For decades the LSAT was the only test you could sit for US law school admissions. That changed in 2016 when the University of Arizona accepted the GRE, with Harvard Law following in 2017, and it has since become a genuine option: ETS now counts more than 130 ABA-approved law schools that accept the GRE, including every T14 school (checked 5 October 2026). But 'accepts' does not mean 'prefers', and the two tests measure different things. This guide covers exactly how they compare, how scores convert, which is objectively harder for whom, and how to pick.
The short version: if you are certain about law school and applying only to law schools, the LSAT is usually still the safer bet because admissions committees have decades of calibration on it. If you are also applying to graduate programs (a joint JD-master's, or you are hedging law school against a graduate degree), or if your strengths favour timed math over long analytical arguments, the GRE can be the better call. The rest of this post is the case-by-case reasoning. For school-by-school acceptance policy and the deeper conversion detail, see our GRE vs LSAT comparison hub.
The Side-by-Side Comparison
| Dimension | GRE (General Test) | LSAT |
|---|---|---|
| Test length | About 1 hour 58 minutes | Four 35-minute sections plus a 10-minute break, about 3 hours, with the writing task taken separately |
| Sections scored | Verbal, Quantitative, Analytical Writing | Logical Reasoning, Reading Comprehension, plus one unscored variable section |
| Analytical Writing | One 30-minute Analyze an Issue essay | LSAT Argumentative Writing: 50 minutes (15 to plan, 35 to write), unscored and taken separately online |
| Scoring scale | 130 to 170 per section, 260 to 340 total; AWA 0 to 6 | 120 to 180 single composite score |
| Section adaptive? | Yes, at the section level for Verbal and Quant | No, item order and difficulty are fixed |
| Test-day format | At a Prometric test centre or at-home online | At a Prometric test center for almost everyone from August 2026; remote only by LSAC exception |
| Cost | 249 USD in most countries (ETS, from 1 August 2026) | 253 USD for 2026-27, writing included (LSAC) |
| Retake policy | Once every 21 days, up to 5 times per rolling 12 months | Up to 5 times in the current reportable period (since July 2021), 7 lifetime |
| Prep time (typical) | 6 to 12 weeks of consistent study | 3 to 6 months of consistent study, with more focus on logic games in older test versions |
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Which Law Schools Accept the GRE
The current answer, per ETS, is that more than 130 ABA-approved law schools accept a GRE score. The ABA's accrediting council confirmed in November 2021 that law schools may accept the GRE in place of the LSAT, and individual school policies have been catching up since. The T14 is fully covered: Yale, Harvard, Stanford, Columbia, Chicago, NYU, Penn, Virginia, Michigan, Berkeley, Duke, Northwestern, Cornell, and Georgetown all publicly accept the GRE. That still leaves a large group of law schools that do not list the GRE, and LSAC notes the LSAT remains the only test every ABA-approved school accepts, so check each school on your list. If a specific target score is your concern, our guide to which programs need a high GRE score walks through how much the number actually matters by program.
Two important caveats. First, 'accepts' does not always mean 'is treated equivalently'. Some admissions committees have significantly more historical calibration on the LSAT than on the GRE, and a GRE-only applicant can face slightly higher scrutiny (or slightly softer scrutiny if the target school is actively trying to grow non-LSAT applicant volume). Second, some schools require you to submit the LSAT if you have taken it, even if you also submit a GRE score. Read the specific school's page on the current cycle before deciding.
Rule of thumb: if you have not taken the LSAT yet, you can pick either. If you have already taken the LSAT and are unhappy with the score, taking the GRE and submitting only that is not always allowed; check each school's policy.
The Official GRE to LSAT Score Conversion
ETS publishes a GRE Comparison Tool for Law Schools that predicts an LSAT score from your GRE Verbal and Quant scores. It was built in 2018 from 1,587 admitted students at 21 law schools who took both tests, and ETS says the prediction is accurate to roughly plus or minus 5 points. It is not a one-to-one equation because the tests measure different constructs, but admissions offices treat it as a working guide. The table below reads ETS's prediction for an even Verbal and Quant split, with LSAC's percentile for that LSAT score (2023 to 2026 testing years).
| GRE Verbal + Quant (total) | Approximate LSAT-equivalent | LSAT percentile band |
|---|---|---|
| 338 to 340 | 176 to 180 | 99th percentile |
| 333 to 337 | 173 to 176 | 98th to 99th |
| 328 to 332 | 169 to 172 | 93rd to 97th |
| 322 to 327 | 166 to 169 | 87th to 93rd |
| 316 to 321 | 162 to 166 | 77th to 87th |
| 310 to 315 | 159 to 162 | 68th to 77th |
| 304 to 309 | 155 to 159 | 54th to 68th |
| 298 to 303 | 152 to 155 | 43rd to 54th |
Two things to note. GRE Analytical Writing is not part of this conversion; law schools that accept the GRE typically read the AWA score separately as a writing sample. Second, the split matters. ETS's tool weights Verbal at about 60% and Quant at about 40%, so a 328 that is 170 Quant and 158 Verbal predicts about a 168 LSAT, while a 328 that is 170 Verbal and 158 Quant predicts about a 172.
