The Reading Comprehension part of the LSAT contains four passages. Three of the passages are long, containing a few paragraphs, and one is short. Five to eight multiple-choice questions follow each passage, and you have 35 minutes to complete this section. According to the Law School Admission Council, the questions in the Reading Comprehension section test your ability to reason and read and understand complex materials. The questions may ask you to identify an author’s main point, word use or tone. The Manhattan LSAT website shares that the topics that you may find in this section include humanities, natural sciences, social sciences and law.
The Analytical Reasoning section contains four logic problem-type passages with 25 multiple-choice questions to answer within 35 minutes. According to the Manhattan LSAT site, the passages in this section are sometimes called “logic games.” The purpose of the Analytical Reading section is to test your ability to group, order and assign relationships, and draw logical conclusions about statements, rules, events, items or people. Some of the questions ask you to consider what might happen if you apply a certain condition to the passage.
The council divides the logical reasoning section into two parts. The two parts have a total of 25 short passages with one or two multiple-choice questions that follow. You have 35 minutes to complete each Logical Reasoning section. The questions evaluate your critical thinking and reasoning skills as you identify logical errors, assumptions and argument structures.
The writing sample, or essay, section of the LSAT is the only part of the test that isn’t scored, according to the Law School Admission Council. However, the council sends the essay that you write to the law schools that receive your admission application. The Princeton Review says that the passage in the Writing Sample section serves as a prompt. The prompt asks you to form an opinion and write an essay within 35 minutes. This section of the LSAT tests your ability to formulate and support an argument in writing.