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LNAT guide

UCL, LSE and KCL LNAT Guide

The three big London law schools share a test and a deadline — and diverge on almost everything else. What each one requires, what each publishes about scores and the essay, and how to prepare for all three at once.

Last reviewed: LNATpractice Editorial Team

The three at a glance

Everything in this table is from an official source; “not published” means we checked and the university says nothing — an absence worth knowing about, not a gap in this guide. Dates are for 2027entry; where a university's own pages had not yet been refreshed for this cycle at our last review, that is flagged in its section below.

UCL, LSE and KCL compared for 2027 entry. Verified 17 July 2026; always confirm on the linked official pages.
 UCLLSEKCL
LNAT requiredYes — all undergraduate Law programmes, including dual-law degreesYes — LLB Bachelor of Laws (M100), its only LLBYes — Law LLB and its law variants, including Politics, Philosophy & Law
Sit the LNAT by31 December 202631 December 202631 December 2026 (KCL states late applications cannot be considered without it)
UCAS deadline13 January 2027, 6pm13 January 2027, 6pm13 January 2027, 6pm
Essay (Section B)Read — “carries considerable weight” per UCL LawsNot considered for most applicants (multiple-choice score only)Not published
Published score dataOffer-holder average 29.4 (contextual 26.3), last published cycleNoneNone
Typical A-level offerA*AAA*AAA*AA
Competition (latest published)Not published (described as heavily oversubscribed)16 applications per place (2025)Not published
International noteLNAT bursaries are UK/EU only; centres in ~165 countriesTest centres available throughout the UK and overseasCase-by-case dispensation where no centre exists within reasonable distance

Official pages: UCL Laws admissions, LSE LLB, KCL Law LLB requirements.

UCL: the most transparent of the three

UCL requires the LNAT for every undergraduate Laws programme — the LLB (M100) and its dual-law variants with French, German and Hispanic law, another legal system (Australia, Singapore, Hong Kong, Sweden) and the UCL–HKU dual degree. Its entry bar is A*AA achieved in a single sitting, with GCSE English Language and Maths at grade 6/B or better, and it discloses more about how it uses the test than any other London law school:

  • UCL sets an internal benchmark score each cycle, derived from previous years' averages — but does not publish it in advance.
  • The most recent published figures (UCL's LLB FAQ, describing the last cycle): offer-holders averaged 29.4, contextual offer-holders 26.3. An earlier UCL page cites an average of 23 across all results UCL received — a useful reminder of the gap between the applicant pool and offer-holders. UCL states plainly that a high score is no guarantee, since applications are read whole.
  • The essay carries considerable weight: UCL's guidance describes Section B as an invaluable tool for assessing writing and the ability to formulate, develop and defend an argument. For UCL applicants, essay practice is not optional polish — see the Section B guide.

One housekeeping caution: at our last review, parts of UCL's Laws site still showed the previous cycle's dates (“31 December 2025”), while the official LNAT consortium table confirmed 31 December 2026for this cycle — a good example of why the consortium's dates page is the authority on deadlines.

LSE: multiple-choice only, and the numbers to prove the competition

LSE runs a single LNAT programme — the LLB Bachelor of Laws (M100) — and its 2027-entry page is already live, confirming the test window (1 September to 31 December 2026) and the 13 January 2027 application deadline. Two things distinguish LSE's published position:

  • It states it uses only the multiple-choice scorefor most applicants; the essay may be reviewed in limited circumstances tied to its separate UGAA assessment. Among the LNAT universities that say anything about the essay, LSE's is the most explicit “mostly no” on record.
  • It publishes competition data but no score data: 3,102 applications for 193 places in 2025 — 16 applications per place, the starkest published ratio among the three. There is no published LSE score threshold or average; treat any number you see attributed to LSE as unofficial.

Entry requirements are A*AA (contextual AAB) with a broad mix of traditional academic subjects, IB 39 with 766 at Higher Level, and strong GCSE expectations including English and Maths at 6/B. The strategic consequence of LSE's policy: your Section A performance does nearly all the LNAT work there, which raises the value of timed multiple-choice practice for LSE-focused applicants — while the essay still matters for nearly everyone else on a typical five-choice form.

