A Year of Thinking LSAT (Ep. 365)
Thinking LSAT
Nathan Fox and Ben Olson
4.8 • 868 Ratings
🗓️ 29 August 2022
⏱️ 83 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Episode 365 marks a milestone for the podcast. Listeners can now indulge in an episode of Thinking LSAT every day for a year. Nathan and Ben reflect on some of the hiccups and highlights of their podcasting partnership. Then, they weigh in on a particularly unfavorable early-decision program, debate the merit of a tip for evaluating LSAT answer choices, advise a PhD chemist considering a pivot into IP law, and discuss a host of other topics from the mailbag.
8:04 - BU Bound - Listener “Unbound” shares some information about Boston University’s binding early-decision program, “BU Bound,” which excludes applicants from scholarship consideration. Ben and Nathan think you’d have to be crazy—or crazy rich—to bind yourself to a school in that way.
17:42 - Pearls vs. Turds - “Pick the answer that is hardest to argue against.” Nathan and Ben evaluate Demon student Brad’s mantra as a Pearls vs. Turds candidate. They discuss how it might apply to both passage-driven and answer-driven questions in Logical Reasoning.
24:29 - From STEM to IP Law - An anonymous listener with a PhD in biochemistry seeks a transition from scientific research into intellectual property law. The guys share their thoughts on the best time to take the IP bar exam and encourage Anonymous to connect with actual IP lawyers.
30:55 - Find Your Best Hour to Study - An anonymous listener has raised their practice test scores just by listening to the podcast. Now they’re ready to sign up for Demon Live and ask the guys how to maximize progress. Ben and Nathan reiterate the importance of focusing on accuracy and understanding. One high-quality study hour per day is the first step to success on the LSAT.
37:41 - Bad Grades in a Personal Statement? - An anonymous listener asks whether they should explain poor grades in their personal statement. Nathan and Ben veto this idea and suggest that Anonymous highlight facts in their favor.
44:01 - The Opposite of Our Advice - Listener Alexander recently discovered the Demon and is “shocked.” His former LSAT tutor had given him all contrary advice: He learned not to use real practice tests, to skim passages, and to diagram sentences—even in Reading Comprehension. Ben and Nathan advise Alexander to forget all the shoddy advice and to begin building effective study habits with LSAT Demon.
57:38 - You Don’t Need a Curriculum - Listener Andrew has spent months studying another prep company’s “core curriculum” and hasn’t taken a practice test since his diagnostic. Nathan and Ben insist that solving one actual LSAT question at a time is the only curriculum you need.
1:10:55 - Reaching the 170s - A new Demon student asks how to reach the 170s from their current low-160s range. The guys recommend practicing daily, reviewing explanations, and taking advantage of the Demon’s killer Ask button.
1:16:04 - Screw You, LSAT! (Just Kidding) - Demon student G confesses a newfound love for the LSAT and thanks the Demon team for their help. Keep it up, G!
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello and welcome to episode 365 of the Thinking El-Sat podcast. I'm Ben Olson that's |
| 0:11.8 | Nathan Fox. |
| 0:12.5 | Together we're the co-founders of Elsad Demon.com |
| 0:15.7 | and the Elsad Demon Daily Podcast. |
| 0:18.8 | If you want to get on the next show, email us today, today Monday August 29th |
| 0:24.0 | 2022 we always record on Tuesday mornings in any case the next registration |
| 0:30.1 | deadline is Thursday September 1st that's for the October test, so just around the corner. |
| 0:35.4 | You can find all these dates at Elsat.link.org slash dates. If you have not yet done so, you need to come to Nathan's free shit. |
| 0:45.0 | That's a class by the way. That's what I meant by shit. |
| 0:48.0 | It's a class in Zoom so wherever you are on this planet, you can join him Thursdays, 4 PM Pacific, 7 PM Eastern. |
| 0:56.7 | The next one is Thursday, September 8th, and it's Get Greedy on the L-SAT. |
| 1:01.6 | What are you going to talk about? So get greedy is kind of a core philosophy at the demon and the idea is just don't max yourself out with any particular target score. |
| 1:16.8 | And if you've done well, it's actually a good reason to try for even more. We are reminded frequently of Andy Dufrayne in Shawshank Redemption |
| 1:28.9 | writing letters to get funding for his prison library, where he wrote a letter every week for five years or something, and then finally they sent him some money for some books and said please stop writing us |
| 1:44.2 | letters. Yeah and Andy Dufrain turned around and thanked them for their |
| 1:49.1 | donation and spent the money and built up the library and then started sending two letters a week instead of one. |
| 1:55.0 | And that's kind of what we want you to do with the L-SAT. |
| 2:00.4 | You know, we see people who are like, well, I was thrilled to see my 171 but you know I have |
| 2:06.7 | practice test scores that are 177 do you think I'd be crazy to take it again? And sometimes people will tell them, oh, you'd be insane to take it again. What if you score lower? |
| 2:18.0 | There's no problem with scoring lower and there's all the worlds of benefit, all the worlds of benefit. |
| 2:24.0 | All the worlds of benefit. |
| 2:25.2 | All the worlds of benefit. |
... |
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