How Difficult is the real LNAT ? How Difficult are LawMint Practice tests ? How do we compare & calibrate ?

So, how difficult is the LNAT?

That’s a question we get all the time. In this video, we’ll tackle that and a few related questions:

• How does the difficulty of LawMint’s practice tests compare to the real LNAT?
• How do we calibrate our tests to match the actual exam?
• How can you compare the difficulty levels for yourself?

HOW DIFFICULT IS THE LNAT?

Let’s start with the big question.

Imagine two people climbing the same mountain. If you ask them how hard the climb was, one might say it was a walk in the park. The other might say it was the most difficult climb of their life.

Even though they climbed the same mountain, their experiences were totally different. The perceived difficulty comes down to factors like their personal fitness, climbing experience, and the gear they used.

It’s the same with the LNAT. If two candidates take the exact same test, their performance depends on their starting skill level and how much they prepared.

Even with zero preparation, their natural abilities and language skills will make a huge difference in how difficult the test feels.

So, the honest answer to “How difficult is the LNAT?” is: it’s subjective. There’s no single correct answer.

HOW DO WE CALIBRATE OUR TESTS?

This brings us to our next questions: How do we compare and calibrate our tests to match the difficulty of the real LNAT?

When you get your official LNAT score, you’ll see your own score – and you will also see the average score for everyone who took the test in that year.

Over the years, this average score has consistently hovered around the 50% mark, give or take 10%.

That +/- 10% might sound like a big swing, but with only 42 questions in Section A, each question is worth about 2.4%. This means getting just four questions right or wrong can shift your score by nearly 10%!

So, if the average score on the official LNAT is about 50%, then the average score on LawMint’s practice tests should also be around 50%.

To make this happen, we need data. We get this from everyone who uses our free tests and from our larger set of paid practice tests.

We periodically analyze the results and check the average scores.

If the average score is too high, we look at which questions almost everyone is getting right. Are they too easy? Do they need to be replaced?

If the average score is too low, we look at the questions almost everyone is getting wrong. Are they too hard or maybe confusing? Do they need to be revised?

We run this calibration process regularly to ensure the difficulty of LawMint’s practice tests stays in sync with the real LNAT.

HOW CAN YOU COMPARE THE DIFFICULTY FOR YOURSELF?

Try this simple experiment. The closest thing to the real exam is the official LNAT practice test.

Take an official LNAT practice test and finish Section A within the 95-minute time limit.

Then take a LawMint practice test under similar conditions. (Keep in mind that our free test has 30 questions, so aim to finish it in about 68 minutes).

Next, compare your percentage scores from both tests. Don’t compare raw scores, as the number of questions is different; compare the percentage.

You’ll most likely find that your scores are quite similar, probably within that +/- 10% range we talked about.

Keep in mind that the official LNAT model papers are retired questions intended to test the candidates and there are only 42 questions there – whereas the Lawmint practice tests are intended to provide extensive practice across all levels of difficulty and there are 4200 questions – which include easy, medium and hard questions.

If you haven’t done so already, please do try the free LNAT test on Lawmint.co.uk – it will help in your preparation and will also give us more calibration data.