What LNAT score do you need for Oxford Law?

How do your LNAT scores count?

The LNAT gives Oxford two scores: your Section A (multiple-choice) mark out of 42, and your Section B essay, which Oxford marks itself. In the 2025-26 round (for 2026 entry) the two scores counted equally, and together they made up 20% of the shortlisting rank for candidates with a contextualised GCSE (cGCSE) score. Candidates without a cGCSE score were ranked on the two LNAT scores alone, and decisions made on that rank were then adjusted individually in the light of their school qualifications. The weighting for 2027 entry has not been published.^[12]

Having said that, a figure of 20% understates how much the LNAT matters in practice. As you will see below, offer rates rise steeply with the Section A score, so a strong LNAT remains one of the most effective ways to improve your chances.

Section A: what score should you aim for?

Section A has 12 passages with three or four questions each, 42 questions in all, and you have 95 minutes to answer them. You score one mark for each correct answer and nothing is deducted for a wrong one, so you should never leave a question blank.^[17]

To see where you stand, it helps to look at how real applicants scored. In reply to an FOI request, Oxford released the scores of 1,814 applicants to Law (M100) for 2025 entry, of whom 1,767 had a Section A score.^[1] (This is the round before the 2025-26 averages above.) The chart below shows how many applicants received each score, with offer holders in blue.

Many candidates are surprised by how low the typical score is. The most common score was 26 (110 applicants), closely followed by 28 (109) and 23 (107), and the median was 25.^[1] If your practice scores are in the mid-20s, then, you are in the middle of the field. Note, however, that the middle of the field is well below the offer-holder average of 30.92, and that candidates scoring below 18 (252 of the 1,767) almost never received an offer: only one of them did.

Offers, on the other hand, are concentrated between 28 and 35, and the most common score among offer holders was 31 (26 offers). Above 35 the number of offers falls, but only because so few candidates score that high: just 68 applicants scored 35 or more.^[1]

Two further FOI releases help you set a target. For the same cycle, half of all offer holders scored between 28 and 34 on Section A (median 31), and half scored between 63 and 67 on the essay (median 65).^[25] Offer-holder averages also vary between colleges: in the 2026 cycle, the college averages ranged from about 27.6 to 32.4.^[26] In general, therefore, we recommend aiming for at least 30. A score of 34 or more would put you in the top quarter of offer holders.

Earlier cycles were similar. All applicants averaged 22.75 on Section A in the 2022 cycle and 24.32 in 2023, and offer holders averaged 28.34 in 2022 and 30.06 in 2023.^[30][29][31]

How does the offer rate rise with your score?

The next chart shows the same 2025-entry data in a different way: for each Section A score, the percentage of applicants who received an offer.^[1] We have left out scores with fewer than six applicants, because a single offer would distort the picture.

There are three things to notice here:

1. Below 24, the offer rate stays at 1-2%, so marks gained in this range make little difference on their own.
2. Between 24 and 30, the rate rises steadily, from about 5% to about 18%.
3. From around 30 upwards, it rises much faster: about 22% for scores of 29 to 31, 39% for 32 to 34 and 66% for 35 and above.^[1]

For example, the offer rate was about 1% at a score of 22 and about 8% at 26, then about 30% at 32 and 62.5% at 36 (although only 16 applicants scored 36). This is why, if you are already scoring in the high 20s, every extra mark you can gain through practice is well worth the effort.

Check your own score

Use the slider to set the Section A score you expect to achieve. The calculator shows the offer rate at that score in the 2025-entry data.^[1] Note that this is the rate for everyone who scored the same as you, whatever their GCSEs, essay and interview, so treat it as a rough guide and not as a prediction.

Section B: how is the essay marked?

In Section B you choose one of three questions and write an essay in 40 minutes. The LNAT recommends 500 to 600 words, with a maximum of 750.^[17] The questions are deliberately broad (public policy, ethical dilemmas, contestable claims), so you do not need any specialist knowledge. We recommend choosing the question you can argue most clearly, even if another topic interests you more.

Note that the test centre does not mark the essay. Oxford marks it centrally using a system called No More Marking,^[12] which works by comparative marking: essays are compared with one another to produce a ranking, and each essay is then given a score that reflects its place in that ranking.^[4] The Faculty's 2021 admissions report describes the essay as scored from 1 to 100.^[18]

What does Oxford look for in an essay?

In 2021, in reply to an FOI request, Oxford set out the features that distinguish essays ranked highly from those ranked lower.^[4] Both lists below are quoted directly from that reply:

It is worth reading the two lists side by side. Both mention independent critical judgment: high-mark essays show "an element of" it, while low-mark essays show "no evidence of" it.^[4] In practice, this means your essay should take a position and defend it. An essay that only sets out the usual arguments on each side is unlikely to be ranked highly, however clearly it is written.

How do essay scores compare?

Essay scores are bunched far more tightly than Section A scores. In the 2025-entry data, Section A scores ran from 7 to 41, but all 1,766 essay scores fell between 50 and 75, and about 68% of applicants scored between 60 and 65.^[1] The most common score was 64 (246 applicants).

Very few essays reach either end of the range. About 1.5% of applicants scored 70 or more, and only 2% scored below 55.^[1]

Why are the scores so close together?

Under No More Marking, markers compare two anonymised essays at a time and decide which is better.^[10] Many such comparisons together produce a ranking, and each essay is given a score that reflects its place in it.^[4] The Faculty's published reports do not explain how the ranking becomes a score, but its Law Admissions Manual for the 2024-25 round, released under FOI, does. Markers no longer give essays raw scores. Instead, the essays are placed on what the manual calls "the Oxford scale", which it expects to run from about 50 to 75.^[27] This is why so few essays fall outside that range. According to the manual, the markers are nominated by the colleges and are graduate students or above.^[27]

What does this mean for your preparation? Because so many essays score between 60 and 65, a modest improvement in clarity or structure can move your essay past a large number of others. If your practice essays are being marked in the 55 to 60 range, the problem is usually the structure of the argument, and we recommend working on that before you work on vocabulary.

Do the essay and Section A test the same thing?

The two sections overlap, but they test different skills. A candidate who writes a strong essay will not necessarily score well in Section A, and the reverse is also true. Section A tests careful reading and inference under time pressure, while the essay tests whether you can argue for a position within a clear structure.

At Oxford the essay counts for as much as Section A: each made up 10% of the 2025-26 shortlisting rank for candidates with a cGCSE score.^[12] In that round, offer holders averaged 65.21 on the essay against 62.38 for all applicants, a gap of 2.83 points.^[12] Since most essays score between 60 and 65, a gap of nearly three points is large, and we therefore recommend giving the essay as much practice time as Section A.