- Admissions tests
What Is a Good LNAT Score? Oxford, UCL and Cambridge Data (2026)
- Published:
- Updated: September 1, 2026
- By Miguel
The LNAT is the only UK admissions test whose score most universities refuse to explain. There is no pass mark, no published national percentile table, and seven of the nine UK law schools that use it publish nothing at all about what their offer holders scored. This guide answers the question with primary data: four entry years of the University of Oxford’s own Law admissions reports, UCL’s published offer-holder averages, LNAT’s technical report on 7,849 candidates, and every Freedom of Information release we could verify.
To find out where you currently stand, work through the official LNAT past papers and resources, sit a timed paper on our LNAT practice tests, or start with our complete guide to the LNAT.
How the LNAT is scored
The LNAT is a two-and-a-quarter-hour test in two sections. Section A is 42 multiple-choice questions on 12 argumentative passages, answered in 95 minutes. There is one mark for each correct answer and no negative marking, and the resulting mark out of 42 is your LNAT score. Section B is a single essay chosen from three prompts and written in 40 minutes; LNAT’s own guidance says the ideal essay runs to 500 to 600 words.
The essay is not marked by the test centre and does not contribute to your score. It is sent to every LNAT university you apply to, and what happens to it there varies more than almost anything else in UK admissions.
- 42 multiple-choice questions, 95 minutes
- One essay, 40 minutes, 500–600 words
- Score out of 42, no negative marking
- Essay unscored by LNAT, passed to universities
- No pass mark and no published percentiles
There is no official national average. The most robust primary figure available is LNAT’s own technical report covering 7,849 candidates, in which the mean ranged from 21.70 to 23.97 across the five test forms, with a standard deviation of about 5. The year-by-year “national average” table that circulates on tutoring sites traces back to an uncited Wikipedia entry, so treat it as folklore rather than data. What has held steady is the shape: a mean in the low twenties, and roughly five marks to a standard deviation.
That shape is what turns a raw mark into a percentile. On a mean of 23 and a standard deviation of 5, a 27 puts you around the top fifth of test takers, a 30 around the top tenth and a 33 around the top 3%. Those are our estimates from the published mean and spread rather than official figures, but they explain why a score in the high twenties reads as strong and why anything above 33 is rare. In Oxford’s 2023-entry cohort, the highest score anywhere in a field of 2,141 applicants was 38.
What counts as a good LNAT score?
Averaging across everything below, here is the honest quick answer before we get into what each university actually does with it.
| LNAT score | What it means |
|---|---|
| Under 20 | Below the national mean. Not disqualifying anywhere, but the rest of your application is doing the work. |
| 20–23 | Around the national mean, and around the average across Oxford’s and UCL’s full applicant pools. |
| 24–26 | Above average, roughly the top quarter to third of the field. About the level reported for Durham and Bristol offer holders. |
| 27–29 | Strong. Oxford’s shortlisted candidates averaged 29.37 for 2026 entry. |
| 30–32 | Very strong. Above Oxford’s offer-holder average of 30.48 and UCL’s of 29. Roughly the top 10%. |
| 33+ | Exceptional, around the top 3% of the field. Very few candidates clear 35 in any given cycle. |
Two caveats before you take that table too literally. First, the LNAT is a smaller lever than the ESAT or the TMUA: Oxford’s own 2026-entry report puts the two LNAT scores together at 20% of the shortlisting rank, against 80% for contextualised GCSEs. Second, the range of successful scores is wide everywhere. Oxford made offers to candidates scoring as low as 19 for 2023 entry, and as low as 16 the year before.
Oxford: four entry years of published data
Oxford’s Faculty of Law publishes an annual admissions report giving average LNAT scores at three stages: everyone who applied, everyone shortlisted for interview, and everyone who received an offer. It is the single most useful LNAT dataset in existence. The 2024-entry report is published only as a scanned image with no readable text, so we have left it out rather than guess at the numbers.
| Entry year | All applicants | Shortlisted | Offer holders |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 22.50 | 27.03 | 28.25 |
| 2023 | 24.20 | 28.80 | 30.00 |
| 2025 | 24.50 | 29.18 | 30.96 |
| 2026 | 24.94 | 29.37 | 30.48 |
The gradient is consistent and steep. In every year the average offer holder scored between five and a half and six and a half marks above the average applicant, more than a full standard deviation. For 2026 entry Oxford received 2,115 applications, shortlisted 630 and made 252 offers, so roughly 2.5 candidates were interviewed per place. You can see how that ratio compares with every other course in our Oxford and Cambridge admissions statistics. The applicant mean has drifted up from 22.50 to 24.94 across those four years while the offer-holder mean has held around 30, which is what you would expect from a field getting steadily better at preparing.
