How to Pace the LSAT: The Only Timing Guide You’ll Ever Need
- Sarah Silverwood
- Dec 14, 2025
- 3 min read
A pacing guideline is a flexible roadmap for each section. It ensures you’re moving at the right speed without micromanaging every question. It’s the bridge between speed and accuracy, the two forces that determine your LSAT score.
Time Management: The Nexus of Speed and Accuracy
Rushing leads to mistakes.
Going too slowly limits how many questions you can reach.
Your actual goal is to find your personal efficiency sweet spot — the pace where you’re accurate and consistent. That takes practice, data, and honest self-assessment.
Early in your prep, it’s normal to:
run out of time
feel slow
get stuck on tough questions
panic when a stimulus feels confusing
But as you internalize LSAT techniques and patterns, two things naturally improve:
your accuracy, because you’re thinking in LSAT logic
your speed, because the techniques become automatic
The test is designed to throw you off-balance psychologically. Good time management keeps you calm, strategic, and emotionally steady even when the section becomes difficult.
Two Critical Mindset Rules
The goal is to win the war, not every battle.
How to Build Your Pacing Guideline
A pacing guideline is a loose blueprint — not a second-by-second script.
Follow these steps:
Time yourself religiously.
Learn how long a “typical” question takes you while maintaining accuracy.
Set simple benchmarks.
E.g., “Where do I want to be after 10 minutes? After 20 minutes?”
Use easy-to-remember markers (5, 10, 15, 20 min).
If your guideline is too complex to remember, it’s useless.
Account for difficulty curves.
LR Q1–10 are usually easier → go faster.
Later questions → expect slowdown.
Keep it flexible.
Sections vary in difficulty. Your plan should bend, not break.
Use real data—not hope.
Build guidelines around your actual performance, not idealized goals.
Monitor your pace in real time.
If you’re ahead → confidence boost.
If you’re behind → tighten focus and move faster.
You wouldn’t run a triathlon without knowing your pace.
The LSAT is a triathlon for the mind.
Recommended LSAT Pacing Guidelines (LR + RC)
These are starting templates based on mastery-level best practices and the timing tables from the text you provided. You can customize them after gathering your own data.
Logical Reasoning (LR)
General Timing Reality
You have:
24 questions → 1:27 per question
25 questions → 1:24 per question
26 questions → 1:20 per question
But LR is a roller coaster: some Qs take 45 seconds, others take 2 minutes.
Baseline Pacing Guideline (for most students aiming 160–170)
0–10 min: Q1–8
10–20 min: Q9–14
20–30 min: Q15–22 (harder, expect slowdown)
30–35 min: Return to flagged Qs or finish remaining ones
Time targets per question:
Easy: 1:00
Medium: 1:20–1:30
Hard: 1:40–2:00
Alternative LR Pacing Templates
A. Can Almost Finish (22–24 questions)
0–14 min: Q1–10
14–32 min: Q11–20
32–35 min: Pick off the shortest remaining questions
B. Can Reliably Reach Q20
0–15 min: Q1–10
15–35 min: Q11–20
End: Guess the remaining questions
C. Aiming to Finish Most or All LR (High Scorers)
0–10 min: Q1–8
10–20 min: Q9–15
20–30 min: Q16–21
30–35 min: Finish/review
Use this if you’re shooting for 165+ and generally finish LR in practice.
Reading Comprehension (RC)
RC is not “one big section” — it’s four mini-sections.
The secret is predictability: each passage should take roughly the same amount of time.
Standard RC Pacing Benchmark
35 minutes → 4 passages → ~7–8 minutes per passage
Baseline RC Guideline (Recommended)
0–8 min: Passage 1
8–16 min: Passage 2
16–24 min: Passage 3
24–32 min: Passage 4
32–35 min: Review or attack leftover questions
Breakdown Within Each Passage
Reading: ~3 minutes
Questions: ~4–5 minutes
Summary: Your LSAT Pacing Blueprint
LR Target
First 10 minutes → Finish ~8 questions
First 20 minutes → Finish ~14 questions
Use final 5 minutes to clean up or finish remaining
RC Target
Each passage: 7–8 min
Reading: 3 min
Questions: 4–5 mim
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