LR Pacing: How Many Questions to Skip (and When)
With 24–26 LR questions in 35 minutes, the lost sections aren't ones you can't solve — they're the cascade after a hard stimulus.
Pacing is usually taught as a ratio problem — 35 minutes divided by 25 questions, about 80 seconds each — and that calculation is nearly useless on its own. The questions are not uniform. Some LR arguments solve in forty seconds; a dense conditional-reasoning stimulus can consume three minutes. The skill is not arithmetic. It is deciding, in advance, what you will do when you hit one of the slow ones.
Most score loss in Logical Reasoning is not a cascade of independent errors. It is one hard stimulus followed by three or four questions answered under a compressed clock, each of which would have been correct with normal time. Fixing the cascade recovers more points than any amount of additional drilling.
What this is not
Skipping is not a strategy for avoiding hard questions. On the current LSAT, unanswered questions score zero and wrong answers also score zero, so there is no penalty for guessing — which means the correct policy is to skip strategically and then guess on absolutely everything left. Skip to buy thinking time, not to avoid difficulty.
The budget
With 24 to 26 questions in 35 minutes, aim to finish the section with three to five questions still unanswered. That buffer is what absorbs the section's difficulty spikes without turning one stimulus into a cascade.
| Segment | Time | Target |
|---|---|---|
| Questions 1–8 | ~10 min | Settle in; these should mostly be straightforward |
| Questions 9–16 | ~11 min | The core; expect to flag one or two |
| Questions 17–24 | ~10 min | Clear the flag queue as you go |
| Final 3–4 min | ~4 min | Return to flagged questions, guess on the rest |
One workable split. The exact numbers matter less than having boundaries decided before the section starts.
The most common pacing failure is not running out of time uniformly — it is spending 20 seconds on question 2, then trying to compensate by rushing questions 3 through 6. The compensation attempt is what breaks. Being behind schedule at question 6 is information, not a crisis; the correct response is to skip more, not to move faster.
The skip policy
Decide the rule now, in writing, and follow it without negotiating during the section.
- Pre-phrase before you evaluate
After reading the question stem, write two or three words naming what the answer must do. This takes a few seconds and converts a blank search into a comparison.
- If nothing comes close, flag and move
Give it a hard limit of about 90 seconds on the stimulus-plus-first-pass. If no choice is close after one pass through the options, you almost certainly will not find it on a second pass — the information you need is not in the choices.
- Skip the whole stimulus when the passage is the problem
If you cannot summarize the argument in one sentence after reading, skip both of its questions immediately. Reading comprehension difficulty inside an LR stimulus is not resolvable with more time on that stimulus.
- Return only if the clock allows
Flagged questions get a second pass only if you are ahead of schedule. If you are behind, guess on everything and move on — the points are already gone, and spending two minutes recovering one of them costs more elsewhere.
Never leave a question blank
The LSAT subtracts nothing for a wrong answer and weights every question equally. A blank has zero chance; a guess has one in five. With four questions left at the buzzer, filling them costs nothing and sometimes adds a point.
Section-order and second-pass strategy
Three decisions should be made before test day, not during it.
- Which section goes first. With two LR sections and one RC, most candidates do not have a strong preference, and the order matters less than consistency. If you tend to lose time early, put your stronger section second so the first one is not rushed.
- How you use the 10-minute intermission. Reading the passages you flagged — and only those — during the break is far more efficient than re-reading the entire section. The break is not rest time, it is prep time.
- What you do about the variable section. The unscored section is indistinguishable during the exam, so treat every section as scored. Candidates who try to identify which one it is waste time and end up coasting through a scored section.
One reliable signal for when your policy needs adjusting: compare your timed score against your blind review score on practice sections. If blind review is much higher, the problem is pacing rather than knowledge. The gap between those two numbers is the portion of your score that time management is costing you, and it is the most actionable diagnostic in your preparation.
For the sequencing around this, our 3-month study plan covers when to introduce timing; the question types where seconds are most often lost are covered in our guide to the 14 LR types, and the conditional-heavy stimuli in particular in our conditional reasoning guide.
Questions we get asked
How many questions should I skip on LSAT Logical Reasoning?
Aim to finish each LR section with three to five questions unanswered. That buffer absorbs difficulty spikes so one hard stimulus does not turn into four rushed questions. Because wrong answers and blanks both score zero, skip to buy thinking time and then guess on everything remaining.
How much time should I spend per LR question?
About 80 seconds on average, but the real rule is the hard limit: roughly 90 seconds on a stimulus-plus-first-pass before flagging. Questions solved in 40 seconds are what fund the time for the ones that take two minutes — that variance is why a flat per-question budget does not work.
Should I do LR or RC first?
For most candidates the order matters less than consistency, because the sections are structurally different and neither reliably drains the other. If you tend to rush early sections, put your stronger section second. Whichever you choose, decide before test day — deciding mid-test costs time.
How do I use the10-minute intermission?
Read the LR passages you flagged and only those. Re-reading an entire section you have already flagged is too slow to be useful, and re-reading passages you answered confidently is wasted time. The break is preparation time, not rest time.
Should I guess on questions I skipped?
Yes, always. The LSAT applies no penalty for wrong answers, so a guess is strictly better than a blank. If you skipped a stimulus whose argument you summarized well, you may even recognize the answer when you see it — but pick something regardless.
How much does the LSAT cost, and can I take it more than once?
Registration is $253 for the 2026–2027 testing year and includes LSAT Argumentative Writing. LSAC limits sittings to five within the current reportable score period and seven over a lifetime, with no per-year cap; cancelled scores count toward both limits. Need-based fee waivers cover registration for eligible applicants.
LSAT® is a registered trademark of the Law School Admission Council, which does not review or endorse this site. This article is educational and is not legal or admissions advice. Format and policy figures reflect LSAC publications available as of October 2026 — confirm against lsat.lsac.org before you register.
Sources
- LSAC — Official LSAT PrepTests and LawHub practice platform, lsat.lsac.org
- LSAC — LSAT section timing and structure information
Figures reflect the most recent published data available as of October 11, 2026. Always confirm current policy on lsat.lsac.org.