LSAT Insights

Things I have worked out about the LSAT, from LSAC’s published data and from reading every released test.

• Percentiles over the yearsA percentile tells you what share of test scores in a given period fell below a scaled score. LSAC publishes these tables, and the same score has meant…
• RC sections: one passage of each subject, mostlyReading Comprehension passages fall into four subjects: humanities, law, science and social science. Most sections have one of each, and that holds in…
• Where the paired (A/B) passage sitsThe paired passage — two short passages, A and B, with questions about both — first appeared on 11 June 2007 (Section 4, passage 2). Since then every…
• The diversity passageMost RC sections include a passage about a racial or ethnic group, a member of one, or women or a woman — the "diversity passage". On my criterion…
• Test takers, applicants and law-school placesHow many people take the LSAT, how many apply to law school, how many are admitted and how many start. Two ratios fall out of those counts: tests per…
• Retaking the LSATRetaking is the clearest change in how the LSAT is taken. About half of all LSATs given are now retakes, but most people who test in a given year are…
• The top 14 law schools, over the years"The T14" means the fourteen law schools at the top of the U.S. News rankings. It has been remarkably stable: in every edition from 1990 to 2023 the…