LNAT Practice Tests: Official Papers, Sample Test and Worked Questions

The official LNAT practice tests are free on the LNAT website: an on-screen sample test that simulates the real test exactly as it appears at the test centre, and two downloadable practice test papers with a commentary and a marking scheme, alongside an online tutorial. The LNAT does not release past papers beyond these, so the practice tests are the real thing to save for timed mocks. Below are where to find each resource, an original Section A passage with worked questions in the LNAT style, and a schedule for using the official tests well.

Where to find official LNAT practice tests

Every official resource is on the LNAT website's practice test page, and all of them are free with unlimited attempts.

The LNAT also publishes a preparation guide and hints and tips, which are short and worth reading in full before the first practice test.

Are there LNAT past papers?

There are no LNAT past papers in the usual sense, since the questions from live tests are not released. The two practice test papers and the on-screen sample test are the official full-length material, and anything sold as "LNAT past papers" elsewhere is either a copy of these or a commercial imitation.

That makes the official material scarce, so it pays to plan its use. Most students do best by learning the question types on original practice passages first, as below, and keeping the two practice papers and the sample test for timed conditions later.

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How Section A works

Section A has 42 multiple-choice questions on 12 argumentative passages, with three or four questions on each, to be answered in 95 minutes. That is just under eight minutes per passage, including the reading, and the LNAT itself says the test does not put great emphasis on speed.

The questions test close reading of argument, and a handful of types recur:

• Main conclusion: which statement best expresses the point the author is arguing for.
• Assumption: what the argument takes for granted without stating it.
• Inference: what follows from the passage, or what can be concluded from a particular paragraph.
• Strengthen or weaken: which further piece of information would most support or undermine the argument.
• Meaning in context: what the author means by a word or phrase as used in the passage.
• Author's attitude or purpose: how the author regards a view described, or why a sentence is included.

Outside knowledge does not help and can mislead. The LNAT advises answering only from what the passage says, and there is no penalty for a wrong answer, so every question should have an answer.

An original LNAT-style practice passage

The passage and questions below are original, written to show the question types, and are not taken from any LNAT paper. Give yourself eight minutes for the passage and its questions, then check the explanations.

Paying to drive into the city

Every city that has introduced a charge for driving into its centre has faced the same objection: that a road paid for by taxation should be free at the point of use. The objection has an intuitive appeal, but it rests on a confusion between paying for a road and paying for space on it. Taxpayers fund the tarmac. What they cannot fund, however much they pay, is more room at eight o'clock in the morning, when every driver wants the same few miles at the same time.

A road at rush hour is a scarce resource allocated by queueing. Queueing is not free: it is paid for in time, and time is distributed no more fairly than money. The parent who must collect a child from nursery by six and the commuter with no fixed hours pay the same price in minutes, though the cost to the first is far higher. A charge does not create a price where none existed; it replaces one hidden price with another that can be seen, varied and spent.

Opponents reply that a charge falls hardest on those least able to pay. This is true of any flat charge, and it is the strongest argument against a badly designed scheme. It is not an argument against charging as such. Exemptions for those who must drive, discounts for residents on low incomes and a promise that the revenue will go to buses and not into general budgets can all reduce the burden, and none of them is available while the price is paid in time.

There is a further objection that deserves a serious answer: that the charge will simply move traffic from the centre to the streets around it. Where this has happened, it has usually been because the boundary was drawn too tightly. The answer is a larger zone, not abandoning the idea.

None of this means that a charge is right for every city. A town where the roads are empty by half past eight has no queue to replace. But wherever the queue exists, drivers already pay, and the only question left is how.

Question 1. Which of the following best expresses the main conclusion of the passage?

• A. Roads funded by taxation should never be charged for.
• B. Where roads are congested, a visible charge is a better way of rationing space than queueing.
• C. Congestion charges reduce the burden on drivers on low incomes.
• D. Every city should introduce a charge for driving into its centre.

Answer: B. The final paragraph limits the claim to places where "the queue exists" and concludes that drivers "already pay" and the only question is "how", which is the claim that a visible charge should replace queueing. D overstates it, since the passage says a charge is not right for every city. A is the objection the author rejects, and C is a possible effect of well-designed exemptions, not the conclusion.

