some exceptions out there, but those exceptions are famous because they are so exceptional.

8. Does the LSAT essay count towards your LSAT score?

After the five sections of the LSAT, you are given 35 minutes to write an essay on a specific prompt. The LSAT essay is not scored. Law schools are provided with a copy of your essay, though; the essay itself is not given much if any weight by the vast majority of law schools and only sometimes reviewed by Admissions Committee.

If one of the following applies to you, then you should worry about the LSAT essay:


If none of those applies to you, then you shouldn't worry. Go ahead and simply look over what the LSAT essay prompts are like, try out one, and then get back to studying for the main event. Here are some tips on writing a standard and completely acceptable LSAT essay.

9. How do law schools use your LSAT score?

So, if admission officers do not use your essay to evaluate your application, what do they use? By this point, you should know that the two most important factors are your undergraduate GPA (UGPA) and your LSAT score. Schools often employ a formula into which they enter your numbers. These formulas tend to overweight your LSAT score, perhaps making it twice as important as your UGPA. There are some tweaks that are done to take into account a particularly difficult undergraduate school or major (for example, a 3.4 in engineering may be considered the same as a 3.8 in history – though that may be completely unfair to our history buff friends).

Once a school has plugged your numbers into their formula, they have an overall score for your application, and that is used to put your application into one of three buckets:

In the probably yes bucket, your application needs to NOT display any gross problems that would make the school wary of accepting you.

In the probably not bucket, your application must have something particularly special about it that would lead a school to overlook the fact that your numbers are low for it.

Those in the maybe category will find their applications receiving a particular sort of scrutiny, as this is the category for applicants whose scores put them near the median score of the student body. Like in the probably not bucket, applications that rest in the maybe bucket ideally include some redeeming qualities that would boost an admissions officer’s overall impression of the application. This is the category where most of the folks who end up on the wait list started out.

10. Should I re-take the LSAT?

It used to be that law schools would simply average multiple LSAT scores, however, since the ABA changed its policy and began allowing law schools to report statistics based on the best LSAT score of each of their students, a substantial and growing number of law schools now will only use your best LSAT score when considering your application. This varies tremendously from school to school, so it’s best to investigate those that interest you to find out their specific policies. Some schools will overlook a “bad” first score if you show a significant increase on your second attempt.

In general, it’s still best to have one great score on your score report, but for most schools it’s not a big problem if there are multiple scores. Similarly, you should not be worried if you have to cancel a score (which you can do within the first 6 days after taking the LSAT) or simply not attend a test’s administration. While it will be noted on your score report, schools will not discredit you with a cancellation, since there are many legitimate reasons that one might have to cancel a score.

One thing to keep in mind is that the average score increase from the first LSAT to the second is suprisingly small -- it's below 3 points!  So, if you're going to re-take, make sure you address ths issues that kept you from your goal score the first time you took the LSAT, otherwise you'll find yourself at just about the same score as the first time. 

11. How will schools learn my LSAT score?

When you apply to law schools, you will use the LSAC’s application system – the CAS (Credential Assembly Service). It costs $124 and this fee allows you to apply to as many law schools as you wish. After signing up for CAS, you will mail in your relevant transcripts to the CAS office, have your recommenders’ mail in your recommendations, and you will apply to law schools online.

CAS will provide to the schools you apply to:

• A summary of your transcripts
• An LSAT score report, which shows all LSATs taken within the last five years, and a history of any cancellations or no-shows
• Copies of the recommendations that you provided (and which you indicated should be sent to particular schools)