What LNAT’s own sample essays do
Three, as PDFs on its sample-essay page: public funding of the arts, species dying out, and political correctness.
Each runs six paragraphs with no headings inside the essay, and LNAT prints the word count at the end of each one.
Start practisingHow long should a LNAT essay be?
LNAT asks for “a recommended maximum of 750 words – ideally about 500-600 words”. Two of its own three published answers run past 600, at 719 and 640, and all three stay under 750.
So 750 is the line, and 500-600 is a preference that LNAT’s own published answers pass twice.
Do you need to quote sources in a LNAT essay?
No study, statistic or citation appears in any of the three. The only digits in all three documents are the word counts LNAT appends.
Each answer earns its argument some other way. The arts answer builds a comparison: “A comparison can be made with sports.” The species answer runs a thought experiment, opening “Let us approach this question by asking, first, the more dramatic question: Does it matter if all animal and plant species die out?” The political correctness answer constructs one example, then turns on it: “The power of political correctness is shown by the fact that this example was difficult to write down.” Reading widely gives you something to compare against, which is what the reading list is for. It does not give you quotations to spend.
None of them signposts the ending
“In conclusion”, “firstly”, “furthermore” and “moreover” appear zero times across the three documents. Each answer still lands. The species answer turns on its own reasoning, “One suspects that something must have gone wrong with this argument to arrive at such a startling conclusion. But what?”, and closes by naming what it cannot settle: “The real challenge is to work out what on earth – or indeed what beyond the earth – this could mean.” The arts answer names the objections it has to beat in its opening paragraph, then commits: “I will try to show why, in spite of these worries, the arts remain a deserving case for some public funding.”
Margin’s free checker reads your draft for whether it commits to a position, whether it answers the question it was set, and how long it runs against the 750.
Check my essayMargin is independent LNAT practice. LNAT states that the Consortium “does not endorse or recommend any preparatory materials provided by any other individual or organisation”, and this page is not endorsed by it.
Three answers is not enough practice
Reading the official three shows you the shape of a Section B answer once, and the other half of the paper is where the number on your report comes from. 10 of the 83 questions on the practice page are free. Founder access is £25 for the other 73, each with the passage sentence your answer turned on.