Question 2. The argument in the second paragraph depends on which assumption?

• A. Parents of young children drive more than other commuters.
• B. Time spent in traffic is a real cost to the people who spend it.
• C. Charges always reduce traffic by a predictable amount.
• D. Money is distributed more fairly than time.

Answer: B. The claim that queueing "is paid for in time" only works as an argument if lost time is a genuine cost. D is close to the opposite of what the paragraph says, which is that time is distributed "no more fairly than money". A and C are not needed for the argument.

Question 3. Which of the following, if true, would most weaken the author's response to the objection about displaced traffic?

• A. In cities with large zones, traffic on the roads just outside the boundary still increased sharply.
• B. Some cities have used the revenue from charges to improve bus services.
• C. Residents of the zone often welcome lower traffic.
• D. Drivers dislike paying charges they can see.

Answer: A. The author answers the displacement objection by blaming zones drawn too tightly and proposing a larger one. Evidence that displacement happens even with large zones attacks that answer directly. B and C are consistent with the author's case, and D is irrelevant to displacement.

Question 4. In the second paragraph, the author describes queueing as "not free" in order to:

• A. show that drivers already pay for road space, so a charge changes the form of payment.
• B. argue that queueing is unfair to commuters without fixed hours.
• C. suggest that nursery opening hours should be extended.
• D. prove that time is more valuable than money.

Answer: A. The point leads to the sentence that a charge "replaces one hidden price with another". B reverses the example, in which the commuter without fixed hours is the one who loses less. C is not argued, and D overstates a comparison the passage never makes.

Question 5. Which of the following can be inferred about the author's view of the objection that charges fall hardest on those least able to pay?

• A. The author regards it as false.
• B. The author regards it as decisive against all charging schemes.
• C. The author regards it as a valid criticism of some schemes that design can answer.
• D. The author regards it as a weaker objection than the one about displaced traffic.

Answer: C. The author calls it "true of any flat charge" and "the strongest argument against a badly designed scheme", then lists design changes that reduce the burden. D cannot be inferred, since the passage never compares the strength of the two objections.

How to review a practice passage

The explanation of each wrong option teaches as much as the right answer, because LNAT distractors follow patterns: an option that overstates the author's claim, one that reverses it, one that is true but irrelevant, and one that relies on outside knowledge. Labelling the pattern for every option you considered, right or wrong, trains the eliminations you will need under time pressure.

Keep a short log after each passage with the question type, whether you were right, and the distractor pattern that caught you. After ten or twelve passages the log shows which question type costs the most marks.

How to use the official practice tests

The two practice test papers and the sample test give three full-length timed attempts, and they work best spread out over the final month.

1. Learn the question types first on original or commercial practice passages, untimed, until you can name each type quickly.
2. Sit practice test paper 1 under timed conditions about four weeks before the test, both sections, in 2 hours 15 minutes. Mark Section A with the marking scheme and read the commentary for every question.
3. Sit practice test paper 2 about two weeks before the test, again in full, and compare question-type results with the first attempt.
4. Sit the on-screen sample test in the final week, so that the software, navigation and the essay box are familiar on the day.
5. Keep essay practice going between the papers, using the sample essay questions. The LNAT essay questions guide has further original prompts and a model answer.

Between the timed papers, read argumentative writing every day. The LNAT recommends reading a quality daily newspaper in English, and opinion and analysis pieces are the closest match to the passages. The LNAT preparation plan sets out a full week-by-week schedule.

How to mark a practice test and read the score

Section A is marked out of 42, one mark per correct answer. The essay is not marked and does not count towards the LNAT score; it goes to the universities alongside the score. Your raw mark from a practice paper is therefore the same kind of score universities see from the live test, though practice papers and live tests differ slightly in difficulty. The LNAT scores guide explains how scores are reported and how universities use them.

Related guides

• LNAT guide: format, scoring and which universities require it
• University admissions tests in the UK
• Applying for law at Cambridge
• Applying for law at Oxford
• Law super-curricular activities
• Writing a personal statement in the new UCAS format

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