LSAT scores run from 120 to 180 — that is the entire official scale.
LSAC releases every result on that scale: 120 is the lowest possible score, 180 the highest, every question is weighted equally, and there is no deduction for wrong answers.
Here is how that scale works, what percentile ranks mean, and how long a score stays reportable.
What is the LSAT score range?
Every LSAT score lives on one scale: 120 to 180.
Per LSAC's scoring explanation, 120 is the lowest possible score on that scale and 180 is the highest.
There is no score below 120 or above 180 — the ends of the range are fixed.
The scale also treats every question the same way: every question is weighted equally, and there is no deduction for wrong answers.
Missing a question costs you nothing beyond the points a correct answer would have added.
The scale's fixed facts, all from LSAC's published scoring materials, in one place:
| Score fact | What LSAC publishes |
|---|---|
| Lowest possible score | 120 |
| Highest possible score | 180 |
| Question weighting | Every question weighted equally; no deduction for wrong answers |
| Percentile rank basis | Share of test takers scoring lower over the previous three testing years |
| How long a score reports | Five testing years after the testing year earned |
The scale is one part of a bigger admissions picture.
If you are still deciding when or whether to sit for the test, what the LSAT is covers the sections, the writing sample and the 2026–27 move to in-person testing.
How is the LSAT scored (raw to scaled)?
The score comes out of the multiple-choice part of the test.
Since the August 2024 LSAT, that part consists of two scored Logical Reasoning sections, one scored Reading Comprehension section, and one unscored experimental section of either type.
The experimental section is drawn from those same two question types, so it looks like a scored section while you are taking it — but it does not count toward your result.
Scoring follows from the weighting rule above.
Because every question is weighted equally and wrong answers go unpunished, the raw measure feeding the 120–180 scale is the number of questions you answer correctly across the scored sections.
How that count turns into a specific scaled score is not laid out as a conversion table in the LSAC scoring materials our research reviewed — so this page won't convert question counts into scores, and we would treat any third-party calculator that claims to as unofficial.
The scoring page LSAC publishes is the authority on its own scale.
The writing sample sits outside all of this.
LSAT Argumentative Writing is unscored — it adds no points to the 120–180 result.
It can still hold up the release of a score, because first-time test takers must complete the writing sample and have it approved before LSAC releases their score, and that approval processing can take up to three weeks.
What are LSAT percentiles?
A percentile rank translates your score into a comparison.
Per LSAC, it reflects the percentage of test takers whose scores were lower than yours during the previous three testing years.
The scaled score says where you landed on the 120–180 range; the percentile rank says where that landing put you among other test takers.
The comparison window moves every year.
LSAC updates percentile ranks annually by the end of July, recalculating them against the most recent three testing years.
Because the window always covers the most recent three testing years, a percentile rank can change from one update to the next even for the same scaled score.
What this page deliberately leaves out is the score-by-score table.
The current LSAC percentile table was not part of the sources our research captured, so we won't quote a percentile for any particular score — quoting one from memory or from an older article is how stale numbers spread.
The live table sits on LSAC's own scoring page.
What is the highest possible LSAT score and how rare is it?
180 is the top of the scale — the highest possible score LSAC reports, with 120 as the floor.
Officially it needs no other name: it is simply the ceiling of the 120–180 range, the way 120 is the floor of it.
How rare a 180 actually is, the research behind this page can't quantify.
Rarity is a percentile question — the share of test takers scoring lower at each score level — and the current percentile table was not among the sources our research reviewed.
Rather than borrow a figure from somewhere else, we leave the number where it lives: in LSAC's percentile table, updated by the end of July each year.
One boundary worth naming: this page explains what the scale allows, not what to aim for.
Whether a particular score is strong enough for the schools on your list is an admissions question that depends on the schools, the cycle and the rest of your application — the scale itself doesn't answer it.
When do scores come out and how long are they valid?
Scores follow a release schedule LSAC publishes alongside its test dates.
In the current 2026–27 lineup, the November 11–14, 2026 administration releases scores on December 2, 2026; January 13–16, 2027 releases on February 3, 2027; and February 12–13, 2027 releases on March 3, 2027.
LSAC's dates page pairs a score release date with each administration it lists.
First-time test takers should pad that timeline mentally: the writing sample has to be completed and approved before LSAC releases a score, and approval processing can take up to three weeks on its own.
If a sitting goes badly, the escape hatch is short: per LSAC, a score can be cancelled within six calendar days of the test date — unless Score Preview was bought, which gives six calendar days after score release to cancel instead.
Past that window, the score stays on the reportable record described below.
How long a score lasts is also fixed: a result stays reportable for five testing years after the testing year in which it was earned, and testing years run July 1 to June 30.
Scores earned before July 2021 are no longer valid for law school admission and are not included in score reports.
Law schools receive all of a candidate's reportable scores, and LSAC advises schools that the average score is the best predictor — though it notes that some schools place more weight on the highest score.
Career information for future law students and lawyers — not legal advice. The scale, the percentile method and the validity windows described here are LSAC's rules as of our October 2026 research; confirm current details on LSAC's scoring page.
Score rules belong to LSAC