Personal Statement Gong Show (Ep. 523)
Thinking LSAT
Nathan Fox and Ben Olson
4.6 • 886 Ratings
🗓️ 8 September 2025
⏱️ 140 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Ben and Nathan host a special marathon edition of the Personal Statement Gong Show. They kick things off by laying out the fundamentals of personal statements—what they are, what to write about, and when to start. Then, nine students face the gong, each vying to set a record and earn their place in Thinking LSAT Gong Show history.
Watch Episode 523 on YouTube
3:33 – Personal Statement, Not Resume Recap
Ben and Nathan introduce the starting point for a personal statement: bringing one bullet point on your resume to life. Your personal statement should show, not tell, how a particular experience from your resume is going to make you a successful law student and lawyer. One of the biggest mistakes you can make is trying to cover too many positions or experiences. The personal statement is a chance to illustrate your character, not an unnecessary resume recap.
9:41 – When to Start Writing
Isaac finds himself with several hours of free time every day, even after his LSAT studying. The guys give him the green light to start working on his personal statement, but the LSAT still has to come first. They also suggest spending time on professional development through networking and research to make informed decisions about his legal career.
17:46 – Personal Statement on Running
Just because you don’t have legal experience on your resume doesn’t mean you don’t have a valuable story to share. Riley asks about writing a personal statement about marathon running. While Ben and Nathan don’t dismiss the idea outright, they explain why it might not be the best option. Customer service, familiarity with regulation and compliance, and tenacity are among the lawyery attributes that Sean could highlight from his experience in retail and landscaping.
22:37 – Personal Statement Gong Show Marathon
In a special edition of the Personal Statement Gong Show, Ben and Nathan bring nine contestants who are looking to break Sophia’s record of 34 lines. The rules are simple: Ben and Nathan read until they find an unforgivable mistake—then ring the gong.
Check out all of our Gong Show Segments!
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Most law schools get rejected by people they admit at a higher rate than they reject applicants. So they're going to say a lot of shit to try to gaslight you when they offer you admission. |
| 0:30.4 | Hello and welcome to episode 523 of the Thinking ElSat podcast. I'm Ben Olson. |
| 0:35.2 | With me is Nathan Fox. We are the co-founders of Elsaid Demon.com and the Elsaid Demon Daily podcast. Today we have a special episode. |
| 0:39.7 | Applications are already open at many schools and about to open within the next week, |
| 0:44.2 | and we want to address all your questions about personal statements. We do have a few listener |
| 0:49.8 | questions, and then we're just going to jump into several contestants for the Gong Show |
| 0:55.5 | marathon. Yeah, we've got nine contestants. So depending on how long people keep us reading, |
| 1:02.9 | we'll maybe get through all nine in no time at all, or maybe we don't get through all. |
| 1:07.0 | Yeah. Let's hope that some of them are good. Yeah, we'll see. Cool. Coming up is Beatriz is going to do a free class. |
| 1:15.0 | It's going to be a review of Test 146. So you do the test beforehand and then you come to this review session and Beatriz will answer any questions that you have. |
| 1:27.2 | That's on September 27th at 3.30 p.m. Eastern. You can register at elseaddemand.com |
| 1:32.1 | forward slash free. Yeah. |
| 1:35.4 | Yeah, always very popular offerings, those test reviews. You can come to class and talk to |
| 1:40.2 | Beatriz about whatever question gave you a hard time. |
| 1:47.6 | Again, just elseat, teemann.com forward slash free. |
| 1:49.1 | Great. |
| 1:52.9 | And then we have all these LSAC law school forms coming up. We're going to be in Miami on September 20th, Atlanta on September 26th, Chicago, October 4th, New York, October 17th, Los Angeles, October 25th, and San Francisco, |
| 2:03.8 | November 15th. If you're close to any of those, and you're at all interested in meeting any of the |
| 2:11.6 | team come, they are fun. Abigail and Billy will be at all of them. They are just superstars. They make these |
| 2:20.0 | events super fun. They're also LSAT geniuses. So any questions about the test? That's the |
| 2:27.7 | opportunity to talk to people who are very knowledgeable. Yeah, I think they scored a combined |
| 2:33.1 | like 350 something on the LSAT. |
... |
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