What Are LSAT Logical Reasoning Questions? 5 Types With Worked Examples

LSAT logical reasoning questions each give you a short argument and ask one question about it. You might have to find the assumption, strengthen or weaken the argument, spot its flaw, or say what must be true. The LSAT has 50 scored logical reasoning questions across two sections, and LSAC says you get an average of 84 seconds for each. The section tests how well you analyse arguments, not general intelligence.

Below: LSAC's own list of skills and the question types they turn into. Then five worked examples we wrote ourselves, the time you get, and whether the LSAT logical reasoning test says anything about IQ. We did not copy any LSAC question.

What are LSAT logical reasoning questions?

An LSAT logical reasoning question is a short passage that makes an argument, followed by one question about that argument. You may see the section called LSAT questions logical reasoning, logical reasoning questions LSAT or simply LR; all three mean the same thing. LSAC says the passages come from newspapers, general-interest magazines, scholarly publications, advertisements and informal discourse. They mirror legal reasoning, although few are about law.

Three terms do most of the work. A premise is a reason the author gives. The conclusion is the claim those reasons are meant to support. An assumption is the unstated link between them, and many questions aim at it. LSAC says you need a university-level grasp of argument, premise, assumption and conclusion, but no specialist terms such as "ad hominem" or "syllogism".

The format changed recently. LSAC removed the analytical reasoning section, known as logic games, after the June 2024 test, and added a second logical reasoning section in its place. Our LSAT score percentiles guide covers the section layout now and from August 2027.

What are the LSAT logical reasoning question types?

LSAC does not publish a numbered list of question types. It lists the skills the questions assess, and prep books give each skill a shorter name. The left side below is LSAC's wording; the right side is the label you will see in prep books.

• Recognising the parts of an argument and how they relate: main point and role-of-a-statement questions
• Drawing well-supported conclusions: inference ("must be true") questions
• Detecting assumptions: assumption questions
• Determining how additional evidence affects an argument: strengthen and weaken questions
• Identifying flaws in arguments: flaw questions
• Recognising similarities and differences between patterns of reasoning: parallel-reasoning questions
• Reasoning by analogy: method-of-argument and analogy questions
• Identifying and applying principles or rules: principle questions
• Identifying explanations: resolve-the-paradox questions
• Recognising misunderstandings or points of disagreement: point-at-issue questions

The next two sections show five of these in action. Every example below is our own.

What does an LSAT logical reasoning question look like? A worked example

Read this short argument first: A secondary school lengthened its maths lessons from 40 to 50 minutes. The next year, its average maths score rose by 6 points. The head teacher concludes that longer lessons raise maths scores.

The premises are the longer lessons and the 6-point rise. The conclusion is that the lessons caused the rise. The gap between them is the assumption: that nothing else caused the rise. Three different questions can be built on the same gap.

• Assumption question, "the argument depends on which assumption?": the best answer is that the rise was not mainly caused by something other than the longer lessons. A wrong answer such as "pupils enjoy maths" is true-sounding but the argument does not need it
• Strengthen question: the best answer is that nearby schools with similar pupils kept 40-minute lessons and their scores did not rise. It rules out a general trend as the cause
• Weaken question: the best answer is that the school also hired two experienced maths teachers that year. It offers a rival cause for the same rise

Notice that all three questions point at one thing: what connects the reasons to the conclusion. Strengthen answers close the gap, weaken answers widen it, and assumption answers name it.

What do flaw and inference questions look like?

A flaw question asks why the reasoning fails. Try this one: Everyone on the school chess team scored above 90 out of 100 on a reasoning test. Priya scored above 90 out of 100 on that test. So Priya must be on the chess team.

The flaw is a reversal. The premise says every team member has the trait, not that everyone with the trait is a team member. The best answer says the argument treats a trait that every team member has as proof that anyone with the trait belongs to the team. A wrong answer that says the reasoning test may be inaccurate attacks a premise, not the logic.

An inference question asks what must follow from statements you accept. Try this: All of the museum's paintings from before 1900 are on loan. Some of the museum's paintings in the east gallery are not on loan. The answer that must be true is that at least one painting in the east gallery was painted in 1900 or later. A painting from before 1900 would be on loan, so one that is not on loan cannot be from before 1900.

For inference questions, LSAC's advice applies: do not pick a response simply because it is true. A true statement may not answer the question you were asked, and you must work from the information in the passage even if you disagree with it.

How much time do you get for each LSAT logical reasoning question?

LSAC says test takers have an average of 84 seconds for each logical reasoning question, in the current format and in the one that starts with the August 2027 test. The new format gives each logical reasoning section 45 minutes for 32 questions, which is 84 seconds a question by our arithmetic. Of the 32, 25 are scored and 7 are unscored, and test takers are not told which is which.

For scale, a Wonderlic question gets 14.4 seconds on average (50 questions in 12 minutes), so an LSAT question gets almost six times as long. That time buys depth, not speed: our Wonderlic score guide shows the opposite design.

Is the LSAT logical reasoning test an IQ test?

No. LSAC describes the section as a test of argument analysis built to mirror legal reasoning, and it publishes no LSAT-to-IQ conversion. An LSAT percentile ranks you against people who chose to take a law-school admission test, not against the whole population. We set out what the research does show in our guide on LSAT and IQ and in the review of the average IQ of lawyers.

If you want to practise similar thinking, our logical reasoning test and logic puzzles use the same kinds of steps, though neither is the LSAT. Brain teasers are a different thing again, as our piece on riddles versus IQ test items explains, and number sequence puzzles train rule-finding rather than argument analysis.

How can you practise LSAT logical reasoning questions?

• Find the conclusion first, then underline the reasons that support it
• Say the assumption in your own words before you read the answer choices
• Check each answer against the exact question: a true statement can still be the wrong answer
• Use official practice tests: LSAC says its LawHub will add tests in the new format from February 2027, and the current ones stay available through the June 2027 test
• Once you can name the question type on sight, practise logical reasoning questions LSAT-style: timed at 84 seconds each, one at a time

A percentile calculator helps once you have a practice score: our IQ percentile calculator shows how percentiles map onto the IQ scale, with the same caution about selected groups. To see how your reasoning compares with the whole population, try the IQ test.

Common questions