LSAT prep with AI in 2026: turn your study guides into adaptive practice

The LSAT in 2026 isn't the LSAT your older sibling took. Logic Games are gone (since August 2024). The test is now two scored sections of Logical Reasoning, one of Reading Comprehension, an unscored experimental section, and a separately administered Writing sample. Same 120-180 scoring scale, same role as the dominant gatekeeper to law school in the U.S. and Canada — but a meaningfully different study plan.

If you're sitting for the June 2026 or August 2026 LSAT, this guide is for you. It's not "ten tips". It's how to use the materials you already have, plus AI, to actually move your score.

What the LSAT looks like in 2026

Three scored sections of 35 minutes each, plus one experimental section that LSAC mixes in (it could be any of the three section types) and Writing taken separately on your own time. The mix on test day:

Logical Reasoning (LR) — two sections, ~24-26 questions each. Roughly 50% of your score.
Reading Comprehension (RC) — one section, four passages, ~26-27 questions. Roughly 25% of your score.
Experimental — unscored but indistinguishable. Treat it as real.
Writing — 35-minute argument essay, taken online via LSAC's proctored system, ungraded but sent to schools.

You no longer have to learn formal logic diagramming for Logic Games. That sounds great for two days and then you realize the two LR sections doubled the weight of question types that used to be one-third of LR (assumption, flaw, weaken, strengthen). Logical Reasoning is now the score.

What actually moves your score

LSAT prep has a problem: most students drill the wrong stuff. Three observations from people who go from a 155 to a 170:

Question types are not equal. Assumption (necessary and sufficient), flaw, strengthen/weaken, parallel reasoning, and method of reasoning are roughly 60% of every LR section. Drilling those first moves your score more than drilling rare types like role-of-statement or principle.
Reading Comp is trainable, even if it doesn't feel like it. Most score gains in RC come from one thing: timed practice on four-passage sets, not from "reading the New Yorker". Pattern recognition for question stems matters more than vocabulary.
The bottleneck after 160 is timing, not content. Above 160, most missed questions are ones you would get right untimed. The fix is endurance and pacing drills, not new content.

A realistic study plan: 8 weeks to test day

If you're studying for the June 2026 LSAT (typically administered in early-to-mid June), you have about 4-5 weeks left. For August 2026, you have 12-14 weeks. The structure scales — compress for June, breathe for August.

Weeks 1-2 — Diagnostic and gap map

Take one full PrepTest under real conditions: timed, no breaks within sections, paper or LSAC's PrepTest Plus interface. The point is the diagnostic, not the score.
Score by question type. The PrepTest Plus analytics break this down automatically; if you're using paper, tag each missed question by type.
Identify your bottom three LR question types and your bottom RC passage type (humanities, social science, law, science).

Two weeks of pure focused work on those weakest types — not all of LR, just those three — moves more points than two weeks of "general review".

Weeks 3-5 — Targeted drilling

3 LR sets per week of 20-25 questions, mixed but weighted toward your weak types. Untimed first, then timed.
2 RC passages per day, one timed, one untimed. The untimed passage is where you learn; the timed one is where you practice execution.
One full PrepTest every two weeks. Don't burn through a fresh PrepTest every weekend in this phase — you'll run out before test day.

Weeks 6-7 — Full PrepTests under real conditions

One full PrepTest per week as the spine.
Review each PrepTest the day after, not the same day. Cold review catches mistakes you rationalized when fresh.
Drill the question types that show up wrong on those PrepTests, not the ones you planned in week 1.

Week 8 — Taper

Two short LR sets and one timed RC section per day, max.
No new content. No new strategies. Sleep 8 hours.
Do not take a full PrepTest in the last 3 days before the exam. The point of taper is keeping the engine warm, not stressing it.

Where AI changes the game

AI doesn't replace official PrepTests. LSAC has decades of real questions with calibrated difficulty, and nothing AI-generated matches their quality. For practice volume, use real PrepTests.

Where AI is genuinely useful:

1. Explaining the answer choices you got wrong

When you miss an LR question, you don't just want to know the right answer — you want to know why your answer was wrong and why the right answer is right beyond reasonable doubt. Most explanation books and YouTube videos do one of those, not both. AI does both on demand, and you can keep asking follow-ups until it clicks.

Prompt template that works:

"Here's an LR question and my answer. I picked B but the correct answer is D. Explain why my reasoning was wrong, why D is correct, and what feature of B made it tempting (a 'trap' pattern). Then tell me how to recognize that trap pattern in future questions."

2. Building a personal question-type taxonomy

LSAT instructors talk about 12-15 LR question types. The exact list varies between prep companies. Use AI to build your own taxonomy from questions you've missed: paste in 30-50 missed questions, ask the AI to cluster them by reasoning pattern, and you'll get a categorization that maps to your weak points, not a generic textbook.

3. Writing diagnostic drills

Once you know your weak types, AI can generate drill questions that target the same reasoning structure. Caveat: AI-generated LSAT questions are not as well-calibrated as real ones. Use them for pattern recognition practice between PrepTests, not as a replacement.

