The LSAT Quietly Changed Reading Comprehension in January 2026

Starting with the January 2026 LSAT, a Reading Comprehension section is no longer guaranteed to include a comparative (paired) passage. LSAC made the change with no advance notice. Test takers found out on test day, and LSAC updated its official description of the section afterward. Everything else, including timing and question count, is unchanged.

What exactly changed?

Since 2007, every Reading Comprehension section included one comparative passage set. That set is two shorter, related passages read together, followed by a shared set of questions about how they relate.

From January 2026, that set is no longer guaranteed. LSAC's official description now says a section contains three or four single passages, with one or zero comparative passages.

In plain terms, your section may have the paired set, as every section did before. Or it may have four single passages and no paired set at all.

How did anyone find out?

Test takers noticed it on test day. LSAC did not announce it.

On the first day of the January 2026 administration, multiple test takers reported that their Reading Comprehension section had no comparative passage. All four passage sets were single passages. LSAC had said nothing beforehand.

The change showed up in LSAC's own materials only afterward, when LSAC rewrote the official description of the section to the three-or-four-single-passages wording. There was no announcement, no FAQ, and no transition period.

What stayed the same?

More stayed the same than changed:

• Question count. The total number of Reading Comprehension questions is the same.
• Timing. The section is still 35 minutes.
• Scoring and difficulty. Both are unchanged.
• Fairness within a test date. Within a single administration, the scored sections are the same for all students. You are not at a disadvantage compared with the people testing alongside you.

What varies is the calendar. One month's test may include a comparative passage, and the next month's may not. You can't know in advance which version you will get.

Should you change how you prepare?

Adjust, but don't overcorrect.

Comparative passages can still appear. If you drop them from your practice entirely, you leave a real gap in case your test date includes one. Keep practicing them.

The adjustment is in your expectations and in how you choose practice tests. A practice section that always contains a comparative set no longer matches every real section. If all of your timed practice has assumed a paired passage will be there, work some all-single-passage sections into your rotation. That way the pacing feels familiar either way.

The passage types haven't changed. The question styles asked about them haven't changed either. The method hasn't changed: read for the author's point, predict the main point in your own words, and prove every answer from the passage.

Where will you actually feel the change?

You will feel it in pacing. The test isn't harder. The effort is spread out differently.

A comparative set splits your reading across two shorter passages and asks how they relate. Four single passages give you four complete arguments to absorb in the same 35 minutes, with the same total number of questions.

Neither version is harder on paper. They just put the work in different places. If you have only ever rehearsed one of those layouts, a surprise on test day can cost you time. The fix isn't reading faster. It's having seen both versions before you sit down.

One more practical point. Practice materials published before 2026 were all built on the old guarantee. Check what a practice test actually contains before you treat its Reading Comprehension section as typical of the real thing.