LSAT Scores Explained: 120–180, Percentiles and Score Bands

The LSAT is scored on a scale from 120 to 180: 180 is the highest possible score and 120 the lowest. LSAC counts the questions you answer correctly in the three scored sections, with every question worth the same and no deduction for wrong answers, and converts that raw score to the 120–180 scale. Your score report adds a percentile rank and a score band. In LSAC's table for the 2023–2026 testing years, a 165 sits at about the 85th percentile and a 170 at about the 94th.

The rest of this guide covers how the conversion works, what the percentiles look like across the scale, why your score comes with a band, and the rules on how long a score counts and how often you can retake.

How the LSAT is scored

The multiple-choice LSAT has four 35-minute sections: two Logical Reasoning sections, one Reading Comprehension section and one unscored variable section, which LSAC uses to validate new questions for future tests. There is a 10-minute intermission between the second and third sections. Only the three scored sections count toward your result.

LSAC's scoring rules are short:

• Your raw score is the number of questions you answer correctly.
• Every question carries exactly the same weight. Which questions you get right doesn't matter; how many you get right does.
• There is no deduction for an incorrect answer, so it never pays to leave a question blank.
• The raw score is converted to the 120–180 scale so that scores earned on different LSAT administrations can be compared. The scaled score is the one on your score report.

LSAT Argumentative Writing: unscored, but required

LSAT Argumentative Writing is taken separately from the multiple-choice test, online, with remote proctoring software on your own computer. You get 15 minutes of prewriting analysis, with the option to move on after five minutes, and then 35 minutes to write an argumentative essay on a debatable issue, taking a position and responding to at least one of the perspectives you are given.

The essay is not scored, but LSAC releases your LSAT score only when a completed and approved writing sample is on file. It becomes available in JD Services eight days before each test administration, and processing can take up to three weeks, so LSAC strongly recommends completing it as early as you can. If you already have a writing sample from the current reportable score period, which reaches back to July 2021, it remains valid when you retake.

Where the test is taken

Starting with the August 2026 LSAT, the multiple-choice portion moved toward in-center testing for almost all test takers, with limited exceptions such as certain disability-related accommodations. Unless an alternative format has been approved, the test is delivered on a computer through LSAC's LawHub interface. Approved paper-based formats are delivered in Prometric test centers and are available only to candidates in the United States, including its territories, and Canada.

The 120–180 scale: what the numbers mean

There are no letter grades on the LSAT. You receive a single scaled score between 120 and 180, so when people ask what the LSAT is "scored out of," the answer is 180, with 120 as the floor rather than zero. A 180 is a perfect score: in LSAC's 2023–2026 table, 99.85% of scores were lower than 180. Test takers who have scored 180 within the current reportable score period can't take the LSAT again.

If you are looking for LSAT section scores, LSAC's description of what the score report contains doesn't include any. The report shows:

• your current score;
• the results of all your reportable tests, up to 12, including absences and cancellations;
• a percentile rank for each reported score;
• your score band.

LSAT percentiles: 150, 160, 165, 170 and beyond

A percentile rank is the percentage of test takers whose scores were lower than yours over the previous three testing years. LSAC updates the percentiles for all reported scores every year by the end of July, so the same score can carry a slightly different percentile from one year to the next. As of October 2026, LSAC's LSAT percentile table covers the 2023–2024, 2024–2025 and 2025–2026 testing years. Selected rows:

Reading the table

• The middle of the scale. 154 is the first score with just over half of all scores below it (50.43%); at 153 the figure is 46.93%.
• The 80th percentile is reached at 163, with 80.05% of scores below. A 162 sits at 77.20%.
• The 90th percentile is reached at 168 (91.36%). A 167 falls just short, at 89.53%.
• 160, 165 and 170 sit at 71.06%, 85.17% and 94.48%.

Notice how the scale compresses at the top. Moving from 150 to 155 lifts you past more than 17% of scores; moving from 170 to 175 lifts you past just over 4%. Near the top, each extra point moves your percentile much less, which is worth knowing when you set a target.

Score bands: why your score comes as a range

LSAC reports your score to law schools together with a score band, because a single LSAT score is an estimate of your actual proficiency in the skills the test measures, and no estimate is perfect. The band is a range that includes scores slightly higher and slightly lower than the one you received.

The band is based on a statistic called the standard error of measurement (SEM), which estimates how much test scores vary simply because tests measure imperfectly. In LSAC's words, it is unlikely that a test taker's actual proficiency is "more than a few points higher or lower" than the score received. That is why a difference of a point or two between two scores means less than it seems to.

LSAC adds a point that is worth repeating to any student disappointed by a first result: LSAT scores are not an indication of a test taker's capacity to learn or to build additional proficiency.

Is a 160, 165 or 170 a good LSAT score?

A good LSAT score is one that fits the law schools you are applying to. Law schools publish figures for the students they admit, so compare your score with those numbers for your own list rather than with a general rule. Against other test takers, using LSAC's 2023–2026 table:

• 160 is higher than about 71% of scores.
• 165 is higher than about 85% of scores.
• 170 is higher than about 94% of scores.

Schools don't read the number on its own. LSAC describes the LSAT as one component of a holistic admission process, and says the score is most predictive of law school success when combined with undergraduate GPA. LSAC also notes that the LSAT is the only admission test accepted by all ABA-approved law schools, although some schools in the U.S. and Canada accept other tests.

How long LSAT scores count

• LSAT testing years run from July 1 to June 30.
• A result is reportable for up to five testing years after the testing year in which you earned it. LSAC's example: a score from July 2021 can be used to apply to law school through June 2027.
• Scores earned before July 2021 are not valid for law school admission and are not included in your score report.
• Your score is released only to you and the law schools you apply to. You can also choose to release it through the Candidate Referral Service and to your undergraduate prelaw advisor, but not to anyone else, including a parent or spouse.

Retakes, cancellations and Score Preview

• Retake limits. Under LSAC's limits on repeating the test, you can take the LSAT five times within the current reportable score period (since July 2021) and seven times over a lifetime. Tests taken before September 2019 don't count, nor do the May to August 2020 LSAT-Flex tests. Canceled scores count toward the limits; absences and withdrawals don't. LSAC considers appeals for an exemption.
• Canceling a score. You can cancel within six calendar days of your test date, through JD Services or by contacting LSAC.
• Score Preview. For a fee, Score Preview lets you see your score before deciding whether to keep it. You receive it on the normal release date and then have six calendar days to cancel; if you do nothing, the score is added to your file and released to schools. The fee is lower if you sign up before the first day of testing for your administration.

Because your report lists every reportable result, including cancellations, treat each sitting as a genuine attempt at your target rather than a trial run.

When your score arrives

Scores come out on the score release date tied to your test date. They are posted to the LSAT Status page in JD Services, and you get an email when yours is available. Two things can hold a score back: no approved LSAT Argumentative Writing sample on file, and a hold on your LSAC account.

Setting a target score

1. List the law schools you are considering and note the LSAT figures each publishes for the students it admits.
2. Check where those scores fall in LSAC's percentile table, remembering that the percentiles are recalculated every July.
3. Choose a test date that leaves room for a retake before your application deadlines, within LSAC's retake limits.
4. Work backward to a weekly schedule of timed sections and careful review of every question, including the ones you answered correctly by guessing.

If you would like help building that plan, TestPrep USA offers one-to-one LSAT tutoring, live online in 90-minute lessons covering Logical Reasoning, Reading Comprehension and LSAT Argumentative Writing. LSAT tutoring prices are published for every package, and you can contact TestPrep USA with your test date and the score you are aiming for.

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