.png)
The raw score is the number of LSAT questions you answer correctly in the scored sections, counted with no penalty for wrong answers. Your maximum raw score equals the total scored questions on your form. LSAC converts that raw score into the 120 to 180 scaled score reported to law schools, which is the figure that actually counts.
By Ali Unar, JD candidate at Georgetown Law and founder of Lovare Institut. Last updated August 2026. Figures on this page were verified in August 2026 or point readers to the current source.
Your LSAT raw score can range from zero up to the total number of scored questions on your form. Since August 2024 the scored sections are two Logical Reasoning sections and one Reading Comprehension section, with a fourth, unscored variable section that never touches your raw score. The exact number of scored questions varies slightly by form, so the ceiling on your raw score shifts year to year; see the linked U.S. News ranking for the current No. 1.
The raw score is only the starting point because law schools never see it; they see the scaled 120 to 180 score it converts into. LSAC equates every form and applies its conversion table so the scaled result means the same thing across test dates. This is why two people with different raw scores on different forms can share the same scaled score, and why the scaled figure is the one that decides applications.
The biggest misunderstanding is treating the raw score as a percentage, when it is a plain count that must be converted before it means anything on the 120 to 180 scale. Another is assuming a perfect raw score is required for a top scaled score, though on many forms a small number of misses still converts to a 180. Wrong answers are never penalized, so guessing always helps.
A good LSAT score is measured against your target schools, not a fixed threshold. On the 120 to 180 scale, a score at or above a school's median strengthens your application, since the LSAT weighs heavily in admissions. Use about 196 ABA-approved law schools as your benchmark.
The typical LSAT score, averaged across all test-takers, sits in the low 150s, roughly midway along the 120 to 180 scale. That figure edges up or down slightly each testing year with the applicant pool. For the current mean and median, check see the linked source (see the linked source) before benchmarking your own result.
The LSAT is scored in two steps: LSAC counts your correct answers as a raw score, then converts that raw score to a scaled 120 to 180 result using the conversion table for your form, with no penalty for wrong answers. 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