How Long Is the LSAT? 2026 Format, Timing, and Sections

The LSAT is 140 minutes of timed testing: four 35-minute sections with one 10-minute break at the midpoint. Once you add check-in and on-screen instructions, plan for roughly 3 hours in your seat. "LSAT" stands for Law School Admission Test, and it is scored from 120 to 180 in whole numbers.

How long is the LSAT, start to finish?

The LSAT gives you 140 minutes of timed testing, split into four 35-minute sections. Add the single 10-minute break plus check-in and on-screen instructions, and total seat time lands around 3 hours. The 140 minutes is what counts against the clock. The rest is overhead, but you still need to budget for it on test day.

Three of those four sections are scored. The fourth is an unscored experimental section that LSAC uses to pretest new questions, and nothing on screen tells you which one it is. You answer it exactly like the rest, so the test feels like all four sections, not three.

The writing sample sits outside this 140 minutes. LSAT Writing is done on its own, away from the multiple-choice exam, which is why it never enters the seat-time math above.

Source: LSAC, current LSAT format and timing (2026).

What are the LSAT sections in 2026?

The 2026 LSAT has four sections, each 35 minutes: two scored Logical Reasoning sections, one scored Reading Comprehension section, and one unscored experimental section that is an extra LR or RC set. Logical Reasoning carries most of your scored questions, since two of the three scored sections are LR.

Logical Reasoning hands you short arguments and asks you to work with them: spot the flaw, name the assumption it rests on, or say what would weaken the conclusion. Reading Comprehension runs longer, denser passages and questions you on the main point, the structure, and the author's stance. The experimental section is indistinguishable from a real LR or RC section, so treat every one as if it counts.

The table below lays out the section-by-section structure. Question counts are approximate and shift slightly by test form, which is part of why raw scores are equated rather than compared straight across.

What happened to Logic Games?

Logic Games are gone. LSAC removed the Analytical Reasoning section, the part everyone called Logic Games, in August 2024. No current LSAT contains any games. If a study plan or older guide still lists them, it predates the change and is out of date.

That removal is the reason the scored test is now two Logical Reasoning sections plus one Reading Comprehension section. Older LSATs scored one LR, one RC, and one Analytical Reasoning section, so the second LR effectively stepped into the slot the games used to fill.

This matters when you buy prep material. Older PrepTests still carry Analytical Reasoning sections, and you can skip those games drills without missing anything that shows up on a 2026 exam. Put your practice into LR and RC, where every scored point now lives.

• Logic Games (Analytical Reasoning): removed August 2024, gone from every current LSAT.
• Scored content now: 2 Logical Reasoning sections plus 1 Reading Comprehension section.
• Old PrepTest games sections: safe to skip, since they no longer match the test.

What does an LSAT test day actually look like?

A test day is mostly the four sections and the one break, but the steps around them add up. Starting in August 2026, the LSAT moves to in-person testing at Prometric centers, with only narrow remote exceptions. Before that it had been offered remote-proctored from home, so this is a real change for anyone used to the at-home setup.

The shift is about logistics, not content. You travel to a center and check in, then sit the same four 35-minute sections you would have taken remotely. The timing and structure do not change. For who still qualifies for a remote exception and how the move works, see the in-person 2026 guide.

Here is the rough order of a test day and how it maps to the 3-hour seat-time estimate above.

1. Arrive and check in, which covers ID verification and getting seated.
2. Section 1, 35 minutes.
3. Section 2, 35 minutes.
4. 10-minute break after the midpoint.
5. Section 3, 35 minutes.
6. Section 4, 35 minutes.
7. Complete the separate, unscored argumentative writing sample on your own. A finished writing sample is required before your score is released.

How a raw score becomes your 120-180 score

Your raw score is the number of scored questions you got right, out of roughly 76. That raw count converts to the 120-180 scale through an equating curve that accounts for how hard your particular form was, so an easier form takes more correct answers to reach the same scaled score. The scale holds whole numbers only.

Percentiles compare you against everyone who tested over LSAC's most recent three testing years, which keeps a given scaled score mapped to a fairly steady rank. The 50th percentile sits around 151 to 152. The experimental section stays out of all of this, since none of it is scored.

To turn a practice raw score into an estimated scaled score, the score conversion guide walks through the equating logic. ScoreGap reads your synced practice tests and builds a calibrated score prediction from them, though any projection reflects a tendency in your data rather than a promise of a future result. Synced tests are practice scores, not official LSAC results.

Source: LSAC, score scaling and percentile methodology (most recent three testing years).

Format, timing, and scoring details from LSAC's official LSAT documentation (2026); section question counts are approximate and vary by test form.

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