The essay is marked, and the weighting has just changed
Oxford marks the LNAT essay itself, using comparative judgement software, on a scale running to 100. For 2026 entry the averages were 62.38 for all applicants, 64.59 for shortlisted candidates and 65.21 for offer holders. Notice how narrow that is: a gap of under three points between the average applicant and the average offer holder, against nearly six marks on the multiple choice. The essay separates candidates far less than Section A does, but it is not decorative.
The bigger news is in the weighting. For 2025 entry Oxford’s report states that shortlisting used “the two LNAT scores (MCT and essay) and contextualised GCSE scores, equally weighted”, putting the LNAT at roughly two thirds of the pre-interview rank. For 2026 entry the same report series states that candidates with a contextualised GCSE score “are ranked using a three-point rank based 10% on each of the two LNAT scores and 80% on the cGCSE score”, cGCSE being Oxford’s own shorthand for the contextualised GCSE score. Read literally, the LNAT’s weight in Oxford shortlisting fell from about 67% to 20% in a single cycle.
There is an important exception. Candidates without a contextualised GCSE score are ranked on a two-point rank drawing on the two LNAT scores equally, then adjusted individually in the light of whatever school qualifications they hold. For internationally educated applicants, and for anyone without a UK GCSE profile, the LNAT is still close to everything. If that describes you, aim high and treat the essay as a scored paper.
Knowing the benchmark is not the same as reaching it. Our tutors sat the LNAT themselves and coach it one to one, against the criteria the universities actually apply.
Book a free consultationUCL: the only other university that publishes anything
UCL Laws states plainly that it has no minimum score. Instead it sets “a benchmark threshold score” each cycle based on the previous year’s applicant averages, which is why no fixed number exists to quote. It does publish outcomes, and they are unusually clear. In 2024/25 the average LNAT score across all test results UCL received was 23. The average among candidates who received an offer was 29, given more precisely elsewhere on UCL’s site as 29.4. The average among contextual offer holders was 26.
That six-mark gap between the field and the offer holders mirrors Oxford’s almost exactly. The three-mark discount for contextual offers is the clearest published statement anywhere of what a contextual route is worth in LNAT terms. For scale on what that score is buying, the UCL Law acceptance rate is 4.4%: 4,552 applications, 637 offers and 200 places. UCL also weights the essay heavily, saying it “carries considerable weight in the selection process” and publishing the four criteria it is assessed against: comprehensiveness and accuracy, clarity of argument and expression, integration of a range of arguments, and insight into the theoretical issues.
Cambridge, King’s, LSE and the rest
Cambridge requires the LNAT for Law for 2027 entry and is unusually explicit about using both halves: the essay is “marked centrally at Cambridge”, and both sections are used to deselect applicants as well as to select them. Cambridge publishes no averages of its own. Freedom of Information figures reported by third parties put 2024-entry offer holders around 29 to 30 on Section A against an applicant field around 26, with the lowest successful applicant at 19. We could not retrieve the original releases, so treat those as indicative rather than confirmed.
King’s College London requires the LNAT for all its law programmes and publishes detailed admissions statistics that exclude the LNAT entirely. LSE is the clearest about what it ignores: for most applicants LSE will “only consider part A of the test, and the essay will usually not be considered”. FOI-derived figures circulating for 2024 entry put King’s offer holders near 30 and LSE’s near 26, the widest reported gap between two London law schools, but again these are unverified. LSE publishes nothing on LNAT outcomes, but it does publish the competition: the LSE Law acceptance rate is 6.2%, from 3,102 applications.
Durham calls the LNAT “an essential requirement before we consider your application” and is reported to use both sections. Bristol reads and marks the essay in-house and says explicitly that it has no minimum score, comparing you instead against the rest of your year. Glasgow sets a fresh minimum cut-off each cycle after seeing the field, with a recent cycle’s cut-off reported at 18. SOAS is the outlier: for applicants holding standard A level, IB or equivalent qualifications the LNAT is optional, and a strong performance can earn a reduced offer of AAB or ABB, while for Access, BTEC and foundation-route applicants it is compulsory.
One change worth knowing about: Nottingham no longer requires the LNAT. Its 2027-entry Law pages describe a gathered-field process with no admissions test at all, so any list that still includes Nottingham is out of date.
