Updated 24.10.2026• 7 min read• Resources

Best LNAT preparation resources for 2027 entry

The free official material first, then books, platforms and tutors, and which problem each one helps with.

Jurica Research

LNAT preparation

The LNAT Consortium publishes, free of charge, two practice papers with a commentary and a marking scheme, an online practice test and tutorial, a preparation guide, sample essay questions and a page of hints. These are the only practice questions written by the people who set the test. We recommend starting with them, and adding a book, a practice platform or a tutor only when you can say what you need more of.

What official material is there?

Everything in the table below is on lnat.ac.uk and costs nothing. The Consortium says that you will find all the information you need to prepare on its website.

There are two limitations to note in the official set:

1. The two papers date from 2010 and the guide from 2012, and both give five answer options for each question. The Consortium said from autumn 2024 that the test itself has four, so your score on the papers is only a rough guide to your score on the day.
2. There are only two papers, which means only two chances to measure your performance on passages you have not seen before.

What should I add after the official material?

You should add only what fills a gap you have found and, in general, one resource at a time, in roughly the order below, so that you can tell whether each one has helped.

1. Start with daily reading, which is free. The Consortium recommends reading a quality newspaper every day, including the comment pieces. For example, you can take one opinion article a day and find its conclusion, the reasons given for it, the assumption it relies on, and the force of words such as “usually” and “only”. This is the same kind of analysis that both sections of the test ask for. Our guide to free LNAT practice resources has a four-week plan built on the official set.
2. Next, if you need more questions, add one book. At the publishers’ list prices, the three main titles cost £29.99 (The Ultimate LNAT Guide), £38.99 (The Complete LNAT Guide) and £57.99 (Mastering the National Admissions Test for Law). All three have copyright dates from before the Consortium’s note about four options, so their questions may have five. Routledge lists a second edition of The Complete LNAT Guide with four-option questions, but it is due in February 2027, after every on-time LNAT deadline for 2027 entry. For this reason, we suggest counting the options in a book’s questions yourself and checking its timings against the official format page. See the best LNAT preparation books for a comparison.
3. If you need help reviewing your errors, add a practice platform or a tutor. A book cannot tell you which mistakes you keep making, whereas a question bank can group your errors by type, and a tutor can comment on your essays and your reasoning. Prices vary widely between providers. See courses, tutors and platforms compared.
4. Once you have used up the material written for the LNAT, you can move on to questions written for other tests. The Law School Admission Council offers free official LSAT practice tests through its LawHub site (you need to sign in), and the reading-comprehension questions practise the same kind of close reading. Until the summer of 2026 the Consortium itself suggested LSAT questions for extra practice, noting that the passages are typically shorter and that the questions may be pitched differently; it no longer shows that advice. See LSAC’s preparation page.

Which resource helps with which problem?

That depends on what is going wrong, so we recommend working out the problem before you choose a resource.

Candidates often spend time on a resource aimed at a different problem from the one they have. For example, more untimed questions will not help with timing, and a candidate who never reviews their errors will gain little from extra reading. The table below matches common problems to the resources that help with them.

What should I avoid?

You should mainly avoid resources that promise results no provider can guarantee, and resources that teach an out-of-date format.

There are four things to be wary of:

1. Be wary of any promise of a guaranteed score or offer, because no provider has any control over the test or over a university’s decision, and the Consortium advises candidates to be sceptical of anyone who claims that coaching will help them do well.
2. Avoid question banks that give no explanations, because it is then difficult to see why your answer was wrong or how to avoid the same mistake next time.
3. Material from before autumn 2024 may use five answer options, and anything written before the 2010-11 cycle (when Section A grew from 30 questions in 80 minutes to 42 questions in 95) has different timings, so check which edition you have before you rely on it.
4. Avoid paying for a second course before you have finished the first, because few candidates run out of questions and most would gain more from spending longer on the questions they have already answered.

Frequently asked questions