I took the LSAT, and 3 months later took the MCAT.
I have not received the MCAT back yet.
I studied for the LSAT ~4 days before the exam. Overall, the MCAT is a general knowledge exam, and the LSAT is an aptitude test.
I believe half of it is either a Verbal section (just like the MCAT) or an Analysis section. This is pretty self explanatory, but i found i had much less time for the LSATs verbal section than i had for the MCAT. Either the Verbal in the LSAT was tougher/longer, or i had more practice by the time i took the MCAT.
The "Analysis" section is pretty easy, it just gives you a paragraph and asks you a common sense question. This is not a cakewalk, for some of the answer choices are incredibly hard to decypher. They go out of their way to make it wordy. Overall though, this was the easiest section.
Then come the logic puzzles! This is the killer for most people. The "IQ" puzzles some people call them. The biggest LSAT myth is that you cant prepare for the LSAT. Just ask yourself, "Can i prepare for the VS in the MCAT?" if that answer is yes, then the LSAT can be prepared for. Most proponents of this myth like to say that the puzzles cannot be practiced for, and thats crap. In fact, the thing i should have studied the MOST was the puzzles. Practice the logic puzzles as much as you can, while you may only have 1 puzzle in the LSAT that mirrors a practice problem, the experience of finding your way through from scratch is priceless.
I completely choked and got a 162 on the LSAT. By completely choke i mean i struggled with a puzzle and forgot the time, and didnt realize there was a whole other 2 pages with 2 min left (this, i bet, is the single most common critical mistake on the LSAT)... So i randomly chose answers for 2 pages on the puzzles section. This slaughtered my grade, as i got none of those guesses correct. Getting 175+ is hard on the LSAT, (its out of 180), but it doesnt need 1.5-2 months of intense studying like the MCAT because it isn't knowledge based. Average matriculated scores are 160-165 for good schools, in the 150's for mid level schools. With some of the 'prestigious' schools averaging about 168-169. IMO its easy to hit the competitive range in the LSAT, but then again, its also just as easy to hit the competitive range in MCATs!
The difference is in the preperation workload that is involved. The MCAT takes a ****load more work to prepare for, but ultimately if you spent the time on it, then its just as easy to get in the 'competitive' range.
Difficulty and Preperation are two independant factors. I do not mean to downplay the MCAT, so i should tell you that I studied 4 days for the LSAT, and 1.5 months for the MCAT, and i was RUSHING the last days of the MCAT - i only finished 3 full lengths before the exam itself!
When you take both factors into account, its not even a comparison as to which admission test is harder overall.
The LSAT has a lot of test dates, and if you are one of those guys that spends over 2 months studying for the MCATs, i recommend taking 3-4 days and prepping for hte LSAT, and paying out the 100$ to take it. The experience and practice is absolutely golden.