The National Admissions Test for Law, or LNAT, is an admissions aptitude test that was adopted in 2004 by eight UK

university A university () is an educational institution, institution of tertiary education and research which awards academic degrees in several Discipline (academia), academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase , which roughly ...

law programmes as an admissions requirement for home applicants. The test was established at the leading urgency of

Oxford University The University of Oxford is a collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the second-oldest continuously operating u ...

as an answer to the problem facing universities trying to select from an increasingly competitive pool with similarly high

A-levels The A-level (Advanced Level) is a subject-based qualification conferred as part of the General Certificate of Education, as well as a school leaving qualification offered by the educational bodies in the United Kingdom and the educational ...

. With effect from its second year, the LNAT is required for UK and overseas applicants alike. There are now nine participating law schools and hundreds of test centres worldwide.

Format

The LNAT is 135 minutes long and consists of two sections. The test taker is allotted 40 minutes to complete the essay and 95 minutes to answer 42 multiple-choice questions aimed at measuring reading comprehension and logical reasoning skills. The reading portion contains twelve short passages, with three or four questions about each passage. The questions typically ask for terms and arguments from the reading to be defined by inference. The essay portion is 40 minutes long and involves the candidate answering one of three available essay questions. The questions are generally open-ended prompts that can focus on any one of a wide variety of issues. The reading section is scored out of 42 and the essays are individually marked by

proctor Proctor (a variant of ''wikt:procurator, procurator'') is a person who takes charge of, or acts for, another. The title is used in England and some other English-speaking countries in three principal contexts: # In law, a proctor is a historica ...

s at the respective universities. The universities currently using the LNAT are: *

University of Bristol The University of Bristol is a public university, public research university in Bristol, England. It received its royal charter in 1909, although it can trace its roots to a Merchant Venturers' school founded in 1595 and University College, Br ...

Durham University Durham University (legally the University of Durham) is a collegiate university, collegiate public university, public research university in Durham, England, founded by an Act of Parliament (UK), Act of Parliament in 1832 and incorporated by r ...

University of Glasgow The University of Glasgow (abbreviated as ''Glas.'' in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals; ) is a Public university, public research university in Glasgow, Scotland. Founded by papal bull in , it is the List of oldest universities in continuous ...

King's College London King's College London (informally King's or KCL) is a public university, public research university in London, England. King's was established by royal charter in 1829 under the patronage of George IV of the United Kingdom, King George IV ...

University of Nottingham The University of Nottingham is a public research university in Nottingham, England. It was founded as University College Nottingham in 1881, and was granted a royal charter in 1948. Nottingham's main campus (University Park Campus, Nottingh ...

University of Oxford The University of Oxford is a collegiate university, collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the List of oldest un ...

SOAS, University of London The School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS University of London; ) is a public university, public research university in London, England, and a constituent college, member institution of the federal University of London. Founded in 1916, ...

(for students with BTEC qualifications) *

University College London University College London (Trade name, branded as UCL) is a Public university, public research university in London, England. It is a Member institutions of the University of London, member institution of the Federal university, federal Uni ...

* NUI Maynooth (mature entry only) *

IE University IE University, known as IE Universidad or Universidad Instituto de Empresa (lit. University Institute of Business), is a private university with campuses in Madrid Madrid ( ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in Spain, most populou ...

, Spain * Singapore University of Social Sciences, Singapore *

London School of Economics The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), established in 1895, is a public research university in London, England, and a member institution of the University of London. The school specialises in the social sciences. Founded ...

University of Cambridge The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...

(2022 applicants onwards)

Results

The LNAT was first administered on 3 November 2004. The average score for the reading portion was 13.16 out of 24. Four test-takers received a 21 out of 24, the highest score achieved; the lowest score achieved by the 4,345 candidates was 3. Men performed slightly better than women on the multiple-choice portion, scoring 13.37 and 13.02 on average, respectively. A

report on the scores expressed dissatisfaction with the ability of law candidates to develop "reasoned arguments". Men and women scored approximately equally to each other, in contrast to the distribution of A grades in A-level law, which were awarded to 19.3% of women and only 14.1% of men. The LNAT consortium also reported statistically insignificant differences in scores between state and independent students. Research conducted by the University of Bristol concluded: "the impact of the Lnat both in general and on specific supposedly sensitive

widening participation Widening participation (WP) in higher education can be a component of government education policy. It consists of an attempt to increase the number of young people entering higher education, and improve equality of opportunity for students from al ...

groups has been negligible".

Average scores

Entrants' mean average scores for the multiple choice element of the test in each year are as follows:

References

External links

*
Sample LNAT questions from the GuardianAdvice on taking the LNAT

Oxford University Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the publishing house of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world. Its first book was printed in Oxford in 1478, with the Press officially granted the legal right to print books ...

website
"The secret of winning a place to study law" by Alex Aldridge
in ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'' {{University admissions tests in the United Kingdom 2004 introductions Standardized tests for Law Legal profession exams Entrance examinations Legal education in the United Kingdom University of Oxford examinations