LNAT Preparation: An Eight-Week Plan for Both Sections

Preparing for the LNAT is mostly a matter of reading well under time pressure and arguing clearly in writing, and both improve with regular practice over several weeks. The National Admissions Test for Law tests no legal knowledge, so there is no content to learn, and the official materials are limited, which makes the way a student uses them important. The plan below runs over eight weeks before the test, with advice on Section A technique, essay practice, reading habits and timing the test around the university deadlines.

When to sit the LNAT

The best time to sit depends on the universities applied to, since each group of LNAT universities has its own deadline. Registration opens in early August and testing begins in early September, and a test taken before the summer holiday of the application year does not count.

The exact dates for the current cycle are in the key facts. A student applying to Oxford or Cambridge and to other LNAT universities sits once, by the earliest deadline, and the score goes to all of them. Since the score cannot be resat in the same cycle, sitting when preparation is complete matters more than sitting early, within the earliest deadline that applies.

Official LNAT preparation materials

The LNAT website provides everything below free:

• An on-screen sample test that works like the real test at the test centre.
• Two practice test papers with a commentary and a marking scheme.
• A preparation guide with advice from LNAT examiners and students, sample questions with answers and examiners' rationales, and recommended reading.
• Hints and tips on both sections, including clear guidance on what makes a good essay.
• Sample essay questions, three of them with sample answers.

Since there are no past papers, the official practice papers are best kept for timed mocks later in the plan. The LNAT practice test page explains how to use them and includes an original practice passage with worked answers.

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An eight-week LNAT preparation plan

The plan assumes about four to five hours a week alongside school work. Students sitting in October can start in the summer holiday after Year 12, while students sitting later have more room to spread the same stages out.

Section A technique

Section A gives 95 minutes for 12 passages and 42 questions, which is just under eight minutes per passage including reading time. The LNAT says the test does not put great emphasis on speed, and most students find that careful reading earns more marks than fast reading.

Four habits help:

• Read the whole passage first. Questions on the main argument and the author's assumptions depend on understanding the passage as a whole.
• Find the support in the passage for each answer. An option that is true, or reasonable, in the world is wrong if the passage does not support it.
• Watch for qualified claims. Passages often say "some", "usually" or "may", and options that drop the qualification are usually wrong.
• Answer every question. No marks are lost for wrong answers, and questions marked for review must be revisited before moving on to the essay, since the multiple-choice section cannot be reopened afterwards.

Essay practice

The essay improves fastest with timed practice and honest review. The LNAT essay questions page sets out a 40-minute structure, ten original practice questions and an original model answer. Each practice essay should be checked against three questions: whether the position is clear in the introduction, whether each paragraph makes one point that supports it, and whether the strongest objection gets a real answer.

Writing at the LNAT's ideal length of 500 to 600 words is itself a skill. Students who tend to write long benefit from practising with a word limit, and students who write short benefit from planning a third reason or a second objection.

Reading habits that help both sections

Since the passages and essay questions range widely, broad reading is the most useful long-term preparation. The LNAT's own advice from former candidates mentions reading newspapers regularly. Opinion columns, long-form journalism and essays on politics, ethics, science and culture are all useful, especially those that argue a case. A short habit works well: after each piece, write down the main conclusion, the reasons given and one assumption the writer makes, which is close to what Section A asks.

The week of the test

The final week should be light. Students should confirm the booking and the test centre, check that their identification meets the LNAT's requirements, and sit the on-screen sample test once so the software is familiar. On the day, the test runs straight from Section A into Section B, so arriving early and rested matters more than last-minute practice.

Related guides

• LNAT guide: format, scoring and which universities require it
• LNAT practice tests
• LNAT essay questions
• LNAT scores
• Oxford law entry requirements, LNAT and interviews
• Applying for law at Cambridge
• Super-curricular activities for law

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Students preparing for the LNAT often want timed practice with feedback on both sections, from someone who can explain why an answer is wrong and where an essay loses its argument. Our tutors are graduates of Russell Group universities, including Oxford and Cambridge, and the tutor pool includes former heads of department and school leaders, experienced exam-board examiners, teachers from independent and boarding schools, and educational consultants with independent-school admissions experience.

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