Expand Your Vocabulary (Ep. 430)
Thinking LSAT
Nathan Fox and Ben Olson
4.8 • 868 Ratings
🗓️ 27 November 2023
⏱️ 92 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Lawyers are gladiators of the English language. Words are their weapons. So if you’re entering the arena of legal practice, you’d better hone your vocabulary. This week, Ben and Nathan encourage listeners to keep a dictionary handy and to embrace a growth mindset when it comes to their English proficiency. Later, the guys roast some of the internet’s most bizarre LSAT advice. They probe the motives of WashU’s “redacted review.” And they consider the benefits of taking a gap year before law school.
0:00 - January LSAT Registration - The January LSAT registration deadline is upon us. Ben and Nathan explain why November test takers should plan to retake in January.
8:32 - Vocabulary - Nathan and Ben explain how to approach unfamiliar words on the LSAT.
21:44 - Word of the Week - Ben and Nathan upbraid LSAT students who don’t make efforts to expand their vocabulary.
27:08 - Pearls vs. Turds - Nathan and Ben are flummoxed by a blog post that advises LSAT students to align their LSAT prep with their future law school specializations.
45:56 - Score Increase Addendum - Some law schools require applicants to write addendums addressing significant LSAT score increases. Nathan and Ben recommend a one-sentence response.
52:12 - WashU “Redacted Review” - Washington University School of Law allows applicants to redact their LSAT or GPA on their applications. What’s the catch? The redacted info is still considered when awarding scholarships. Ben and Nathan view “redacted review” as just another tactic to solicit applications.
1:10:45 - Scholarship Estimator - Year after year, law schools play the same old scholarship game. The LSAT Demon Scholarship Estimator helps applicants play along.
1:17:29 - Gap Years - Should you take a gap year? Probably. Nathan and Ben discuss how taking an extra year to increase your LSAT score can transform you as a law school applicant.
1:24:28 - Shoutouts - LSAT Demon student Tanya thanks teachers Ala and Brandon for helping her on her LSAT journey.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello and |
| 0:05.0 | welcome to episode 430 of the Thinking Elsat Podcast, I'm Ben Olson and with me is Nathan Fox. |
| 0:14.0 | We're the co-founder of Elsat Demon.com and the Elside Demon Daily podcast. |
| 0:18.0 | You can be Elsat famous, share news and ask questions on our website that's thinking |
| 0:22.8 | El-Sat.com. |
| 0:24.4 | I'm about to invite people to send us a voice recording but has anyone ever |
| 0:29.2 | done that? |
| 0:30.1 | Well I don't know we We'll find out, I guess, when we get down to, and yeah, I don't think there's any items on today's agenda. |
| 0:38.5 | So anybody who wants to shortcut the line to ask us a question, the voice recording is a really good way to do that. |
| 0:44.1 | Yeah, are you nervous about hearing your voice on a podcast? |
| 0:48.1 | I wonder why people are resistant to this method. |
| 0:50.5 | Maybe writing an email is just easier, but I think people do hate the recordings of their voices unless they've gotten used to it. |
| 0:58.4 | Did you have that issue when we started the podcast? |
| 1:02.4 | I don't, I think so. Yeah, I think I didn't like it, but what I've been surprised by is, first of all, I don't |
| 1:09.4 | listen to myself that |
| 1:13.0 | still surprises me. |
| 1:15.0 | I know it's going to be different, but it sounds different. |
| 1:18.0 | That's interesting. |
| 1:19.0 | I see I think my brain has like gotten over that. I remember I remember like having a tape recorder as a kid just like a super old school you know huge big bulky just cassette tape recorder. |
| 1:33.4 | Okay, yeah. |
| 1:34.7 | And I remember as a little kid recording myself and then playing it back and being like |
| 1:39.6 | horrified at how different my voice sounded on the recording than how it sounds in my head. |
... |
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