How each university uses the essay
| University | What happens to your essay |
|---|---|
| Oxford | Marked in-house out of 100. Worth 10% of the shortlisting rank for 2026 entry, or half of it if you have no contextualised GCSE score. |
| Cambridge | Marked centrally by the university and used for both deselection and selection. |
| UCL | Read and assessed against four published criteria. UCL says it carries considerable weight. |
| Bristol | Read and marked by Bristol staff. |
| LSE | Usually not considered for applicants with standard qualifications. |
| Durham | Reported to use both sections; no published detail. |
| Glasgow | Reported to be read mainly for borderline or tied candidates. |
| King’s College London | Reported not to be used in the admissions process. |
| SOAS | No published information. |
What you should aim for
| Applying to | Realistic target | Stretch target |
|---|---|---|
| Oxford Law and Law with Law Studies in Europe | 29 | 31+ |
| Cambridge Law | 29 | 31+ |
| UCL Laws | 28 | 30+ |
| UCL Laws (contextual) | 25 | 27+ |
| King’s College London | 28 | 30+ |
| LSE LLB | 26 | 28+ |
| Bristol Law | 25 | 27+ |
| Durham Law | 25 | 27+ |
| Glasgow LLB | 23 | 25+ |
| SOAS LLB (optional sitting) | 25 | 27+ |
One number in that table is doing more work than the rest, and it is 29. It is Oxford’s shortlisting average, it is roughly UCL’s offer-holder average, and it is the point at which a mark out of 42 stops being something the rest of your application has to carry and starts carrying part of your application. Below the mid-twenties the LNAT is a liability to be offset. Above 30 it is an asset, and at Oxford, if you have no UK GCSE profile, it is most of the case.
Preparing for the LNAT?
Our Oxford and Cambridge graduate tutors cover both halves of the test: the argument analysis Section A rewards, and the disciplined 40-minute essay that Oxford, Cambridge, UCL and Bristol all read. See how we can help.
Find this article useful? Check out our other resources for students sitting the LNAT.
LNAT Practice Tests
Sit full timed LNAT papers with original questions and worked answers.
LNAT Past Papers and Resources
Work through the official LNAT practice papers and preparation materials.
The LNAT: A Complete Guide
Format, timing, universities and a full preparation plan for the LNAT.
- University of Oxford Faculty of Law: Law Admissions Report 2025-26 (2026 entry)
- University of Oxford Faculty of Law: Law Admissions Report 2024-25 (2025 entry)
- University of Oxford Faculty of Law: report on the 2022 admissions round
- University of Oxford Faculty of Law: 2021-22 admissions report
- UCL Laws: applying and entry requirements (LNAT averages, 2024/25)
- UCL Laws: LNAT advice and guidance
- LNAT: test format
- LNAT: results and how universities use them
- LNAT: hints and tips (essay length guidance)
- LNAT Technical Report: mean and standard deviation across 7,849 candidates
- LNAT: dates and deadlines, 2026/27 cycle
- University of Cambridge: the LNAT for BA Law
- LSE: how LSE uses the LNAT
- University of Bristol: Law admissions statement
- Durham University: the LNAT
- University of Glasgow: the LNAT
- SOAS: LLB entry requirements
- King’s College London: Law LLB requirements
- University of Nottingham: Law LLB entry requirements
Frequently asked questions
For 2026 entry Oxford’s offer holders averaged 30.48 on the multiple choice and its shortlisted candidates 29.37, against 24.94 for the applicant field as a whole. A score of 29 or above puts you at the shortlisting average; 32 or above puts you clearly ahead of it. The essay averages were 65.21 for offer holders against 62.38 for all applicants.
In 2024/25 the average LNAT score across every test result UCL received was 23, and the average among candidates who received an offer was 29 (29.4 on UCL’s more precise figure). Contextual offer holders averaged 26. Aim for 28 and treat anything above 31 as a real advantage.
A 25 is above the national mean of roughly 23 and sits somewhere around the top third of the field. It is competitive at Glasgow, Bristol, Durham and SOAS, and workable at LSE. It is below the applicant-to-offer gap you need at Oxford, Cambridge, UCL and King’s, where offer holders average 29 to 31.
No LNAT university publishes a fixed minimum. Oxford, UCL and Bristol all state explicitly that there is no cut-off, and UCL sets a fresh benchmark threshold each cycle. Glasgow sets a minimum after seeing the field, reported at 18 in a recent cycle. Offers do get made at low scores: Oxford’s lowest successful applicant scored 19 for 2023 entry and 16 the year before.
It depends entirely on where you apply. Oxford marks it in-house out of 100 and weights it in shortlisting; Cambridge marks it centrally and uses it to deselect as well as select; UCL says it carries considerable weight; Bristol marks it in-house. LSE usually does not consider it for applicants with standard qualifications, and King’s is reported not to use it at all. Because you cannot control which of those universities reads it closely, write it as though all of them do.
Bristol, Cambridge, Durham, Glasgow, King’s College London, LSE, Oxford, SOAS and UCL, plus a small number of universities outside the UK. Nottingham no longer requires it. At SOAS the test is optional for applicants with standard A level or IB qualifications and compulsory for Access, BTEC and foundation-route applicants.
LNAT’s own technical report found essentially no difference between UK-educated and international candidates (22.95 against 22.92). But the LNAT matters far more to international applicants at Oxford, because Oxford ranks candidates without a contextualised GCSE score on the two LNAT scores alone rather than at the 10% weighting used for candidates with one. If you have no UK GCSE profile, the test is doing most of the shortlisting work.
