LSAT Timing Strategy
A plan for the clock beats racing the clock.
The LSAT gives you 35 minutes per section. Per LSAC, the scored sections are two Logical Reasoning sections and one Reading Comprehension section, plus one unscored experimental section. Treat every section as scored. You will not know which one does not count.
This page is strategy, not a stopwatch. The plan below tells you how to spend your minutes. Practice it until it is habit.
Two tools go with this guide: the LSAT hours calculator and the free diagnostic.
Know the format
- Each section is 35 minutes, per LSAC.
- Logical Reasoning: about 25 to 26 questions per section. That is roughly a minute and change per question.
- Reading Comprehension: about 27 questions across four passage sets. That is about 8 to 9 minutes per set.
- There is no guessing penalty. A blank and a wrong answer score the same: zero. Never leave a question blank.
The two-pass method
Pass one: answer every question you can solve at a normal pace. When a question resists, mark it and move on. Do not wrestle.
Pass two: return to the marked questions with your remaining time. You will often see them fresh, and you have already banked the easy points.
The two-pass method works because questions are not ordered by difficulty for you. Your hard question 7 might be someone else’s easy question 7. Points are points.
Logical Reasoning pacing
- Budget about 35 minutes for about 25 to 26 questions. If a question eats two minutes with no progress, mark it and move on.
- The first ten questions tend to be easier. Bank them quickly and build a time cushion.
- Parallel reasoning questions are long. Save them for pass two if they slow you down.
- Keep a simple sense of pace: halfway through the time, you should be roughly halfway through the questions.
Reading Comprehension pacing
- Budget about 8 to 9 minutes per passage set, including its questions.
- Read the passage once, for structure. Do not reread it top to bottom for each question.
- Answer the main point question first if there is one. It confirms your reading.
- For detail questions, jump back to the labeled paragraph. Your structure map tells you where to look.
- Comparative reading sets are shorter passages. They should take less than a full set, not more.
When to move on
Use a simple rule: if you have read the question twice and have no path forward, mark it and move on. Staring does not create insight. Fresh eyes later often do.
Moving on is not giving up. It is protecting the points waiting in later questions.
How to build pacing in practice
- Accuracy first. Practice untimed until your method is solid. Speed on top of bad habits just makes faster mistakes.
- Add gentle pacing. Do sets with a loose time budget, not a countdown. Note where the time goes.
- Full timed sections. Take complete 35-minute sections under real conditions. Review every marked question afterward.
- Review the clock, not just the answers. After each timed section, ask which questions ate your time and whether the two-pass method would have saved it.
Next steps
Pick one habit from this page, probably the two-pass method, and use it on your next practice section. Add the rest one at a time.
Put it into practice
The free diagnostic scores every question type and shows exactly where you are losing points.