How Is the LSAT Scored?

Your LSAT score comes from the multiple-choice sections alone, and the LSAT Score Converter turns a raw score from them into a scaled score and percentile. The test has four 35-minute sections, with a 10-minute break between the second and third. Standard testing takes about three hours. Only three of the four sections count toward your score.

The unscored section can be Logical Reasoning or Reading Comprehension, and in LSAC's words it “can occur at any point in the test”, so treat every section as if it counts. LSAC's May 2026 technical report lists 25–26 questions in each Logical Reasoning section and 27 in Reading Comprehension, so a form carries roughly 77 to 79 scored questions. The April 2025 test, the only one in the current format that LSAC has released in full, had 77.

Logic Games (Analytical Reasoning) ended after the June 2024 test. Since the August 2024 test a second Logical Reasoning section has taken its place, and the 120–180 scale stayed the same.

LSAT Argumentative Writing is a separate essay you take online, as early as eight days before your test date. It never changes your score, but LSAC will not release your score to law schools without an approved sample on file, and every school you apply to receives a copy.

Your raw score is the number of questions you answer correctly across the three scored sections. LSAC's rules here are short: all test questions are weighted exactly the same, and there is no deduction for incorrect answers.

That has one practical consequence: never leave a question blank. A guess can earn a point and a blank cannot. On the April 2025 form, raw scores ran from 0 to 77.

If you have per-section results from a practice test, the LSAT Score Calculator adds them up and converts the total for you.

Raw scores are not comparable from one test form to the next, because forms differ slightly in difficulty and in the number of questions. LSAC handles this with a statistical process called equating: each form gets its own conversion table, so that a given score, such as 160, represents the same proficiency whichever form you took.

Here is part of the table LSAC published for the April 2025 LSAT, the only test in the current format released in full:

The scale is uneven at the ends. On this form any raw score from 0 to 15 converted to 120, and you could miss 1 question and still score 180. In the middle, a single extra answer sometimes leaves the score unchanged (42 and 43 correct both gave 150), while near the top one answer can add two points (72 correct gave 173, 73 gave 175).

Most LSAT administrations are not disclosed, so you will usually see only your score and percentile, not your own form's table. Treat these numbers as a close guide: another form can need slightly more or fewer correct answers for the same score. Every raw score is listed on the LSAT Raw Score Conversion Chart.

Is the LSAT curved?

Not the way a class is curved. Your score does not depend on how the other people in your test room performed, and there is no fixed share of high scores handed out each administration. What people call the LSAT curve is equating: a harder form needs fewer correct answers for the same scaled score, and an easier form needs more. Once LSAC sets the conversion table, your score depends only on your own raw score.

Your score report also shows a percentile rank. LSAC defines it as the percentage of test scores that were lower than yours over the previous three testing years. The current table covers the 2023–2026 testing years, includes every test taken in that window (canceled scores too), and is updated every year by the end of July.

On that table 71.1% of scores were lower than a 160, 85.2% lower than a 165 and 94.5% lower than a 170. Because the table is rebuilt each summer, the same scaled score can carry a slightly different percentile next year, even though the score itself means the same thing. The rank for every score from 120 to 180 is on LSAT Percentiles.

LSAC reports every score to law schools with a score band, because a single test is not a perfect measure of ability. The band is your score minus and plus the standard error of measurement (SEM), a statistic that describes how much scores vary from one sitting to the next. In LSAC's words, it reflects the range of scores you would likely receive if you took the LSAT again.

LSAC does not publish the exact SEM on its public website, so be wary of any source that quotes a precise band width as official. The practical point is simple: small differences between two scores may not reflect a real difference in ability.

Say you answer 56 of 77 scored questions correctly on the April 2025 form, missing 21. That is about 73% of the test. Here is each step LSAC applies.

A 160 beats 71.1% of scores and sits above the typical law school median, which was 159 for fall 2025.

Now add 13 more correct answers, for 69 in total. The same table gives 170, and 94.5% of scores were lower. To see where scores like these sit across the whole scale, read LSAT Score Range.

Your report shows your scaled score, percentile rank and score band. Law schools see more than your latest test:

• Schools receive up to your 12 most recent LSAT results, including absences and cancellations.
• A result stays reportable for the current testing year plus the prior 5. Testing years run July 1 to June 30, so scores earned before July 2021 no longer count.
• You can take the LSAT 5 times in the current reportable period (since July 2021) and 7 times in a lifetime. Canceled scores count toward these limits; absences and withdrawals do not.
• If you score 180 in the reportable period, you cannot retake the test.
• You can cancel a score within six calendar days of your test date.