If you’re starting LSAT prep and practicing logic games, here’s the short version: the LSAT no longer has logic games. The section was removed. The last LSAT to include logic games was administered in June 2024, and every LSAT from August 2024 onward has none.
So if you’re studying for an upcoming test, you do not need to learn logic games. They’re gone, and nothing new replaced them. The LSAT now has three scored sections: two LR and one RC (more on that below).
Why do some LSAT practice tests have logic games?
When logic games were removed, LSAC also renumbered the prep tests, and the numbering tells you which format you’re holding:
- PrepTests 1–94 are the old format. These have logic games.
- PrepTests 101–159 (and counting) are the new format. These have no logic games.
The new preptests are not new content. LSAC created the newly numbered preptests out of the LR and RC sections from the original preptests. You can read about how LSAC constructed the preptests here.
There’s one exception worth knowing about. A handful of older tests were never converted: PrepTests 1–18, 21, 23, and the February 1997 LSAT. These still have logic games and weren’t folded into the new numbering. They aren’t useless, though: their logical reasoning and reading comprehension sections are great for extra practice, since that material doesn’t appear in any of the converted tests.
How did the LSAT format change when logic games were removed?
For almost the entire history of the LSAT, the test had two logical reasoning sections, one reading comprehension section, and one logic games section. Any old print or PDF exams you may find are in this format.
Then, confusingly, in the pandemic, LSAC removed one LR section, so the test had: 1 LG, 1 LR, 1 RC. This brief period preceded the removal of logic games, so you’ll see many sites state that LSAC “replaced LG with an extra LR”.
Technically true, but effectively LSAC simply reverted to the old format, which always had two LR….and then deleted logic games. So every current LSAT now has:
- Two scored logical reasoning sections
- One scored reading comprehension section
- One unscored section of either type (logical reasoning or reading comprehension)
- No logic games
Why did LSAC remove logic games?
It was the result of a lawsuit.
Briefly: a blind student requested that LSAC let them take the LSAT without the logic games section, since the diagrams most people used to solve games make the section much harder for blind test takers. At the time, LSAC was very strict about accommodations (they’re very permissive now), and they denied the request. That spiraled into a lawsuit, which eventually settled with the remedy being that LSAC had to remove logic games from the LSAT.
The settlement gave LSAC a four-year window to research the removal. That deadline landed around 2023, and LSAC removed games about a year later, having done its research and decided not to replace them with anything new.
The change was heavily debated, and there are real questions about test validity without logic games. But that’s a moot point now: there are no logic games on the LSAT anymore.
Further reading:
How has removing logic games affected the LSAT?
Honestly, it’s unclear. In LSAC’s research report, they state that mean and median scores didn’t change very much. What they haven’t shown, however, is the percentile data. Whether there are outliers whose scores would change a lot with or without games. They also did not and could not study how LSAT prep would change without logic games.
From a student’s perspective, though, two changes are clear.
1. Diagnostic scores are often higher. Logic games were historically the section students scored the worst on with no prior exposure. It used to be common for a student to score low at first, then jump 10–15 points as they improved across all sections, but especially logic games. A student might get 12 out of 23 on their first logic games section and then learn to do it almost perfectly within a month or two. Now it’s more common for students to start in the 160s – almost unheard of previously. But it’s also much more common for some students who start high not to improve as much from their starting point.
2. There’s much less to study. Logic games were where students put some of their heaviest effort. They also indirectly built up the formal logic skills that show up in logical reasoning. Formal logic is a comparatively small slice of logical reasoning, so without games it can feel a little pointless to learn extensive diagramming strategies that might only apply to one or two questions on the whole test. Back when games were around, you picked up those diagramming skills as a side effect of learning to do them.
The bottom line: not much has actually changed. Anything that worked on logical reasoning still works on the current logical reasoning, and anything that worked on reading comprehension still works on current reading comprehension.
Is there any point in practicing logic games now?
Largely no: unless you enjoy logic puzzles. (Logic Games are a genuinely great, fun source of them.)
That said, if you find the formal logic or “math” portions of logical reasoning tough, practicing a couple of games can help train that specific skill. The ones I’d most recommend are the in-out games, which involve diagramming chains of logic. The skills tested by these games help fairly directly with a subset of logical reasoning questions.
The most famous and useful example is the “birds in the forest” game (PrepTest 33, Section 4, Game 2). Do this game, then do it again a few days later, and keep redoing it until you know it backwards and forwards and can form the diagram instantly.
It teaches you how to diagram conditional statements, take their contrapositive, diagram an “and”/”or,” take the contrapositive of an “and”/”or,” and think through the logic. There’s usually one or two questions per prep test that are very hard without these skills and very easy with them. And if you’re not strong on math or visualization, working through games will indirectly sharpen you for math questions and anything else that demands analytical precision.
Most students don’t need to do this. But if you’ve hit a wall and want to try something different, you can run this game in under 10 minutes and see if it helps. You can get it legally by buying a paper copy of LSAT PrepTest 33: LSAC sells it in a book covering PrepTests 29–38. You may also find an old copy at a library or elsewhere.
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