Understanding What Makes a Good LSAT Score Range

The Law School Admission Test (LSAT) is the essential gateway to pursuing a legal career in the United States. For anyone considering law school, understanding what constitutes a good LSAT score range is crucial to your admission prospects. The test evaluates critical thinking, argumentation prowess and advanced reading comprehension—all skills that form the foundation of successful legal practice. Your performance on the LSAT will significantly influence which law schools find your application competitive and may even predict how you’ll perform during your first year of law school.

The LSAT Score Range Explained: From Raw Scores to Scale Scores

When you complete the LSAT, you receive two different scores, and understanding the distinction between them is vital. Your raw score represents the number of questions you answer correctly—notably, incorrect answers do not count against you. This raw score is then converted into a scale score that ranges from 120 to 180. This scale score is what matters most to law schools during the admission review process.

So what qualifies as a good LSAT score range? According to research conducted by the Law School Admission Council (LSAC), the median LSAT score across test-takers is 153. This figure serves as an important benchmark. A score above 153 positions you as a competitive candidate at many ABA-accredited law schools, while scores in the 160-170 range can open doors to top-tier institutions. Understanding where your target score falls within this spectrum helps you set realistic goals and measure your progress as you prepare.

What Constitutes a Competitive LSAT Score for Your Law School Goals

Determining what represents a good LSAT score range depends largely on your specific law school aspirations. The most prestigious law schools typically seek applicants with scores in the 170+ range, while solid regional law schools consider 150-160 as competitive. The LSAC’s research demonstrating the correlation between LSAT performance and first-year academic success underscores why this test carries such weight in admissions decisions. Your score isn’t just a number—it’s a predictor of your readiness for the rigorous demands of legal education.

The LSAT Exam Structure: Five Sections That Test Different Skills

The LSAT consists of five distinct sections designed to evaluate the multifaceted abilities required for legal practice. The multiple-choice portion includes four sections: reading comprehension, analytical reasoning, logical reasoning, and one variable section that assesses new test questions without affecting your score. Each of these sections requires approximately 35 minutes to complete, with 10-minute breaks provided between sections two and three. The fifth section is a separate, unscored writing component where you must craft an argumentative essay within 35 minutes.

Reading Comprehension: Mastering Dense Legal Texts

The reading comprehension section places four sets of questions before you, testing your ability to understand complex, sophisticated material. The first three question sets feature single passages, while the fourth presents two related passages that you must compare. Law professionals must be able to comprehend dense documents—court cases, contracts, legal codes—and synthesize information across multiple sources. This section draws from diverse subject areas including social sciences, humanities, and natural sciences, ensuring the material extends beyond legal topics. Questions may ask you to identify main ideas, locate explicit and implicit information, or analyze textual structure.

Analytical Reasoning: Navigating the “Logic Games”

Often called the “logic games” section, analytical reasoning evaluates your capacity to determine what could or must be true based on specific facts, rules, and hypothetical scenarios. Though these questions rarely involve legal subject matter directly, they mirror the deductive reasoning you’ll use when analyzing regulatory frameworks, contract terms, and case facts. You’ll encounter problems requiring you to deduce correct solutions based on relationships, navigate conditional “if-then” statements, recognize logical equivalencies, and infer truth by combining facts with new information.

Logical Reasoning: The Heart of Legal Analysis

Argumentation forms the backbone of legal practice, making the logical reasoning section paramount to demonstrating your legal aptitude. This section assesses your ability to read, comprehend, analyze, and evaluate arguments drawn from newspapers, academic publications, and advertisements. Rather than legal-specific content, you encounter arguments in ordinary language, requiring you to identify argument components, spot logical flaws, draw well-supported conclusions, reason by analogy, and assess how new evidence transforms an argument’s validity.

The Writing Sample: Defending Your Position

Separate from the multiple-choice sections and unscored, the writing sample measures your capacity to take a position based on provided evidence and defend it logically through written argument. This component opens eight days before the multiple-choice sections and can be completed on demand using proctored software on your personal computer. Strong writing ability is indispensable for law school success, and this section ensures you can articulate reasoned positions in formal writing.

Time Management on Test Day

The entire LSAT experience spans approximately three hours. Each of the four multiple-choice sections runs for 35 minutes, with strategic breaks between sections. The writing portion also requires 35 minutes. Time pressure is a defining characteristic of the LSAT—each section contains roughly 25 questions, leaving minimal time per question. This demands efficient reading, quick analysis, and decisive answer selection. While the good news is that wrong answers don’t count against your score, managing your time effectively across dense reading material and complex problems is critical to maximizing your good LSAT score range potential.

Breaking Down LSAT Costs: Budget Planning for Test-Takers

Preparing to take the LSAT involves several financial considerations beyond the exam fee itself. The Law School Admission Council (LSAC) administers multiple costs that test-takers should anticipate:

The Basic Exam Fee: The LSAT examination, including both the multiple-choice portion and writing section, costs $215 per administration. If you choose to retake the exam, each retake also carries a $215 fee. Important note: while the writing portion is integrated into your test, LSAC does not offer it as a standalone retake. However, if you’re satisfied with your writing score but wish to retake the multiple-choice sections, you may do so independently.

Credential Assembly Service (CAS) Subscription: Most ABA-approved law schools require applicants to submit scores through the CAS platform. A CAS subscription costs $195 and remains active for five years, providing centralized access to electronic applications for all participating institutions. This single account simplifies your application process considerably.

CAS Report Fees: Beyond the subscription, each individual CAS report sent to a law school costs $45. Since most applicants apply to multiple institutions, this cost accumulates based on your application strategy.

Optional Assessments: If you want to preview your results before deciding whether to keep or cancel your score, the score preview option costs $45 if purchased before test day, or $75 if purchased afterward. An official LSAT score report containing all scores earned (including nonreportable ones) costs $50. For those questioning their results, a score audit reassessment is available for $150.

Why the LSAT Matters for Your Legal Career Path

The LSAT isn’t simply another standardized test—it’s the only assessment specifically designed for law school admission. Developed by the Law School Admission Council (LSAC), the LSAT measures skills essential to succeeding in law school and predicts your ability to handle the juris doctor curriculum. Many ABA-accredited law schools require the LSAT as part of the application process, making it an unavoidable step for aspiring lawyers. Taking the LSAT can also clarify whether law school aligns with your career goals and circumstances, serving as a self-assessment tool beyond its role in admissions.

Understanding what qualifies as a good LSAT score range—and preparing accordingly—positions you for success at your target law school and throughout your legal education.