LSAT Percentile
Every LSAT score from 120 to 180 with its published percentile rank.
About 28.94% of test takers scored higher · LSAC, 2023-2024 through 2025-2026 testing years
| Score | Percentile | Change |
|---|---|---|
| 162 | 77.20% | +6.14 |
| 161 | 74.22% | +3.16 |
| 160 | 71.06% | — |
| 159 | 67.93% | −3.13 |
| 158 | 64.48% | −6.58 |
An LSAT percentile says what share of test takers you scored above. On the scale of 120 to 180, a 160 is the 71st percentile and a 170 is the 94th. The median sits between 154 and 155, so half of all takers score below 155.
Two different numbers on one score report
The scaled score, from 120 to 180, is what law schools quote and what admissions indexes use. The percentile is context for it: the share of recent test takers who scored lower. They move together but not proportionally — the scale is deliberately compressed at the top, so points get dramatically more expensive the higher you go.
That compression is the single most useful thing the table shows. Moving from 150 to 155 gains about 17 percentile points. Moving from 170 to 175 gains about four. The same five points of scaled score mean something entirely different depending on where you start.
Where the numbers come from
LSAC recalculates percentiles on a rolling three-year window of test takers, so the figures here cover the 2023-2024, 2024-2025 and 2025-2026 testing years. Because the reference group shifts each year, the same scaled score can carry a slightly different percentile from one report to the next — which is why a percentile quoted without its period does not mean much.
- 1 Take the scaled score, not the raw one. The 120–180 number is the one percentiles are defined against; the count of correct answers is not.
- 2 Look it up in the current table. A 165 sits at the 85.17th percentile for the 2023–2026 window.
- 3 Read it as a share of test takers. That means about 85% of recent takers scored lower and roughly 15% scored higher.
- 4 Check the neighbouring scores. A 166 is 87.49 and a 164 is 82.75, so one point is worth about two percentile points here.
- 5 Compare against schools, not against the percentile. Admissions work from the scaled score and its position in a school’s own median range, not from the national percentile.
Landmark scores
LSAC percentiles for the 2023-2024 through 2025-2026 testing years.
| Score | Percentile | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 180 | 99.85 | Essentially the ceiling |
| 175 | 98.72 | Top 1.5% |
| 170 | 94.48 | Top 6% |
| 165 | 85.17 | Top 15% |
| 160 | 71.06 | Top 30% |
| 155 | 54.03 | Just above the median |
| 150 | 36.56 | Bottom 40% |
| 145 | 21.48 | Bottom quarter |
What the percentile does and does not tell you
It is a ranking against people who sat the test, not a measure of mastery. The pool is self-selected — people who intend to apply to law school — so a 50th percentile LSAT does not mean average ability in any broader sense. It also says nothing about which schools are realistic, because that depends on a school’s own median range alongside your GPA.
One more caution about the top of the scale. Above about 175 the percentile differences become tiny while the scaled points remain meaningful to admissions, so a 178 and a 180 are nearly indistinguishable in percentile terms and not at all indistinguishable on an application. Read the scaled score as the number that matters and the percentile as context for it.