Is the GRE Easier Than the LSAT?
This is the most-asked question in the comparison, and the honest answer is 'depends on your strengths'. The two tests are hard in different ways.
The GRE is broader and shallower. It tests Verbal (vocabulary-heavy Text Completion and Sentence Equivalence, plus Reading Comprehension), a full range of quantitative reasoning (arithmetic, algebra, geometry, data interpretation), and one 30-minute analytical essay. The reasoning is spread across two subject areas, but each area is not pushed to the same depth of formal logic that the LSAT requires.
The LSAT is narrower and deeper. There is no quantitative section, no vocabulary, no essay in the main test. But the Logical Reasoning and Reading Comprehension sections drill harder on formal-logic argument structure, inference, and long analytical passages. The LSAT rewards a specific kind of thinking: identifying premises and conclusions, spotting logical flaws, mapping conditional relationships. That is trainable, but the training curve is steeper than the GRE's.
So who finds which easier?
- STEM applicants (engineering, CS, econ, quantitative fields): the GRE is usually easier because your quantitative background gives you a large tailwind, and the vocabulary-heavy Verbal is a discrete studyable set.
- Humanities and social-science applicants who love long-form arguments: the LSAT is often easier because the analytical reasoning it demands is closer to what you already do; the GRE's Quant section becomes the pain point.
- Career-changers with a math-and-writing background but no formal logic training: the GRE is usually easier as a first exposure; the LSAT can be learned, but the ramp is real.
- Anyone who is a fast timed reader: both tests reward this, but the LSAT rewards it more directly.
One statistical observation from published ETS and LSAC data: the average number of prep hours for a comparable percentile band tends to be somewhat lower for the GRE than for the LSAT, but the variance is high and the sample is self-selected. Do not use average prep-hour figures to pick; use your own strength profile.
The Decision Framework: Which One to Take
Here is a practical decision tree we recommend to applicants who ask which to take.
- Are you applying to any non-law graduate programs (JD-MBA, JD-master's, or hedging law school against a Master's or PhD)? If yes, take the GRE. It is accepted for law and for graduate school, and doubling up on tests is a waste of time.
- Are you applying only to law schools, and does at least one of your target schools have any indication of LSAT preference in its published admissions guidance (some do, particularly public state schools with heavy in-state pipelines)? If yes, take the LSAT. Do not fight the school's internal calibration.
- Are you strong quantitatively and weak in formal logic? Take the GRE.
- Are you strong in formal logic and long-form argument analysis, and weak in timed math? Take the LSAT.
- Are you unsure of your relative strengths? Take a diagnostic of each: a full-length GRE mock plus an LSAC free LSAT sample. Compare percentiles, then take the one where you scored higher. This is the single highest-leverage step in the whole decision.
Prep Strategy Differences
Practical differences to plan for.
- GRE prep leans on two big buckets: vocabulary depth and quantitative fluency. Vocabulary is a slow build (spaced repetition over weeks); Quant is a faster build if you have any recent math exposure.
- LSAT prep leans on drilling Logical Reasoning question patterns, learning the argument-structure taxonomy, and building Reading Comprehension endurance for dense passages.
- The GRE gives you an on-screen calculator on Quant; the LSAT gives you nothing quantitative because there is no math.
- Both tests are section-timed. The GRE is section-adaptive (your Section 1 performance sets the difficulty of Section 2 in each measure); the LSAT is not adaptive but has a variable unscored section randomly placed.
- Retake economics: the GRE lets you retake once every 21 days up to five per rolling year (see how many times you can take the GRE for when a retake is worth it); the LSAT is more restrictive (up to five times in the current reportable period, which LSAC dates from July 2021, and seven in a lifetime).
Frequently Asked Questions
The Practical Next Step
Take a diagnostic of each test before you commit. It is the single highest-leverage two hours you can spend on this decision.
Action: sit a free full-length GRE mock to get your baseline GRE score, then take LSAC's free sample LSAT. Compare percentiles. Pick the higher one. If they are within 3 percentile points, weight the decision toward the test that fits your target-school list and your other application context (JD-MBA, hedging graduate school, etc). See our full GRE vs LSAT comparison hub for school-by-school policy detail.