When to take the LSAT comes down to one calculation: pick the administration whose score release lands with room to spare before your application deadlines, and keep one later date in reserve in case you retake.
LSAC offers eight across the 2026–27 cycle, so the real choice is which month fits — your application year, your prep, and whether you are applying straight through or after a few years of work.
When should you take the LSAT relative to applications?
Choose the application cycle first, then the LSAT date that serves it — never the reverse.
Work backward from the deadlines at the schools on your list, subtract the score-release lag described below, and keep one administration in reserve for a retake.
The law school application timeline covers the school side of that calculation; this page covers the LSAT side.
Two LSAC timings do most of the work.
Registration for an administration closes about six weeks before test day, and scores arrive about three weeks after testing — so a November date produces a December score, and a January date produces a February one.
First-time test takers add one more dependency: LSAC does not release their score until they have completed LSAT Argumentative Writing and it has been approved, and that approval processing can take up to three weeks.
The writing sample opens about eight days before each administration, so you can finish it well before test day — just do not assume approval is instant.
That reserve date matters more than it looks.
If your first score comes in under target, the fix is another administration whose release still lands before your applications go in — a plan that only exists if your first date was early enough to allow it.
The retake rules behind the plan have limits of their own; they are in the questions at the bottom of this page.
How many test dates are there each year?
Eight in the current cycle: the 2026–27 LSAT is offered in August, September, October, November, January, February, April and June, plus the LSAT–Puerto Rico administration in February.
The shape of that list is the useful part — a dense fall block of four consecutive monthly dates, a January restart, and a thin spring with no December, March or May testing in this lineup.
One administration shows the whole pattern: the January 13–16, 2027 test registers by December 1, 2026, and its scores come out February 3.
Registration closes roughly six weeks out; scores arrive roughly three weeks later.
Those two lags — six weeks in front, three behind — are what turn any date on the calendar into a chain of deadlines, which is why the date you pick decides when your applications can be complete.
One change to plan around this cycle: since the August 2026 test, LSAC requires in-person testing at Prometric test centers, with remote testing only for limited medical/disability accommodations or for test takers living more than 180 miles or three hours from a center.
Weigh travel to a center when you compare dates — a convenient month with an inconvenient location is not the obvious choice it looks like.
LSAC keeps the live list of dates, registration deadlines and score releases on its own dates-and-deadlines page.
That page is the one to check before you commit to anything — this article deliberately explains the pattern rather than copying the calendar, because a copied calendar goes stale the day LSAC announces the next cycle.
Test calendars change every cycle
Should you work a few years first?
Both routes work, and the test fits each differently.
Go straight through — degree, test, applications — and you study while academic habits are still warm and your calendar is your own.
Work first, as a paralegal, a legal assistant, or in something unrelated to law, and you arrive at applications with professional experience, an income, and a far better read on whether three more years of school are worth the cost.
The fact that de-risks the second route is score validity.
A score stays reportable for five testing years after the testing year in which it was earned, and testing years run July 1 through June 30.
Take the LSAT in your last year of college, spend three years in a firm, and the score is still reportable when you apply — the plan holds as long as your application year falls inside the window.
Testing early is not a bet that expires the day you take a job.
The opposite route is just as legitimate: work first and test in the year you actually plan to apply.
You spare yourself a possible second test if your target score shifts once you have seen the schools you want — but you also give up slack: once you are working, a retake has to fit around a work calendar instead of a class one.
Decide by which resource you have more of right now: time or perspective.
Already working in a firm?
How far ahead do you register?
The deadline is about six weeks out on the 2026–27 dates LSAC has published — but the practical answer is earlier than that, because registration order buys options.
After you register, you schedule your actual session through Prometric's ProScheduler tool, and LSAC assigns scheduling windows in registration order: first register, first in line.
Your window is when you pick your Prometric center and session time, so registering early puts you in line ahead of later registrants.
Registration is also the cheapest point to change your mind.
Moving to a different test date is free through the original registration deadline and gets more expensive the further past it you wait — the fee ladder is in the questions below.
Career information, not legal advice. The dates and rules here are LSAC's published 2026–27 cycle; confirm current test dates, registration deadlines and fees with LSAC before you register.