Overview
What LNAT is, and who it suits
Section A presents twelve passages of argument — editorials, essays, extracts on ethics, science, politics and culture — each with three or four questions asking what the writer assumes, what a word or phrase means in context, which statement best captures the argument, or what would weaken it. Answers can be reviewed at any time within the 95 minutes, but the section closes for good when Section B begins. Section B offers three essay questions on contested issues and asks for a reasoned, economical argument reaching a conclusion in 40 minutes.
The LNAT does not replace A levels, the IB or their Indian equivalents. Universities use the score alongside qualifications, the UCAS form and the personal statement, and there is no fixed weight: some use the essay as the basis for interview questions, some compare it with the personal statement, some use it to separate borderline candidates. Scores go to universities from 21 October for tests taken up to 20 October and within 24 hours of the test thereafter; candidates themselves receive the result by email in mid-February if they sat on or before 26 January, and in mid-August otherwise.
What makes the LNAT distinctive
- No knowledge is tested — the passages are chosen to be unfamiliar and the questions to reward close reading of argument.
- An essay the universities read — unmarked by the consortium, but an Oxford or LSE tutor may build an interview or a decision on it.
- Universities see the score before the candidate — a candidate applies without knowing the result, so the decision to apply cannot depend on it.
- One attempt per cycle — an unauthorised second sitting invalidates the later test.
Timing against the university, not the test
The LNAT can be sat on any day a centre has a slot from 1 September, but the deadline is set by the university: Oxford and Cambridge applicants must sit by 15 October, King’s, the LSE and UCL applicants by 31 December, Bristol and Durham applicants by 13 January, and the rest by 25 January, each with a booking deadline a week or more earlier. A test taken before the summer does not count for the following cycle.
