Hardest Questions Archive
Hardest LSAT practice questions: November 2026
Five hard original questions from November. The bank's hardest questions lean on missing links, so this set does too: find the assumption the argument needs, hold the whole quantifier chain, and don't let a confident tone substitute for a real link.
These are original practice questions written for LSATPathway. They are not from any real LSAT and do not predict your score.
Question 1 (Necessary assumption)
The city's new water-filtration plant uses the same treatment process as the neighboring town's plant, which has produced clean drinking water for ten years. The city council therefore concluded that the new plant will produce clean drinking water for city residents.
The council's conclusion requires the assumption that
- the source water the new plant will treat is not significantly more contaminated than the neighboring town's source water
- the neighboring town's plant will continue operating for ten more years
- no city resident currently buys bottled water
- the new plant was built by the same contractor as the neighboring town's plant
- residents will drink more water once the new plant opens
Show answer and explanation
Answer: A
The argument transfers success from one plant to another because they share a process. That only works if the other conditions are comparable, and the one that matters is the input: the water itself. Negation test: if the city's source water were far more contaminated, the same process might not produce clean water, and the conclusion collapses. Choice B is about the other plant's future, not this one. Choice D is about who built the plant, not the process. Choices C and E have nothing to do with whether the plant works.
Question 2 (Flaw)
Each member of the debate team spends an hour a day reading the news, so the team's victory in the regional championship must have been caused by its members' news-reading habit rather than by coaching or strategy.
The reasoning is flawed because it
- treats a habit of individual members as the complete explanation for a team victory, without ruling out coaching or strategy
- attacks a member of the debate team instead of engaging with the evidence
- relies on a survey of debate teams that is too small to be representative
- uses the word "victory" in two different senses
- draws a conclusion about the past from evidence gathered too recently to apply
Show answer and explanation
Answer: A
News-reading may well help, but a fact about individuals cannot by itself settle a team-level causal claim. The argument declares the habit THE cause and excludes coaching and strategy without any evidence against them. There is no personal attack (B), no survey (C), no shifted term (D), and no time gap in the evidence (E).
Question 3 (Inference)
Every novel on the shortlist was praised by at least one critic. No novel praised by the Gazette made the shortlist. Some novels praised by the Gazette won major awards.
Which of the following must be true?
- Some novels that won major awards were not on the shortlist.
- No shortlisted novel won a major award.
- Every novel praised by the Gazette won a major award.
- At least one shortlisted novel was praised by the Gazette.
- Novels that win major awards are never shortlisted.
Show answer and explanation
Answer: A
Chain it: some Gazette-praised novels won awards, and every Gazette-praised novel missed the shortlist, so those award-winning novels are not on the shortlist. Choice B goes too far: a shortlisted novel could have won an award with praise from a different critic. Choice C flips the "some." Choice D contradicts the second premise. Choice E says "never," which the premises do not support.
Question 4 (Strengthen)
The library's new late-night hours will increase total borrowing, because a survey found that 60 percent of non-borrowers cite inconvenient hours as their reason for not using the library.
Which of the following would most strengthen the prediction?
- Libraries in comparable towns that extended their hours saw total borrowing rise even after accounting for population growth.
- The survey of non-borrowers had an unusually high response rate.
- Most current borrowers visit the library during the day.
- The library plans to advertise the new late-night hours widely.
- Non-borrowers outnumber current borrowers in the town.
Show answer and explanation
Answer: A
Choice A shows the same intervention producing the predicted effect elsewhere, with the obvious confound (population growth) controlled. That directly supports the conclusion. Choice B speaks to the survey's reliability but never connects hours to borrowing. Choice C describes current habits. Choice D adds a different mechanism, advertising. Choice E does not show that hours are the cause.
Question 5 (Main point)
Critics say the new arena will ruin the neighborhood's character. But the arena replaces a vacant lot that has sat empty for a decade, and the development plan funds a public park next door. The real question is not whether the arena changes the neighborhood, every new building changes a neighborhood, but whether the change leaves residents better off. By that measure, the arena is an improvement.
The main point of the argument is that
- the arena will leave neighborhood residents better off than the vacant lot does
- the new arena will not change the neighborhood's character
- every new building changes the character of its neighborhood
- the development plan should include funding for a public park
- the critics' concerns about the neighborhood are entirely baseless
Show answer and explanation
Answer: A
The conclusion is the final evaluative judgment: judged by whether residents are better off, the arena is an improvement. Choice B contradicts the author's concession that the character will change. Choice C is that concession, used to reframe the question. Choice D is a stated fact about the plan, a premise. Choice E overstates: the author never claims the critics are wrong about everything, only that the change is an improvement by the standard that matters.
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