If you’re taking a three-section LSAT preptest, use the tool below to find the experimental. Most people should take all four sections. Read on for why, and how the experimental works.
LSATHacks Experimental Section Checker
Find out which section was experimental on your PrepTest
Note: For accurate PT scores, take all four sections. Use this if you're skipping the experimental.
How to use the LSATHacks experimental section tool
If you’re taking an LSAT preptest and want to skip or otherwise know the experimental section, enter the preptest number and the tool will show you which section is experimental. By default, section types are hidden to avoid spoilers — click to reveal.
On test day, you cannot reliably identify the LSAT experimental section while taking the test. On PrepTests, however, the unscored section is known in advance, and this tool shows you which section it is.
Why would you want to do this?
- You have an accommodation that means you don’t take the experimental section.
- You’re short on time and want to do a three-section test instead of all four — you don’t have stamina concerns, but you still need to know which sections count so you can score the preptest properly.
What is the LSAT experimental section
The LSAT experimental section is commonly misunderstood. With good reason, as it refers to two separate things:
- On LSAT test day: A fourth unscored section used to test new LSAT questions and make sure they are valid.
- On LSAT Preptests: A fourth, unscored section, taken from a previously scored LSAT. The unscored section on LSAT PTs is just there to let you simulate the length of the test.
Why are these called experimental? It’s not an official name, LSAC uses “variable” or “unscored”. But everyone has been calling the section experimental for as long as the LSAT has been in its modern format. This made sense until 2024: before then, preptests largely didn’t have experimental sections. The experimental only appeared on test day, so test day’s LSAT was longer than the LSAT on PTs.
After 2024, LSAC added an unscored section to preptests, but it wasn’t experimental in any sense: the unscored sections are all from past official scored LSATs.
A bit of a muddle. For more information about this muddle of a situation, read on. We’ll start with test day.
What is the experimental section on LSAT test day?
The experimental section (officially called the “unscored section” or sometimes variable section) is an unscored section of your test on LSAT test day. It can be either logical reasoning or reading comprehension. It likely has two-thirds odds of being logical reasoning, because a regular LSAT has two scored logical reasoning sections and one scored reading comprehension section.
Experimental sections are how LSAC tests new questions and verifies that question difficulty is correct, that the questions don’t have errors, and that the questions don’t unfairly advantage one group over another. Every LSAT question that is officially scored on a test was first used on an experimental section to validate that it meets standards.
You will not know on test day which section is experimental. This is intentional: if you knew, you could just rest through it and not answer the questions, and the resulting data wouldn’t be accurate or useful. Most standardized tests have something like this. It’s not unique to the LSAT.
Why do I say the experimental is two-thirds likely to be logical reasoning? Any new LSAT has two scored LR sections and one scored RC section, a two-to-one ratio. LSAC needs new LR and RC sections in that ratio, so it likely tests experimental sections in roughly the same proportion. Note: this particular point is my hypothesis, not officially confirmed by LSAC.
That said, the best attitude is to expect the experimental will be the section type you don’t want it to be. If it is, you were already expecting it. If it isn’t, you’ll be pleasantly surprised.
How can you tell the experimental section on test day?
You can’t. Don’t try.
Will it feel different from other sections?
No. The experimental will not feel different from a regular LSAT section. It’s designed to replicate the current test.
I’ve had many students over the years who were convinced they knew a certain section was experimental, and it turned out to be scored. I even had one student take a nap during what they were certain was the experimental….and it was a scored section. Don’t do this. Don’t waste any mental energy trying to figure out which section is experimental. You have no data to do it with, and it’s not worth gambling your law school career on a guess.
What you can tell after the test
There is one thing you can tell about the experimental at the end of the test:
- If you had three logical reasoning sections, one of those three was experimental.
- If you had two reading comprehension sections, one of those two was experimental.
This is because a scored LSAT has exactly two LR sections and one RC section. Whichever section type went beyond that count is where the experimental was, but you won’t know which specific section it was.
