Current LSAT Format

What Changed And What Did Not

The current LSAT format matters because Logical Reasoning is no longer just one scored section among several. Since the August 2024 administration, the scored multiple-choice portion contains two scored Logical Reasoning sections and one scored Reading Comprehension section. The old Analytical Reasoning section, often called Logic Games, has been removed from the administered test. The exam also includes one unscored variable section that can be either Logical Reasoning or Reading Comprehension.

That structure creates a practical rule: treat every section as real. LSAC uses the unscored section to test questions for future use, and it can appear at any point in the multiple-choice test. If you see three LR-looking sections on test day, you cannot know which one is unscored while you are taking the exam. The safest strategy is to bring the same process to every section and avoid emotional guessing about what counts.

Current Multiple-Choice Layout

LSAT Argumentative Writing is separate from the multiple-choice test. It is unscored, but law schools receive it, and LSAC requires a writing sample on file before score release. For this chapter, the important point is that Logical Reasoning preparation is about the multiple-choice score, not the writing task.

The score report still uses the familiar 120 to 180 scale. LSAC bases the scaled score on the number of scored multiple-choice questions answered correctly, with no penalty for wrong answers. Raw scores are converted through equating so scores from different forms remain comparable even when a particular form has slightly different item difficulty.

Because two of the three scored multiple-choice sections are LR, Logical Reasoning is best treated as the exam's center of gravity. That does not mean LSAC publishes a separate LR score or a fixed LR percentage. It means the scored section count makes LR performance responsible for roughly two-thirds of the scored multiple-choice opportunities on a standard current form. Strong RC can still matter a great deal, but LR inconsistency now has more room to affect the scaled score.

What Logical Reasoning Tests

Logical Reasoning asks you to read short passages and answer one question, or rarely two questions, about the reasoning. The passages come from ordinary argumentative settings: public debate, academic summaries, advertisements, policy claims, scientific explanations, conversations, and legal-adjacent reasoning. The subject matter is usually not law. The skill is seeing what follows, what is assumed, what weakens or strengthens the support, and where the argument goes wrong.

You do not need specialized labels to answer LR questions. Knowing terms such as premise, conclusion, assumption, principle, and flaw is useful because those concepts describe the work you must do. But a correct answer is earned by understanding the reasoning, not by naming a Latin fallacy. The test rewards precise reading under time pressure.

That distinction shapes good preparation. Memorizing a catalog of question types is useful only if it leads to faster decisions about what the answer must accomplish. For example, a causal argument, a survey argument, and an analogy argument can appear under many stems. The stable skill is to locate the support, locate the claim, and ask what would make the support more or less persuasive.

Strategic Consequences Of The New Format

Two scored LR sections make LR your largest score lever. A small timing leak, such as spending two extra minutes on every parallel-reasoning problem, now repeats across roughly twice as much scored LR material. A small accuracy improvement, such as getting causal weaken questions right consistently, also repeats across two sections.

The new format also changes endurance. Old prep habits built around one scored LR section can feel too light. You now need a process that survives fatigue: identify the conclusion, name the task, predict the gap when possible, test each answer against the question stem, and move on before one dense item damages the section.

Use this format checklist before every timed set:

• Expect two scored LR sections and one scored RC section.
• Expect one unscored LR or RC section that is indistinguishable during testing.
• Do not assume the first, last, easiest, or strangest section is experimental.
• Track LR performance by question task, not only by total score.
• Build stamina with back-to-back LR sets before full practice tests.
• Review official-style LR in LawHub rather than relying on copied sample items.

The highest-yield mindset is simple: Logical Reasoning is not a trivia section and not a formal logic course. It is a repeated test of argument control. The current format asks you to demonstrate that control twice for score, possibly a third time for field testing, in the same administration.