4. Reviewing your Writing sample

The Writing section isn't scored, but it goes to every school you apply to. AI is excellent at giving you a critique on argument structure, hedging, and acknowledging the counter-position — the three things admissions officers actually read for.

Reading Comprehension: the underrated section

RC is where 167+ scorers separate from 162 scorers. Three habits matter more than any "method":

Annotate during the first read. Mark transitions ("however", "while many believe"), the author's stance, and any comparison structure. You will not have time to re-read in detail; the annotations are your map.
Predict before you look. Before reading the answer choices, mentally answer the question stem. The right answer often matches your prediction; the wrong ones distort what the passage said.
Time the passages by difficulty, not equally. Most students give each passage ~8:45. Strong scorers give the easy passage 7 minutes and the hard one 10. You'll know after the first paragraph which is which.

Common mistakes in LSAT prep

Doing 50 PrepTests on autopilot

The students who go from 158 to 170 don't take more PrepTests than the students who go from 158 to 161. They take fewer PrepTests and review longer. Two hours of cold review after a PrepTest is worth two more PrepTests done sloppily.

Studying everything equally

If your weakness is necessary assumption questions, you should be spending 25% of your LR time on those — not 8% (which is their share of the test). Disproportionate focus on weak types is how scores move.

Buying every prep book ever published

Pick one main method (Manhattan Prep, PowerScore, 7Sage, LSAT Demon, Khan Academy — any of them is fine in 2026) and use only that for content. Then drill on real PrepTests. Switching methods at week 5 is how scores stall.

Ignoring Writing until the week before

Writing is the easiest place to hurt your application if you blow it off, and the easiest place to add a "no weak link" signal if you do it well. Write two practice samples in the prep window. That's enough.

Doing a full PrepTest the day before

Don't. The day before should be light review, easy food, and an early night. The PrepTest the day before tells you nothing useful and adds anxiety. Skip it.

Test day logistics

The LSAT is administered remotely via Prometric for most takers in 2026. If you've chosen the remote at-home version, do the room scan and check your tech 48 hours before. Not the morning of.
Two ID-required check-in steps plus a 15-minute proctor session before section 1. Plan for the test day to be 4 hours, not 2:45.
5-minute break between sections 2 and 3. Use it to stand, drink water, look at something more than 10 feet away (eye strain is real after 70 minutes on screen).
No outside materials. Tissues, water in a clear container, scratch paper provided digitally.

What a 165+ student does differently

Three things consistent across people who score 165 or higher:

They time themselves from week 1. Not "I'll start timing in month two". Every LR section, every RC passage. Slow practice creates slow execution under pressure.
They review wrong answers cold, not hot. Reviewing the same day, while you remember why you picked your answer, lets you rationalize. Reviewing the next day forces you to re-derive the answer from scratch — which is exactly what you needed to do under test conditions.
They stop drilling content 5-7 days before the test. Content learning above 160 is rounding error. Endurance and pacing are not.

How ExamFlow helps with LSAT prep

ExamFlow is an AI study platform that works with your own material — including your LSAT prep books, course PDFs, and notes. For LSAT:

Upload your prep book (Manhattan, PowerScore, 7Sage outlines, whatever). The AI organizes it by topic and question type.
Generate practice drills on specific reasoning patterns — necessary assumptions, parallel flaw, principle questions — targeted at your weak spots.
Get instant explanations on questions you miss, grounded in your own prep book's framework so it matches the method you're already using.
Flashcards for common LSAT structures, fallacy names, and indicator words, with spaced repetition.
Track which question types are improving and which are stuck.

ExamFlow doesn't replace official LSAC PrepTests — nothing does. It replaces the dead hours between PrepTests where you'd otherwise be reading the same chapter for the third time.

Start your LSAT drilling with ExamFlow — free

If you're sitting for the June 2026 or August 2026 LSAT, this guide is for you. It's not "ten tips". It's how to use the materials you already have, plus AI, to actually move your score.

What the LSAT looks like in 2026

Logical Reasoning (LR) — two sections, ~24-26 questions each. Roughly 50% of your score.
Reading Comprehension (RC) — one section, four passages, ~26-27 questions. Roughly 25% of your score.
Experimental — unscored but indistinguishable. Treat it as real.
Writing — 35-minute argument essay, taken online via LSAC's proctored system, ungraded but sent to schools.

What actually moves your score

LSAT prep has a problem: most students drill the wrong stuff. Three observations from people who go from a 155 to a 170:

Question types are not equal. Assumption (necessary and sufficient), flaw, strengthen/weaken, parallel reasoning, and method of reasoning are roughly 60% of every LR section. Drilling those first moves your score more than drilling rare types like role-of-statement or principle.
Reading Comp is trainable, even if it doesn't feel like it. Most score gains in RC come from one thing: timed practice on four-passage sets, not from "reading the New Yorker". Pattern recognition for question stems matters more than vocabulary.
The bottleneck after 160 is timing, not content. Above 160, most missed questions are ones you would get right untimed. The fix is endurance and pacing drills, not new content.