After an official test, people often discuss online which sections and topics they had, and by process of elimination figure out that a given section was likely experimental. But this can only be done after the fact. The way it works: if someone had two LR sections, both were scored. If someone else had those same two sections plus a third LR section, that third section was, in theory, the experimental.
One caveat: new experimental material may feel a little different from older PrepTests because the LSAT changes over time. But newly created scored material can feel different too, so “feel” still won’t reliably identify the experimental.
What is the experimental section on an LSAT preptest? How is it different from test day?
There’s a big difference between an LSAT test and an LSAT preptest when it comes to experimentals.
LSAC includes an unscored section on every LSAT preptest. This is not, properly speaking, an experimental section, but everyone calls it that, so I’m using the same language in this article.
On LSAT preptests, LSAC has included a fourth unscored section to let you simulate the length of the test. That’s it. They are not using this section for testing, and the sections actually come from past official LSATs, so there’s no difference in quality from the scored sections.
How LSAT preptests are constructed
To understand why the “experimental” on a preptest is no different from the scored sections, look at how LSAT preptests are made.
When logic games was removed in 2024, LSAC renumbered the older preptests in the new three-section format, dropping the games section. For example, preptest 154 is a mix of two sources. The LR, LR and RC sections from PT 88 became the scored sections of PT 154. And then one section from PT 82 became the unscored section on PT 154. You can find the full constructions of current LSAT preptests here: LSAT Preptest Conversion Tables
Both preptests 88 and 82 were real preptests, previously administered on an official test day. The only difference between the two is now LSAC uses 82 only for unscored sections.
So the “experimental” on preptests is 100% an artifact of the construction process. It only exists to lengthen the test so you can simulate test day. It is not anything special or different from the other sections.
If you got a question right on an experimental section, that shows real knowledge of the LSAT. If you got a question wrong on an experimental section, that is really an LSAT question too, and you should review it just as much as you’d review a scored LSAT question.
The bottom line
That’s everything you need to know about the experimental section. People like to talk about it because it can be talked about, but honestly it’s a sideshow to actually preparing for the LSAT. In general, you’ll be better off thinking less about the experimental, not more. But now you have the full picture so you know exactly what it means and how to think about it. And if you find yourself needing to take a three section preptest, you can use the LSATHacks experimental section checker to figure out which section is experimental without spoilers.
Two takeaways:
- Experimental sections on preptests are real sections. They are just as valid for practice, and just as valid for review. They are just an artifact of how LSAC constructed the test.
- On real test day, don’t try to guess the experimental section. It’s not worth the mental energy. You won’t be able to figure out a useful answer. Your best bet is to do your best on every single question in front of you, focusing only on that question.
LSAT Experimental Section FAQ
What does Reddit have to do with the LSAT experimental section?
After an LSAT test, the LSAT subreddit generally hosts a post-test discussion thread where people post their scored section topics to help identify which sections were scored. That way you can confirm which sections you took were real, and by process of elimination, determine which of your sections was experimental. Note that posting experimental topics is not allowed in these threads: for test security reasons, discussion is only permitted after testing is complete.
Is the LSAT experimental section easier or harder?
Neither. On an LSAT preptest, the experimental section is a past official LSAT section, just like the scored sections on a preptest are past official LSAT sections. On test day, an experimental section is designed to be a new LSAT section that LSAC is testing, and since they design new sections to be like old sections, if LSAC has done its job correctly, the difficulty should be the same as a typical section.
Has the LSAT experimental section been removed from the LSAT?
No, not at present. There was a period during the pandemic, during the LSAT-Flex, when the LSAT had no experimental section and was a three-section test. However, that period has ended, and all LSATs now include an experimental section.
Can I get an accommodation for the experimental section?
As a non-standard accommodation, some students with extra time report that LSAC granted them an accommodation not to take the experimental section.
Will the experimental section be a specific section number?
No, it could be any section: 1, 2, 3, or 4. Years ago, the experimental was among the first three sections, but this hasn’t been the case for almost a decade.
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