In this article
- Who needs to sit the LNAT by 31 December
- The deadlines that structure your next eight weeks
- A quick reminder of what you will face
- When your score reaches the universities
- How to plan the next eight weeks
- How Your Dream School can help
Applying for law at UCL, King’s College London or LSE for 2027 entry? Then one date matters more than any other right now: you must sit the LNAT on or before 31 December 2026. The Oxbridge window closed on 15 October, so for the three big London law schools the test is the last major hurdle of the autumn, and test centre places fill up fast in December. Here is the full calendar, verified today on the official LNAT website, and a practical plan for the next eight weeks.
Who needs to sit the LNAT by 31 December
The official LNAT calendar for the 2026-27 cycle (entry in autumn 2027) sets a specific deadline for King’s College London, LSE and UCL: candidates must sit the test on or before 31 December 2026. This applies whether you have already submitted your UCAS application or not, since the LNAT can be taken before or after your UCAS form goes in.
Registration for the cycle has been open since 1 August 2026 and testing since 1 September 2026. If you have not yet created your account and booked a slot, do it now: you choose your test centre at booking, and the sittings closest to your home tend to disappear first in the final weeks of December.
The deadlines that structure your next eight weeks
- 31 December 2026: last day to sit the LNAT for King’s College London, LSE and UCL.
- 13 January 2027, 6pm UK time: UCAS equal consideration deadline for your application itself.
- 13 January 2027: Bristol and Durham require booking, UCAS submission and the test itself all by this date.
- 20 January 2027: booking deadline for all other LNAT universities, with the test to be sat by 25 January 2027.
- Oxford and Cambridge: closed since 15 October 2026, with one exception, the Oxford Foundation Year in Law, which allows the test until 13 January 2027.
Two rules are worth underlining. First, LNAT results cannot be carried forward from one academic year to the next: a score from last cycle does not count for 2027 entry. Second, you only get one authorised sitting per cycle. If a candidate sits the test twice without authorisation, the later sitting is invalid, so there is no second chance to improve a disappointing score.
A quick reminder of what you will face
The LNAT is a 2 hour 15 minute computer based test in two sections. Section A gives you 95 minutes for 42 multiple choice questions based on 12 argumentative passages, with 3 or 4 questions on each. Section B gives you 40 minutes to write one essay chosen from three questions. There is no syllabus to revise: the test measures reading precision, inference and argument construction, which is exactly why cramming does not work and regular timed practice does. For a full breakdown of the format and preparation strategy, see our LNAT prep guide.
When your score reaches the universities
The timeline is asymmetric, and applicants are often surprised by it. The first batch of scores for tests taken between 1 September and 20 October was released to universities from 21 October. Since then, within 24 hours of you finishing the test, Pearson VUE makes your score and your essay available for the universities to download. In other words, admissions teams at UCL, King’s and LSE will see your result before you do: candidates who test on or before 26 January receive their own score by email in mid February, after most decisions are already in motion.
The practical consequence: treat your single sitting as the real thing, not a trial run. A December test taken cold is a risk you do not need to take when there are still several weeks available for structured preparation.
How to plan the next eight weeks
Book your slot first, ideally in the second week of December, which leaves a buffer before the holidays if anything goes wrong with your booking. Then work backwards: three to four timed Section A passages per week, one essay per week under exam conditions, and a review of every wrong answer to understand the reasoning gap rather than the trivia. Your UCAS form, personal statement and reference run on a parallel track towards the 13 January deadline, so the LNAT should be locked in early rather than squeezed into the first week of January, which is not even possible for the London three.
Candidates aiming at UCL, King’s or LSE should also keep their target list balanced. Our guides to UCL, King’s College London and LSE cover the 2027 rankings and entry requirements, and Bristol and Durham give you strong LNAT options with a later deadline.
How Your Dream School can help
Since 2018, Your Dream School has supported 1,300+ students with their applications, including 300+ admitted to UK bachelor programmes, among them 140+ at UCL, 140+ at King’s College London and 80+ at LSE (Your Dream School admissions database, application cycles 2018 to 2026. Minimum figures: a student admitted to several institutions in the same group is counted once). Our team is rated 5/5 on Google with 160+ Google reviews.
Our UCAS admissions counseling covers the full application, from school list to personal statement, and our coaches prepare candidates for the LNAT with timed practice and essay feedback. If law is a stepping stone towards a legal career abroad, our LLM admissions counseling maps the road after the bachelor. To build your LNAT and UCAS plan with an expert, book a strategic call with our team.
Sources: lnat.ac.uk, consulted 12 November 2026.
Author
With a Bachelor's (LLB) from UCL and Assas, and the Grande Ecole program at HEC Paris, Adam co-founded Your Dream School in 2018. Since then the company has coached more than 1,000 students through university admissions and interview preparation for top global institutions.
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