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The LSAT has no passing score; it is scored on a 120 to 180 scale with no pass or fail designation. Because law schools admit based on how your score compares to their published medians, the real question is not passing but whether your score meets your target schools' 50th percentile marks. That threshold differs at every school.
By Ali Unar, JD candidate at Georgetown Law and founder of Lovare Institut. Last updated August 2026. Every figure on this page was verified in August 2026 against the sources listed below.
The LSAT does not have a passing score. Unlike licensing exams that set a cutoff, the LSAT reports a scaled score from 120 to 180 and a percentile, and admissions committees interpret that number rather than checking it against a fixed line. No score automatically qualifies or disqualifies you; the score simply becomes one major input, alongside GPA, into each school's decision.
Your score is high enough when it meets or exceeds the medians at the schools you want to attend, because those 50th percentile figures are the clearest gauge of competitiveness. A given score can be strong at one program and weak at another, so high enough is always relative to your list. Compare your result to about 196 ABA-approved law schools to judge it.
People expect a passing score because most high-stakes tests have one, and the LSAT's importance makes it feel like a hurdle to clear. In practice, the LSAT is a ranking instrument, not a pass/fail gate, so the useful comparison is percentile and school medians rather than any cutoff. Framing it as pass or fail can lead applicants to aim too low or misjudge their odds.
A good LSAT score meets or beats the medians at your target law schools, since the 120 to 180 scale has no passing mark and results are relative to your list. The LSAT carries heavy weight, so clearing a school's median matters. Reference your target schools' published 25th-50th-75th percentile figures for your benchmark.
The mean LSAT score for all test-takers sits in the low 150s, roughly the midpoint of the 120 to 180 scale, and shifts a little each testing year. That average is not a passing standard, only a reference point. See the low-to-mid 150s (LSAC does not publish a single headline average; the median falls near 152 on the percentile tables) and weigh it against your target schools' medians.
LSAT scoring converts your raw score, the number of correct answers, into a scaled 120 to 180 score through a form-specific conversion table, with no penalty for wrong answers and no pass/fail cutoff. Since August 2024 the scored content is two Logical Reasoning sections and one Reading Comprehension section, plus one unscored variable section.
Verified August 2026.
August 21, 2026
August 21, 2026