King's College London: broad requirement, published silence on use

KCL applies the LNAT across the widest slate of programmes among the three: Law LLB (M100), Politics, Philosophy & Law (LM21), Law with Criminology, and the international dual-law LLBs — English Law with French, German, Spanish, Hong Kong and Australian law. Its requirements pages carry a uniform, notably strict line: the LNAT must be taken between 1 September and 31 December of the application cycle, and KCL states it will be unable to consider applications where the test was not sat by 31 December. Results do not carry over between cycles.

  • How KCL uses the score: not published. KCL states the requirement and the deadline, and nothing else — no weighting, no averages, no statement on the essay. Prepare as if both sections count, because nothing official says otherwise.
  • Course-list drift is real:at our last review the LNAT consortium's course list for KCL had not caught up with KCL's own pages (it omitted Law with Criminology, which KCL's page says requires the LNAT). Where lists disagree, trust the university's own course page — and if you are applying to a KCL dual-law variant, check its specific requirements page, as some add conditions (English Law & German Law, for instance, requires grade A in German).
  • International applicantsget one published concession: KCL may grant dispensations case by case where no LNAT centre exists within reasonable distance of the applicant's residence.

Entry requirements for the Law LLB are A*AA (contextual AAB), IB 38 with 19 at Higher Level; KCL does not accept General Studies or Critical Thinking A-levels.

Applying to more than one — preparing efficiently

Most applicants to one of these three apply to at least one other, and the mechanics cooperate: one sitting, one score, released identically to every university on your list. What differs is how each will read it, so an efficient plan covers the union of their demands rather than optimising for one:

  • Deadline: 31 December 2026 governs all three — but sitting in October or November leaves margin for a rebooking, and gets your result to universities that assess on a rolling basis sooner. If Oxford or Cambridge is also on your list, their 15 October deadline becomes the binding one and the London dates take care of themselves — see the full deadline guide.
  • Section A is the common currency. All three use the multiple-choice score; it is the only component LSE says it looks at, and the one UCL benchmarks. Timed 42-question practice under the 95-minute clock, with review of which reasoning skills produce your errors, serves all three simultaneously — that trend-reading approach is covered in what is a good LNAT score?
  • Write the essay properly anyway. UCL says it counts for a lot; KCL is silent; only LSE mostly discounts it — and a typical UCAS form includes non-London LNAT universities too. One timed essay a week through the autumn is cheap insurance across every reader.
  • Don't chase a universal target score.UCL's 29.4 offer-holder average is UCL's alone, from a specific past cycle. A sensible internal goal is a stable upward mock trend with accuracy holding in the final third of each sitting — not a number transplanted between universities that assess differently.

Frequently asked questions

When must I sit the LNAT for UCL, LSE and KCL?

All three set the same sit-by date for 2027 entry: 31 December 2026 — notably earlier than the 13 January 2027 UCAS deadline and the late-January date some other LNAT universities allow. One sitting covers all three, since every university you list receives the same result.

Do UCL, LSE and KCL read the LNAT essay?

Their published positions differ. UCL says the essay carries considerable weight in selection. LSE says it uses only the multiple-choice score for most applicants. KCL publishes no statement either way. Since you cannot choose who reads what, write the essay as if it counts — for UCL, it explicitly does.

What LNAT score do I need for UCL, LSE or KCL?

Only UCL publishes figures: its LLB FAQ reports an average offer-holder score of 29.4 (26.3 for contextual offers) for the last cycle it describes, while stressing that no score guarantees an offer. LSE and KCL publish no score data at all, so any specific target quoted for them is unofficial.

Is one LNAT sitting enough for all my universities?

Yes. You sit the LNAT once per cycle and Pearson VUE releases the same score and essay to every LNAT university on your list. The only thing that differs is each university's deadline — the earliest one on your list governs when you must sit.

Sources

The facts in this guide were checked against the official pages below. If anything here conflicts with an official source, trust the official source — and tell us so we can correct it.