The LSAT’s “Experimental” Section

I often get questions from pre-law students about the LSAT’s “experimental” section, including whether it is “harder” or “easier” than the remaining graded part of the exam. The answer to that question is a bit more involved than it may seem. Let’s start with a brief description of the LSAT itself:

The Composition of the Modern LSAT

• The LSAT consists of four sections (not counting the ungraded LSAT Argumentative Writing section).
• Three of the four sections are “graded,” including two Logical Reasoning sections and one Reading Comp section.
• The fourth section of the LSAT is the ungraded “experimental” section, which may be either (1) a third Logical Reasoning section, or (2) a second Reading Comp section.

The Purpose of the Official LSAT’s “Experimental” Section 

The reason LSAC includes an “experimental” section is to use current LSAT-takers to help them pre-test potential future LSAT questions. All LSAT-takers receive one extra section (Logical Reasoning or Reading Comp). The LSAT-takers are not told which section the “experimental” one is. The idea is that the writers of the LSAT can evaluate if a question is too easy, too difficult, too vague, etc. by using the “experimental” section in this way.

Since the purpose of the “experimental” section is to pre-test future LSAT questions, there is no reason to believe that questions on the “experimental” section will be easier or more difficult than any other section. About the only thing one can say about the “experimental” section on the official LSAT is that the questions will not have quite the same degree of quality control, since they haven’t gone through as extensive of an evaluation as the graded sections of the LSAT.

The Purpose of the “Experimental” Section in Practice LSAT PrepTests

You may have noticed that the modern set of LSAT PrepTests (LSAT PrepTest 101 onward) includes an “experimental” section. That was not the case in the prior set of LSAT practice exams (i.e., practice LSATs 1-94).

The reason that LSAC uses an “experimental” section in modern practice LSAT PrepTests is to allow students to better simulate the official exam when they are practicing. LSAC does this by adding an “experimental” section to create practice exams that include four sections, three of which are graded (and one of which is “experimental”) – exactly like the official LSAT.

LSAC took some of the old practice LSATs (1-94) and used them to create “experimental” sections in the modern LSAT PrepTests (101 onward). For example, the modern LSAT PrepTest 131 consists of (1) the two Logical Reasoning sections and one Reading Comp section from former LSAT 59, and (2) one of the Logical Reasoning sections from former LSAT 51. The Logical Reasoning section from former LSAT 51 is treated as the “experimental” section of LSAT PrepTest 131.

In this sense, “experimental” is a bit of a misnomer in the modern practice LSAT PrepTests: the “experimental” section of the modern LSAT PrepTests are actual sections from real prior LSATs. As a result, those questions definitely would not be harder or easier than the real thing because they are the real thing!

Questions? Please contact me at mark@scoreitup.com. Good luck!!